History Faculty: Reading List Further Subject 3: The ...

History Faculty: Reading List

All course materials © History Faculty, University of Oxford (2015) Updated: 2000

Further Subject 3: The Carolingian Renaissance

Note: the prescribed texts are printed in bold. Digital versions, where available, are accessible on the

History Faculty Library's WebLearn site at

https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/portal/hierarchy/humdiv/histfac/lib (requires SSO login). The rest can be

found in the History Faculty Library.

1. Correspondence

Alciun, Letters, trans. Stephen Allott (1974), nos. 2, 7, 8, 12, 19, 23, 34, 38, 54, 66, 72, 74-9, 80, 93,

107-13, 116, 122, 150, 153, 159, 160. P.D. King, Charlemagne Translated Sources (1987), pp.

320-2.

Lupus of Ferrières, Letters, trans. Graydon W. Regenos (1966) or Levillain (Classiques de l’histoire de

France, 1927), nos. 1, 4-8, 12, 13, 21, 24, 31, 35, 37, 48, 53, 65, 66, 69, 70, 78, 80, 87, 94, 95,

101, 107, 108, 110, 122, 124, 133.

Charlemagne, Letters, trans. H.R. Loyn and J. Percival (The Reign of Charlemagne, 1975), nos. 30, 31,

40.

Pope Hadrian I, Letter to Charlemagne, Loyn and Percival no. 37.

2. Biography and narrative

Einhard, Life of Charlemagne, trans. Lewis Thorpe (Two Lives of Charlemagne, Penguin Classics, 1969),

or L. Halphen (Classiques de l’histoire de France, 1947).

Notker, Deeds of Charlemagne, trans. Thorpe (Two Lives).

The Astronomer, Life of the Emperor Louis , trans. A. Cabaniss (Son of Charlemagne, 1961).

Paschasius Radbert, Life of Wala (Epitaphium Arsenii), trans. A. Cabaniss (Charlemagne’s Cousins:

contemporary Lives of Adalhard and Wala, 1967).

Nithard, History of the sons of Louis the Pious, trans. P. Lauer (Classiques de l’histoire de France, 1926)

or W. Scholz (Carolingian Chronicles, 1970).

Annals of St-Bertin, 840-877, trans. J. Nelson (1991).

3. Education, etc.

Alcuin, De Rhetorica, trans. W.S. Howell (The Rhetoric of Alçuin and Charlemage, 1941).

Dhuoda, Handbook for her son William, Prologue and Bks. 1-3 and 10- 11, trans C. Neel (1991) or M.

Thiebaux (1998).

4. Capitularies, etc.

https://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/portal/hierarchy/humdiv/histfac/lib



Capitulary of Herstal, General Admonition, Double edict of commission, Capitulary of Frankfurt, On

Cultivating Letters, Programmatic Capitulary, Aachen capitulary for missi in Aquitaine,

Capitulary of Aachen, memorandum of Agenda, Capitulary on the doing of justice, all trans.

King, Charlemagne.

Charters: for Corbie (769); for Lorsch (774); for Fulda (774); for St Denis (775), all trans. Loyn and

Percival.

Theodulf, Precepts to the priests of his diocese, trans. G. E. McCracken & A. Cabaniss, Early Medieval

Theology (Library of Christian Classics IX, 1947).

Hincmar, De Ordine Palattii, trans. D. Herlihy (The History of Feudalism, 1970) or P. Dutton

(Carolingian Civilization, 1996).

5. Theology, etc.

A Reply to Three Letters; Paschasius and Ratramnus on the Eucharist; both trans. McCracken and

Cabaniss, Early Medieval Theology, pp. 94- 108, 118-47, 154-75.

Charles the Bald, Coronation Ordo of 869, trans. Herlihy (History of Feudalism).

6. Poetry

Theodulf, On the Court, Temptations of a Judge, the Books I used to Read; Alcuin, On the court, Elegy

on his life at Aachen, On Scribes; Walahfrid Strabo, Elegy on Reichenau; Angelbert, The Battle

of Fontenoy; Hrabanus Maurus, On Writing; all trans. P. Godman, Poetry of the Carolingian

Renaissance (1985).

Alcuin, The Bishops, Kings, and Saints of York, trans. P. Godman (1982), II. 1-89, 1207-1658.

Alcuin, Lament for the Cuckoo, Epitaph; Fredugis, Lament for Alcuin, Hrabanus Maurus, To Grimold;

Sedulius Scottus, The Scholasticus, Intercession against Plague; all trans. H. Waddell,

Medieval Latin Lyrics (1938). Hildebrandslied, trans. L. Forster, Penguin Book of German

Verse; or D. Herlihy, Medieval Culture and Society (1968).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Large bibliographies of this kind can be profoundly discouraging. The secret is to read some of the

essential introductory works and then follow what takes your fancy. You are not expected to read most

of the works on this bibliography and attempting to do so will only lead you astray from the principal

purpose of the paper; there is no substitute for reading and rereading the primary sources. However the

bibliography is intended to provide details of some of the secondary literature, mainly in English, which

is available on some of the specific topics, writers and themes covered by the paper. Your tutor will be

able to give you further guidance.



ADDITIONAL SOURCES

In addition to the set texts in the decrees the following translated sources are recommended:

P.E. Dutton (tr.), Carolingian Civilisation: a reader (1993) contains alternative translations of many of the

set texts as well as a number of other translated works of considerable interest.

