06: Carolingians: Renovatio Imperii

Lorsch Abbey, Gate

Recontruction

Sutton Hoo (National Trust)

Sutton Hoo and Europe (British Museum)

The Lindisfarne Gospels from the British Library

Carolingians

Christmas 800: Charles crowned Emperor of the West in Rome

Einhard writes a biography after Charles’ death

What is meant by “Carolingian Renaissance?”

Timeline: ca 700-ca 850

Population shifts

Linguistic, cultural shifts

Spread of Islam: Carthage 698, Spain 711

Franks

Merovingians

Carolingians

Mayor of Palace under Merovingians

Charles Martel (ca 688-741)

battle of Tours (733)

Church

Lombard expansions : Italy

Pepin (ca 714-68) or Pippin

Papal recognition as legitimate king of Franks Donation

Charles “the Great” (742-814)

Oaths of Loyalty

Royal assemblies

Envoys with written orders: Capitularies

Byzantines

iconoclastic controversy

Rome

Dispersal of Senate; exarchate

Bishop of Rome (Pope)

Lombard expansions

Schools and learning

Church and literacy

needed to read Bible, conduct liturgy
preaching
Roman ideal of educated elite
Institutional continuity and libraries
Latin (not vernacular; not Greek)

“Donation of Constantine”—mid-8^th c forgery

Cathedra Petri (Throne of St. Peter) Charles II the Bald, 823-877. Rome, St. Peter, Vatican
Made for Carolingian monarch Charles the Bald; probably donated on his coronation, Christmas Day, 875

The heir of Constantine

— palace, chapel at Aachen—modeled on Ravenna, last W. Imperial capital

promotion of Roman/Christian culture

architecture

education

monasteries; palace

book copying, handwriting reform

visual arts: mainly church-related

Aachen, Palatine Chapel

Ravenna, S. Vitale

plans compared

Plans compared: S. Vitale, Palatine Chapel

Christianity and Church as force for peace and order

literate culture and classical traditions

new writings:

some preservation of oral vernacular poetry

devotional and religious works

histories

official correspondence and documentation

personal correspondence

	Carolinian minuscule. Text with decorated initials, from a Gregorian Sacramentary St. Gall?; c. 825-50, subsequently used at the abbey of St. Alban, Mainz Bodleian Library, MS. Auct. D. 1. 20, fol. 116r
	St. Matthew. Coronation Gospels of Holy Roman Empire, 790-810