Verbrüderungsbuch is the German

German language

German is a West Germanic language, related to and classified alongside English and Dutch. With an estimated 90 – 98 million native speakers, German is one of the world's major languages and is the most widely-spoken first language in the European Union....

 name for registers from monasteries

Monastery

Monastery denotes the building, or complex of buildings, that houses a room reserved for prayer as well as the domestic quarters and workplace of monastics, whether monks or nuns, and whether living in community or alone .Monasteries may vary greatly in size – a small dwelling accommodating only...

 in the Middle Ages

Middle Ages

The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...

. They contained lists with the names of sponsors and benefactors, as well as persons in close spiritual contact with a monastery, so that they were actively remembered in the prayers of the monks. In many cases these books were established as early as the 8th century and continued up to the 13th century. So-called Jahrtagsbücher (year books) are in many ways their successors.

Verbrüderungsbücher are a rich source for prosopography

Prosopography

In historical studies, prosopography is an investigation of the common characteristics of a historical group, whose individual biographies may be largely untraceable, by means of a collective study of their lives, in multiple career-line analysis...

 and historical linguistics

Historical linguistics

Historical linguistics is the study of language change. It has five main concerns:* to describe and account for observed changes in particular languages...

of the early Middle Ages.

Sources

• Paulus Piper (Ed.): Libri Confraternitatum Sancti Galli Augiensis Fabariensis. In: Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Berlin 1894 (transcription of the Verbrüderungsbuch of St. Gallen with commentary)
• Franz Beyerle: Die Fratres de Friburch im St. Galler Verbrüderungsbuch. In: Schau-ins-Land. Published by the Breisgau-Verein Schau-ins-Land, Freiburg im Breisgau 1954