P.E. Dutton (tr.), Charlemagne's Courtier: The Complete Einhard (1998) for translations of all Einhard's

works; the letters and translatio are particularly important.

E.S. Firchow and E.H. Zeydel for a parallel Latin and English translation of Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni, The

Life of Charlemagne (1985).

A. Cabaniss, Son of Charlemagne (1961) for a complete translation of the Astronomer's Life of Louis the

Pious.

Dhuoda's Handbook for her Son William is available in translations by C. Neel (1991) and, with parallel

latin text, M. Thiébaux (1998).

The Royal Frankish Annals are translated in

B.W. Scholz, Carolingian Chronicles (1972) and provide essential political background with

J.L. Nelson (tr.), The Annals of St Bertin (1991) and

T. Reuter (tr.), The Annals of Fulda (1992) – the latter is important for the often neglected East Frankish

evidence.

R.W. Dyson (tr.), Jonas of Orleans, The ‘De institutione regia’: A Ninth Century Political Tract (1983).

GENERAL BACKGROUND

Good general introductions are provided by

D. Bullough, The Age of Charlemagne (1965),

H. Fichtenau (tr. P. Munz), The Carolingian Empire (1957),

L. Halphen (tr. G. de Nie), Charlemagne and the Carolingian Empire (Amsterdam 1977),

R. McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 750-987 (1983),

P. Riché (tr. M. Allen), The Carolingians: A Family who Forged Europe (1993) and the collection of papers

in R. McKitterick, (ed.), The New Cambridge History of the Middle Ages II (1995).

For the economic context see:



G. Duby (tr. H. Clarke), The Early Growth of the European Economy (1974),

R. Latouche (tr. E.M. Wilkinson), The Birth of Western Economy (1961), and

R. Hodges and D. Whitehouse, Mohamed, Charlemagne and the Origins of Europe (1983).

For the scale of monastic landholding in the Carolingian period (so much was needed to provide for so

few ... ),

D. Herlihy, ‘Church property on the European continent, 701 - 1200’, in Speculum, 36 (1961) 81-105.

T. Reuter, ‘Plunder and Tribute in the Carolingian Empire’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society,

5th ser. 35 (1985), 74-94 and

T. Reuter, ‘The End of Carolingian Military Expansion’, in P. Godman and R. Collins (eds.), Charlemagne's

Heir (1990) 391-405 for a salutary reminder of the link between the Renaissance and the

unremitting violence of military expansion and booty hunting.

For introductions to the learning of the Carolingian Renaissance see:

M.L.W. Laistner, Thought and Letters in Western Europe (1957),

P. Riché (tr. J. Contreni), Education and Culture in the Barbarian West, sixth through eighth centuries

(1976),

J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (1983) and the collection of essays,

R. McKitterick (ed.), Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation (1994).

Other important collections of essays by individual authors but covering a wide variety of topics,

include:

F. L. Ganshof (tr. J. Sondheimer), The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy (1971),

R. McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning in the Frankish Kingdoms, 6th-9th Centuries (1994),

R. McKitterick, The Frankish Kings and Culture in the Early Middle Ages (1995),

J.L. Nelson, Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe (1986),

J.L.Nelson, TheFrankish World 750-900 (1996), and

J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, Early Germanic Kingship (1971) and

J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, Early Medieval History (1975). These provide a rich seam into the period and

should be mined in detail.



CHARLEMAGNE AND HIS COURT CIRCLE

Besides the general works cited above:

J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, Early Germanic Kingship, chap. 6 and

J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (1983) chaps. 11, 12 and 15 provide a useful starting point.

On the patronage and court circle of Charlemagne see 4

D.A. Bullough, ‘Aula Renovata: The Carolingian Court before the Aachen palace’, Proceedings of the

British Academy 71 (1985) and repr. in D. A. Bullough, Carolingian Renewal (1991),

B. Bischoff, ‘The Court Library of Charlemagne’, in his Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of

Charlemagne, tr. M. Gorman (1994),

M. Garrison, ‘The emergence of Carolingian Latin Literature and the Court of Charlemagne (780-814)’, in

R. McKitterick (ed.), Carolingian Culture (1994),

M. Garrison, ‘The English and the Irish at the Court of Charlemagne’, in P. L. Butner, M. Kerner and W.

Oberschelp (eds.), Artes Liberales: 1200 Years of Science and Civilization in Europe (1996/7).

For wider comparisons see:

R. McKitterick, ‘Royal Patronage of Culture in the Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians: Motives

and Consequences’, SSCI 39 (1992) 93 -129, repr. in her The Frankish Kings and Culture in the

Early Middle Ages (1995).

For the importance of poetry at Charlemagne's court see:

P. Godman, Poets and Emperors (1987) ch. 2 and 3. and

D. Schaller, ‘Poetic Rivalries at the Court of Charlemagne’, in R.R. Bolgar (ed.), Classical Influence on

European Culture, 500-1500 (1971) 151-7.

J.L. Nelson, ‘Women at the Court of Charlemagne: A Case of Monstrous Regiment’ in her The Frankish

World 750-900 (1996), for a striking analysis of Charles's court in the closing years of his reign.

For the central figure of Alcuin see:

W. Levison, England and the Continent in the 8th Century (1946),

D.A. Bullough, ‘Alcuin and the Kingdom of Heaven: Liturgy, Theology, and the Carolingian Age’ in U.-R.

