The Reichenau Primer is an early 9th century manuscript of 8 folia kept in the St. Paul abbey library in Lavanttal, Carinthia

Carinthia (state)

Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...

 (Stift St. Paul Cod. 86a/1), (a ninth leaf is kept separately in Karlsruhe), probably written in Reichenau abbey or St. Gallen abbey, but possibly also elsewhere in the wider region, brought to Reichenau at a later date. It came to St. Blasien

St. Blasien

St. Blasien is a town in the Waldshut district in Baden-Württemberg, Germany. It is situated in the southern Black Forest, 17 km northeast of Waldshut-Tiengen. St. Blaise's Abbey in the Black Forest is located in St. Blasien. The town is twinned with Saint-Blaise in Switzerland. There is also...

 in the 18th century.

The content is in insular script

Insular script

Insular script was a medieval script system originally used in Ireland, then Great Britain, that spread to continental Europe under the influence of Celtic Christianity. Irish missionaries also took the script to continental Europe, where they founded monasteries such as Bobbio. The scripts were...

, apparently scribal practice by an Irish monk. It contains mainly Latin hymns and grammatical texts, with added glosses in Old High German

Old High German

The term Old High German refers to the earliest stage of the German language and it conventionally covers the period from around 500 to 1050. Coherent written texts do not appear until the second half of the 8th century, and some treat the period before 750 as 'prehistoric' and date the start of...

, but also Greek

Koine Greek

Koine Greek is the universal dialect of the Greek language spoken throughout post-Classical antiquity , developing from the Attic dialect, with admixture of elements especially from Ionic....

 declination tables, astronomical tables and notably Old Irish poems, among them Pangur Ban

Pangur Bán

"Pangur Bán" is an Old Irish poem, written about the 9th century at or around Reichenau Abbey. It was written by an Irish monk, and is about his cat. Pangur Bán, "white fuller", is the cat's name. Although the poem is anonymous, it bears similarities to the poetry of Sedulius Scottus, prompting...

.

External links

• facsimile
• http://virtuelleschuledeutsch.at/literatur1/h1.htm