The Medieval Elbe
Slavs and Germans on the Frontier

The Deeds of Wiprecht

Vitzenburg


In addition to these things, an increase of power—nay rather of good fortune—came to the lord Wiprecht during this same time, because a certain Vizo of Vitzenburg, a noble and very rich man joined to him by consanguinity, reached his end and left him the heir of all his estates. From some of his estates he had established a community of nuns in that same castle. After Vizo died, the lord Wiprecht allowed his venerable mother, the lady Sigena, then widowed for the second time, to rest there in holy conversation until the end of her life; he spent as much as was proper for her needs. After some time, crossing over to the Lord on the sixth Kalends of March [24 February], she was buried in the church there with two abbesses, who had presided over that place's community.

Analysis

This short account of Wiprecht's involvement with the monastery at Vitzenburg, where his mother Sigena spent her final days, seems to have been inserted by the scribe-compiler to follow Oldisleben and precede Reinsdorf, thereby grouping together those monasteries besides Pegau over which Wiprecht exercised influence.  Its style, however, does not match the others, suggesting it was not penned by the scribe-compiler (at least, not if the Oldisleben account was, as we hypothesize; or not contemporaneously by him or meant to be contiguous). More likely, I think, this passage--with its reference to Wiprecht's "good fortune" and treatment of Vizo comparable to Erpo earlier--was composed by the author of other sections of Pegau's early history.  The scribe-compiler may have moved it here, in his final revisions to the Deeds, not only in order to discuss those other monasteries under Wiprecht's supervision together but to set up the next paragraphs about Vitzenburg's transfer to Reinsdorf, which I would tenatively argue stem from yet another writer.   Note that the writer seems not to know much about Vizo himself, about his precise relationship to Wiprecht, about Vitzenburg (which was not founded by Vizo, but instead much older), or about how it came under Wiprecht's oversight.  The core "fact" around which this passage revolves is the date of Sigena's death, and Vitzenburg as the site of both her last days and her tomb.  Since the author obfuscates on the year, his source may be a necrology, probably Pegau's.  He has loosely suggested this all happened soon after Wiprecht's second marriage in 1109, without