Among the outstanding medieval historians was Otto of Freising.[468] A man of intelligence and breadth, steeped in the academic literature of his age, Otto, though never going out of his way to write of geographical subjects, always maintained an attitude of open and receptive interest toward all branches of science. The range of his literary and scholarly learning is a key to the intellectual attainments of the average man of the world of his period. Born about 1114 or 1115 of a noble or even royal family—his maternal grandfather was the Emperor Henry IV—Otto studied in Paris probably early in the second quarter of the century. After his return to Germany in 1132 or 1133, he became a Cistercian and was subsequently made bishop of Freising. His principal works were a _Chronicon_, running from the beginning of the world to the year 1146, and the _Gesta Friderici_, recording the deeds of Frederick Barbarossa down to the year 1156 and continued after that date by Ragewin (or Rahewin).[469] Among other classical authorities Otto may have used Seneca’s _Quaestiones naturales_: most of his geographical ideas, however, were derived from Isidore and Orosius and from certain unknown “topographers” whom he cites as giving details on the rivers of Europe.[470] GUNTHER OF PAIRIS On the _Gesta Friderici_ was based an historical poem composed about 1186 by Gunther of Pairis (in Alsace), of whom we know next to nothing.[471] This work, the _Ligurinus_, adds little of material nature to the sources from which it was taken, although the poet converts the simple, straightforward narrative of Otto and Ragewin into a poem vividly expressed. It has been shown that the _Ligurinus_, even though the work of a German author, is a typical product of the poetical school of France of the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries.[472] Where the writer expands and converts into verse Otto’s and Ragewin’s words describing natural features of the earth’s surface and geographical regions, he displays a sense of color and a feeling for nature that are striking,[473] even though the actual epithets employed are hackneyed and drawn from well-known classical models. Furthermore, in the description of Germany he departs so widely from his literary sources that it seems more than likely that he actually based his lines on personal acquaintance with the country.[474] WALTER OF CHÂTILLON; WILLIAM THE BRETON