Alcuin
Alcuin of York | |
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Odgar of Mainz (right) | |
Born | c. 735 |
Died | 19 May 804 (aged around 69) |
Occupation | Deacon of the Catholic Church |
Academic background | |
Influences | Ecgbert of York |
Academic work | |
Era | |
Main interests | |
Notable works |
Alcuin of York (
Alcuin wrote many theological and dogmatic treatises, as well as a few grammatical works and a number of poems. In 796, he was made abbot of Marmoutier Abbey, in Tours, where he worked on perfecting the Carolingian minuscule script. He remained there until his death.
Biography
Background
Alcuin was born in Northumbria, presumably sometime in the 730s. Virtually nothing is known of his parents, family background, or origin.[3] In common hagiographical fashion, the Vita Alcuini asserts that Alcuin was "of noble English stock", and this statement has usually been accepted by scholars. Alcuin's own work only mentions such collateral kinsmen as Wilgils, father of the missionary saint Willibrord; and Beornrad (also spelled Beornred), abbot of Echternach and bishop of Sens.[4] Willibrord, Alcuin and Beornrad were all related by blood.[5][6]
In his Life of St Willibrord, Alcuin writes that Wilgils, called a paterfamilias, had founded an oratory and church at the mouth of the Humber, which had fallen into Alcuin's possession by inheritance. Because in early Anglo-Latin writing paterfamilias ("head of a family, householder") usually referred to a ceorl ("churl"), Donald A. Bullough suggests that Alcuin's family was of cierlisc ("churlish") status: i.e., free but subordinate to a noble lord, and that Alcuin and other members of his family rose to prominence through beneficial connections with the aristocracy.[4] If so, Alcuin's origins may lie in the southern part of what was formerly known as Deira.[7]
York
The young Alcuin came to the
The York school was renowned as a centre of learning in the liberal arts, literature, and science, as well as in religious matters. wrote one on the quadrivium.
Alcuin graduated to become a teacher during the 750s. His ascendancy to the headship of the York school, the ancestor of
In 781, King
Charlemagne
Part of a series on |
Scholasticism |
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Alcuin's intellectual curiosity allowed him to be reluctantly persuaded to join Charlemagne's court. He joined an illustrious group of scholars whom Charlemagne had gathered around him, the mainsprings of the
Alcuin became master of the
In this role as adviser, he took issue with the emperor's policy of forcing pagans to be baptised on pain of death, arguing, "Faith is a free act of the will, not a forced act. We must appeal to the conscience, not compel it by violence. You can force people to be baptised, but you cannot force them to believe." His arguments seem to have prevailed – Charlemagne abolished the death penalty for paganism in 797.[11]
Charlemagne gathered the best men of every land in his court, and became far more than just the king at the centre. It seems that he made many of these men his closest friends and counsellors. They referred to him as 'David', a reference to the Biblical king
After the death of Pope Adrian I, Alcuin was commissioned by Charlemagne to compose an epitaph for Adrian. The epitaph was inscribed on black stone quarried at Aachen and carried to Rome where it was set over Adrian's tomb in the south transept of St Peter's basilica just before Charlemagne's coronation in the basilica on Christmas Day 800.[15]
Return to Northumbria and back to Francia
In 790, Alcuin returned from the court of Charlemagne to England, to which he had remained attached. He dwelt there for some time, but Charlemagne then invited him back to help in the fight against the
He was back at Charlemagne's court by at least mid-792, writing a series of letters to Æthelred, to Hygbald, Bishop of
Tours and death
Roman Catholic Church, as a blessed | |
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Feast | 20 May |
In 796, Alcuin was in his 60s. He hoped to be free from court duties and upon the death of Abbot Itherius of Saint Martin at Tours, Charlemagne put
Alcuin died on 19 May 804, some 10 years before the emperor, and was buried at St. Martin's Church under an epitaph that partly read:[21]
Dust, worms, and ashes now ...
Alcuin my name, wisdom I always loved,
Pray, reader, for my soul.
The majority of details on Alcuin's life come from his letters and poems. Also, autobiographical sections are in Alcuin's poem on York and in the Vita Alcuini, a hagiography written for him at Ferrières in the 820s, possibly based in part on the memories of Sigwulf, one of Alcuin's pupils.
