c. 950-1022

German scholar who translated numerous works from Latin into German. Widely regarded as an authority on a variety of subjects, including the natural sciences, Notker took the then unheardof step of rendering scientific works and other ancient writings from Latin, the language of the educated few, into the vernacular. Among the ancient writers whose work he translated were Aristotle (384-322 B.C.) and Boethius (480-524). He also translated the Bucolica, a work on nature by Virgil (70-19 B.C.).