Lay intellectuals in the Carolingian world / edited by Patrick Wormald and Janet L. Nelson.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Wormald, Patrick.

Nelson, Janet L. (Janet Laughland), 1942-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Carolingians.

Laity--Europe--Intellectual life.

Laity.

Learning and scholarship--Europe--History--Medieval, 500-1500.

Learning and scholarship.

Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.)--Social aspects--Europe--History--To 1500.

Creation (Literary, artistic, etc.).

Arts, Carolingian--History and criticism.

Arts, Carolingian.

Social aspects.

History.

Intellectual life.

Europe.

Physical Description:

xiii, 263 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Cambridge ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2007.

Summary:

Did the laity have a part in the Carolingian Renaissance? If so, how were lay elites, and through them the laity at large, affected? This wide-ranging volume examines these questions through a study of lay involvement in literary and artistic activity in early medieval Europe. Leading historians explore a diverse range of Latin and vernacular texts written by secular authors and use richly drawn case studies to illuminate such key issues as the extent of lay literacy, the contexts in which learned laity could flourish, the transformative impact of the Carolingian Renaissance, and the interaction of 'lay' and 'clerical' values on both sides of the English Channel. This volume demonstrates that the learned laity, both women and men, contributed much more as writers and patrons to early medieval culture than was previously thought, and it will be essential reading for scholars of Carolingian and Anglo-Saxon history.

Contents:

1 In place of an introduction / Janet L. Nelson 1

2 Secular sanctity: forging an ethos for the Carolingian nobility / Thomas F. X. Noble 8

3 Einhardus peccator / David Ganz 37

4 The world, the text and the Carolingian: royal, aristocratic and masculine identities in Nithard's Histories / Stuart Airlie 51

5 Eberhard of Friuli, a Carolingian lay intellectual / Paul J. E. Kershaw 77

6 Dhuoda / Janet L. Nelson 106

7 Learned women? Liutberga and the instruction of Carolingian women / Valerie L. Garver 121

8 Charles the Bald, Hincmar of Rheims and the ivory of the Pericopes of Henry II / Celia Chazelle 139

9 Problems of authorship and audience in the writings of King Alfred the Great / David Prau 162

10 'Stand strong against the monsters': kingship and learning in the empire of King AEthelstan / Michael Wood 192

11 The lay intellectual in Anglo-Saxon England: Ealdorman AEthelweard and the politics of history / Scott Ashley 218.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780521834537

0521834538

OCLC:

163320403