Abstract
Every so often we should roast an old chestnut, open it up, and see if something mushy and edible lies inside or if everything has turned hard and dry. And to my mind one of the hoariest nuts around is whether Charlemagne could write. Down the years the story of the illiteracy of Europe’s first great educational reformer has been repeated over and over again, accepted baldly by some, devoutly doubted by others.1 Students never quite know what to make of an emperor who ruled the vast expanse of nascent Europe, but could not reportedly master a simple skill they take for granted.2 Familiar though the issue of Charlemagne as a writer might be, there are matters here to ponder and questions to pursue.
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Notes
Erich Weniger, “Das deutsche Bildungswesen in Fruhmittelalter,” Historische Vierteljahrschrift, 30 (1936): 486 [446–92] regarded it as a fairy tale that Charlemagne might have been illiterate, whereas
Paul Pascal, “Charlemagne’s Latin,” Neophilologus, 54 (1970): 20 [19–21] regarded it as a certainty: “It is certain, from Einhard s statement later in chapter xxv of the Vita Karoli, that Charlemagne was illiterate.” The weakness of Pascal’s case is that it was not based on substantial knowledge of Carolingian cultural history and was so criticized by
Richard R. Ring, “Renovatio Karoli Latinitatis,” Res Publica Litteramm, 1 (1978): 263–71.
See such fundamental studies as Ruth Finnegan, Literacy and Orality: Studies in the Technology of Communication (Oxford, 1988)
Jack Goody, The Domestication of the Savage Mind (Cambridge, 1977)
Carlo M. Cipolla, Literacy and Development in the West (Harmondsworth, 1969)
Michael T. Clanchy, From Memory to Written Record: England, 1066–1307 (London, 1979), pp. 175–91, 202–20 and repr. as “Literate and Illiterate; Hearing and Seeing: England 1066–1307,” in Literacy and Social Development in the West: A Reader, ed. Harvey J. Graff (Cambridge, 1981), pp. 14–45;
Brian Stock, The Implications of Literacy: Written Language and Models of Interpretation in the Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries (Princeton, 1983)
Rosamond McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word (Cambridge, 1989)
Mathew Innes, “Memory, Orality and Literacy in an Early Medieval Society,” Past & Present, 158 (1998): 3–36. I have also learned much from my discussions with David Knechtges about “literacy” in general and the situation at the Tang court (seventh to tenth centuries) where a Chinese koine, he suggested, probably served as the equivalent of court Latin.
Edward Gibbon, The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire 49, ed. J.B. Bury in 7 volumes (New York, 1914; repr. 1974), 5:305.
F.L. Ganshof, “Einhard, biographer of Charlemagne,” trans. Janet Sondheimer in EL. Ganshof, The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy: Studies in Carolingian History (Ithaca, N.Y, 1971), p. 8.
Friedrich Heer, Charlemagne and His World (New York, 1975), p. 21 and see p. 28. The charter shown is 84a in MGH: Diplomata Karolinorum, vol. 1: Pippini, Carlomani, Caroli Magni Diplomata, ed. Engelbert Muhlbacher (Munich, 1979), pp. 120–22.
See Pierre Riche, “Le renouveau culturel a la cour de Pepin III,” Francia, 2 (1974): 59–70and repr. in Riche, Instruction et vie religieuse dans le Haut Moyen Age, Variorum Reprints, CS 245 (London, 1981), item 11.
See also Donald Bullough, Carolingian Renewal: Sources and Heritage (Manchester, 1991), pp. 125–27.
See Pierre Riche, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West: Sixth through Eighth Centuries, trans. John J. Contreni (Columbia, S.C., 1976), p. 440 and n. 507.
See Pachasius Radbertus, Vita Adalhardi 7, ed. G.H. Pertz, in MGH:SS 2, p. 525. And see Regine Le Jan, “Frankish Giving of Arms and Rituals of Power: Continuity and Change in the Carolingian Period,” in Rituals of Power from Late Antiquity to the Early Middle Ages, ed. Frans Theuws and Janet L. Nelson (Leiden, 2000), pp. 282–91 [281–309].
See J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (Oxford, 1983), pp. 176–77, 190–91.
Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni 26 and 4, ed.Waitz, pp. 30–31, 6–7. On the issue of the verb “orare,” which Einhard used to describe Charlemagne’s ability to speak Latin, see Michel Richter, “Die Sprachenpolitik Karls des GroBen,” Sprachwissenschaft, 7 (1982), pp. 418–419[412–37]. Orare would fit with Charlemagne’s early memorization and recitation of Latin prayers.
