 john canaparius () was a benedictine monk at the aventine monastery in rome. it had long been assumed that in the year 999 he wrote the first vita sancti adalberti episcopi pragensis, or "life of st. adalbert of prague" just two years after adalbert's death. adalbert was sent by pope gregory v to convert the pagan old prussians to christianity and had come to prussia, apparently taking the route along the vistula river to reach the baltic sea at âurbem gyddanzycâ.,ipse vero (adalbertus) adiit primo urbem gyddanyzc, quam ducis (palamiorum bolizlavi) latissima regna dirimentum maris confinina tangunt. kazimierz lucyan ignacy: beitrÃ¤ge zur beantwortung der frage nach der nationalitÃ¤t des nicolaus copernicus, 1872 which is identified with the later gdaÅsk (danzig). then a small trading and fishing settlement with wooden buildings, it was anyway recorded by canaparius as âurbsâ, city. it is, however, now assumed by johannes fried, that the 'vita' was not written by canaparius, but was written down in liÃ¨ge, with the oldest traceable version having been at the imperial adalbert shrine at aachen. it was only recently recovered at the marienstift, and is used to reconstruct the archetype of the 'vita'.jÃ¼rgen hoffmann, vita adalberti. frÃ¼heste textÃ¼berlieferungen der lebensgeschichte adalberts von prag (europÃ¤ische schriften der adalbert-stiftung-krefeld, band 2), essen 2005,  bishop notger of liÃ¨ge, a hagiographer himself, apparently had knowledge of the earlier handwritten vita from aachen. the imperial court at aachen had in 997 assembled immediately upon receiving word of adalbert's death and had thereupon planning the upcoming events. another famous biographer of adalbert was st. bruno of querfurt who wrote his hagiography in 1001-1004. nikolaus von jeroschin translated the vita sancti adalberti into middle high german in the 14th century. == editions in latin ==  * monumenta germaniae historica, scriptores (in folio) bd. 4, s. 581-595; *johannes canaparius, s. adalberti pragensis episcopi et martyris vita prior, hrsg. von jadwiga karwasiÅska, monumenta poloniae historica, seria nova 4/2, warschau 1969; == literature == *johannes fried, gnesen â aachen â rom. otto iii. und der kult des hl. adalbert. beobachtungen zum Ã¤lteren adalbertsleben, in: michael borgolte (hg.), polen und deutschland vor 1000 jahren. die berliner tagung Ã¼ber den âakt von gnesenâ, berlin 
10th-century_Christians 10th-century_Italian_people 10th-century_writers Christian_hagiographers Italian_Benedictines