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THE CAROLINGIANS IN CENTRAL EUROPE, THEIR HISTORY, ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE
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CULTURES, BELIEFS AND TRADITIONS medieval and early modern peoples Editorial Board:
william brinner, University of California at Berkeley florike egmond, Leiden University gustav henningsen, Danish Folklore Archives mayke de jong, University of Utrecht miri rubin, Pembroke College, Oxford University eli yassif, Tel Aviv University VOLUME 18
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THE CAROLINGIANS IN CENTRAL EUROPE, THEIR HISTORY, ARTS AND ARCHITECTURE A Cultural History of Central Europe, 750-900 BY
HERBERT SCHUTZ
BRILL LEIDEN • BOSTON 2004
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This book is printed on acid-free paper.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Schutz, Herbert, 1937The Carolingians in Central Europe, their history, arts, and architecture : cultural history of Central Europe, 750-900 / by Herbert Schutz. p. cm. — (Cultures, beliefs, and traditions ; v. 18) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 90-04-13149-3 1. Carolingians. 2. Europe, Central—History. 3. Civilization, Medieval. 4. Culture diffusion—Europe, Central. 5. Art, Carolingian. 6. Architecture, Carolingian. 7. Learning and scholarship—History—Medieval, 500-1500. I. Title. II. Series. DJK4.S38 2003 943'.0009'02—dc21 2003052330
ISSN 1382–5364 ISBN 90 04 13149 3 © Copyright 2004 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910 Danvers MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. printed in the netherlands
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To my brother Hart
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CONTENTS
List of Illustrations ...................................................................... ix List of Maps ................................................................................ xxi Foreword .................................................................................... xxiii Acknowledgements ...................................................................... xxix Introduction ................................................................................ Part A I. II. III. IV. V. VI.
1
The Carolingian Realms Reaching for the crown—Continuity and change in the realms of the Franks ...................................... 17 Towards Empire ........................................................ 49 Charlemagne’s successors .......................................... 82 Towards the partition of the Empire ...................... 113 The emerging profile of Central Europe ................ 118 The last unification of the Empire .......................... 125
Part B Books, Gems and Ivories VII. The recapitulation of origins .................................... VIII. Carolingian scribal culture ........................................ IX. Religious literature .................................................... X. Secular literature ...................................................... XI. The cloister arts ........................................................ XII. Illuminated manuscripts—Evangelists ...................... XIII. Illuminated manuscripts—Ruler Portraits ................ XIV. Illuminated manuscripts—Christ in Majesty .......... XV. Illuminated manuscripts—Narrative style ................ XVI. Engraved crystals ...................................................... XVII. Ivories ........................................................................ XVIII. Gems, precious metals and bronzes— Liturgical art ..............................................................
135 147 171 203 216 221 248 261 264 277 281 299
Part C Palaces and Basilicas XIX. Architecture—Palaces ................................................ 323 XX. Architecture—Wall painting .................................... 333 XXI. Architecture—Basilicas .............................................. 340
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Conclusion .................................................................................. 369 Selected Bibliography ................................................................ 391 Index ............................................................................................ 397
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LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Color Plates (Pls. 1a–33c can be found in Part B, between the pages 224 and 225) Plate 1a. Picto-poem of Christ the Savior from Hrabanus Maurus’ De laudibus sancti crucis, Fulda. Inv. Codex 652, fol. 6v. (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalibliothek). Plate 1b. Dedicatory page from Hrabanus Maurus’ De laudibus sancti crucis, showing Hrabanus and Alcuin presenting the book to Otgar of Mainz, Fulda. Inv. Cod. 652, fol. 2v. (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek). Plate 1c. Dedicatory page from Hrabanus Maurus’ De laudibus sancti crucis showing the emperor Louis the Pious as Soldier in Christ. Fulda. Inv. Cod. 652, fol. 3v. (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek). Plate 2a. Display initial of the 51. Psalm, Folchart Psalter, c. 864/872. Inv. Cod. 23, fol. 135. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek). Plate 2b. Irish Gospel, c. 750, confronting pages showing a cross page and an initial page. Inv. Cod. 51, fols. 6, 7. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek). Plates 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d. Irish Gospel, c. 750, the Evangelists John and Marc, Matthew and Christ. Inv. Cod. 51. fols. 2, 78, 208, 266. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek). Plates 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d. Codex millenarius, the Evangelists Matthew, Inv. Cim. 1, fol. 17v, 18r. and Marc, Inv. Cim. 1, fol. 109v, 110r) with their emblems. (Stiftsbibliothek, Kremsmünster) (Millenarius: Photo P. Amand Kraml, copyright Stift Kremsmünster). Plates 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d. Codex millenarius, the Evangelists Luke, Inv. Cim. 1, fol. 174v, 175r. and John, Inv. Cim. 1, fol. 276v, 277r. with their emblems. (Stiftsbibliothek, Kremsmünster). Plates 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d. Enthroned Evangelists with tetramorphs from the Godescalc Gospels, c. 781–783, Palace School of Charlemagne,
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Aachen—Matthew, Inv. lat. 1203, fol. 1r, Marc, Inv. lat. 1203, fol. 1v, Luke, Inv. lat. 1203, fol. 2r, John, Inv. lat 1203, fol. 2v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 7a. Enthroned Christ, from the Godescalc Gospels, c. 781–783, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. lat. 1203, fol. 3r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 7b. Fountain of Life, from the Godescalc Gospels, c. 781–783, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. lat. 1203, fol. 3v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 8a. Fountain of Life, from the Gospel from Saint-Médard, Soissons, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. Lat. 8850, fol. 6v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 8b. Veneration of the Lamb, from the Gospel from SaintMédard, Soissons, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. lat. 8850, fol. 1v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 8c. Canon Table, from the Gospel from Saint-Médard, Soissons, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. lat. 8850, fol. 7v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 9a. Evangelist Marc with lion emblem, from the Gospel from Saint-Médard, Soissons, palace School of Charlemagne. Inv. lat. 8850, fol. 81v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 9b. Initial page to the Gospel of St. Mark, from the Gospel from Saint-Médard, Soissons, Palace School of Charlemagne. Inv. lat. 8850, fol. 82r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 10a. Writing figure, 6th century (Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale). Plate 10b. The Four Evangelists with tetramorphs, from the Aachen Gospels, Palace School of Charlemagne. fol. 14v. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow). Plates 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d. The Four Evangelists from the ‘Ada’ Gospels—Matthew, Marc, Luke and John, Palace School of Charlemagne. Hs. 22 Ada, fol. 15v, fol. 59v. fol. 85v, fol. 127v. (Trier, Stadtbibliothek). Plates 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d. The Evangelists Matthew, Marc, Luke and John, from the Coronation Gospels, Palace School of Charlemagne,
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Aachen. Inv. SKXIII/18, fol. 15, fol. 76v, fol. 117, fol. 178v. (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Treasury). Plate 13. Charles the Bald as King David, miniature preceding the Book of Psalms, Vivian Bible, c. 845/46. Inv. lat. 1, fol. 215v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 14a. The enthroned emperor Lothair I, from the Gospels of Lothair, c. 850, Tours. Inv. lat. 266, fol. 1r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 14b. The enthroned emperor Lothair I, from the Psalter of Lothair, Palace School of Lothair, c. 850. Inv. Add. 37768, fol. 4. (London, British Library). Plate 15a. Dedication page showing the enthroned Charles the Bald receiving the Vivian Bible, c. 845/46. Inv. lat. 1, fol. 423r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 15b. St. Gregory from the Metz Coronation Sacramentary, c. 870, Palace School of Charles the Bald, St. Denis (?). Inv. lat. 1141, fol. 3r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 15c. Ruler flanked by bishops, probably Charles the Bald, Metz Coronation Sacramentary, c. 870, Palace School of Charles the Bald, St. Denis (?). Inv. lat. 1141, fol. 2v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 16a. Dedication page showing the enthroned Charles the Bald, Codex Aureus from St. Emmeram, Palace School of Charles the Bald. Inv. Clm. 14000, fol. 5v. (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek). Plate 16b. Veneration of the Lamb, Codex Aureus from St. Emmeram, Palace School of Charles the Bald. Inv. Clm. 14000, fol. 6r. (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek). Pate 17a. Crucifixion, showing Ludwig, the German, embracing the Cross. Psalter of Louis the German. Inv. Ms. Theol. lat. fol. 58, 120r. (Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Staatsbibliothek). Plate 17b. Initial page of Psalm 1 of the Psalter of Ludwig the German, before c. 850, Saint-Omer. Inv. Ms. Theol. lat. fol. 58, 3r. (Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Staatsbibliothek). Plate 17c. Christ in Majesty, Vivian Bible, c. 845/46. Inv. lat. 1, fol. 329v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
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Plate 18a. Christ in Majesty with pagan references, Metz Coronation Sacramentary, c. 870, Palace School of Charles the Bald, St. Denis (?). Inv. lat. 1141, fol. 6r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 18b. Ornamented capital initial T with crucified Christ, Metz Coronation Sacramentary, c. 870, Palace School of Charles the Bald, St. Denis (?). Inv. lat. 1141, fol. 6v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 18c. Crucifixion from the Gospels of Otfrid von Weissenburg, c. 868. Cod. 2687, fol. 153v. (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek). Plate 18d. Christ in Majesty with seraphim, Metz Coronation Sacramentary, c. 870, Palace School of Charles the Bald, St. Denis (?). Inv. lat. 1141, fol. 5r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plates 19a, 19b, 19c, 19d. Ornamented capital Initials C, D, C and T, Drogo Sacramentary, c. 850–855. Inv. lat. 9428, fols. 24v, 58r, 71v, 15v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Plate 20a. Story of Adam and Eve. Garden of Eden scenes from the Grandval Bible, Tours, c. 840. Inv. 10546, fol. 5v. (London, British Library). Plate 20b. Stag allegory, with Psalm 41, 2, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820–830, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 53v. (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek). Plate 20c. Annunciation, with Psalm 71:6, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820–830, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 83v. (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek). Plate 20d. The Three Kings, with Psalm 71:10–11, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820–830, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 84v. (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek). Plate 21a. Crucifixion, with Psalm 68:22, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820–830, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 80v. (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek). Plate 21b. Weighing the souls, with Psalm 9:5, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820– 830, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 9v. (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek).
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Plate 21c. Christ triumphant, with Psalm 90:13, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820– 830, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 107r. (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek). Plate 22a. The prophet Samuel anoints David, Golden Psalter, c. 890. Inv. Cod. 22, fol. 59. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek). Plate 22b. Joab’s campaign, Golden Psalter, c. 890. Inv. Cod. 22, fol. 140. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek). Plate 22c. Siege and surrender of a city, Golden Psalter, c. 890. Inv. Cod. 22, fol. 141. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek). Plates 23a, 23b. Obverse and reverse, Enger reliquary, before c. 785. Inv.-Nr.: 88, 632. (Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstgewerbemuseum). Plate 24. Reliquary associated with St. Stephen, c. 830, Aachen. Inv. SCHK XIII/26. (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Schatzkammer). Plate 25a. Tassilo Chalice, c. 768/69, perhaps later (Kremsmünster, Stiftsbibliothek). (Photo Elfriede Mejchar, copyright Stift Kremsmünster). Plate 25b, 25c, 25d. Ornamental detail of the Tassilo Chalice (Kremsmünster, Stiftsbibliothek). Plate 26a. First (back) Cover of the Lindau Gospel, c. 770–830. Inv. MS1 (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, Photography: David Loggie). Plate 26b. Second (front) Cover of the Lindau Gospel, c. 870. Inv. MS1 (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, Photography: David Loggie). Plate 27a. Direct view of the golden, gem encrusted gospel cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 879, featuring the ‘architecture’ of the gospel cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 870. Inv. Clm. 14000, VD. (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek). Plate 27b. Oblique view of the golden gem encrusted gospel cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 879, featuring the ‘architecture’ of the gospel cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 870. Inv. Clm. 14000, VD. (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek). Plate 28. Portable altar, the Arnulf Ciborium, c. 870 (Munich, Schatzkammer der Residenz, Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen).