Donald Bullough, Carolingian Renewal, pp. 134–35, and see Roger Wright, “The Conceptual Distinction between Latin and Romance: Invention or Evolution?” in Latin and the Romance Languages in the Early Middle Ages, ed. Roger Wright (University Park, Penn., 1991), pp. 108–109[103–113].
See Walter Berschin, Greek Letters and the Latin Middle Ages from Jerome to Nicholas of Cusa, trans. Jerold C. Frakes (Washington, D.C., 1980), pp. 102–13
and Edouard Jeauneau, “Jean Scot Erigene et le Grec,” Archivum Latinitatis Medii Aevi (Bulletin du Cange), 41 (1979): 5–50
and repr. in Jeauneau, Etudes Erigeniennes (Paris, 1987), pp. 85–132.
Suetonius, Vitae Caesarum, Diuus Augustus 89.1, and not in this instance Diuus Titus 3.2 as in Richter, “Die Sprachenpolitik Karls des GroBen,” pp. 417–418. On the use of Suetonius in the Carolingian age, see Matthew Innes, “The Classical Tradition in the Carolingian Renaissance: Ninth-Century Encounters with Suetonius,” International Journal of the Classical Tradition, (1997): 265–82.
For instance, according to the Royal Frankish Annals, in 757 the Emperor Constantine sent an organ to Pepin, presumably with Byzantine experts; in 767 the Greeks joined the Latins in a great council at Gentilly, and so on; see Annales regni Francorum, ed. by F. Kurze after G.H. Pertz [hereafter ed. Kurze], in MGH:SRGUS (Hanover, 1895), pp. 15–16, 24–25. See also Riche, “Le renouveau culturel,” pp. 67–68; Berschin, Greek Letters, pp. 114–115; and Michael McCormick, “Diplomacy and the Carolingian Encounter with Byzantium down to the Accession of Charles the Bald,” in Eriugena: East and West. Papers of the Eighth International Colloquium of the Society for the Promotion of Eriugenian Studies, Chicago and Notre Dame, 18–20 October, 1991, ed. Bernard McGinn and Willemien Otten (Notre Dame, 1994), pp. 15–48.
See Peter Godman, Poets and Emperors: Frankish Politics and Carolingian Poetry (Cambridge, 1987), pp. 38–92.
Libellus synodalis (Paris, 825), ed. A. Werminghoff, MGH: Concilia aevi Karolini 1.2 (Hanover, 1908), p. 481.31. See Paul Meyvaert, “Medieval Notions of Publication: The ‘unpublished’ Opus Caroli regis contra synodum and the Council of Frankfort (794),” The Journal of Medieval Latin, 12 (2002): 78–89.
On these notes and the manuscript, see Opus Caroli regis contra synodum (Libri Carolini), ed. Ann Freeman with Paul Meyvaert, in MGH:Con., vol. 2 (Supplementum) (Hanover, 1998), pp. 48–50, 583, and plates lla-b; Ann Freeman, “Further Studies in the Libri Carolini: III. The Marginal Notes in Vaticanus Latinus 7207,” Speculum, 46 (1971): 597–612
Wilhelm Levison, England and the Continent in the Eighth Century: The Ford Lectures delivered in the University of Oxford in the Hilary Term, 1943 (Oxford, 1946), p. 156 Bullough, Carolingian Renewal, p. 145. There have been many who have doubted that the notes contain Charlemagne’s comments:
see A. Mentz, Die Tironischen Noten (Berlin, 1942), p. 64
Heinrich Fichtenau, “Karl der Grosse und das Kaisertum,” Mitteilungen des Instituts fur osterreichische Geschichts-forschung, 61 (1953): 276; David N. Dumville, review, Journal of Ecclesiastical History, 51 (2000): 601 [600–603].
See ch. 106, in Asser’s Life of King Alfred together with the Annals of Saint Neots Erroneously Ascribed to Asser, ed. William Henry Stevenson (Oxford, 1904; repr. 1959), p. 95; and see Alfred the Great: Asser’s “Life of King Alfred” and other Contemporary Sources, trans. Simon Keynes and Michael Lapidge (Har-mondsworth, 1984), p. 110: “I have explained this concern for learning how to read among the young and old to give some idea of the character of King Alfred.” Those were effectively the last words of Asser’s work. Marie Schiitt argued that Asser knew Einhard’s biography: see Schiitt, “The Literary Form of Asser’s ‘Vita Alfredi,’” English Historical Review, 72 (1957): 209–20.
