Career
Nothing is known of Conrad"s early life. From no later than 1169 he was a Cistercian monk at Clairvaux. At some unknown date he moved to Eberbach Abbey in the Rheingau, of which from 1 May 1221 he was abbot, and where he died in the same year.
Books 1-4 were written while he was still at Clairvaux, in the time of Abbot Garnier of Rochefort (1186-1193).
The last two were added at Eberbach, between 1206 and 1221. The book is one of the most effective monastic examples of this particular mediaeval literary genre combining historical narrative with exempla, miracles and visions, also represented by Caesarius of Heisterbach and Engelhard of Langheim.
(Étienne Gilson) Publications of the Zisterzienserakademie volumes 3 and 5, Bernardus, Langwaden 2000 and 2002. and