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Plate 29. St. Johann, exterior, Müstair, Graubünden, Switzerland. Plate 29a. Mural, Ascension, St. Johann, Müstair. Inv. LM-11990. (Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, Zürich). Plates 29b, 29c, 29d. Murals of figures from the north wall. Mural in the Apse with majestas. Mural of Peter and Paul before Nero; St. Johann, Müstair. (Stiftung Pro Kloster St. Johann in Müstair, Foto S. Fibbi-Aeppli). Plates 30a, 30b, 30c, 30d. Murals of St. Gregory (top right), flogging of the Philistines (bottom left), founder portraits (bottom right). St. Benedict, Mals, valley of the Adige, Italy. Plates 31a, 31b, 31c, 31d. St. Gregory, Christ flanked by cherubim, St. Stephen in niches. Religious and secular patrons between the niches. St. Benedict, Mals. Plate 32a. Mural of cattle. St. Prokulus, Naturns. Plate 32b. St. Paul being aided in his escape from Damascus. St. Prokulus, Naturns. Plate 32c. Gated hall at the abbey at Lorsch. Plate 32d. Rotunda, St. Michael’s, Fulda. Plate 33a. Palace Chapel, interior, Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow). Plate 33b. Legendary pelican feedings its young with its own heart. 19th century mosaic. Interior, Palace Chapel, Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen, Photo: Andreas Herrmann). Plate 33c. Octagon interior, upper level, marble throne, marble sheeted pillars, porphyry columns. Palace Chapel, Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow).
Figures (Figs. 1–39b can be found in Part A, between the pages 64 and 65) 1. Hollow altar with Carolingian candle sticks in the crypt of Regensburg Cathedral. Formerly the high altar of the Carolingian cathedral.
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2. The emperor shown leading the horse of the pope to support the papal claim of the Constantinian donation. Fresco in the oratorium of St. Sylvester in Santi Quattro Coronati, Rome. (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg). 3. Inscribed lead plate found in a sarcophagus, 8th/9th century, pointing to the missionary activity of Fulda. The inscription reads OTTO XPIAN DE PAGANO ONO OCT, meaning Otto become Christian died on the nones (7th) of October. (Fulda, Dommuseum). 4a. Christ with the emperor Constantine and pope Sylvester I. Restored mosaic originally installed by pope Leo III. Lateran Palace, Rome (Photo P. Wilson). 4b. St. Peter with Charlemagne and pope Leo III. Restored mosaic originally installed by pope Leo III. Lateran Palace, Rome (Photo P. Wilson). 5. Roman marble sarcophagus showing the mythical abduction of Proserpina, c. A.D. 200, taken to have been Charlemagne’s coffin for 400 years. It was probably among the columns and other classical objects transported north following his campaigns in Italy. (Aachen, Treasury of the Cathedral). 6. Idealized royal figures of the Hungarians. Budapest (Photo H. Hermann). 7. Porphyry column and Corinthian capital. Aachen, cloisters of the Cathedral. 8. The Lord’s Prayer from the Abrogans, an Old High German dictionary. Codex Sangallensis 911. fol. 320. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek). 9. Genesis scenes from the Bamberg Bible, c. 850. Inv. A.I.5, fol. 7v. (Bamberg, Staatliche Bibliothek). 10. Illustration to Psalm 38, showing a crowned personage, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library). 11. Illustration to Psalm 77, showing a crowned personage, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library). 12. Illustration to Psalm 1, a man in meditation day and night sitting under a fastigium, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library). 13. Illustration to Psalm 23, itemizing all details of the text, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library).
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14. Illustration to Psalm 43, analogy of a besieged city, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library). 15. Illustrations to Psalm 12, pictorial interpretation of text, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library). 16. The Lothair crystal, carved with the story of Susanna, c. 865, Vausort. Inv. 1855, 1201.5. (London, British Museum). 17. Crucifixion crystal, c. 867, St. Denis. Inv. 1855, 0303.1. (London, British Museum). 18. Crucifixion crystal, c. 850/870. On loan Erzbischöfliches Diozösanmuseum. Inv. DM-K013/D (Freiburg, Augustiner Museum). 19. Ivory throne of St. Maximian, early 6th century. (Ravenna, Archiepiscopal Palace). 20. Angel, ivory panel, 11th century copy, style of Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. Kg: 102. (Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum). 21. Ivory front cover, Lorsch Gospels, Three Kings before Herod and with the Virgin and Child, c. 810, Aachen (Rome, Museo Sacro Vaticano, Bildarchiv Fotomarburg). 22. Ivory back cover, Lorsch Gospels, Nativity, c. 810, Aachen. Inv. JX 856 (London, Victoria and Albert Museum). 23. Scenes following the Resurrection of Christ, ivory diptych, c. 810, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow). 24. Ascension, c. 810, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. Kg. 54:217. (Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum). 25. Christ in majesty, ivory panel, c. 900, Maastricht/Liège. Inv. Kg. 54:208. (Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum). 26. Crucifixion Ivory, covering panel of the Book of Pericopes of Henry II, c. 820/30. Inv. Clm. 4452, fol. VD (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek). 27. The Temptation of Christ, ivory book cover of the Drogo Sacramentary, c. 850, Metz (Frankfurt a. M., Liebighaus). 28. Liturgical ivory comb, c. 850, Metz, from St. Heribert in Cologne (Cologne, Schnütgenmuseum, Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln).
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29. Christ in Majesty, front ivory book cover from the Tuotilo Gospels, c. 900, St. Gallen. Cod. 53. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek). 30. Ascension of Mary, back ivory book cover from the Tuotilo Gospels, c. 900, St. Gallen. Cod. 53. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek). 31. Ivory panel book covers from Würzburg, after c. 850. Inv. M. p. th. f. 67 (Würzburg, Universitätsbibliothek). 32. Ivory pyx with nativity. Inv. ANSA X42 (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum). 33. Reliquary casket of walrus ivory, 8th century, from Gandersheim. Inv. MA58 (Braunschweig, Anton-Ulrich-Museum). 34. Scenes from the life of Christ, ivory casket, c. 880. Inv. MA59 (Braunschweig, Anton-Ulrich-Museum). 35. Scenes from the life of Christ, ivory casket, c. 880. Inv. MA59 (Braunschweig, Anton-Ulrich-Museum). 36. Silver beaker from Pettstadt, late 8th, early 9th century (Nürnberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum). 37. Detail from the roof of the Arnulf Ciborium, c. 870 (Munich, Schatzkammer der Residenz, Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen). 38. Portable red porphyry altar from Adelhausen. Earliest of its kind, c. 800, made of oak, silver, cloisonné and niello on gold foil. Inv. 12133. On loan Adelhauserstiftung. (Freiburg, Augustinermuseum). 39a. Equestrian statue of a Carolingian emperor, 9th century, one of the Palace Schools, Metz. Inv. OA8260. (Paris, Musée du Louvre). 39b. Equestrian statue of a Carolingian emperor, 9th century, one of the Palace Schools, Metz. Inv. OA8260. (Paris, Musée du Louvre). (Figs. 40a–83 can be found in Part C, between the pages 352 and 353) 40a, 40b, 40c. Main portal door panels and details of the coffered sections. Aachen, Palace Chapel. 41. Roman bronze casting of a ‘wolf ’ in the entrance to the Palace Chapel, Aachen.
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42. Bronze pinecone in the entrance to the Palace Chapel, Aachen. 43a, b, c, d. Sections of railing from the upper level of the interior octagon of the Palace Chapel in Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow). 44a, b, c. Sections of railing from the upper level of the interior octagon of the Palace Chapel in Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow). 45. Foundations of the Carolingian (bottom) and later palaces at Paderborn. (Paderborn, Kaiserpfalzmuseum). 46. Fragments of a Carolingian sandstone capital from the church nave (Paderborn, Kaiserpfalzmuseum). 47. Decorated plaster, palace walls, c. 799 (Paderborn, Kaiserpfalzmuseum). 48. Suggested reconstruction of the Pfalz at Ingelheim. according to A. Corboz, Frühes Mittelalter, p. 5. 49. Damaged Corinthian capital from the palace at Ingelheim. Inv. S469 (Mainz, Landesmuseum). 50. Decorative stone panel showing a winged horse from the Carolingian palace church, St. Wigbert, at Ingelheim. Inv. S3023. (Mainz, Landesmuseum). 51. Remains of a window architecture, limestone and sandstone 7th–8th centuries. Inv. S3027a–d. (Mainz, Landesmuseum). 52. Plan of the Pfalz at Aachen according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 183. 53a. Restored Carolingian colonnade, Aachen. 53b. Original masonry of the palace complex at Aachen. 54. Suggested reconstruction of the westwork of the Palace Chapel at Aachen according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 53. 55. Flanking angels. St. Prokulus, Naturns, valley of the Adige, Italy. 56. Einhard Basilica, Steinbach. Model. 57. Einhard Basilica, Steinbach. Plan with indication of crypt and altar screen, according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 112.
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58. Einhard Basilica, Steinbach, present interior view of the nave. Note the walled-in arcades. 59. Einhard Basilica, Steinbach, present exterior view. Note the walled-in arcades near the entrance. 60a. Einhard Basilica, Seligenstadt. Exterior view of the nave. 60b. Einhard Basilica, Seligenstadt. Interior view of the nave, Carolingian brickwork laid bare. 61. St. Justinus, Höchst. Carolingian colonnades and capitals. 62. St. Justinus, Höchst. Detail of a Carolingian capital. 63. Carolingian composite capital, Aachen, cloisters of the Cathedral. 64. Fragment of ornamental altar stone, c. 800–840, Lorsch. Inv. Pl. 33:4. (Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum). 65. Original plan of the Benedictine abbey at Lorsch, according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 34. 66. Gated hall at the abbey at Lorsch. Note the gentler slope of the original roof and the ornamental details. 67a, 67b. Gated hall at the abbey at Lorsch. Detail of the arches, capitals and pilasters. 68a. Altar screens from St. John, Müstair, Graubünden, Switzerland. 68b. Altar fragment from Lauerach. (Bregenz, Vorarlberger Landesmuseum). 68c. Carolingian altar screen from the convent at Frauenchiemsee (Munich, Archäologische Staatssamlung, Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte). 68d. Carolingian altar screen from St. Johannis, Mainz. Recovered from the church floor. Inv. S3090 (Mainz, Landesmuseum). 69. Corvey. Proposed appearance of the original westwork according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 50. 70a. Corvey. Present appearance of the westwork. 70b. Close-up and consecrating inscription on the westwork.
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71. Corvey. Crosscuts of the westwork—lower level (rt.), upper level (lt.) according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 76. 72a. Corvey. Columns and pillars of the ‘crypt’ at the lower level. 72b. Corvey. Spacial arrangement of the chapel of St. John at the upper level. 72c. Corvey. Traces of wall painting—the chapel of St. John. 73a, 73b. Corvey. Composite foliage capital and cornice. 74a. Carolingian capitals, after 744, comparable to the column capital in the crypt at St. Michael’s in Fulda. From the monastery church founded by Sturmius at Fulda. (Fulda, Dom Museum). 74b, c. Carolingian capitals from the nave of the Ratgar Basilica, c. 800 (Fulda, Dom Museum). 75a. St. Michael’s chapel, Fulda. Exterior view. 75b. St. Michael’s, external view of the rotunda section. 76. Supporting column in the crypt of St. Michael’s, Fulda. 77. St. Michael’s, Fulda. Reconstructed crosscut, according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 174. 78a, 78b, 78c, 78d. Capitals from the rotunda, St. Michael’s, Fulda. 79a. Westwork of the Palace Chapel at Aachen. 79b. Octagon of the Palace Chapel at Aachen. 80a. San Vitale, Ravenna. Exterior view of the octagon. 80b. San Vitale, Ravenna. Interior view of choir. 80c. San Vitale, Ravenna. Interior view of niches. 81. Lower (l.) and upper (r.) levels of the Palace Chapel at Aachen, according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 52. 82. Cross-section of the Palace Chapel at Aachen, according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 53.