On the “will,” see Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni 33, ed. Waitz, pp. 37–41 and Matthew Innes, “Charlemagne’s Will: Piety, Politics and the Imperial Succession,” English Historical Review, 112 (1997): 833–55. See also Bernhard Bischof F., “Die Hofbibliothek Karls des GroBen,” Mittelalterliche Studien 3:149–69; and trans, as “The Court Library oF Charlemagne,” in BischofF, Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne, trans. Gorman, pp. 56–75. See also the revision oF BischofF’s claim (pp. 218–219 in Manuscripts and Libraries) that Berlin, Diez. B 66 contains the actual library list oF the classical volumes in Charlemagne’s library:
Claudia Villa, “Die Horaziiber-lieFerung und die ‘Bibliothek Karls des Grossen’: zum Werkverzeichnis der HandschriFt Berlin, Diez. B 66,” Deutsches Archiv fur Erforschung des Mittelalters, 51 (1995): 29–52 and
Michael Gorman, “Peter oF Pisa and the Quaestiunculae copied For Charlemagne in Brussels II 2572, with a Note on the Codex Diezianus From Verona,” Revue Benedictine, 110 (2000): 248–50.
Karolus magnus et Leo papa, ed. Diimmler, MGH:PLAC 1, pp. 367–68.67–87; and trans. Peter Godman, Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance (Norman, Okla., 1985), pp. 200–201. See also Angilbert, carmen 2, ed. Diimmler, MGH:PLAC 1, pp. 360–61.16–21.
Annates de gestis Caroli Magni imperatoris 5, ed. Paul WinterFeld, MHG:PLAC 4 (Berlin, 1899), p. 61.249–50; also trans. Mary E. McKinney, The Saxon Poet’s Life of Charles the Great (New York, 1956), p. 92.
See Paul Saenger, Space between Words: the Origins of Silent Reading (Stanford, 1997), pp. 100–119.
For an example see Heer, Charlemagne and His World, pp. 21 and 28. The charter shown is 84a in MGH: Diplomata Karolinorum 1, ed. Miihlbacher, pp. 120–22. See also Peter Ruck, Bildberichte vom Konig: Kanzlerzeichen, konigliche Monogramme und das Signet der salischen Dynastie (Marburg, 1996), pp. 15–20 and figs. 178–89 and
J. Lechner, “Das Monogramm in den Urkunden Karls des Grossen,” Neues Archiv, 30 (1905): 102–101. David Ganz kindly discussed the question of the monogram with me. For the original hypothesis,
see Theodor Sickel, Acta regum et imperatorum Karolinorum digesta et enarrata. Die Urkunden der Karolinger, ed. Theodor Sickel, 3 parts (Vienna, 1867–68), 1, pp. 316–317.
See Collins, Einhard, “Vita Karoli Magni”;, p. 81 and Joseph Cahour, Petite Lexique pour Vetude de la “Vita Karoli” d’Eginhard (Paris, 1928), p. 20, under “circumferre.”
See Visio Karoli Magni, ed. P. Jaffe, in Bibliotheca rerum Germanicarum, 4 (Berlin, 1868): 701–704; Patrick Geary, “Germanic Tradition and Royal Ideology in the Ninth Century: The Visio Karoli Magni,” Friimittelalterliche Studien, 21 (1987): 274–94 and
repr in Geary, Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, N.Y., 1994), pp. 49–76; also trans, in Dutton, Carolin-gian Civilization, pp. 456–57; and discussed in
Paul Edward Dutton, The Politics of Dreaming in the Carolingian Empire, Regents Studies in Medieval Culture, ed. Eugene Vance (Lincoln, Neb., 1994), pp. 200–210.
J. Duft and R. Schynder, Die Elfenbein-Einbande der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen (Beuron, 1984), pp. 45–53.
Robert Folz, he couronnement imperial de Charlemagne: 25 decembre 800 (Paris, 1964), p. 76, sees a calligraphic meaning in Einhard’s statement: “il est fort possible, comme on l’a conjecture tout recemment, qu’il ait pense a des essais de calligraphic plutot qu’a l’usage ordinaire de l’alphabet.” Though Folz does not supply his source, it may be suspected that he was referring to the comment by Paul Lehmann, “Das Problem der karolingischen Renaissance,” in / Problemi della civilta Carolingia, Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano di Studi sull’alto medioevo, 1 (Spoleto, 1954): 336 [309–57]: “beziehe ich mehr auf das Schonschreiben als auf elementaren Gebrauch der Buchstaben.” No arguments or proofs accompany either statement.
