Wolfger of Prüfening (c. 1100 – c. 1173) was a German Benedictine monk and writer. He is nowadays usually identified with the so-called Anonymous of Melk (Anonymus Mellicensis).[1]
Born around 1100, Wolfger joined the monastery of Prüfening around 1130.[2] He served as its librarian, archivist, treasurer, and annalist.[3] He compiled an inventory of the monastery's possessions and catalogued its library. He also commissioned manuscript copying and decoration.[2] A codex he commissioned contains a set of Toledan Tables with one of the earliest examples of Arabic numerals, including zero, in Germany.[3][4]
Wolfger was also an original author of historical and biographical works. He began the Annales Ratisponenses (annals of Regensburg) and compiled a biographical index of 118 ecclesiastical writers, De scriptoribus ecclesiasticis.[5] Most of his writers were from the 11th and 12th centuries.[2] The latest is Rupert of Deutz.[6] Wolfger most likely wrote the incomplete Vita Theogeri, a biography of Theogerus of Metz.[7] His authorship of the Vita Ottonis, a biography of Bishop Otto of Bamberg written between 1140 and 1146, is more debatable.[2][3]
Wolfger died on 25 March in an unknown year.[8]