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LIST OF MAPS
Map 1. The Carolingian Empire ............................................ Map 2. Secular Locations in the Carolingian Empire .......... Map 3. The Partition of the Carolingian Empire following the Treaty of Verdun 843 .......................... Map 4. The Partition of the Carolingian Empire following the Treaty of Meersen 870 ........................ Map 5. The Partition of the Carolingian Empire following the Treaty of Ribémont 880 ...................... Map 6. Religious Establishments under the Carolingians ......
31 58 115 117 128 167
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FOREWORD
The literature concerning the Carolingians has reached nearly unassessable proportions. An attempt to offer a comprehensive treatment will be frustrated. Even though the sources concerning this period are much less archeological and more decidedly literary, new directions and approaches, new specializations, new emphases, even new findings have lent to the body of traditional knowledge a kaleidoscopic quality. Since this book is a continuation of much previously published work, especially The Germanic Realms in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400–750 and Tools, Weapons and Ornaments, Germanic Material Culture in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, the conditions preparing the advent of the Carolingians have already been outlined. The book continues to be an investigation into the material culture against an introductory background to historical developments tracing the formation of the Carolingian realm, at the end of which the beginnings of a coherent cultural history of Central Europe will begin to crystallize. The attempt will be made to trace the consolidation of their holdings, observe their establishment of the realm, their very complex attempts to expand, unify and maintain it as a Christian dominion, only to accommodate the internal and external crises by resorting to an administrative partition of their empire in order to maximize the available regional resources. Only as a result of the partition will the eastern kingdom evolve towards an identifiable Central European entity. As was pointed out earlier, the advent of the Carolingians also entails a horizon in the funerary inventories: with the completed Christianization the funerary inventories have been discontinued. As a result the material evidence has changed. In contrast with the previous volumes, which dealt primarily with artifacts and generally unwritten evidence, this book will examine pictorial aspects of the illuminated literature. Instead of the earlier portable art, which was part of grave inventories, the emphasis now rests on the products of the more private cloister arts deposited in the libraries and treasuries of Central Europe. These represent primarily the portable arts of the monastic, scribal culture—largely religious, illuminated manuscripts, surviving examples of secular literature, and such examples of Carolingian liturgical art as is represented by ivories, engraved
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crystals, gems and work with precious metals in the service of a grandiose idea. A reform of the church, the priesthood and of the liturgy was to help realize the Imperium Christianum on earth. However, the church hierarchy was a branch of the aristocracy and hence restrictions were imposed as barriers to the laity, limiting the access and participation to those in the service of the church. The wider public had to be content with architecture, such public edifices as the interiors of churches, basilicas and any wall paintings to help them bring key images of their faith to life while at the same time altar screens and ring crypts denied the common folk close involvement with the mass and with the saints and their relics other than as distanced spectators. The splendor of the palace interiors would again have been reserved for the select few. The attempt is made here to focus as much as is possible on the contributions of the eastern parts to the whole of the Carolingian empire, on those parts, which will come to constitute the East Frankish Kingdom. This attempt will not be totally successful owing to the much greater availability of West Frankish resources. Because of its past, the west was the much richer part. In some sectors the east was to come to play important roles. In such areas as the supply of human and material resources and the provision of staging areas of operation, in the thrust of eastward expansion, missionary work and the consolidation of the economic utilization of and the urbanization in the new eastern territories, the east rendered its share. In the establishment of new missionary and civilizational centers there, and the interrelationship among these eastern centers, their contribution to the advancement of Christianity, literacy, scholarship, scholarly and diplomatic leadership for the entire realm was mani-fold. The eastern monastic establishments shared in the preservation, multiplication and distribution of the Classical literary heritage and made noteworthy original contributions to the secular and vernacular literature of the East Frankish Kingdom. Contained within the historical mantle this book offers an illustrated investigation of the artistic, literary and architectural activities in Carolingian Central Europe. The choice of illustrations was made in accordance with certain themes and materials, without any claim to completeness. Nor can the claim be made that all of the objects discussed originated in Central Europe. Some of the portable objects are clearly West Frankish and have merely ended up in the East Frankish realm owing to their own particular circumstances. Archi-
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tectural examples were of course limited in this regard to Central Europe, though links and influences to other locations can be demonstrated. In some instances the evidence itself provided the lead. At all times it was considered that the individual surviving object bore a tremendous responsibility, that as individual examples they could not convincingly be regarded as typical, yet had to serve that purpose. In view of problematic communications it remains an open question what influence the various objects could have had on one another over time and distance, what effect the words and thoughts of theologians and politicians could have had on the artists and their works, and to what extent they responded to current events. This book is arranged in three parts. Part A deals with a historical overview concerning the Carolingian rise to power, their aim to establish the Imperium Christianum by means of a reconfiguration of the imperial idea as a realization of the Heavenly Kingdom on earth, culminating in the coronation with a Christian imperial dignity rather than that of the Rome of the Caesars. This reconfiguration included the elevation of the ruler to the majestic representation of the sacerdotal personage. A blending of the Christian and secular elements encouraged a recapitulating continuity of many cultural facets from the Germanic and Classical past, in part a restoration, renovation and confirmation of these traditions resulting in the generation of a modified, even original Carolingian identity, the so-called Carolingian Renaissance, an often questioned term. The continuing existence in the population of the earlier Roman and Germanic cultural elites favored this process of transmission and transformation, which included liturgical, cultural and secular reforms. These included the emphasis on the heritage of a legitimate continuity of the dynasty, wanting to see in it the intervention of the divine will. The effort ended with crises and the ultimately unsuccessful attempt to establish the succession of a single heir to the throne. For administrative reasons Charlemagne’s grandsons divided the unwieldy empire between them. There were occasional reunifications, but the idea of the united Christian realm weakened as it lost its practicality and ability to respond to internal and external threats. Nevertheless it was too early to see in the eastern part of the realm the beginnings of Germany, even when one of its rulers was called ‘the German’. Part B deals with the confirmation of a cultural identity by engaging in a search for an established heritage. It was appreciated that developing a basis in education was the priority. Beginning with the
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acquisition of such book making skills as the preparation of parchment as a writing surface, of inks and pigments, and finally its binding as a book. Since all this could not be done by any one enthusiastic individual, a cost efficient context had to come into being with time. Only some monasteries evolved to provide the hierarchical infrastructure, which could secure the materials with which to make a book, the human resources to inscribe it and the technical skills to bind it. In general there were no resources outside the monastic environment to accomplish this task. In time the monasteries devoted their available skills to the illumination of gospel pages, including whole picture pages of evangelists and rulers, and the making of precious book covers, mainly of such liturgical art as gospels, sacramentaries, lectionaries and psalters—ivories reflected antique models, space filling engravings and gem encrusted metal surfaces. Astonishing is the available supporting wealth and its opportune confluence with much extraordinary talent to carry out such work. In the west the court and the specific interest of members of the imperial family promoted the work in the arts. The need for self-justification along with the desire to claim continuity with previous traditions may have contributed to this sponsorship. While this need was less urgently expressed in the East Frankish realm, within a relatively short time the interrelation between the monasteries there were capable of making major contributions in all these fields. Part C concentrates on the architectural achievements that can still be identified. Palatial architecture can only be reconstructed by means of the identification of foundation outlines and the occasional architectural fragments. Owing to the continuing exercise of the faith, church architecture demonstrated greater endurance and thus provides a better residual picture as religious structures have survived entirely or at least in significant identifiable parts. In some instances parts or even all of the decorations of the interiors were preserved. Architecture was well suited to illustrate the intellectual and liturgical concerns about the continuity of style from late Classical to Carolingian times, as the Classical orders of columns and capitals were either imported from the south or replicated. As stone structures in a world of wooden construction, their interiors projected well the idea of a celestial dimension on earth. It is not the intention to examine the theoretical texts of the day for their statements concerning the cultural objectives. Rather it is
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the purpose of this project to examine the cloister arts and crafts for their visual statements and themes and to see if these ‘wordless texts’ supported the educational expectations of an intellectually and spiritually projected Imperium Christianum.
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ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
I would like to express my thanks to Brock University for giving me office space and secretarial help to prepare my manuscript. I owe special thanks to Dean Rosemary Hale and to Prof. J.M. Miller, our Associate Vice-President, Research, for making available to me such financial support as was possible. Once again I would like to recognize my colleague, Professor Barry Joe, for courageously facing each electronic challenge with which I presented him and also for preparing the finishing details of this book. I am greatly indebted to my cousin A.G. Kahlert, Korneuburg, Austria, who many years ago coordinated my thousands of photographs by means of an effective, cross-referenced, computerized index, facilitating greatly the verification and classification of objects, their provenance and present location. My thanks also go to Ms. Julia Babos for much computer imaging during the preparation of the manuscript. I am also grateful to the staff of the Interlibrary Loan Department of our Library for its efficient assistance in obtaining essential sources. I would like to thank Dr. Bruno Reudenbach, Professor of Art History at the University of Hamburg, for his quick clarification concerning the Godescalc Gospel. I would like to regognize the hospitality I received in the Manuscript Collection of the Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, when examining the work of Hrabanus Maurus. I am indebted to the two anonymous readers for Brill Academic Publishers whose suggestions greatly helped to improve this volume. I am grateful to Mr. Julian Deahl, Editor, for his interest in this project and for accepting this book for publication, and to his editorial staff at Koninklijke Brill Academic Publishers, Leiden, for guiding the manuscript through the production process. Once again I am especially grateful to Ms. Marcella Mulder, Assistant Editor, for all of her help and encouragement. I would also like to thank Ms. Ingrid Heijckers for meticulous attention to detail. My wife Alice, an active scholar in her own right, has accompanied me on the necessary journeys. In the many months which it took to complete this book I could at all times count on her forbearance. Without her patient and constant support, her financial
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compromises, this work would have been much more difficult to complete. I dedicate this book to my brother Hart, whose surgical expertise and that of his associates has made me physically capable to devote the hours required to this book. The completion of an illustrated book depends extensively on the generosity and active support of museums and libraries. Without their cooperation, deadlines could not be met. I am grateful to those directors who generously offered corrections and permitted me to use my own photographs. I appreciate the efficiency of the many archives which made their materials available for this book. I thank Dr. Georg Minkenberg, Domkapitel Aachen. (Plates 10b, 33a, 33c; Figs. 23, 43a, b, c, d, 44a, b, c); the Staatsbibliothek Bamberg (Fig. 9); the Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Brussels (Plate 10a); N. Ludwig, Bildarchiv, Preußischer Kulturbesitz. (Plates 23a, 23b); D. Lange, Handschriftenabteilung, Staatsbibliothek zu Berlin. (Plates 17a, 17b). Dr. R. Marth, Herzog Anton-Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig. (Figs. 33, 34, 35); Dr. H. Swozilek, Vorarlberger Landesmuseum, Bregenz; Dr. Th. Jülich, Hessisches Landesmuseum, Darmstadt; Städtische Gallerie, Liebighaus, Frankfurt. (Fig. 27); Dr. D. Zinke, Augustiner Museum, Freiburg (Figs. 18, 38); S.E. Weihbischof J. Kapp, Bistum Fulda (Plate 32d); Manuela Beer, Curator, Schnütgen Museum, Köln; Dr. Hauke Fill, P. Petrus Schuster Benediktinerstift, Kremsmünster. (Plates 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d, 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d, 25a); The British Library, London. (Plates 14b, 20a, Fig. 8); The British Museum, London. (Figs. 16, 17); the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. (Fig. 22); Dr. Heide, Landesmuseum Mainz; Bildarchiv Foto Marburg, (Figs. 2, 21); Dr. van Endert, Archaeologische Staatssammlung, München; Dr. M. Teichmann, Bayerische Verwaltung der staalichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen, München. (Plate 28, Fig. 37); Dr. Montag, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München. (Plates 16a, 16b, 27a, 27b, Fig. 26); R. Sennhauser, Stiftung Pro Kloster St. Johann, Müstair, (Plates 29a, 29b, 29c); the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York. (Plates 26a, 26b); Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nürnberg, (Fig. 36); Prof. Dr. M. Wemhoff, Museum in der Kaiserpfalz, Paderborn; Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Paris. (Plates 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d, 7a, 7b, 8a, 8b, 8c, 9a, 9b, 13, 14a, 15a, 15b, 15c, 17c, 18a, 18b, 18c, 19a, 19b, 19c, 19d); Musée du Louvre, Paris, (Figs. 39a, 39b); Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen, (Plates 2a, 2b, 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d, 22a, 22b, 22c. Fig. 8, 29, 30); Württembergische Landesbibliothek, Stuttgart. (Plates 20b, 20c,
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20d, 21a, 21b, 21c); Dr. R. Nolden, Stadtbibliothek Trier, (Plates 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d); Dr. K. Van der Horst, University Library, Universiteit Utrecht (Figs. 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15); Kunsthistorisches Museum, Wien. (Plates 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d, 24, Fig. 32); Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Wien (Plates 1a, 1b, 1c, 21d); Dr. H.-G. Schmidt, Universitätsbibliothek Würzburg. (Fig. 31); A. Condrau, Schweizerisches Landesmuseum Zürich (Plate 29d). Author’s plates and figures: (Plates 25b, 25c, 25d, 29, 30a, 30b, 30c, 30d, 31a, 31b, 31c, 31d, 32a, 32b, 32c. Figures 1, 3, 6, 7, 19, 20, 24, 25, 28, 40a, 40b, 40c, 41, 42, 45, 46, 47, 49, 50, 51, 53a, 53b, 55, 56, 58, 59, 60a, 60b, 61, 62, 63, 64, 66, 67a, 67b, 68a, 68b, 68c, 68d, 70a, 70b, 70c, 72a, 72b, 72c, 73, 74a, 74b, 74c, 75a, 75b, 76, 77b, 78a, 78b, 78c, 78d, 79a, 79b, 80a, 80b, 80c). I am indebted to Patricia Wilson for obtaining Figs. 4a and 4b, while in Rome, and to Helmut Herrmann for photographing Fig. 7, while in Budapest.
