Alcuin
Alcuin of York , in Old English Ealhwine, Latinized Flaccus Albinus and nicknamed ( Northumbria , circa 730 - Tours , 804 ) was a religious scholar and English. It was one of the main friends and advisers Charlemagne , and a craftsman important Carolingian Renaissance in the eighth century and the ninth century. He was head of the largest school in the Carolingian Empire : the Palatine Academy. He has undertaken major reforms and was the first to defend the idea of a European identity based on the ancient civilization rather than on inheritance barbarians. The historian Einhard holds for "the most learned man of his time."
Summary |
Biography
The English monk, a native of Northumbria , studying under the direction of a disciple of the Venerable Bede , Aelbert, religious studies and secular to episcopal school of York where he became the master.
He went to Rome , met Charlemagne at Parma in 781 and took the king's request the head of the Palatine School of Aix-la-Chapelle in 782. It is then one of the leading thinkers of the world fair , and one of the promoters of the intellectual renaissance.
He took part in major councils and there fighting the Adoptianism. He participated in the reform liturgy , especially the revision books like Lectionary and Sacramentary Gregorian.
It organizes the education necessary to train future administrative elites of the kingdom and the Church. It sets up a curriculum, from basic disciplines such as reading and writing to all seven liberal arts (trivium and quadrivium).
Alcuin naturally figure prominently in the meetings called to Palatine Academy , where the wits of the court dispute under the chairmanship of King David called for the occasion, calling Alcuin Horace and Theodulf Pindar.
Abbot of St. Martin of Tours in 796 , he settled in Tours in 801 and made its abbey an outbreak of revival. In close correspondence with Charlemagne and with leading figures of his time, he continued until his death to exercise genuine intellectual authority in the empire. "At the Abbey of Saint Martin of Tours, he founded an academy of philosophy and theology so innovative that it was nicknamed" Mother University " Work
He left many works, extremely diverse, including treaties of pedagogy and theology. It retains its literary activity, apart from some Latin poems, a bible corrected, and the famous cities including Chapterhouse however, still raises questions of paternity (see below). As an example here, in a series of questions and answers, then taught how Alcuin: "- What is the word? - The interpreter of the soul. - What is friendship? - The similarity of souls. - What is faith? - The certainty of things unknown and wonderful. - What is and is not at the same time? - Nothingness. - How can be and not be? - It is a name and not fact. " We see here how, already announced big expansion Alcuin Thomistic philosophy of the thirteenth century in particular by asking the basis of the principle of identity or non-contradiction (nothing can be and not be at the same time and in the same report) without which no science and no reasonable judgments are possible.
Bible Corrected
Alcuin, through training, preparing a Bible "corrected." It is generally accepted that the Bible of Alcuin was prepared on the direct orders of the emperor, and he was more of a text "imperial" which seems logical order of existence. The "Bible corrected" was published in the Council of Mainz (813).
In The Chapter House Villis
More accurately the "Capitulare vel curtis imperii of villis (or imperialibus)" , said Chapterhouse Cities. It is an order issued by Charlemagne who enacts the intention of Governors (Villici) of its domains (Villae / Ville) a number of observances and rules.
It is not (as is often said) just recommendations but strict rules to abide scrupulously by severe penalties (fines, revocation, imprisonment, banishment ...) because the text is a Royal Order which the application concrete will be monitored on the ground by " Missi Dominici "(the messengers of the Lord).
In fact, this series of edicts aimed at Villici, stewards of the royal domains, and it begins:
- "We, Charles the First, want our estates, we have made for our needs, our services are fully and not to other men. "
- "What our domesticity is well treated and is led to poverty per person ... "
- "What every director has his office in good workers, that is to say, blacksmiths, goldsmiths or silversmiths, shoemakers, tanners ... "(Follows a long list of dozens of occupations).
The real author and the date of this long text, including the only extant copy is kept in the Library Wolfenbutte in Germany , we are (as is often the case for Carolingian manuscripts) unfortunately unknown.
However, for this impressive result of 120 articles (the famous capitulation) Charlemagne heard, eight centuries before Sully , completely reforming the agriculture and the administration of his estates, vast as they stretched from Germany to Spain. Areas, which, it must be said, some, including the West, Francie , were known and recognized for being badly managed and maintained. It is obvious that this Ordinance , a real sum, highly technical, some forty pages, has certainly been written verbatim by Charlemagne, although it intended it, the political, economic and culture. However, some authors suggest it might participate in certain items such as: Hunting with hounds, the hunt, falconry.
This text, which looks and painstakingly described many things and activities: Crafts , and Fabrics and Clothing, the hunt , the Butcher , the medicine and especially Botany and Agriculture pillars of power , but also to authority vested in the Queen, Education and the establishment of schools, etc.., could not, obviously, be written by one man, but rather by a full team, team which must necessarily be led by one (or more) head (s) very capable (s). It is a collective work: one of the first of its kind.
In an attempt to attribute authorship to this famous chapter, Charlemagne - who spent most of his time hunting, waging war and health care (he suffered from rheumatism disabling) - is, by majority, dismissed most of the 120 articles (though we it has been in itself dictate a few), there are only scholars, scientists of the time, first and foremost come the monks.
In contrast, other areas in order: the authority vested in the Queen, the prostitution , the hunt , the hunting with hounds , the Falconry , an appeal has been asked to necessarily noble (more or less) familiar these exercises. Some authors speak here of Charlemagne himself.
Education
Alcuin is those to whom we owe the recovery of a true teaching of liberal arts. The structure of the seven liberal arts ( trivium and quadrivium ) was derived from Martianus Capella , the sixth century , Cassiodorus had developed the trivium, and Boethius the quadrivium. It was the Venerable Bede who transmitted to the west of the high Middle Ages the liberal arts , with the computation.
Alcuin encouraged the proliferation of copy shops ( scriptoria ) that allowed the dissemination of sacred texts as well as secular works of the ancient Roman.
Sources for this chapter
- Abbey of Saint-Benoit-sur-Loire: The Chapter of Villis
- Hunting Cernex (Association): Bibliography
Works of Alcuin
- Patrologia Latina, 1863.
- De grammatica
- From orthographia, 1997.
- De Dialectica
- De animae ratione
- De Trinitate
- Dialogue on rhetoric and the virtues
- "De Ville". (?).
Studies Alcuin
- John Hollin (ed.), The first teachers, ISF, 2002 150-174 (by Pierre Riche).
- Pierre Riche, Schools and Education in the High Middle Ages (1979), Picard, 1999.
See also
Related articles
External Links
- [4] Alcuin and musicology
- (The) works of Alcuin (The latin library)
- (En) Bible from the seventh to twelfth century
- (En) Policy considerations and practice of power in the work of Alcuin by Christiane Veyrard-Cosme.
- (In) Catholic Encyclopedia: Alcuin
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