Blumenthal (ed.), Carolingian Essays (1983),



D.A. Bullough, ‘Albinus deliciosus Karoli regis: Alcuin of York and the Shaping of the Early Carolingian

Court’, in L. Fenske, et al. (eds.), Institutionen, Kultur und Gesellschaft im Mittelalter. Festschrift

für Josef Fleckenstein (1984) 73-92, both repr. in D. A. Bullough, Carolingian Renewal (1991),

G. Ellard, Master Alcuin, Liturgist (1956) and

L. Wallach, Alcuin and Charlemagne (1959).

For Einhard see the comprehensive first year bibliography [Latin Texts: Einhard and Asser].

For Theodulf of Orleans and his authorship of the Libri Carolini (contra the arguments in favour of Alcuin

propounded by

L. Wallach, Diplomatic Studies in Latin and Greek Documents from the Carolingian Age (1977)) see the

compelling studies by

A. Freeman in Speculum, 1957, 1965, 1971 and Viator 1985, and her latest restatement of the case in

the introduction to the MGH edn. of the Libri Carolini: MGH Sectio III. Ergänzungsband I (1998).

H. Mayr-Harting, ‘Charlemagne as a patron of art’, in D. Wood (ed.), Studies in Church History 28 (1992)

for the artistic consequences of the standpoint taken in the Libri Carolini.

R. Folz, The Coronation of Charlemagne (1974) for a collection of translated sources on the imperial

coronation of 800 – a topic which continues to fascinate historians: a relatively sober

assessment is provided by

F.L. Ganshof (tr. J. Sondheimer), The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy (1971) but compare

R.E. Sullivan (ed.), The Coronation of Charlemagne: What Did It Signify? (Boston, 1959) and

H. Mayr-Harting, ‘Charlemagne, the Saxons and the Imperial Coronation of 800’, EHR 111 (1996) 1113-

33.

For issues of succession see:

W. Goffart, ‘Paul the Deacon's Gesta Episcoporum Mettensium and the Early Designs of Charlemagne's

Succession’, Traditio 42 (1986) 59-93 and

M. Innes, ‘Charlemagne's Will: Piety, Politics and the Imperial Succession’, EHR 112 (1997) 833-55.

LOUIS THE PIOUS

The reassessment of Louis and his reign in:



P . . Godman and R. Collins (eds.) Charlemagne's Heir: New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious

(1990) provides an obvious starting point.

The paper by:

D. Ganz ‘The Epitaphium Arsenii and opposition to Louis the Pious’ in the above volume is essential for

any serious interpretation of the challenging set text by Paschasius Radbertus.

It should be read in conjunction with

H. Mayr-Harting, ‘Two abbots in politics: Wala of Corbie and Bernard of Clairvaux’, TRHS 1990.

Ermold's panegyric on Louis is well-covered by

P. Godman, Poets and Emperors (1987) chap. 3 and his separate paper

‘Louis the Pious and his poets’, Fruhmittelalterliche Studien 19 (1985).

Amongst other papers see:

F.L. Ganshof, ‘A propos de la politique de Louis le Pieux avant le crise de 830’, in Revue belge

d'archeologie et d’histoire de l’art, 37 (1968) 37-48,

F.L. Ganshof, ‘Some observations on the Ordinatio Imperii of 817’, in F.L. Ganshof, 6

The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy (1971),

J.T. Rosenthal, ‘The Public Assembly in the time of Louis the Pious’, Traditio, 20 (1964) 25-40,

T.F.X. Noble, ‘The Revolt of King Bernard of Italy in 817: Its Causes and Consequences’, Studi Medievali,

15 (1974) 315-26,

R. McKeon, ‘The Empire of Louis the Pious. Faith, politics and personality’, Revue Benedictine 90 (1980)

297 - 316 and

T.F.X. Noble, ‘Louis the Pious and his piety reconsidered’, Revue belge de philologie et d’histoire 58

(1980) 297 - 316,

M. de Jong, ‘Power and Humility in Carolingian Society: The Public Penance of Louis the Pious’, EME, 1

(1992) 29-52, and

B. Bischoff, ‘The Court Library Under Louis the Pious’, in his Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of

Charlemagne, tr. M. Gorman (1994) 76-92.



CHARLES THE BALD

J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, ‘A Carolingian Renaissance Prince: Charles the Bald’, Proceedings of the British

Academy 64 (1978) provides a good starting point.

J.L. Nelson, Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe (1986) papers 4-9,

M. Gibson and J. L. Nelson (eds.), Charles the Bald: Court and Kingdom (Brit. Archaeol. Reports,

International Series 101, 1981; revised edn.1992) and

J.L. Nelson, Charles the Bald (1992) are fundamental to any serious appraisal.

Other papers include:

R. Deshman, ‘The Exalted Servant: The Ruler-Theology of the Prayer Book of Charles the Bald’, Viator 11

(1980) 385-417,

R. McKitterick, ‘Charles the Bald (823-877) and his Library: the patronage of learning’, English Historical

Review 95 (1980),

P. Godman, Poets and Emperors (1987) chap. 4,

J.L. Nelson, ‘“Not Bishops’ Bailiffs but Lords of the Earth”: Charles the Bald and the Problem of

Sovereignty’, in D. Wood (ed.), The Church and Sovereignty c. 590-1900: Essays in Honour of

Michael Wilks (Studies in Church History, Subsidia 9) 23-34,

W. Diebold, ‘Nos quoque morem illius imitari cupientes: Charles the Bald’s Evocation and Imitation of

Charlemagne’, Archiv für Kulturgeschichte 57 (1993) 271-300,

S. Coupland, ‘The Fortified Bridges of Charles the Bald’, Journal of Medieval History 17 (1991) 1-12, and

C. Gillmor, ‘The Logistics of Fortified Bridge Building on the Seine Under Charles the Bald’, Anglo-

Norman Studies 11 (1989) 87-106.