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INTRODUCTION
This representation of the cultural history of Carolingian Central Europe from 750–900, is part of an extensive investigation and the continuation of four earlier books published as The Prehistory of Germanic Europe, The Romans in Central Europe, The Germanic Realms in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400–750 and Tools, Weapons and Ornaments, Germanic Material Culture in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400–750. The term ‘Central Europe’ has been used deliberately in all of my work because it does not correspond with any traditional political or national boundaries or histories. Modern ‘Frontier Studies’, but also works of Central European synthesis, including catalogues of international exhibitions, endorsed and sponsored by Central European governments, indicate clearly that boundaries, commonly understood to be national limits, have not been and are once again no longer clear lines of demarcation between peoples and certainly not between cultures. The material investigation of the earlier periods is to be continued in other areas as the study of Germanic artifacts has been presented previously and does not warrant a new effort. The lives of the ‘people’ providing the background to the earlier investigations and the lives and the artifacts themselves, such as Frankish pottery, did not undergo so significant a physical change in style during the Carolingian period that the differentiations with earlier periods could be made visible. It has been demonstrated elsewhere that the continuity of lifestyles with their accomplished cultural and socio-political achievements of earlier times did not actually merit the designation ‘barbarian’. The isolation of a historical era runs the risk of promoting the view of an increasingly artificial encapsulation. In this case all sorts of diverse substantial and ornamental elements lived on from early Celto-Germanic times, while the so-called migration period generated a Romano-Germanic inventory of authentic objects of striking beauty, which in their Merovingian guise passed into the Carolingian period, just as Carolingian aspects did not suddenly end with the rise to power of the Ottonians. In Central Europe the Carolingian centuries fit not only into a continuous dynastic sequence, but also into a cohesive, but changing stylistic continuum—the sequential phases of Roman inspired Romanesque: experimental Carolingian,
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maturing Ottonian, assured Salian and Hohenstaufen Romanesque as reflected in the stylistic progressions of architecture, wall painting murals, illuminations, ivories, bronzes, bejeweled gold and the portable arts with their various manifestations in the cloister and secular forms, making it quite clear that something different, new and multicultural was crystallizing. Without aiming to present the activities of the surviving Gallo-Roman, Merovingian, related Carolingian culture carrying elites exclusively, there is no deliberate attempt here to deal equally with a cross-section of Carolingian society. The existence of a synthesis of the ‘language’ of important objects and the language of significant primary and secondary texts has already been demonstrated in earlier work. In the Carolingian context, this language will find expression in various ‘dialects’ and become articulated in various stages of development when considering the illuminated manuscripts, ivories and gem encrusted book covers. A dialogue is required in which the viewer is invited to participate optically, mentally and emotionally, and to respond to the extent that the objects speak to his condition. Symbolic representations of the heavenly Jerusalem, whether in art or architecture, will fall short of their ideal and will require a grasp of their pictorial vocabulary and syntax, before they can become the intellectual projection of the material image into the abstract, dematerialized visionary idea. As a symbol it can never be in reality what it is as a symbol, an idea beyond itself. Furthermore, it is the aim here to continue, to the extent possible, the emphasis on Central as opposed to Western Europe and to approach the diversity of the cultural contributions of the region from an interdisciplinary perspective and to attempt to show the confluence of some areas of specialization usually considered in near isolation. This is most evident in the extant architecture, which is in the public domain. However, owing to architecture’s incomplete and unrelated record, the simplistic language is that of an early initiative and not entirely articulate. Too many buildings have been lost, remodeled, razed and rebuilt, to provide us with a coherent stylistic statement. Though much has also been lost in the cloister arts as well, this is less the case in the portable arts, preserved in museums and in church and state treasuries, such as the rare manuscripts and illuminations, which are secured in state and university libraries. Europe is the beneficiary of its regionalism in the sense
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that many of its regional centers house collections of great importance by artists working with such luxuries as parchment, precious stones and metals, with portable and monumental art, with colors and forms, and in wood, stone or bronze which indicate a continuity of their own within a widely ranging diversity of the cultural inventory, but a discontinuity with the Roman past. The Carolingian period reflects a complex, fertile and often paradoxical process, full of creative tensions, because of its continuing proximity to antique Classical models, its sensitivity to its Germanic heritage and the requirements of Christianity. Great political violence and individual cruelty coexisted with cultural and spiritual intentions of the highest order. The investigation of the latter tends to eclipse the former until a civilizational mosaic is achieved in which Celto-Germanic attitudes and approaches were reconciled with the Christian classical heritage. A search of the literature reveals that older discussions of the period were satisfied to have found a reductionist common denominator in the Caroliongian link with the Classical past. While one had once sought historical change as the effectiveness of the ‘great man’, one had similarly attributed the astonishing phenomenon of the Carolingian Renaissance, to the presence of one ‘great man’ and his ‘great family’, with the individual and collective insight to value the link with the Christian Classical past. That literature was judgmental and burdened with the ‘barbarian’ concept which denied the ‘Germanic’ contribution to the early Middle Ages any merit. In the search for continuity they saw new artistic work as derivative and unoriginal and sought the validation of the Carolingian period in its rediscovery of late Roman dynamics, classical values, rather than as an attempt at social reform by means of educational reform, hence the emphasis on the component ingredients of the socalled Carolingian Renaissance.1 The very varied regional evidence does not allow a simplifying label, but despite the nature of the heterogeneous evidence a confluence can not be observed. Instead the dependence on an obvious classical heritage was overly emphasized, occasional similarities were termed indebtedness to the past, and the evidence was over-interpreted to support the single-minded historical purpose that, intent on the creation of a worldly empire, the 1 N. Staubach, REX CHRISTIANUS, Hofkultur und Herrschaftspropaganda im Reich Karls des Kahlen. Teil II: Die Grundlegung der ‘religion royale’ (Cologne, Weimar, Vienna 1993), pp. 2ff. for a comprehensive review of the pertinent discussion in the literature.