Carolingian Renaissance figure and legacy
Mathematician
The collection of mathematical and logical word problems entitled Propositiones ad acuendos juvenes ("Problems to Sharpen Youths")[22] is sometimes attributed to Alcuin.[23][24] In a 799 letter to Charlemagne, the scholar claimed to have sent "certain figures of arithmetic for the joy of cleverness",[25] which some scholars have identified with the Propositiones.[26] [b] The text contains about 53 mathematical word problems (with solutions), in no particular pedagogical order. Among the most famous of these problems are: four that involve
Literary influence
Alcuin made the abbey school into a model of excellence and many students flocked to it. He had many manuscripts copied using outstandingly beautiful
Alcuin is the most prominent figure of the Carolingian Renaissance, in which three main periods have been distinguished: in the first of these, up to the arrival of Alcuin at the court, the Italians occupy a central place; in the second, Alcuin and the English are dominant; in the third (from 804), the influence of Theodulf the Visigoth is preponderant.
Alcuin also developed manuals used in his educational work – a
Alcuin transmitted to the
Use of homoerotic language in writings
Historian
The interpretation of homosexual desire has been disputed by Allen Frantzen, who identifies Alcuin's language with that of medieval Christian amicitia or friendship.[35][c] Douglas Dales and Rowan Williams say "the use of language drawn [by Alcuin] from the Song of Songs transforms apparently erotic language into something within Christian friendship – 'an ordained affection'".[36]
Alcuin was also a close friend of Charlemagne's sister Gisela, Abbess of Chelles, and he hailed her as "a noble sister in the bond of sweet love".[37] He wrote to Charlemagne's daughters Rotrude and Bertha, "the devotion of my heart specially tends towards you both because of the familiarity and dedication you have shown me".[38] He dedicated the last two books of his commentary on John's gospel to them both.[38]
Despite inconclusive evidence of Alcuin's personal passions, he was clear in his own writings that the men of Sodom had been punished with fire for "sinning against nature with men" – a view consistent with Church teaching. Such sins, argued Alcuin, were therefore more serious than lustful acts with women, for which the earth was cleansed and revivified by the water of the Flood, and merit to be "withered by flames unto eternal barrenness".[39]
Legacy
Alcuin is honored in the
Selected works
For a complete census of Alcuin's works, see Marie-Hélène Jullien and Françoise Perelman, eds., Clavis scriptorum latinorum medii aevi: Auctores Galliae 735–987. Tomus II: Alcuinus. Turnhout: Brepols, 1999.
Poetry
- Carmina, ed. Ernst Dümmler, MGH Poetae Latini aevi Carolini I. Berlin: Weidmann, 1881. 160–351.
- Godman, Peter, tr., Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance. Norman, University of Oklahoma Press, 1985. 118–149.
- Stella, Francesco, tr., comm., La poesia carolingia, Firenze: Le Lettere, 1995, pp. 94–96, 152–61, 266–67, 302–307, 364–371, 399–404, 455–457, 474–477, 503–507.
- Isbell, Harold, tr.. The Last Poets of Imperial Rome. Baltimore: Penguin, 1971.
- Poem on York, Versus de patribus, regibus et sanctis Euboricensis ecclesiae, ed. and tr. Peter Godman, The Bishops, Kings, and Saints of York. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982.
- De clade Lindisfarnensis monasterii, "On the destruction of the monastery of Lindisfarne" (Carmen 9, ed. Dümmler, pp. 229–235).
Letters
Of Alcuin's letters, over 310 have survived.
- Epistolae, ed. Ernst Dümmler, MGH Epistolae IV.2. Berlin: Weidmann, 1895. 1–493.
- Jaffé, Philipp, Ernst Dümmler, and W. Wattenbach, eds. Monumenta Alcuiniana. Berlin: Weidmann, 1873. 132–897.
- Chase, Colin, ed. Two Alcuin Letter-books. Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 1975.
- Allott, Stephen, tr. Alcuin of York, c. AD 732 to 804. His life and letters. York: William Sessions, 1974.
- Sturgeon, Thomas G., tr. The Letters of Alcuin: Part One, the Aachen Period (762–796). Harvard University PhD thesis, 1953.
Didactic works
- Ars grammatica. PL 101: 854–902.
- De orthographia, ed. H. Keil, Grammatici Latini VII, 1880. 295–312; ed. Sandra Bruni, Alcuino de orthographia. Florence: SISMEL, 1997.
- De dialectica. PL 101: 950–976.