On Nithard the most important paper remains:

J.L. Nelson, ‘Public Histories and Private History in the Work of Nithard’, Speculum 60/2 (1985), repr.

idem, Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe (1986), but compare the perceptive

comments of

K. Leyser, Communications and Power in Medieval Europe 1, ed. T. Reuter (1994)



For the towering role and personality of Hincmar see the comprehensive study of

J. Devisse, Hincmar, archevêque de Reims (1975) and the thoughtful overview in J. M. Wallace-Hadrill,

The Frankish Church (1983); the latter should be read in conjunction with

J.Devisse, ‘Hincmar and the authorship of Lex Salica’ in his The Long-Haired Kings (1962),

J. Devisse, ‘History in the mind of Archbishop Hincmar’ in R.H.C. Davis and J.M. Wallace-Hadrill (eds.),

The Writing of History in the Middle Ages: essays presented to R. W. Southern (1981),

J.L. Nelson, ‘Kingship, Law and Liturgy in the political thought of Hincmar of Rheims’. EHR 92 (1977),

repr.

J.L. Nelson, Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe (1986) paper 7,

J.L. Nelson, ‘The Intellectual in Politics’, in L. Smith and B. Ward (eds.), Intellectual Life in the Middle

Ages: Essays presented to Margaret Gibson (1992), repr.

J.L. Nelson, The Frankish World 750-900 (1996), and

F.M. Carey, ‘The Scriptorium of Reims During the Archbishopric of Hincmar (845-882 A. D.)’, in L.

Webber Jones (ed.), Classical and Mediaeval Studies in Honor of Edward Kennard Rand (1938)

41-60.

For comparisons between Charles and his half-brother Louis the German see Annals of St Bertin and

Annals of Fulda, the inimitable image of Louis provided by Notker the Stammerer, and the

background material in

T. Reuter, Germany in the Early Middle Age, (1991) 70-112 and

J. Fried, ‘The Frankish Kingdoms, 817-91: The East and Middle Kingdoms’, NCMH, 142-168.

CAROLINGIAN KINGSHIP AND POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

J.L. Nelson, ‘Kingship and Empire in the Carolingian World’, in R. McKitterick (ed.), Carolingian Culture

(1994) 52-87 (a revised version of her ‘Kingship and Empire’, in J. H. Burns (ed.), The Cambridge

History of Medieval Political Thought, c. 350-450 (1988) 211- 51) provides a fine introduction.

W. Ullmann, The Carolingian Renaissance and the Idea of Kingship (1969) and

K. F. Morrison, The Two Kingdoms: Ecclesiology in Carolingian Political Thought (1964) for a different

approach.

The work of J.L. Nelson on inauguration rituals and, more generally, the role of ritual to the

maintenance of Carolingian order, is now central to any study of this topic; most of the relevant papers



are collected in her Politics and Ritual in Early Medieval Europe (1986), and The Frankish World 750-

900 (1996), but also see several of her other papers:

‘The Lord's Anointed and the People's Choice: Carolingian Royal Ritual’ in D. Cannadine and S. Price

(eds.) Rituals of Royalty: Power and Ceremonial in Traditional Societies (1987) 137-80, 8

‘Translating Images of Authority: the Christian Roman Emperors in the Carolingian World’, in M. M.

Mackenzie and C. Roueché (eds), Images of Authority: Papers Presented to Joyce Reynolds

(1989) 194-205,

‘Hincmar of Reims on Kingmaking: The Evidence of the Annals of St. Bertin’, in Janos Bak (ed.),

Coronations: Medieval and Early Modern Monarchic Ritual (Berkeley, 1990) 16-34, and

‘The Search for Peace in a Time of War: the Carolingian Brüderkrieg, 840- 843’, in J. Fried (ed.), Träger

und Instrumentarien des Friedens im hohen und späten Mittelalter (Vorträge und Forschungen

43, 1996), 87-114.

Amongst the older work on coronation rituals and inauguration ceremonies:

E.H. Kantorowicz, Laudes Regiae: A Study in Liturgical Acclamations and Mediaeval Ruler Worship

(1946), and

C.A. Bouman, Sacring and Crowning (1957) are two classics which should not be missed.

R. Kantorowicz, ‘San Paolo Bible’, Journal of Ecclesiastical History 10 (1959) provides a good example of

the liturgical and ritualistic significance of one of the bibles given to Charles the Bald.