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Carolingian courts sponsored only a derivative, self-serving pro-Roman agenda, which justified the means and intentionally channeled all military, political and cultural activity toward an end which aimed to establish a unified, homogeneous, Carolingian, sacerdotal, monolithic state in this world, by means of a ‘Roman Revival’, of a renovatio imperii within a ‘unifying renaissance’ as an end in itself within a given time. One may well ask, how extensive and penetrating this radiant brilliance of the courtly environment actually shone on the populace, or whether the patronage was the reserve of a relatively small circle of initiates. It did not endure for long. The affinity with the Christian Roman Empire was not entirely appreciated in the literature, while the inspirational contribution toward an independent, innovative theological Carolingian inventiveness was largely overlooked. Admittedly the rupture with late antiquity was not that complete, and a residual admiration of things Roman remained among the descendant Roman populations, such as that of the surviving Christian basilicas. But for it to be ‘reborn’, an unlikely and intense attachment to the past would have had to exist which demanded such a renaissance to happen. The indications are that the medieval inhabitants of the old Roman sites were not so awed by the Roman edifices around them that they did not use them as quarries, in order to obtain building materials for the chapel in Aachen, for instance, and dismantle even the fortifications of cities for their content of iron cleats, which instead of mortar, were holding the building stones together, as they did with the Roman gates in Trier. Had St. Simeon not walled himself into the ‘Porta Nigra’, later to be transformed into a church, it would not still be standing. Since the late 1980s new studies have been prepared, which show that the available material, especially essential documentary evidence has been subjected to a kaleidoscopic twist and that makes apparent that the Carolingian objective, including the conquests and the educational reforms, aimed for the establishment of a reformed universal Christian society on this earth based on spiritually ecclesiastical Christian values, the Imperium Christianum, toward which the cultural components constituting the so-called Renaissance were only a facilitating means. Following St. Boniface’s subordination of the East Frankish church to papal Rome, it follows that the Roman heritage in its Christian guise would be a strong influence on East Frankish cultural developments. It appears that the intention to channel all creative efforts into the realization of a Christian realm became a
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realizable pursuit in Charlemagne’s mind following his assumption of sole power in the realm, toward the middle of the 770s, well before the start of his political and military actions. To achieve this end a determined Charlemagne assembled about his own person all of the activating spiritual, material and energized human resources available to him—the saints as ‘Soldiers of Christ’, religious leaders, theologians, scholars, especially teachers and designers of curricula, artists and architects, builders, craftsmen, and all those inspiring organizers, implementers and facilitators who could give impetus and coherence to the ideas and ideals and perform the required pedagogical task and who would contribute their motivating energies to the realization of his grandiose design. Charles himself acted as intellectual catalyst to promote its success. The inherent weakness and practical vulnerability lay in its dependence on the initiator. The strengths rested on the effective organizational support given to the educational reforms by the church. The brilliance of the cultural results was so great that it allowed the objectives and achievements to be considered a self-sufficient phenomenon to such an extent that subsequently Charlemagne’s actual purpose, the ideal Imperium Christianum, was eclipsed by the reality of these achievements. In that view the Biblical associations of Carolingian names, the association of the Franks with the new people of Christ, the Populus Christianus, of Aachen with a new Athens, a new Rome, a New Jerusalem even, the elevation of an adapted San Vitale in Ravenna to represent the Heavenly Jerusalem in the palace Chapel of Aachen, were held to be a curious vanity. Once the idea of an Imperium Christianum on earth is accepted as a coherent intention, the vanities are no longer curious, but integral components of the grand cathartic design to reform and edify society. That it was deemed a success is verified by the culmination of Charlemagne’s coronation as emperor within the Christian realm. Unfortunately Louis the Pious was not able to cope with the challenge to the long term detriment of the united realm. It is the intention here to continue the exploration of the complex blending of the religious and secular relationships in their diversity set against an historical background. These diverse and apparently diverging intercultural relationships are reflected in some of the extant architecture, the arts and crafts commissioned primarily within the context of the culture conscious court and by the culture-carrying institutions and the various levels of society as the cultural heritage of the Christian Roman Empire and of the Celto-Germanic north
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were each reconfigured by the other. That is not to say that a uniform set of directives for focused artistic production issued from the courts, however Charlemagne’s will was to constitute the catalyst for the creative crystallizations. Except for the underlying will of the king, it was rather a pluralistic, loosely coordinated recapitulating expression of the diverse social interests, which made up the culturecarrying elites. Its apparent coherence is a product of history. During the Carolingian Period the centuries-old, non-verbal Celto-Germanic decorative styles, which already had adapted Roman, chip carved, ornamental patterns, are replaced only gradually. Instead of continuing the largely incomprehensible, ornamental northern intertwine of abstract, curvilinear, vegetative and animal complexes of surface covering and space-filling ornamentation, already found on some Roman military metal work, Germanic personal ornaments and portable art, the Celtic, Anglo-Saxon and other Germanic Styles found use on the largely ‘private art’ of Christian religious vessels and in the exquisitely illuminated gospels containing the continuous texts of the evangelists, and sacramentaries containing the texts of prayers and ritual directives of the mass. The so-called Carolingian recapitulation blurred the contours of the component northern, Christian and Classical elements till there developed comprehensible, often original, creative summarizing emphases on the imaging principles of representational art for educational purposes. These, however, were not on behalf of learning for learning’s sake, but on behalf of learning for the sake of the Christian People, for Christianity’s sake. The cultural inventory could be recycled if its utility within the grandiose design was no longer evident. Heavily influenced by the admiration of the art forms of the Romano-Mediterranean cultures, this discovery and recovery served a wide range of cultural activities, or better Renovatio. It favors the didactic, pedagogical use of an innovative, anthropomorphic, homocentric, representational narrative. It is engagé, message-oriented religious, Christian, and political art, best illustrated on coins after 804 and cut seals, as part of a Mediterraneanization during the Christianizing revolution of the Carolingian and later Ottonian ‘renaissances’. The Christian message, of course, was primarily based on the spoken and written word, hence the emphasis on the sumptuous page covered with the precious and sacred Word, thereby presenting the reader with a reciprocity of overwhelming visual and edifying intellectual effects. As part of the liturgical reform, Christian religious art, the images of Christ and the
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Evangelists, was intended to help focus the attention of the Christian People on the audible message of Christ’s death for the sake of their salvation, a dogma proclaimed through the Word in the Scriptures. A central factor was the reform of the worldly and hence faltering Merovingian Frankish church toward that end and the replacement through the Romanization, or what was perceived to be the Roman rite, of the Merovingian liturgical practice as part of the Carolingian liturgical reforms and their effect on all aspects of an individual’s cultural, physical and spiritual life, on ideas concerning death and on all society. The Carolingian church, especially in the Eastern realm, even in Bavaria, was to be the chief support of the state in a symbiotic relationship. Hence the key factor for the Renovatio is to be found within this reform. It was to provide the recapitulating framework within which the diverse cultural pluralism could evolve its particular divergent ways. A total rupture with the past had not occurred. A directed program, promoted by a few individuals at court, conceiving an undivided political and cultural entity is not necessary, to praise the cultural accomplishments during the Carolingian period. That is not to say, that a universalist vision, derived from the admiration of Romano-Christian examples, played a motivating role, for not all held that vision. Such political unity as came into being within the complex framework of the Carolingian realm allowed for considerable originality, as well as the recapitulatory continuity and relative freedom to modify the cultural diversity within it. In the eastern parts of the Frankish realm there can be no question of a rebirth, as one can observe adoption, adaptation and innovation because there was little commensurate indigenous substantive heritage on which to draw, other than a probable Germanic worldview. Yet the region to the east of Austrasia and the Rhine was not a cultural void. It had encountered Christianity on various occasions. Those regions, which had once been part of the Roman Empire, retained pockets of Christianized Latini. Tribal areas within the Ostrogothic sphere of influence will have introduced the various tribal groups to Arianism. Subsequently integrated into the Merovingian kingdom Christianity was reintroduced by the individual efforts of such peregrinating Hiberno-Scots as Columban, Kilian and Gallus, until displaced by successfully coordinated Anglo-Saxon missionaries and the comprehensive missionary church organization of St. Boniface, sanctioned by the papacy. Open to a variety of influences, the region’s link with Christian Rome was consolidated. Interspersed by
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Carolingian holdings the region was quickly ready with the supply of human and material resources and offered staging areas of operation in the conversions of pockets of paganism, and the expansive thrusts against Saxons and Avars. Bavaria especially had begun to play a leading role in its relations with the Lombards and the southern Slavs and papal Rome. The East Frankish lands rendered their own, indigenous share during the pursuit of missionary work and the consolidation of the military and economic utilization of and the urbanization in the new eastern territories. In the foundation of new Frankish missionary, civilizational centers and schools there, and the interrelationship among these eastern Frankish centers, their contribution to the advancement of Christianity, literacy, learning, scholarly and diplomatic leadership for the entire realm was extensive and very soon shared in the preservation, multiplication and distribution of the Classical literary heritage. Simultaneously the great names made noteworthy contributions to theology and the interpretation of the religious texts and the secular and even vernacular literatures of the East Frankish kingdom. Shortly following the establishments of such monastic sites as Fulda, Lorsch, Würzburg, Reichenau, St. Gallen, Salzburg and Kremsmünster, prayer communities linked the foundations, while their schools and scriptoriae made scholars and teachers available even to the court, brought masters and students together, while a communications network facilitated the circulation of the few manuscripts in a loan system to other scriptoriae and libraries. In less than a century these efforts were to provide to this region the socio-cultural and political basis on which to assume its own administrative responsibilities over the region. Within two generations scholarship no longer needed to rely on scholars from abroad, but on scholars trained within the Frankish realm. In the pursuit of ideality, the Carolingians did not overlook reality. To demonstrate imperial continuity and hence the legitimacy and divine authority of the Carolingian dynasty, this transformation saw the Carolingians leaning on a Rome- and Ravenna/Byzantinerelated symbolism representing the power of the state. This was most overtly demonstrated ideologically in some architecture, inspired by Christian Rome, supported by less obvious literature, secular and such religious art as manuscripts and newly carved ivories, and a general body of ideas related to Classical, Christian models. However, the illumination of books in codex-form was not entirely based on late Roman examples, but was very much an innovation, just as
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ivories were the Carolingian rediscovery of an abandoned Roman art form. Already queen Theodelinda’s gospel cover had provided evidence of the conversion to a classical sense of rational and controlled surface ornamentation. The Vitae of saints, missionaries and king/emperors followed earlier classical examples; the symbolism of catacomb and basilica art as well as the pagan (Roman) personifications were adopted, actually reinvented by the Carolingians in such Christian art as the ivory carvings. The style of representing majesty or elevated status was borrowed from the mosaics of Roman prototypes; the transfer of the idea of the Cosmocrator from Roman imperial representations to the Majestas effigies of Christ, as illustrated on the Lombardic helmet band of king Agilulf, and the return of this Roman representation of the imperial pictorial image under the heirs of Charlemagne and to a Byzantine version under the descendants of Otto I. The introduction of the abstract sacerdotal concepts in the new and universal Imperium Christianum displaced the concrete Merovingian notion of the kingdom as personal property. The strategy of applying such symbolic practices as the anointing of the Carolingian imperial head, of Charles the Bald, for instance, who was never actually shown to be ‘Bald’, was a deliberate attempt to develop at a higher level the continuity associations with the Old Testament kings, first appreciated by those around his grandfather Charlemagne. The liturgical imperial acclamation formulas echoed Germanic/Roman tribal/military practices, while the ever-increasing emphasis on a brilliant, official, iconographic depiction of imperial ‘ruler portraits’ on propagandistic display pages in manuscripts and on coins. These served to elevate the image, the ideal of the medieval imperial ruler in the tradition of the Roman emperors and reestablish earlier ideas of the sacerdotal essence of the ruler, in the Imitatio sacerdotii. In the Frankish realms the Gallo-Roman cultural elites had survived in the church and come to dominate its institutions where they succeeded in the transmission of at least some of the Classical ideals of culture and civilization in their Christian end phase, resulting in that synergetic collaboration between church and state, so that already in Merovingian times the scriptoria of the great monasteries could supply the rulers with resplendent, dedicated manuscripts. Charlemagne appears to have attempted to emphasize the legitimacy of his rule and its continuity from earlier imperial times by drawing links with Theoderic the Great, Roman Patricius and Viceroy of the emperor in Constantinople, and transporting his equestrian
