Regino of Prüm

Reginon or Regino of Prüm, medieval chronicler, was born at Altripp near Speyer, and was educated in the monastery of Prüm.

Here he became a monk, and in 892, just after the monastery had been sacked by the Danes, he was chosen abbot. In 899, however, he was deprived of this position and he went to Trier, where he was appointed abbot of St Martin's, a house which he reformed. He died in 915, and was buried in the abbey of St Maximin at Trier, his tomb being discovered there in 1581.

Reginon wrote a Chronicon, dedicated to Adalberon, bishop of Augsburg (d. 909), which deals with the history of the world from the commencement of the Christian era to 906, especially the history of affairs in Lorraine and the neighbourhood.

The first book (to 741) consists mainly of extracts from Bede, Paulus Diaconus and other writers; of the second book (741-906) the latter part is original and valuable, although the chronology is at fault and the author relied chiefly upon tradition and hearsay for his information. The work was continued to 967 by a monk of Trier, possibly Adalbert, archbishop of Magdeburg (d. 981).

The chronicle was first printed at Mainz in 1521; another edition is in Band I of the Monumenta Germaniae historica Scriptores (1826); the best is the one edited by F Kurze (Hanover, 1890). It has been translated into German by W Wattenbach (Leipzig, 1890).

Reginon also drew up at the request of his friend and patron Radbod, archbishop of Trier (d. 915) a collection of canons, Libri duo de synodalibus causis et disciplines ecclesiasticis, dedicated to Hatto I, archbishop of Mainz; this is published in Tome 132 of JP Migne's Patrologia Latina. To Radbod he wrote a letter on music, Epistola de harmonica institutione, with a Tonarius, the object of this being to improve the singing in the churches of the diocese. The letter is published in Tome I of Gerbert's Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra (1784), and the Tonarius in Tome II of Coussemaker's Scriptores de musica mediiaevi.

See also H. Ermisch, Die Chronik des Regino bis 813 (Göttingen, 1872); P. Schulz, Die Glaubwürdigkeit des Abtes Regino van Prüm (Hamburg, 1894); C. Wawra, De Reginone Prumensis (Breslau, 1901); A Molinier, Les Sources de l'histoire de France, Tome I (1901); and W Wattenbach, Deutschlands Geschichtsquellen, Band I (1904).

This entry was originally from the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.