Other works of considerable interest to this topic include:

J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, Early Germanic Kingship in England and on the Continent (1971),

J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, ‘The Via Regia of the Carolingian Age’, in his Early Medieval History (1975) 181-200,

M. McCormick, ‘The Liturgy of War in the Early Middle Ages: Crises, Litanies and the Carolingian

Monarchy’, Viator 15 (1984) 1-23,

M. McCormick, Eternal Victory: Triumphal Rulership in Late Antiquity, Byzantium and the Early Medieval

West (1986; 2nd ed., 1990),

P.E. Dutton, The Politics of Dreaming in the Carolingian Empire (1994),

L. Wallach, ‘The Political Theories of Alcuin’, and ‘The Via Regia of Charlemagne: The Rhetoric of Alcuin

as a Treatise on Kingship’, in his Alcuin and Charlemagne (1959) 5-96,

P.J. Geary, ‘Germanic Tradition and Royal Ideology in the Ninth Century: The Visio Karoli Magni’, in his

Living with the Dead (1994) 49-76, and



Joaquín Martínez Pizarro, ‘Images of Church and State: from Sulpicius Severus to Notker Balbulus’,

Journal of Medieval Latin 4 (1994) 25-38.

The vitae, historia and gesta of Einard, the Astronomer, Nithard, and Notker can be read as political

treatises on kingship. Besides the literature on Einhard and Nithard (above), see

J.L. Nelson, ‘History-Writing at the Courts of Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald’, in A. Scharer and G.

Scheibelreiter (eds.), Historiographie im frühen Mittelalter (1994) 435-42,

J.M. Pizarro, ‘Images of Church and State: from Sulpicius Severus to Notker Balbulus’, Journal of

Medieval Latin, 4 (1994) 25-38,

D. Ganz, ‘Humour as History in Notker’s Gesta Karoli Magni’, in E. B. King et al. (eds.), Monks, Nuns and

Friars in Medieval Society (1989), and

M. Innes, ‘Memory, Orality and Literacy in an Early Medieval Society’, P&P 158 (1998) 3-36.

On the role of the Carolingians in forging the notion of Europe see:

K. Leyser, ‘Concepts of Europe in the Early and High Middle Ages’, P&P 137 (1992) 25-47 and K.

Randsborg (ed.) The Birth of Europe (1989).

CHURCH REFORM, GOVERNMENT, AND LAW

For the renewal of learning and church reform as the raison d’être of Carolingian government see:

R. McKitterick, The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms (1977),

J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (1983) and W. Ullmann, The Carolingian Renaissance (1969).

F.L. Ganshof, Frankish Institutions under Charlemagne (1968) provides a survey of Carolingian

governance from a traditional standpoint.

C.E. Odegaard, Vassi and Fideles in the Carolingian Empire (Cambridge, 1945),

D.A. Bullough, ‘Baiuli in the Carolingian Regnum Langobardorum and the Career of Abbot Waldo (d.

813)’, EHR 77 (1962) 625-37, and

G. Constable, ‘Nona et decima: An Aspect of the Carolingian Economy’, Speculum 35 (1960) 224-50 for

studies of specific aspects.



For local administration and its links to central authority, the key study remains:

K.F. Werner, Missus-marchio-comes: entre l’administration centrale et l’administration locale de

1’empire carolingien’, in W. Paravicini and K. F. Werner (eds.) Histoire comparée de

l’administration (IVe-XVIIIe siècle) (1980).

P. Wormald, The Making of English Law, I. Legislation and its Limits (1999) ch. 2 for an indispensable

discussion of Carolingian legislation; his

‘Lex Scripta et Verbum Regis: Legislation and Germanic Kingship’, in P. H. Sawyer and I. N. Wood, eds.,

Early Medieval Kingship (1977), repr. in his

Legal Culture in the Early Medieval West (1999) should also be consulted.

P. Godman and R Collins (eds.), Charlemagne's Heir (1990) 425-55 for papers on Carolingian capitularies

by G. Schmitz and H. Mordek. Also see

F.N. Estey, ‘The Scabini and the Local Courts’, Speculum 26 (1951) 119-129, and

P. Fouracre, ‘Carolingian Justice: the Rhetoric of Improvement and Contexts of Abuse’, SSCI 42 (1995)

771-803.

LEARNING AND THE LIBERAL ARTS

The papers in

R. McKitterick (ed.), Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation (1994),

R.E. Sullivan (ed.), The Gentle Voices of Teachers: Aspects of Learning in the Carolingian Age (1995),

D.L. Wagner (ed.), The Seven Liberal Arts in the Middle Ages (1983), 10

M. Herren (ed.), The Sacred Nectar of the Greeks. The Study of Greek in the West in the Early Middle

Ages (1988),

P.L. Butzer and D. Lohrmann (eds.), Science in Western and Eastern Civilization in Carolingian Times

(1993), and

R. Gameson (ed.), The Early Medieval Bible, its Production, Decoration and Use, Cambridge Studies in

Palaeography and Codicology 2 (1994) provide a good cross section to the range and depth of

work on Carolingian learning.



Amongst monographs see:

P. Riché (tr. J. Contreni), Education and Culture in the Barbarian West: From the Sixth Through the Eighth

Century (1976),

J. Marenbon, From the Circle of Alcuin to the School of Auxerre: Logic, Theology, and Philosophy in the

Early Middle Ages, and

L. Nees, A Tainted Mantle: Hercules and the Classical Tradition at the Carolingian Court (1991).

Good papers on specific topics include:

D.A. Bullough, ‘Roman Books and Carolingian Renovatio’, SCH, 16 (1977) 23-50,

M. Gibson, ‘Boethius in the Carolingian Schools’, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society, 5 ser., 32

(1982) 43-56, and

J.L. Nelson, ‘On the Limits of the Carolingian Renaissance’, SCH 14 (1977) 51-67.