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statue along with the Classical porphyry columns and the general symbolic plan of the Byzantine church of San Vitale in Ravenna, named after the bishop Vitalius, the last capital of the West Roman Empire, to Aachen, Charlemagne’s own capital. All were erected in the new palace complex, the church to become his palace church. These concerns found expression in other architectural examples as well. Later emperors deliberately emulated Charlemagne and fostered this show of continuity with him, with the late Roman emperors Constantine, Theodosius and Justinian and especially with favorable rulers of the Old and New Testaments. Nor is there evidence that Charlemagne intended to renew the Rome of the early Caesars, and he had no consistent policy in place to promote the cohesive program of a Roman restoration. These are just some of the themes, which were seen to have contributed to the intellectual concerns of the Carolingian Renewal. Were the concerns for continuity and legitimacy the motivating factors for the generous patronage, which supported the Renovatio? While other intangible considerations were most probably involved, the concerns over legitimacy offer an acceptable rationale, especially if clothed in the motivation aiming to establish the Imperium Christianum. To bolster the concerns over the justification of the usurpation of the Frankish throne, the possibilities provided by tradition and the glory of association with such an admirable goal as a projected glorious society on earth, which included the inspiration offered by Classical Christian examples was seen to have led the dynasty to use and emulate past achievements. It is significant that hitherto the support of the arts had been attributed to the immediate members of the dynasty, of the Carolingian courts and their respective creative centers, the so-called Palace Schools, of the Carolingian church and its foundations. The ‘court’ may not deserve to be singled out as the sole driving force of the renewal. This is particularly the case when considering the prolific court school of Charles the Bald and its catering to his representationally flamboyant tastes, when compared to the modest taste of his brother Ludwig, the German, a designation given him by the much later Humanists. The flattering image of the enthroned Charles created by the artists who supposedly surrounded him is in marked contrast to his vengeful, cruel and barely mediocre deserts as a monarch. Ludwig will appear to be the much better ruler, despite a lack of image making. In the service of the dynasty is it therefore just to speak of ‘Carolingian Art’? A need for image, to express continuity with past greatness
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and to use it as a means to claim and promote new greatness may have spurred a nostalgic sense of heritage in the search for equality with Classical Rome. Role models were readily available, as was the talent to be assembled with which to implement the transfer from Roman times. Classical texts and their copies preserved in the monasteries provided the necessary directives for use in an inventive rediscovery of early Christian antiquity. As the copies were passed from site to site, they became models and stimulated imitation and emulation. For some early works the models appear to have been lost, though stylistic comparisons point to their former existence. One frequently, perhaps needlessly, looks for them in Byzantium or northern Italy. The same question is often raised concerning the origin of the artists. In at least one sense the idea of a classical renewal was a (modern?) intellectual trap. On the one hand the nostalgic wish to rediscover the splendid past and mold it to establish continuity with it, became a dominant cultural preoccupation of modern historians. On the other hand, latent contrary, discontinuous and divergent tendencies remained to surface at unexpected moments, to be registered with surprise. With these one tried to make the case for discontinuity brought on by the Germanic reconfiguration of the successor kingdoms, recurrences of style, the recall of heroic generation myths, made to equal those of the Romans, a dissociation from the distant pagan Roman Empire, the former Imperium Romanum, and for a new Germanic Imperium Christianum, in which the Franks had displaced the Romans and now played the select role of ‘the chosen people’, the people of the ‘New Covenant’, of the ‘New Israel’. In more or less subtle ways these tenacious, seemingly contrary tendencies did not let themselves be extinguished but remained as the combined forces, which provided the justifications for the Carolingian empire. Erroneously it is frequently seen as an attempted end phase of the Roman Empire and confused with the later Holy Roman Empire, as if the three were a continuum. The Carolingian empire is quite distinct from either. Each of them placed its own particular accents. The idea of a centralized Carolingian empire, equally unified throughout is something of a fiction, which was only the intention of some and did not survive its own inner tensions. It should not be overlooked that since Merovingian times, tribal law codes, such as those of the Bavarians, Alemans and Lombards provided the legal basis for regional identities, so that the divisions did not resemble
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chaotic disintegrations. The circumstances of an early withdrawal from the active world and a series of premature deaths made Charlemagne and Louis the Pious sole successors, not a deliberate design. Subsequent regional problems in an overextended realm required regional responses, for instance, to deal with the very many coincident attacks by Scandinavians, Slavs, Hungarians and the forces of Islam. As a result of the inner weaknesses, which in part invited the external attacks from the north, east and south, the center of Europe was reconstituted by division into sub-kingdoms in order to deal with the needs of each region more effectively within the construct of the united empire. The persuasion that even kingdoms were again personal property to be treated accordingly when needs of inheritance were to be met, as well as the need for regional administrative efficiency played a significant role in the various partitions. The objective was the welfare of the whole and its community of interests through the effective rule over its parts. Similar to its Roman predecessor, the Carolingian empire benefited as long as its economy received such infusions as spoils of conquest could provide. While looting the Saxons will have contributed relatively little, with the transfer of the entire and immense treasure of the Avars into Frankish hands, the benefits will have been extensive, especially contributing to the upward mobility within the ranks of the aristocracy. Expansion by conquest, too much, too quickly, destabilized the socioeconomic and social structures. When the conquests were halted, these structures revealed their weaknesses as the inadequate and overextended system of communications failed, and as the central authority lost its power of territorial apportionment to its great lords, who now in nearly hereditary positions turned on one another, as particular interests gained priority over those of the realm and as the uncoordinated regions became vulnerable. Strong enough to harass one another, left to their own resources, they lacked adequate human, material and communicative means to respond effectively to attacks from outside. The idea of the universal empire survived as Imperium Christianum, in which the pope came to play the role of Pontifex maximus, the supreme ruler. Against a generally familiar historical background, but with a view to presenting an interdisciplinary study of the social and cultural development of Central Europe up to the beginning of the 10th century, it is the purpose of this study to discuss the material with the scribal cultural evidence from Carolingian times, 750–900, as pre-
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served in that area of Central Europe which had once constituted the Carolingian empire and its spheres of influence and to suggest that at its end, a coherent cultural entity began to come into being. It is this material evidence, which is fundamental to my methodology of reading and interpreting the “language” of significant objects as a complementary commentary on the language of significant texts. While objects are characterized by certain disinterestedness, texts are prone to be tendentious. The inventories are rich with the archeological evidence of rural and urban settlements deposited in museums, the churches and museums contain extensive and masterful collections of decorative friezes, portals, figures, animals and column capitals in the round and as reliefs, on altar screens, for instance, of such religious portable art as altars, gem-encrusted crosses and book covers, reliquaries, monstrances, enamels, utensils, ivories and wall paintings. In the libraries sufficient rare illuminated manuscripts have been preserved to allow extensive insights into the work of the great scriptoria of the area and of the individual masters working east of the river Maas and north of the Alps to proclaim the early gloria et victoria of their imperial, royal or religious patrons. Even fragments of secular texts have survived to indicate a direction taken by that literature. Owing to the circumstance that the portable arts using ivory, parchment, pigments, gems and precious metals are most closely linked with the very complex and expensive production of religious books, such could not be produced as a whim, but required a supportive network of patrons and sponsors. As will become apparent below, some exemplary books were prepared as royal and episcopal commissions, others as gifts for the princes of the state and church by wealthy individuals, many others were prepared by the network of monastic scriptoria from available manuscripts as copies requested by other religious institutions, coupled with an advanced supply of raw materials. This was a very elaborate process indeed. The artistry of the scribes, illuminators, the gold- and bronze smiths and the ivory- and glass carvers, as well as the architects, have left spectacular examples of their skills in the service of the church, the state and their representatives. A review, analysis and discussion of these works attempts to provide a basis for stylistic comparisons in order to suggest an image of the period. Because the scribes were often identical with the illuminators, the terms will be used interchangeably, though the work of the scribes, some of them are even known by name, the script, in the production of a manuscript is not
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our concern, while the work of the illuminator/miniaturist invariably is. It is on the pages of text, however, that the coexistence of Celto-Germanic ornamentation of the capital display initials of the incipit pages of the Coronation Gospels, for instance, appears in the context of classical lettering of the text. Secular architecture in stone is extant in only a few meager examples from the period under investigation. Wood was the usual building material of choice. By tracing the excavation of stone foundations archeology has been able to rediscover the outlines, but can only conjecture about the superstructures, mainly of the royal residences. However, even these were subject to neglect and decay, or changing tastes. The earlier fortifications, called mottes, consisting of raised mounds surrounded by wooden palisades and moats have generally not survived as such, having been abandoned and hence eroded or been integrated into later fortifications. By necessity then, stone architecture in the service of the church and its institutions will bear the emphasis of the discussion allowing for the fact that the surviving examples seem to be examples of immature abilities which have come to bear perhaps an undue burden of responsibility. Stone architecture is, of course, an evident link with Rome. This representation of cultural history tries to discuss the coexistent arrangement of this vast, complex array of material. The modern tendency has been the presentation of specialized studies of illustrations, art or architecture, or political history and so forth, allowing stand-alone investigations to exist in isolation. This intercultural/interdisciplinary study, dealing with the socio-cultural history of this central region, especially in the context of the reconfigured United Europe—mainly eastern France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland—aims to examine many aspects pertaining to this period of about one hundred and fifty years. The teaching and writing of History is drifting away from the preoccupation with chronology and national histories. The book is organized in several parts dealing with a selection of the available evidence associated with the Carolingians. As a departure from the method of the previous volumes, this book will not return to such aspects of the everyday culture as revealed by any archeological evidence. The book begins with an historical overview of the period, raising such issues as pertain to the historical significance of the emerging collaborative relationship between church and state and the manner in which the various agencies contributed to the
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development. Once the Carolingian empire is shown to have been stabilized within its dimensions, once the problems of existence and rudimentary organization are shown to have been overcome and time, energy and the necessary resources had become available, the discussion will turn to an analysis of the contributions made by the Carolingians to the cultural consolidation of the political imperial ideal through their generous patronage applied to the general cultural themes and particular contexts. Alcuin had recommended the image of the Temple of Christian Wisdom for which the Christianized liberal arts provided the essential seven pillars.2 The arts, as examples of confluent pre-existent realities, were a suitable means to testify to a higher end, a divine purpose. Generous patronage encouraged the recapitulation and application of the northern and Mediterranean heritage and the rediscovery and emulation of Biblical and Classical examples and the search for a degree of glory by association with the Classical Christian past. With the support of the growing scribal culture, religious and secular literature, the cloister arts, wall paintings, book illuminations of a religious and secular nature, the development of narrative techniques in literature and the arts, the religious portable arts such as the precise glass engraving and the nearly perfect ivory carvings, spectacular gem encrustations, outstanding metal work and remarkable architecture were able to flourish. Thus this book will outline the Carolingians’ creation of their political and cultural power base and their claim and ascent to the royal throne of the Frankish realms outlining the transition from Merovingian to Carolingian times and illustrating the elements of cultural continuity within the context of the Imperium Christianum. As prime examples of the nobility’s upward mobility, the deliberate, propagandistic attempts by the Carolingians to distinguish their superiority from the ‘inferiority’ of their Merovingian predecessors by depicting them unjustly as underdeveloped, illiterate ‘pagans’ and through their own sponsorship of the Christian dominion strengthen their own claim to legitimacy in order to use and further the promotion of visible connections with the late, Christianized Gallo-Roman parts of the empire and the Old Testament. The interests of the ecclesiastical and secular orders in the renewals, continuities and innovations in the style and subject matter of religious literature and art, and the 2 J.J. Contreni, Carolingian Learning, Masters and Manuscripts (Gower House, Brookfield 1992), pp. I, 11; III, 71; IV, 85; VI, 4.
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liturgical and architectural links with Roman imperial traditions will ultimately characterize the enduring effects of the Carolingian ‘Renaissance’ and the relative appropriateness of this term. While they overlooked the wide range of deep roots in fertile Merovingian traditions and practices, they did know how to attract a significant number of idealists and pragmatists, of men of vision and insight, of intellect and refined tastes, of talent and skill, to help bring about the Renovatio.
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PART A
THE CAROLINGIAN REALMS
I. Reaching for the crown—Continuity and change in the realms of the Franks In 1996 France celebrated the anniversary of Chlodovech’s/Clovis’ baptism, some 1500 years earlier. It was a media event with televised academic panel discussions and the like. Beginning in 1996 a number of books appeared concerned with legends and myths about the man, but also with an emphasis on his baptism as the baptism of France, even of Europe. Some praised him as first of the line of Merovingian kings and a source of glory, but at least one title still echoed, ironically, the prejudicial notion of the Merovingians as the ‘do-nothing kings’, les rois fainéants. Its author goes to some length to reverse this opinion. The celebration of the anniversary went some way to attempt correcting these perceptions. Though it is true that during its last 112 years the dynasty’s kingship was nominal, remote and almost symbolic, with some of the kings being more interested in religious questions than with pragmatic concerns of the realm, it was the Carolingians and their propagandists whose unreliable, tendentious accounts were to manufacture a past for the Merovingians and for themselves in the face of available evidence and thus shape the enduring opinion concerning the legacy of both houses. Like the Merovingians, the Carolingians favored the writing of their history as a means of rationalizing all of their activities and of placing their achievements in the best possible light. Increasingly they saw their past as an expression of a divine plan and themselves as God’s chosen agents to transform their realm into the Imperium Christianum on earth. The bloodline of this royal family, their Byzantine Imperial confirmation and their spiritual consecration by the church, assured them and their entirely Christianized people the exclusive right to eternal victory. It had come to be held that the Frankish realm in conjunction with the Latin church was the true heir of the Imperium Romanum and that a spiritual and cultural community would come into being in which a transformed Christian Eternal Empire would be realized.