- Disputatio regalis et nobilissimi juvenis Pippini cum Albino scholastico "Dialogue of Pepin, the Most Noble and Royal Youth, with the Teacher Albinus", ed. L. W. Daly and W. Suchier, Altercatio Hadriani Augusti et Epicteti Philosophi. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1939. 134–146; ed. Wilhelm Wilmanns, "Disputatio regalis et nobilissimi juvenis Pippini cum Albino scholastico". Zeitschrift für deutsches Altertum 14 (1869): 530–555, 562.
- Disputatio de rhetorica et de virtutibus sapientissimi regis Carli et Albini magistri, ed. and tr. Wilbur Samuel Howell, The Rhetoric of Alcuin and Charlemagne. New York: Russell and Russell, 1965 (1941); ed. C. Halm, Rhetorici Latini Minores. Leipzig: Teubner, 1863. 523–550.
- De virtutibus et vitiis (moral treatise dedicated to Count Wido of Brittany, 799–800). PL 101: 613–638 (transcript available online). A new critical edition is being prepared for the Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Medievalis.
- De animae ratione (ad Eulaliam virginem) (written for Gundrada, Charlemagne's cousin). PL 101: 639–650.
- De Cursu et Saltu Lunae ac Bissexto, astronomical treatise. PL 101: 979–1002.
- (?) Propositiones ad acuendos iuvenes, ed. Menso Folkerts, "Die alteste mathematische Aufgabensammlung in lateinischer Sprache: Die Alkuin zugeschriebenen Propositiones ad acuendos iuvenes; Überlieferung, Inhalt, Kritische Edition", in idem, Essays on Early Medieval Mathematics: The Latin Tradition. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2003.
Theology
- Compendium in Canticum Canticorum: Alcuino, Commento al Cantico dei cantici – con i commenti anonimi Vox ecclesie e Vox antique ecclesie, ed. Rossana Guglielmetti, Firenze, SISMEL 2004
- Quaestiones in Genesim. PL 100: 515–566.
- De Fide Sanctae Trinitatis et de Incarnatione Christi; Quaestiones de Sancta Trinitate, ed. E. Knibbs and E. Ann Matter (Corpus Christianorum – Continuatio Mediaevalis 249: Brepols, 2012)
Hagiography
- Vita II Vedastis episcopi Atrebatensis. Revision of the earlier Vita Vedastis by Jonas of Bobbio. Patrologia Latina 101: 663–682.
- Vita Richarii confessoris Centulensis. Revision of an earlier anonymous life. MGH Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum 4: 381–401.
- Vita Willibrordi archiepiscopi Traiectensis, ed. W. Levison, Passiones vitaeque sanctorum aevi Merovingici. MGH Scriptores Rerum Merovingicarum 7: 81–141.
See also
- Propositiones ad Acuendos Juvenes
- Carolingian art
- Carolingian Empire
- Category: Carolingian period
- Correctory
- Codex Vindobonensis 795
References
Notes
- ^ Mayr-Harting 2016, p. 207 asserts Charlemagne met Alcuin – for the second time – at Parma in 781. Story 2005, p. 137 reports that Alcuin had previously been sent to Charlemagne by Ethelbert.
- ^ A more skeptical attitude toward Alcuin's authorship of this text and others is taken by Gorman 2002, pp. 101–30
- ^ See also Jaeger 1991
Citations
- ^ "Alcuin". Lexico. Archived from the original on 31 January 2020. Retrieved 13 September 2020.
- ^ Einhard 1960, p. 54.
- ^ Bullough 2004, p. 164.
- ^ a b Bullough 2004, pp. 146–47, 165.
- ^ Mayr-Harting 2016, p. 212.
- ^ Stenton 2001, p. 219.
- ^ Bullough 2004, p. 165.
- ^ Mayr-Harting "Ecgberht" Oxford Dictionary of National Biography
- ^ Hutchison 2006.
- ^ a b c Burns 1907.
- ^ Needham 2000, p. 52.
- ^ Wilmot-Buxton 1922, p. 93.
- ^ Jaeger 1999, p. 38.
- ^ a b "Alcuin | Anglo-Saxon scholar". Encyclopedia Britannica. 12 February 2024.
- ISBN 978-0-19-920634-6.
- ^ Colish 1999, p. 67.
- ISBN 978-0-227-90087-1.
- ISBN 978-1-317-87247-4.
- ISBN 978-1-136-50096-1.
- ISBN 978-0-521-18316-1.
- ^ Duckett 1951, p. 305.