For the crucial development of Caroline miniscule and discussions of manuscripts from the great

Carolingian abbeys see:

D. Ganz, ‘The Preconditions for Caroline Minuscule’, Viator 18 (1987) 23-44,

B. Bischoff (tr. M. Gorman), Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne (1994) and

B. Bischoff, (tr. D.O. Cróinín and D. Ganz) Latin Palaeography: Antiquity and the Middle Ages (1990).

Lupus of Ferrières’ letters provide a vivid example of the range of interests and activities of one

Carolingian scholar. They should be studied in conjunction with the useful discussion in

L.D. Reynolds and N. G. Wilson, Scribes and Scholars (1974),

R.J. Gariépy, ‘Lupus of Ferrières: Carolingian Scribe and Text Critic’, Medieval Studies 30 (1968) 90-105,

R.J. Gariépy, ‘Lupus of Ferrières’ Knowledge of Classical Latin Literature’, in G. Cambier (ed.), Hommages

à André Boutemy (Collection Latomus 145, 1976) 152-58, and the facsimile of the Lupus

manuscript of Cicero's De Oratore in

C.H. Beeson (ed.), Servatus Lupus as Scribe and text critic (1937).

Carolingian poetry can best be approached through the parallel translations of:



P. Godman, Poetry of the Carolingian Renaissance (1985), Ermold’s great verse panegyric and the

vernacular poetry (below).

Amongst secondary literature see:

P. Godman, Poets and Emperors, and the magisterial surveys of

F.J.E. Raby, A History of Secular Latin Poetry (1934) and

A History of Christian Latin Poetry (1927).

For Walafrid see

M. Herren, ‘The De Imagine Tetrici of Walafrid Strabo: Edition and Translation’ , The Journal of Medieval

Latin 1 (1991) 118-39 and

M. Herren, ‘Walafrid Strabo’s De Imagine Tetrici: An Interpretation’, in R. North and T. Hofstra (eds.),

Latin Culture and Medieval Germanic Europe (Germanic Latina 1, 1992) 25-41.

THEOLOGY AND EXEGESIS

M.L.W. Laistner, Thought and Letters in Western Europe (1957) offers a good introduction to the biblical

exegesis and theological debates of the period.

D. Ganz, ‘The debate on predestination’ in M. Gibson and J. L. Nelson (eds.), Charles the Bald: Court and

Kingdom (Brit. Archaeol. Reports, International Series 101, 1981; revised edn., 1992) is essential

reading for the most far-reaching of the ninth-century theological disputes.

On Gottschalk see

D.E. Nineham, ‘Gottschalk of Orbais: Reactionary or Precursor of the Reformation?’ JEH 40 (1989) 1-18.

Other disputes are covered by

J.C. Cavadini, The Last Christology of the West: Adoptionism in Spain and Gaul, 785-820 (1993),

R.G. Heath, ‘The Western Schism of the Franks and the Filioque’, JEH 23 (1972) 97-113, and

C. Chazelle, ‘Figure, Character and the Glorified Body in Carolingian Eucharistic Controversy’, Traditio 47

(1992) 1-36.



The controversial and enigmatic thought of Eriugena is well-covered:

J. Marenbon, Early Medieval Philosophy, 480-1150, (1983, 2nd ed. 1988) ch. 6,

M. Cappuyns, Jean Scot Ériugène (1964),

J.J. O’Meara, Eriugena (1988),

B. McGinn and W. Otten (eds.), Eriugena: East and West (Notre Dame Conferences in Medieval Studies

5, 1994), and

G.van Riel, C. Steel, and J. McEvoy (eds.), Iohannes Scottus Eriugena: The Bible and Hermeneutics (1996).

A. Cabaniss, Amalarius of Metz (1954) for another figure who kindled controversy.

For the scale of Carolingian endeavour in biblical studies see:

R. Löwe, ‘Medieval history of the Latin Vulgate’ in Cambridge History of the Bible vol. 2, (1969), and

J. Contreni, ‘Carolingian Biblical Studies’ in U.-R. Blumenthal (ed.), Carolingian Essays (1983).

THE WRITTEN WORD AND THE VERNACULAR

For the scale of Carolingian investment in the written word and questions of its use and functions see

R. McKitterick, The Carolingians and the Written Word (1989).

Papers by Mitchell, Nelson and McKitterick in:

R. McKitterick (ed.), The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe (1990),

P. Wormald, ‘The Uses of Literacy in Anglo-Saxon England and Its Neighbours’, Transactions of the Royal

Historical Society, 5th ser., 17 (London, 1967) 95-114,

R. McKitterick, ‘The Written Word and Oral Communication: Rome's Legacy to the Franks’, in

R. North and T. Hofstra (eds.), Latin Culture and Medieval Germanic Europe (Germania Latina I, 1992)

89-112, repr. in her

The Frankish Kings and Culture in the Early Middle Ages (1995),

F.L. Ganshof, ‘The Use of the Written Word in Charlemagne’s Administration’, in his The Carolingians

and the Frankish Monarchy (1971) 125-42,



J. Percival, ‘The Precursors of Domesday: Roman and Carolingian Land Registers’, in P. Sawyer, ed.,

Domesday Book: A Reassessment (1985) 5-28, and

D. Ganz, ‘Bureaucratic Shorthand and Merovingian Learning’, in

P. Wormald, D. Bullough, and R. Collins (eds.), Ideal and Reality in Frankish and Anglo-Saxon Society:

Papers presented to J M. Wallace-Hadrill (1983) 58-75.

