Learning and Culture in Carolingian Europe

Letters, Numbers, Exegesis, and Manuscripts

John J. Contreni

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2024
• Print ISBN: 9781409420415
• eBook ISBN: 9781040242087
• Edition: 1
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: World History
• Index: History

Nine of the ten essays in this collection appeared first between 1995 and 2005. Centered in the Carolingian age, they explore how the seventh-century Visio Baronti was read in the ninth century and how social and cultural imperatives transformed the life of scholarship, schools and learning in Carolingian Europe. Several essays consider the significance of numerical and scientific studies in the Carolingian curriculum, including the impact of Bede's scientific works in the schools and on the thought of John Scottus (Eriugena). Another reconstructs Eriugena's early career in light of his Glossae divinae historiae. Carolingian biblical culture is the subject of two essays, including a reading of Haimo of Auxerre's commentary on Ezechiel that highlights the unfinished and unpublished commentary's critique of Carolingian society. A poem in the Anthologia Latina long ascribed to Octavian, the Roman emperor, is restored to the monastic culture of the ninth century. Finally, an article on the Laon Formulary, originally published in French in 1973, is here translated and revised.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Series
• Half Title
• Title
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Acknowledgements
• I “Building mansions in Heaven”: the Visio Baronti, Archangel Raphael, and a Carolingian king Speculum 78, 2003
• II The pursuit of knowledge in Carolingian Europe “The Gentle Voices of Teachers“: Aspects of Learning in the Carolingian Age, ed. R.E. Sullivan. Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 1995
• III Counting, calendars, and cosmology: numeracy in the early Middle Ages Word, Image, Number: Communication in the Middle Ages, eds J.J. Contreni and S. Casciani (Micrologus’ Library 8). Florence: SISMEL – Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2002
• IV Bede's scientific works in the Carolingian age Bède le Vénérable: Entre tradition et postérité, eds S. Lebecq, M. Perrin and O. Szerwiniack. Lille: Ceges – Université Charles de Gaulle – Lille 3, 2005
• V John Scottus and Bede History and Eschatology in John Scottus Eriugena and His Time, eds J. McEvoy and M. Dunne (Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, De Wulf-Mansion Centre, Series 1, XXX). Leuven: Leuven University Press, 2002
• VI The early career and formation of John Scottus (with Pádraig P. Ó Néill) Revised from sections 7f and 10 of the introduction to Glossae Divinae Historiae: The Biblical Glosses of John Scottus Eriugena (Millennio Medievale 1, Testi 1), 1997, pp. 50–55, 72–84
• VII Carolingian Biblical culture Iohannes Scottus Eriugena: The Bible and Hermeneutics, eds G. Van Riel, C. Steel, and J. McEvoy (Ancient and Medieval Philosophy, De Wulf-Mansion Centre, Series 1, XX). Leuven: Leuven University Press, 1996
• VIII “By lions, bishops are meant; by wolves, priests”: history, exegesis, and the Carolingian church in Haimo of Auxerre's Commentary on Ezechiel Francia: Forschungen zur westeuropäischen Geschichte 29, 2002
• IX What was Emperor Augustus doing at a Carolingian banquet (Anth. Lat.2 719f)? Rheinisches Museum für Philologie, New Series 146, 2003
• X The Laon Formulary and the cathedral school of Laon at the beginning of the tenth century Translation and revision of “Le Formulaire de Laon: Source pour 1'histoire de l'école de Laon au début du Xe siècle,” Scriptorium 27, 1973, pp. 21–29
• Addenda
• Index of persons, places and subjects
• Index of manuscripts