The dedication to Louis the German, however, also suggests an expectation of lay readership. There is ample evidence of an appetite for written literature among the Carolingian nobility, and for the borrowing by the literate laity of suitable religious texts from local monasteries, including Weissenburg itself. Any noble household would have had a house chaplain who might read to his hosts from such a work. The Heidelberg manuscript contains a marginal annotation "Kicilo diu scona min filu las" ("Fair Kicilo often read me") and Otfrid ascribes the impetus for his work to an unknown "venerable matron" Judith, both of which suggest the likelihood of a lay female readership.