For female literacy amongst the high aristocracy see:

R. McKitterick ‘Women and Literacy in the Early Middle Ages’, in her Books, Scribes and Learning in the

Frankish Kingdoms, 6th-9th Centuries (1994) and

J.L. Nelson, ‘Women and the Word in the Earlier Middle Ages’, SCH 27 (1990) 53 -78, repr. in her The

Frankish World.

The emergence of the vernacular is an important topic in its own right. As well as the set texts look at

the Heliand, tr. M. Scott (1966) or G. R. Murphy (1992) and the other texts tr. in

J. Knight Bostock, A Handbook on Old High German Literature (2nd edn., 1976), which also provides the

essential introduction.

R. Wright Late Latin and Early Romance in Spain and Carolingian France (1982) has rekindled debate on

the relationship between Latin and the vernacular with a stimulating if controversial thesis

which is discussed further in the collection,

R. Wright (ed.), Latin and the Romance Languages in the Early Middle Ages (1991).

Also see the pertinent discussion of :

J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (1983) 377-89,

C. Edwards, ‘German Vernacular Literature: A Survey’, in R. McKitterick (ed.), Carolingian Culture (1994)

and, for a fine survey of surviving MSS,

R. McKitterick, The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms (1977) ch. 6,

M. Richter, The Formation of the Medieval West: Studies in the Oral Culture of the Barbarians (1994),

P. Fouracre, ‘The Context of the OHG Ludwigslied’, Medium Ævum 54 (1985) 87-103, and

G.R. Murphy, The Saxon Savior: The Germanic Transformation of the Gospel in the Ninth Century Heliand

(1989).



ART AND ARCHITECTURE

J. Hubert, J. Porcher, & W. F. Volbach, Carolingian Art (1970) is sumptiously illustrated and covers the

full range of artistic objects.

F. Mütherich and J. Gaehde, Carolingian Painting (1977) discusses a selection of illustrations from some

of the most famous Carolingian illuminated manuscripts.

Useful surveys are also provided by

J. Beckwith, Early Medieval Art (1964), C. R. Dodwell, Painting in Europe, 800-1200 (1971),

P. Lasko, Ars Sacra, 800-1200 (1972) and

K.J. Conant, Carolingian and Romanesque Architecture (1959).

Important papers include

R. Krautheimer, ‘The Carolingian revival of early Christian architecture’, Art Bulletin 24 (1942),

J. Beckwith, ‘Byzantine Influence on Carolingian Art’, in W. Braunfels et al. (eds.), Karl der Grosse:

Lebenswerk und Nachleben 3 (1965) 288-300,

E. Bishop, ‘Angilbert’s Ritual Order for St Ricquier’, in his Liturgica Historica (1962),

H. Mayr-Harting, ‘Charlemagne as a patron of art’, in D. Wood (ed.), Studies in Church History 28 (1992),

14

H. L. Kessler, ‘Facies Bibliothecae Revelata: Carolingian Art as Spiritual Seeing’, SSCI 41 (1994) 533-94,

and G. Henderson, ‘Emulation and invention in Carolingian Art’ in R. McKitterick, Carolingian

Culture (1994).

There is much to be said for studying a few manuscripts, treasures or ateliers in detail: Tours:

H. L. Kessler, The Illustrated Bibles from Tours (1977),

H.L. Kessler, ‘A Lay Abbot as Patron: Count Vivian and the First Bible of Charles the Bald’, SSCI 39 (1992)

647-76, and papers by

Ganz and McKitterick in R. Gameson (ed.), The Early Medieval Bible (1994).

Utrecht Psalter:



K. van der Horst, W. Noel, and W. Wüstefeld, The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art: Picturing the Psalms

of David (1996). ‘Plan of St Gall’:

W. Horn and E. Born, The Plan of St. Gall: a Study of the Architecture & Economy of Life in a

Paradigmatic Carolingian Monastery, 3 vols. (1979), or the briefer resumé,

L. Price, The Plan of St. Gall in Brief: An Overview (1982), and

W. Sanderson, ‘The Plan of St. Gall Reconsidered’, Speculum 60 (1985) 615-632.

The Lothar Crystal (on permanent display in the British Museum):

G. Kornbluth, ‘The Seal of Lothiar II: Model and Copy’, Francia 17 (1990) 55-68,

G. Kornbluth, ‘The Susanna Crystal of Lothair II: Chastity, the Church, and Royal Justice’, Gesta 31 (1992)

25-39,

V. Flint, ‘Magic and Marriage in Ninth-Century Francia: Lothar, Hincmar -- and Susanna’, in M. A. Meyer

(ed.), The Culture of Christendom: Essays in Commemoration of Dennis L. T. Bethell (1993) 61-74,

and

V. Flint, ‘Susanna and the Lothar Crystal: A Liturgical Perspective’, EME 4 (1995) 61-86.

ROME AND BYZANTIUM

The approach of:

W. Ullmann, A Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages (1972) or

W. Ullmann, The Growth of Papal Government in the Middle Ages (1953) can be contrasted with that of

T.F.X. Noble, The Republic of St. Peter: the birth of the Papal State, 680-825 (1984),

T.F.X. Noble, ‘The Papacy in the Eighth and Ninth Centuries’, NCMH, 563-86.

Studies of detailed aspects of the relationship between the Carolingians and the Papacy include K.