Admonitio generalis 72, MGH:Cap. 1, ed. Boretius, p. 60.3. Bernhard Bischoff, Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages, trans. Daibhi O Croinin and David Ganz (Cambridge, 1986), p. 81 n. 208, thought that these “notas” were Tironian notes, but the sequence in the text suggests instead a progressive or graduated basic education that leads from the memorization of the Psalms (Psalmos)to learning written characters (notas), chants (cantus), numbers (compotum), and lastly Latin grammar (grammaticam). It should be noted, as Bruce Eastwood pointed out to me, that Charles Jones took “notas” to be “notas in writing.” See Charles Jones, “An Early Medieval Licensing Examination,” History of Education Quarterly, 3 (March 1963): 20 [19–29].
See the chart of datable manuscripts given by David Ganz, “The Preconditions for Caroline Minuscule,” Viator, 18 (1987): 26–27 [23–43] and see also Ganz, “Book Production in the Carolingian Empire and the Spread of Caroline Minuscule,” in The New Cambridge Medieval History, 2:786–808.
See Bernhard Bischoff, “Die karolingische Minuskel,” in Bischoff, Mittelal-terliche Studien 3:1–4, and Bischoff, Latin Palaeography, pp. 112–118; Herrad Spilling, “Die Enstehung der karolingischen Minuskel,” in 794-Karl der Grqfie in Frankfurt am Main: ein Kbnig bei der Arbeit (Frankfurt, 1994), pp. 51–54; and Ganz, “Preconditions for Caroline Minuscule.”
See MGH:Cap. 1, ed. Boretius, p. 79 and Wallach, Alcuin and Charlemagne, pp. 198–226; and trans. DC. Munro, in Carolingian Civilization, pp. 89–91. See the two versions of the De litteris edited by T. Martin, “Bemerkungen zur’Epistola de litteris colendis,’” Archivfur Diplomatik, 31 (1985): 227–72.
Hrabanus Maurus, De procinctu Romanae milicie 3, ed. Ernst Dummler, “De procinctu romanae milicie,” Zeitschrift fur deutsches Altertum und deutsche Literatur, 15 (1872): 444[443–51].
See also Bernard S. Bachrach, Early Carolinian Warfare: Prelude to Empire (Philadelphia, 2001), pp. 120–21. Many thanks to John Contreni for supplying me with a copy of Hrabanus s text.
Erich Auerbach, Literary Language and Its Public in Late Antiquity and in the Middle Ages, trans. Ralph Manheim, Bollingen Series, 74 (New York, 1965), p. 117, noted that Einhard’s “linguistic instrument is not equal to his material.”
See Theodulf, carmen 10, ed. Diimmler, MGH:PLAC 1, pp. 464–65 and trans, in Carolingian Civilization, pp. 103–104. See also Jonas of Orleans, De institutione regia 3, ed. Jean Reviron, Les idees politico-religieuses d’un eveque du IXe siecle. Jonas d’Orleans et son “De institutione regia,”; L’eglise et l’etat au Moyen Age, 1 (Paris, 1930), pp. 143–44. See also Frederic Amory, “Whited Sepulchres: the Semantic History of Hypocrisy to the High Middle Ages,” Recherches de theologie ancienne et medievale, 53 (1986): 5–39.
Cited and translated in Pierre Hadot, The Inner Citadel:The “Meditations” of Marcus Aurelius, trans. Michael Chase (Cambridge, Mass., 1998), pp. 15–16.
This was Leonard Boyle’s phrase: see Jacqueline Brown and William P. Stoneman, “Preface,” in A Distinct Voice: Medieval Studies in Honor of Leonard E. Boyle, O.P, ed. Jacqueline Brown and William P. Stoneman (Notre Dame, 1997), p. x.
See J. M. Wallace-Hadrill, Early Medieval History (Oxford, 1975), pp. 184–85 and
Rosamond McKitterick, The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms, 789–895 (London, 1977), pp. 2–5.
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© 2004 Paul Edward Dutton
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Dutton, P.E. (2004). Karolvs Magnvs Scriptor. In: Charlemagne’s Mustache and other Cultural Clusters of a Dark Age. The New Middle Ages. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-137-06228-4_3
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