- ^ Alcuin n.d.
- ^ "Ivars Peterson's MathTrek Nov 21, 2005".
- ^ Atkinson 2005, pp. 354–62.
- ^ Epistola 172, MGH Epistolae 4.2: 285: "aliquas figuras arithmeticae subtilitatis laetitiae causa"
- ^ Jullien & Perelman 1994, p. 482–83.
- ^ "Latin title and English text of the problem" (PDF).
- ^ Page 1909, p. 15.
- ^ Truss 2003, p. 76.
- .
- ^ Boswell 2015, p. 189.
- ^ Bromell 2002, p. 16.
- ^ Coon 2011, p. 18.
- ^ Clark 2009, p. 80.
- ^ Frantzen 1998, p. 198.
- ^ Dales & Williams 2013, p. 228.
- ^ Dales 2012, p. 90.
- ^ a b Dales 2012, p. 91.
- ^ Alcuin (1863). "Interrogationes Sigewulfi in Genesin". In J.-P. Migne (ed.). Patrologiae Cursus Completus. Vol. 100. apud editorem. col. 543. Question 191.
- ^ "Why Alcuin – Church in Touraine". www.churchintouraine.org. Archived from the original on 30 March 2022. Retrieved 29 November 2017.
- ISBN 978-1-64065-235-4.
- ^ York, University of. "Alcuin - Alcuin, University of York". University of York. Retrieved 13 April 2022.
- ^ "BBC Radio 4 - In Our Time, Alcuin". BBC.
Sources
- Alcuin (n.d.). Propositiones Alcuini Doctoris Caroli Magni Imperatoris ad Acuendes Juvenes [Propositions of Alcuin, A Teacher of Emperor Charlemagne, for Sharpening Youths] (in Latin).
- Allott, Stephen. Alcuin of York, his life and letters ISBN 0-900657-21-9
- Atkinson, Leigh (2005). "When the Pope was a Mathematician". The College Mathematics Journal. 36 (5): 354–362. S2CID 121602358.
- ISBN 978-0-226-34536-9.
- Bromell, David (2002). "Alcuin". In Aldrich, Robert; Wotherspoon, Garry (eds.). Who's who in Gay and Lesbian History: From Antiquity to World War II. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-15983-8.
- Browne, G.F. (1908). Alcuin of York. London: Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge.
- Bullough, Donald A (2004). Alcuin: Achievement and Reputation. Being Part of the Ford Lectures Delivered in Oxford in Hilary Term 1980. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-12865-1.
- Bullough, Donald (2010) [2004]. "Alcuin (c. 740–804)". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/298. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Burns, James Aloysius (1907). Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. New York: Robert Appleton Company. . In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).
- Clark, David (2009). Between Medieval Men: Male Friendship and Desire in Early Medieval English Literature. Oxford: OUP. ISBN 978-0-19-156788-9.
- Colish, Marcia L. (1999). Medieval Foundations of the Western Intellectual Tradition, 400–1400. The Yale Intellectual History of the West. ISBN 9780300078527.</
- Coon, Lynda L. (2011). Dark Age Bodies: Gender and Monastic Practice in the Early Medieval West. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 978-0-8122-0491-9.
- Dales, Douglas J. 'Accessing Alcuin: A Master Bibliography' (James Clarke & Co., Cambridge, 2013), ISBN 978-0227901977
- Dales, Douglas (2012). Alcuin: His Life and Legacy. James Clarke & Co. ISBN 978-0-227-17346-6.
- Dales, Douglas; ISBN 978-0-227-17394-7.
- Diem, Albrecht, 'The Emergence of Monastic Schools. The Role of Alcuin', in: Luuk A. J. R. Houwen and Alasdair A. McDonald (eds.), Alcuin of York. Scholar at the Carolingian Court, Groningen 1998 (Germania Latina, vol. 3), pp. 27–44.
- Duckett, Eleanor Shipley (1951). Alcuin, Friend of Charlemagne: His World & His Work. Macmillan.
- Duckett, Eleanor Shipley. Carolingian Portraits, (1962)
- ISBN 978-0-472-06035-1. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
- Ellsberg, Robert (2016). Blessed Among Us: Day by Day with Saintly Witnesses. Liturgical Press. ISBN 978-0-8146-4745-5.
- ISBN 978-0-226-26092-1.