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From that perspective the overthrow of the Merovingians would not be usurpation, but a justification. What sustained the belief in the Merovingian ‘sacred kingship’? Its basis rested on the mythical origin of the dynasty from a territorial pagan maritime divinity in the shape of a bull, the Quinotaur and the magical power hidden in the long hair as well as the ‘Trojan’ origin of the Franks.1 Part of the Roman heritage was the belief in the separation of person and function, which implied the acceptance of the office holder without regard to that person’s effectiveness. Personal qualities did not matter. Like Constantine, the Merovingian king was considered the reflection of God on Earth. The succession to the kingship could never be anything but the expression of a higher will, of the cognition of a revealed, divine truth, since there were no other procedures in place to identify the heirs. In a divinely ordained world, kingdoms and empires were pre-existent truths, which did not need to be ruled by monarchs who personally wielded political power. Their function was considered to be symbolic. What was necessary was that they existed. However, in the real world the divinely ordained, symbolic power was seen to diminish until it was lost, as the youth and inherent vulnerability of too many of the later Merovingian kings strained the acceptance of this symbolic function and power, and promoted the gradual marginalization of the royal personages. Certainly the pagan basis had waned as well as the pagan symbolism was replaced by a Christian symbolism. The fact that Charles Martel could leave the royal throne unoccupied by a Merovingian would demonstrate this transition. The process was facilitated by the Merovingian understanding that the realm was a personal possession, which could be dealt with subjectively and divided more or less arbitrarily without regard to any natural processes of cohesion of any of the parts. On the other hand royal influence and power were dependent on the kings’ favors and his distribution of gifts in the form of temporary rewards quite subject to recall. In other words, the king was the realm. Royal impotence and impoverishment called the kingdom into question. The idea of the realm as a political entity, which existed apart from the person of the king, was not considered by 1 J.L. Nelson, The Frankish World, 750–900 (London, Rio Grande 1996) provides a compact overview of the period in the Introduction to the book of her essays. See especially the Ch. 10, ‘Rewriting the History of the Franks’, pp. 169ff. H. Schutz, Germanic Realms in Pre-Carolingian Central Europe, 400–750 (New York, Berne, Frankfurt a. M. 2000), pp. 152f., 218ff. See also H. Schutz, Tools, Weapons and Ornaments (Leiden 2001).
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these kings. Real political and administrative power, which responded to political and administrative needs, was promoted through the advancement of an alternate infrastructure of political power in the figures of the mayor palatii, or mayor domus, the ‘Mayor of the Palace’,2 the steward of the respective palaces. This was not a position of unilateral power, but one, which was mitigated by a ‘council’ of the powerful on whose support the steward depended.3 More or less together, they ruled over the realm. Royal competence must have seemed disinterested and hence inadequate and finally so irrelevant that the ‘sacred kingship’ must have appeared to be quite transferable to those with a more pragmatic and effective approach to the kingship and the state. The inadequacy found expression in the Carolingian assessments of the Merovingians. The Carolingians and their supporters distorted the problems by exaggeration, lessened the achievements of the recent Frankish past and denied the Merovingians most credit to have dealt with problems as competently as conditions permitted. If the Carolingians wanted to be seen to represent the only true Christian values, then the Merovingians could not be allowed to seem to be much better than heathens. Yet already Dagobert (623–638) in his Ostpolitik insisted on the coordination of missionary activity with the military and political eastward expansion of Frankish power and influence. Aside from any idealistic pursuit of the Christianization, there was a Realpolitik on the part of the crown and the Austrasian magnates, as during the expansion monastic as well as military outposts were set up to secure the new territories. Dagobert appears to have been the first to appreciate the need for this policy of collaboration if the new faith propagated by the state church was to triumph over paganism. In fact, the Carolingians built on earlier Merovingian successes as they consolidated their own newly conquered territories with those acquired from their predecessors. It is generally accepted that the anti-Merovingian campaign was designed to raise Carolingian prestige and thereby justify the usurpation of the Frankish throne by Pepin III. The Carolingians’ exercise of real power in the realm had given them a certain pre-legitimacy to reach for the crown.4 2 R. Collins, Charlemagne (Toronto, Buffalo 1998), p. 16f. for an account of the functions of the office. 3 R.E. Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle in the Age of Charlemagne (Norman 1963), pp. 102ff. 4 R. McKitterick, ‘Political ideology in Carolingian historiography’, in Y. Hen, M. Innes (eds.) The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge 2000), pp. 162–174.
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It would appear that from early on the Austrasian Carolingians pursued an enduring and skillful Familienpolitik, which included the writing of a justifying family history, designed to secure the image and hegemony of the family in the Frankish realms.5 It was to incorporate the establishment of a policy geared toward the power of the dynasty, Hausmachtspolitik, of which the power politics advancing the foundation of monasteries, Klosterpolitik, was only a part. Thereby an overly simplified, sentimental, hence erroneous, record was created which suggested that their rise to power was genteel, smooth, focused, benevolent, because divinely ordained and hence inevitable, rather than the murderous, cruel, oppressive sequence of bloody annihilations of rival families it occasionally was. Supporters, dependent on the Carolingians, appeared everywhere as a new aristocracy possibly eliminated that of the Merovingians. Already the early Carolingians invested extensively in the acquisition of estates for many of which they then provided financial support for monastic establishments. The various Annales were intensely interested in praising the Carolingians, from Pepin II to Charlemagne, and justifying their reign, loyally tending the image of their ascending patrons.6 Simultaneously the image of the descending Merovingians was actively diminished. In part, the scribal activities of copying, transcribing, editing, revising and compacting of textual records would contribute quite innocently to the creation of a modified past and the shaping of an exemplary present. Throughout their reign the Carolingians were self-conscious about their usurpation, going to great lengths in their cultural programs, their Kulturpolitik, to demonstrate their legitimacy. The Annales were written in 806 as if in response to a series of natural disasters interpreted as God’s wrath over the transgressions of rulers.7 The documents are a justification absolving the rulers, stress-
5
Colins, p. 23. McKitterick, ‘Political ideology’, in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 171f. She reiterates that an extensive number of Annales and related texts were preserved in the Eastern Kingdom. But see also Y. Hen, ‘The Annals of Metz and the Merovingian past’ in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, pp. 175–190. See Collins, Charlemagne, pp. 4ff., concerning the omission of unfavorable events from the Annales and for a review of the Carolingian historical and hagiographical sources such as chronicles, capitularies, vitae, letters, edicts and law codes. See K.F. Werner, ‘Important noble families in the kingdom of Charlemagne’, in T. Reuter, The Medieval Nobility (Amsterdam, New York Oxford 1978), pp. 146ff. 7 Hen, ‘Annals’, in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 182. See Collins, Charlemagne, p. 4f. for a discussion of the Annales and their possible authorship. 6
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ing their select, preordained status by expressing clearly the Carolingian political ideology, founded on a perceived glorious heritage8 and justified by the grandiose intentions behind the Imperium Christianum. In fulfilling the divine plan every Carolingian ruler determined the manner in which his sons were to follow him into positions of authority by issuing ordinations. 806 was to be the year of the proclamation of the Divisio regnorum, the administrative apportionment of the realm among his tree sons. During the later 9th century the concern increased as the principle of succession based on primogeniture was not an established principle but more often the result of premature deaths, or rather of ‘God’s Will’, as was the case in 814 with Louis the Pious, having survived his older brothers. During the last twenty years the Carolingian dynastic situation became ‘Merovingian’ as the thrones came to be occupied by sons of illegitimate sons or maternal lines of descent. As early as the reign of Brunehildis in the decades around 600, she had to counter the opposition of her Austrasian nobles, chief among whom were the Arnulfingians/Carolingians, Arnulf, bishop of Metz and Pepin the Elder. Her failure and final destruction was largely due to the family politics and desertion of those seeking to establish their own hegemony in the shadow of the Neustrian king Chlothachar II. The Austrasians Pepin the Elder became the new major domus and Arnulf the kings’ spiritual guide. The Austrasian magnates also prevailed on the king to entrust his son Dagobert to Arnulf and Pepin the Elder until he became the Austrasians’ king in 623. Their appointments reflect the growing economic and political importance of eastern Austrasia. It was to become the region in which the conflicts helped new forces and new conceptions of rule to crystallize. The military setback suffered by Dagobert against the Slavs in 631/32 reduced the royal Merovingian interest along that frontier. The Austrasian magnates were not inclined to favor a strong royal military presence in their midst, especially since Neustrian advisors had risen to prominence around the king. Despite Austrasian protests the eastern Austrasian provinces were joined administratively to Neustria. When the opportunity arose, the campaign against the Slavs, the Austrasian aristocracy did not support the Slavic campaign. In historical retrospect the struggle between the crown and
8
Schutz, Germanic Realms, pp. 218ff.
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the nobility was an attempt on the part of the latter to gain control over the monarchy and to introduce ‘constitutional’ principles with which to limit the kings in the exercise of their personal rule. At the same time each new ruler gathered his own entourage, which offered the nobles a degree of ascendancy to prominence. However, throughout the Carolingian period the respective ‘kingdoms’ did not yet constitute self-contained entities with an aristocracy bound to a particular crown. Its allegiances could transcend the boundaries of any one realm, though maneuvering for more favorable conditions and higher positions was always a risky possibility. Changing opportunities could raise or end the fortunes of a noble family. On the other hand membership and ascendancy in the hierarchy of the church proved advantageous, though a celibate career here would also lead to the extinction of a family. At the time the local aristocracy was too vulnerable to be truly adventuresome, as its economic and political power rested with the close allegiance to the king. Proximity to the person of the king, Königsnähe, was sought if the benefits of royal patronage were to be realized. This can be well illustrated with the ascendancy of the family of Charlemagne’s wife, Hildegard, or with the Welfs, the family of Louis’ the Pious wife Judith and Ludwig’s wife Hemma, Judith’s sister. The favor, security and fortune of entire kin-groups depended on the skill with which one could judge the outcome of dynastic developments, not confrontation about ‘constitutional’ points. Removal from office and position was only too likely.9 The Carolingians had no scruples to annihilate the hereditary Alemanic nobility, among whom there had been criticism earlier of the Carolingians, or find grounds to remove even their relative, duke Tassilo of Bavaria, and to replace them with Franks of lesser origin who, as an emerging service nobility, aware of its vulnerability but anticipating rewards and a rise in status, could be of greater service to their families as well as to the crown. Changes in the leading names of the kin-groups reflected the changing fortunes.10 Marriage could offer a quicker social improvement than service. Following the death of Dagobert I, the increasing marginalization of the kings was accompanied by the attempt on the part of the 9 M. Innes, State and Society in the early Middle Ages (Cambridge 2000), p. 212, provides examples. 10 See Werner, in Reuter, Medieval Nobility, p. 151, for an extensive discussion of leading names.
