The passage of his Preface is worth transcribing:
"Fratrum quorundam nostrorum hortatu sedulo infimus ego, O coenobitarum
S. Emmerammi compulsus sum S. Wolfgangi vitam in libellulis duobus
dissimili interdum, et impolita materie descriptam in unum colligere, et
aliquantulum sublimiori modo corrigere.... Multa etiam quae in libro
neutro inveniebantur, fidelium quorundam attestatione comperta addere
studui, sicque quaedam addendo, quaedam vero fastidiose vel inepte dicta
excerpendo, pluraque etiam corrigendo, sed et capitularia praeponendo.
Vobis O fratres mei exactoresque hujus rei prout ingenioli mei parvitas
permisit obedivi. Jam rogo cessate plus tale quid exigere a me." At the
end of the Life he has written:--
"Presul Wolfgange cunctis semper vererande
Haec tua qui scripsi jam memor esto milii
Presbiter et Monachus Otloh quidam vocitatus
Sancte tibi librum Bonifacii tradidit istum."
We have here sufficient evidence that Otloh was a worthy predecessor of
the distinguished Benedictines to whom the world of letters has been so
deeply indebted in more recent times.
Dr. Maitland's mention of the calligraphic labours of the nun Diemudis,
Otloh's contemporary, is not a solitary instance: in all ages, the world
has been indebted to the pious zeal of these recluse females for the
multiplication of books of devotion and devout instruction. An instance,
of so late a date as the eve of the invention of printing, now lies
before me, in a thick volume, most beautifully written by fair hands
that must have been long practised in the art.
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