- Ganshof, F.L. The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy ISBN 0-582-48227-5
- Gaskoin, Charles Jacinth Bellairs (1966). Alcuin: His Life and His Work. Cambridge University Press. GGKEY:9CL47HJX2L5.
- Godman, Peter. Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance ISBN 0-7156-1768-0
- Gorman, Michael (2002). "Alcuin before Migne". Revue Bénédictine. 112 (1–2): 101–130. ISSN 0035-0893.
- Hadley, John; Singmaster, David (1992). "Problems to Sharpen the Young". The Mathematical Gazette. 76 (475): 102–126. S2CID 125835186.
- Hutchison, Fred (1 June 2006). "A cure for the educational crisis: Learn from the extraordinary educational heritage of the West". RenewAmerica. Archived from the original on 2 June 2006. Retrieved 2 June 2006.
- Jaeger, C. Stephen (1991). "L'Amour des Rois: Structure Sociale D'Une Forme de Sensibilité Aristocratique". Annales. Histoire, Sciences Sociales. 46 (3): 547–571. S2CID 161706219.
- Jaeger, C. Stephen (1999). Ennobling Love: In Search of a Lost Sensibility. University of Pennsylvania Press. ISBN 0-8122-1691-1.
- Jullien, Marie-Hélène; Perelman, Françoise, eds. (1994). Clavis scriptorum Latinorum Medii Aevi: auctores Galliae, 735-987 (in Latin). Vol. Tomus II: Alcuinus. Turnhout: Brepols. OCLC 610811296.
- Liersch, Karl (1880). Die Gedichte Theodulfs, Bischofs von Orleans (in German). Halle.
{{cite book}}
: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) - Lorenz, Frederick. The life of Alcuin (Thomas Hurst, 1837).
- ISBN 978-0754663317.
- McGuire, Brian P. Friendship, and Community: The Monastic Experience ISBN 0-87907-895-2
- Murphy, Richard E. Alcuin of York: De Virtutibus et Vitiis, Virtues and Vices. ISBN 978-0-9966967-0-8
- Needham, N. R. (2000). 2,000 Years of Christ's Power. Vol. Part Two: The Middle Ages. Grace Publications Trust. ISBN 978-0-946462-56-8.
- Page, Rolph Barlow (1909). The Letters of Alcuin. New York: Forest Press.
- Stehling, Thomas. Medieval Latin Love Poems of Male Love and Friendship.
- Stella, Francesco, "Alkuins Dichtung" in Alkuin von York und die geistige Grundlegung Europas , Sankt Gallen, Verlag am Klosterhof, 2010, pp. 107–28.
- ISBN 978-0192801395.
- Story, Joanna (2005). Charlemagne: Empire and Society. Manchester University Press. p. 137. ISBN 978-0719070891.
- Throop, Priscilla, trans. Alcuin: His Life; On Virtues and Vices; Dialogue with Pepin (Charlotte, VT: MedievalMS, 2011)
- Truss, Lynne (2003). Eats, Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation. Profile Books. ISBN 978-1-86197-612-3.
- ISBN 0-8371-1635-X
- Wilmot-Buxton, E.M. (1922). Alcuin. New York: P.J. Kenedy & Sons.
- Texts on Wikisource:
- "Alcuin". Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). 1911.
- "Alcuin". Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 1. 1907.
- "Alcuin". The New Student's Reference Work. Vol. 1. 1914.
- "Alcuin or Ealhwine", A Short Biographical Dictionary of English Literature, 1910 – via Wikisource
- "Alcuin". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 1. 1885.
External links
- Alcuin 1 at Prosopography of Anglo-Saxon England
- Alcuin's book, Problems for the Quickening of the Minds of the Young
- Introduction to Alcuin's writings by Robert Levine and Whitney Bolton
- The Alcuin Society
- Anglo-Saxon York on History of York site
- Corpus Christianorum, Continuatio Mediaevalis: new critical editions in preparation
- Corpus Grammaticorum Latinorum: complete texts and full bibliography
- The Life of Alcuin by Frederick Lorenz
- Works by or about Alcuin at Internet Archive
- Works by Alcuin at LibriVox (public domain audiobooks)
- Literature by and about Alcuin in the German National Library catalogue
- Works by and about Alcuin in the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek (German Digital Library)
- "Alcuin". Repertorium "Historical Sources of the German Middle Ages" (Geschichtsquellen des deutschen Mittelalters).
- "Alcuin" in the Ecumenical Lexicon of Saints