Kennedy, ‘The Permanence of an Idea: Three Ninth-Century Frankish Ecclesiastics and The

Authority of the Roman See’, in H. Mordek (ed.), Aus Kirche und Reich: Studien zu Theologie,

Politik und Recht im Mittelalter: Festschrift für Friedrich Kempf (1983) 105-116.

And R.F. Belletzkie, ‘Pope Nicholas I and John of Ravenna: the Struggle for Ecclesiastical Rights in the

Ninth Century’, Church History 49 (1980) 262-72.



For Carolingian relations with Byzantium see:

F.L. Ganshof, ‘The Frankish Monarchy and its External Relations, from Pippin III to Louis the Pious’, in his

The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy (1971) 205-39,

P. Grierson, ‘The Carolingian Empire in the Eyes of Byzantium’, SSCI, 27 (1981) 885-918,

M. McCormick, ‘Diplomacy and the Carolingian Encounter with Byzantium down to the Accession of

Charles the Bald’, in B. McGinn and W. Otten (eds.), Eriugena: East and West (Notre Dame

Conferences in Medieval Studies 5, 1994) 15-48, and

S. Fanning, ‘Imperial Diplomacy Between Francia and Byzantium: The Letter of Louis II to Basil I in 871’,

Cithara 34 (1994) 3-17.

THE ECONOMY

Valuable light is shed on the seigneurial economy of a great Carolingian abbey by Adalard’s Customs of

Corbie which are translated in:

E. Horn and W. Born, Plan of St-Gall, vol III.

It offers an interesting contrast to the economic landscape glimpsed through Redon's charters, on which

see the fine study of:

W. Davies, Small Worlds: The Village Community in Early Medieval Brittany (1988).

For the contrasting interpretations of the numismatic evidence compare:

P. Grierson, ‘Money and Coinage under Charlemagne’, in W. Braunfels (ed.), Karl der Grosse, vol. I

(1965) 501-36, and

D.M. Metcalf, ‘The prosperity of North-Western Europe in the eighth and ninth centuries’, Economic

History Review, 2nd series, 20 (1967) 344-57; also see

R.H M. Dolley and K.F. Morrison, ‘The Carolingian Coins in the British Museum’ (London, 1966),

S. Coupland, ‘Money and Coinage Under Louis the Pious’, Francia, 17 (1990) 23-54 and

S. Coupland, ‘The Early Coinage of Charles the Bald, 840-64’, Numismatic Chronicle, 151 (1991) 121-58.

For detailed studies of towns see:



R. Hodges and B. Hobley (eds.), The Rebirth of Towns in the West, A.D. 700-1050 (CBA Research Report

68, 1988).

For the rural economy and Carolingian colonisation see

G. Duby (tr. C. Postan), Rural Economy and Country Life in the Mediaeval West, (1968), with translated

excerpts from the polyptychs and the important 864 Capitulary of Pîtres, and the detailed

studies of

H.-J. Nitz, ‘The Church as Colonist: The Benedictine Abbey of Lorsch and Planned Waldhufen

Colonization in the Odenwald’, Journal of Historical Geography, 9 (1983) 105-26,

H-J. Nitz, ‘Feudal Woodland Colonization as a Strategy of the Carolingian Empire in the Conquest of

Saxony: A Reconsideration of the Spatial Patterns of Expansion and Colonial Settlement in the

Leine- Weser Region’, in B. K. Roberts and R. Glasscock (eds.), Villages, Fields and Frontiers:

Studies in European Rural Settlement in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods (1983) 171-81,

and

H.-J. Nitz, ‘Settlement Structures and Settlement Systems in the Frankish Central State in Carolingian

and Ottonian Times’, in D. Hooke (ed.), Anglo-Saxon Settlements (1988) 249-73.

THE ARISTOCRACY

For a selection of different aspects see:

K.F. Werner, ‘Important Noble Families in the Kingdom of Charlemagne’, in T. Reuter (ed.), Medieval

Nobility (1979) 137-202,

E.J. Goldberg, ‘Popular Revolt, Dynastic Politics and Aristocratic Factionalism in the Early Middle Ages:

The Saxon Stellinga Reconsidered’, Speculum 70 (1995) 467-501,

J.L. Nelson, ‘Ninth-Century Knighthood: The Evidence of Nithard’, in C. Harper-Bill, et al. (eds.) Studies in

Medieval History Presented to R. Allen Brown (1989) 255-66, and

S. Airlie, ‘The Anxiety of Sanctity: St. Gerald of Aurillac and his Maker’, JEH 43 (1992) 372-95; the latter

looks at models of lay conduct in Carolingian biography.

S. Wemple, Women in Frankish Society: Marriage and the Cloister 500-900 (1981),



M. Erler and M. Kowaleski (eds.), Women and Power in the Middle Ages (1984) 102-25,

J.L. Nelson, ‘Women and the Word in the Earlier Middle Ages’, SCH 27 (1990) 53-78.

There is a growing literature on Dhuoda’s Manual:

Martin A. Claussen, ‘God and Man in Dhuoda’s Liber Manualis’, SCH 27 (1990) 43-52,

Martin A. Claussen, ‘Fathers of Power and Mothers of Authority: Dhuoda and the Liber Manualis’,

French Historical Studies 19 (1996) 785-809.

Both J. Goody, The Development of the Family and Marriage in Europe (1983) and

J.A. Brundage, Sex, Law and Marriage in the Middle Ages (1993) focus closely on the Carolingian

evidence.

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