Walter of Speyer[a] (967 – 3 December 1027) was a German writer and prelate who served as thebishop of Speyer from 1004.
Walter was born in 967. He was taught to read by his parents.[1] He was sent to thecathedral school atSpeyer at the age of seven to study under BishopBalderic [de].[2] Among the authors he studied wereHomer (through theIlias Latina),Martianus Capella,Horace,Persius,Juvenal,Boethius (theConsolation of Philosophy),Statius,Terence,Lucan andVirgil.[3] By 984, he was asubdeacon.[2]
Walter served as a chaplain to the EmperorOtto III, accompanying him to Venice in April 1001. By 8 August 1004 he was the bishop of Speyer. He described the diocese as a cowpatch (vaccina), i.e., a backwater. In 1007, he attended theSynod of Frankfurt [de] in support ofHenry II's creation of thediocese of Bamberg. In 1009, Henry granted him the right to mint coins atMarbach am Neckar. In 1013–1014, he negotiated Henry's thecoronation as Holy Roman Emperor withPope Benedict VIII.[2]
Walter took part in theelection ofConrad II in 1024. Four days after his election, Conrad made a major donation to Speyer and aid the cornerstone fora new cathedral that would serve as his burial place. Thecathedral school flourished under Walter. An original charter of Walter's, with his seal, dated 7 April 1024, is the oldest in the episcopal archive. He died on 3 December 1027 His epitaph, written byEkkehard IV, extols his education and learning.[2]
At Balderic's request, Walter wrote aLatin biography ofSaint Christopher, theVita et passio sancti Christophori martyris ('life and suffering of the holy martyr Christopher').[2] He began the work when he was 14 or 15 years old and finished it three years later in 984, publishing it only after Balderic's death in 986. It consists of two accounts of Christopher's life and martyrdom "in the prose ofCicero and the verse ofVergil", in his own words, edited by Balderic. The verse account is divided into six books ofhexameters. They are prefaced by two dedicatory letters, a prologue and a poem on his own education, known as theLibellus scholasticus, which is an important source of information on the 10th-century cathedral curriculum. One of the letters was sent with a copy of the work to the nun Hazecha, the treasurer ofQuedlinburg Abbey and a former classmate. Hazecha had also written a life of Christopher in verse, but a librarian had misplaced it. The other letter was sent with a copy to Liutfred, Benzo and Friderich atSalzburg Cathedral sometime after 986. The Salzburg copy is the only surviving copy and it includes a copy of the letter to Hazecha.[4] The manuscript is now Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14798.
The Munich manuscript also contains another short composition by Walter, calledDe sizzugiis ('onsyzygy'). It consists of a figure made of Balderic's and Walter's intertwined names surrounded by four hexameters forming a square.[5]
A friend ofBurchard of Worms, Walter is suspected of having contributed to Burchard'sDecretum, a collection ofcanon law.[2][6]
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