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magnates to regulate the single rather than the traditional Merovingian multiple succession to the thrones of the divided realm. It was in Pepinid interest to have only a sole major domo, controlling only one king and only one court and thereby the only center of power. However, the Neustrian leadership did not want the Austrasian major domus to determine again a united royal policy and to use the king as an instrument through whom to rule a united Frankish kingdom. The tension between these two parts of the realm escalated into a war which was won by the Carolingian Austrasian major domo, Pepin II, grandson of Pepin the Elder, but only dux Austrasiorum, at the battle of Tertry, 687. The decisive victory determined and consolidated the supremacy of Austrasia and assured the ascendancy of the Carolingians. Following this victory the designation major domus receded in favor of princeps. Following the murder of the Neustrian stewart, Pepin II was now de facto, yet still only nominal ruler over a united Merovingian realm and he maintained the illusion of Merovingian kingship by taking king Theuderic III under his protection.11 Quite clearly the supremacy of the Carolingians was the result of a carefully prepared, progressive rearrangement of the power structure. Following the acquisition of wealth, including the confiscation of church holdings, and vast property and through a widely extended network of family relations, the empowerment of a supportive autonomous nobility, the Carolingians also established good relations with the papacy. While the Merovingians’ military and monastic interests in the eastern area receded, this was not the case with the Carolingians who enlisted the Benedictines, and now established a second phase of missionary colonization.12 As part of this policy the Carolingians were not loath to discredit and remove legitimate tribal leaders in Thuringia/Bavaria and to replace them with one of their own and then to falsify the accounts of the events to justify their deeds and to portray themselves as having introduced an improved rule in the form of a Carolingian-Thuringian duchy. A similar duchy was created in Carolingian dominated Austrasian Alsace. Simultaneously Carolingian Frankish monasteries in Austrasia were granted possessions in the eastern parts of the realm, staffed by loyal missionaries. The Carolingians were the most distinguished builders from among 11
Schutz, Germanic Realms, p. 216. R.E. Sullivan, Christian Missionary activity in the Early Middle Ages (Aldershot, Brookfield 1994), pp. 705–740. 12
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the lay aristocrat families, who themselves may have had their own modest, proprietary foundations as part of their estates.13 In this they were eventually to be ably assisted by such Anglo-Saxon missionaries as St. Boniface and his groups of proselytizing monks and nuns, such as his Bavarian follower Sturmius and his Anglo-Saxon relative, the nun Leoba,14 intimate of the empress Hildegard, who supported a Carolingian political and religious expansionism. The building program of the Carolingians was an integral part of that policy. Where the Carolingians held sway, saints, as residents of the heavenly kingdom, were named as rolemodels for the faithful in Christ and as fighters to support the realm, monasteries and convents were founded as locations where a pious purified Christian life could be led. Of course they were also deliberate expressions of their Klosterpolitik in the expansion and consolidation of their Hausmacht, the demonstrable power base of the family reflected in terms of aristocratic dependencies, property and economic strength. Something of a sequence emerged, when monks first erected small churches, perhaps on former pagan sacred sites, to be followed by more ambitious edifices, such as Fulda, housing schools for the education and training of new converts and missionaries. These foundations were not a continuation from the earlier Roman agricultural estates. In return for rents and labor on the proprietor’s estates, tenant farmers cultivated a small portion of the estate for themselves. These estates could be very large in terms of area, workers or distances covered. The monasteries of Lorsch or Prüm probably had 2000 dependent households each on their holdings. Fulda has been calculated to have owned 12 000 households. Geographic dispersion was intended to anticipate failures and shortfalls of yield and these distances had organizational implications for storage of goods, their distribution and transportation by land and water, for markets and commerce and especially for the supply of the central estate with agricultural produce and manufactured objects.15 This networked supply system was one of several such connecting systems. It was complemented by interlocking mil13
Innes, State and Society, p. 25. T.F.X. Noble and T. Head, Soldiers of Christ. Saints and Saints’ Lives from Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (University Park PA 1995), pp. 165–187, 255–277, for their respective Vitae. See also R. McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning in the Frankish Kingdoms, 6th–9th Centuries (Gower House, Brookfield 1994), p. IV, 301. 15 M. McCormick, Origins of the European Economy, Communications and Commerce, A.D. 300–900 (Cambridge 2001), p. 7f. 14
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itary, religious and social networks. Army units assumed duties in various parts of the realm; a fledgling ‘inter-library loan system’ and prayer communities connected the monasteries and convents and the movement of pilgrims and such religious objects as saintly relics linked far-flung sites. Baggage trains of merchandise crossed the land and entourages of noble travelers relocated to their various distant estates. A communications infrastructure had to be in place to facilitate such movements. A money economy developed as a consequence. Through inheritance and marriage Pepin II came into possession of extensive Austrasian territories. Through the acquisition of many established and new Benedictine monastic foundations and his control over bishoprics, he extended his control of Austrasia. He appreciated the need for yet more control as the eastern duchies had begun to assume considerable freedom of action and to evolve independent, even international, interests, expansionist and defensive policies. While his influence and personal associations helped push the Merovingians out of Paris and Neustria and Burgundy, Pepin held only titular sway over the eastern duchies of the Bavarians and the Alemans. The Bavarians had enjoyed a special position with considerable independence already in Merovingian times. Within that special position even a degree of foreign policy had been possible, hence the relations with the Lombards. An ambivalent political situation had emerged in the eastern regnum Austrasiorum. Thus despite Pepin’s consolidation of power, upon his death (714) his succession was problematic.16 His sons by his first wife Plectrudis had died or been assassinated, 708 and 714 respectively. Disintegrating forces affected his political legacy and his accomplishments were about to be undone when Plectrudis tried to rule as regent for her nephew. Conflicts between Neustria and Austrasia threatened to embroil the realm in civil wars and eventual partition. Internal—Neustrian—and external—Saxon and Frisian—aggression followed Pepin’s death and Neustria was gaining the upper hand. But then it was possible for Pepin’s son by his second wife, Alpaida,17 Charles, as of the 9th 16 For a compact summary of events, see P. Fouracre, ‘Frankish Gaul to 814’, in R. McKitterick (ed.), The New Cambridge Medieval History, vol. II (Cambridge, New York 1995), pp. 85ff. 17 Collins, Charlemagne, p. 28, suggests that Charles Martel may have been Pepin’s illegitimate son, but since the Carolingians began their line with him, the records may have been suitably altered. See R.A. Gerberding, The Rise of the Carolingians and the Liber Historiae Francorum (Oxford 1987), p. 117.
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century known as martellus, the Hammer—Charles Martel—to win a series of battles against the Neustrians at Amblève (716) and Vincy (717), against the Saxons (718) and in the final battle against the Neustrians at Soissons (719). He forced Plectrudis to yield the regency and from the family’s power base in Austrasia secure his father’s dominions. Despite his power he did not yet consider ruling in his own name and recognized the Neustrian Chilperich II as king and secured his succession as mayor domus. He was to be the last life-long ruler on behalf of the Merovingians, but abrogated to himself the authority to dispose freely of the royal treasure, estates and power, as well as to issue royal decrees in his own name. In effect, long before being crowned kings, the Carolingians had established a nonroyal lordship over the Franks.18 With him also began the use of the name ‘Charles’ as the dynastic name for the kings of the Franks, hence Carolingians. Beginning in 720 Charles’ rule was again threatened on two fronts—the Saxons in the north and the Saracens in the south. Following two successful campaigns against the Saxons (720/724) his rule over the northern and eastern realms of the Franks was largely assured. Since 720 the Arabs, exploiting dissension among the Franks, had attacked Aquitaine across the Pyrenees and by 732 had reached central Gaul. Near Poitiers Charles Martel defeated them in 732 and thereby gained control over Aquitaine.19 During the next few years he broke their alliance with the Burgundians and with the help of the Lombards, drove them out of most of southern Gaul. During 733–36 he confirmed his rule over Burgundy, Frankish sovereignty over Aquitaine and the Provence, 737/38. Carolingian counts assumed the administration of these regions. In Austrasia and Neustria Charles Martel had to reverse a hostile process of increasing self-determination by some of the dominant kin-groups. Hostile accounts accuse Charles of having taken advantage of his power. During some twenty years their holdings had come to be considered hereditary and included bishoprics and royal monasteries and these he was seen to have bestowed on his own supporters without regard of their worthiness for the office. Since the installation of bishops was by royal appointment, some disloyal bish-
18 19
Werner, in Reuter, Medieval Nobility, p. 174. Collins, p. 30.
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ops were demoted. Some bishoprics remained vacant or were amalgamated. In some instances Charles resorted to earlier Merovingian practices and distributed their wealth and property among his own supporters in the form of benefices.20 This practice proved an effective means to replenish the material power, the Hausmacht, of the family in the face of declining resources owing to the granting of properties to supporters. Laying claim to church holdings counteracted this diminution of resources available for distribution. Each king could create his own nobility. This point illustrates a ‘spoils system’ and shows how serviceability provided new groups of aristocrats with the opportunities for enrichment and the rise to status in the entourage of a new ruler, of a new dynasty. Royal favoritism could easily reverse all social and political gains. Similarly the withdrawal of aristocratic support could quickly expose the vulnerability of the royal position. The collaboration between the nobility of state and its branch in the church was nearly able to dismember the precarious imperial position of Louis the Pious. The Reichsadel, the high imperial nobility, was to be less vulnerable. Death in battle and diseases contracted on campaigns or during sieges jeopardized the continuity of families.21 Contrary to appearances for Charles Frankish and Christian expansion were two sides of the same coin. Utilizing the church for political purposes becomes an administrative practice. Extending the influence of the church effected the improved control of the newly conquered regions of the realm. In two campaigns (733/734) he subdued the still pagan duchy of the Frisians,22 while in 738, with the help of the pagan Slavic Wilzi to the east, he campaigned once more against the heathen Saxons in order to free northern Hesse and Thuringia from their continuing threats. It was part of Charles’ defensive policy to enlist the cooperation of such Anglo-Saxon missionaries as Willibrord,23 but especially of Wynfrid, better known as St. Boniface, for whom, however, Charles was rather a hindrance.24 In 20
See Fouracre, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 91f. K. Schmid, ‘The structure of the nobility in the earlier middle ages’, in Reuter, Medieval Nobility, pp. 37–59. 22 Schutz, Germanic Realms, pp. 393–400, for a brief summary of the pre-Carolingian Frisians. 23 H.-J. Reischmann, Willibrord, Apostel der Friesen—Vita Willibrordi Archepiscopi Traiectensis Auctore Alcuino (Darmstadt 1989). See also Noble and Head, Soldiers of Christ, pp. 189–211, for a translation of his Vita. 24 Noble and Head, Soldiers, pp. 107–164, for a translation of his Vita. P.J. Geary, Before France and Germany. The Creation and Transformation of the Merovingian World. 21
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contrast to the largely ineffective conservative representatives of the Frankish church, these representatives of Anglo-Saxon monasticism were the sober and disciplined carriers of a spiritual church reform, originally inspired by pope Gregory the Great. The Anglo-Saxon church had been systematically organized by Rome and consequently it operated with papal endorsement and with a hierarchical organization, though the conversion of England to Christianity was not yet completed.25 While the Irish missions proceeded along individual lines from the bottom up, in keeping with the idea of ascetic perigrinatio, the Anglo-Saxons, while accentuating the positive, worked from the top down, by establishing and then implementing organizational structures. The missionary zeal, which took them to the continent, however, was not a coordinated effort, nor did they enter a pagan wilderness. Few of these nuns and monks converted even a single heathen. Their contribution supported and augmented the existing religious infrastructure, prepared earlier by the Hiberno-Frankish missions. Both Willibrord and Wynfrid, whose background includes a strong Irish influence, described as peregrini pro Christo, first obtained ecclesiastical rank and papal legitimization (719) by going to Rome and thereby introduced a departure from the Irish model, before they began their work. Boniface26 was named thus by pope Gregory II and became the protégé of Charles Martel and with the knowledge of that support Boniface, sometimes called Apostle of Germany, utilized his organizational talents to lay the foundation of the German church, consolidate its position through extensive missionary activities in Thuringia, Hesse, Bavaria and lastly in Frisia, founded monasteries, convents and bishoprics, and most important for the future, bound the church of the Germanic eastern part of the realm to Rome. When pope Gregory II made him bishop, Boniface drew support from the knowledge that he had the support of Rome in all conflicts encountered with the recalcitrant Frankish bishops, such as
(Oxford, New York 1988), pp. 214ff. Gerberding, p. 135, indicates that relations between Charles Martel and St. Boniface were not unproblematic. 25 R. McKitterick, ‘Anglo-Saxon Missionaries in Germany: Personal Connections and Local Influences’, in The Frankish Kings and Culture in the Early Middle Ages, pp. 4, 27. 26 See McKitterick, ‘Anglo-Saxon Missionaries’ in Frankish Kings and Culture, pp. 8ff. for a summary of his career. See also J.M. Wallace-Hadrill, The Frankish Church (Oxford 1983), pp. 143ff. concerning the creation of the church in the East Frankish lands.
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the bishop of Mainz, who resented an Anglo-Saxon mission as redundant interference.27 The foundations for later church reform were laid at this time by missionaries like St. Boniface, as the Merovingian Frankish church was transformed into the Carolingian church28 during the reign of the early Carolingians. They submitted it to a reform by means of the introduction of organized, fixed and stable Romanstyle structures, bishops and monastic establishments, restricted the barely semi-literate monks to their monasteries and replaced them in the communities with monk-priests, with a better educated clergy, better qualified to preach and to instruct its flocks. They bolstered the church with the physical importation of Roman saints and their relics and the displacement of the venerated Gallic martyrs and Merovingian saints and their individualistic, itinerant, peregrine HibernoScottish predecessors. The saints, as residents of the divine kingdom, fitted with the enormous power delegated to them by God and performed by them29 provided the spiritual foundations of this new Christian realm on earth. The symbolic presentation of the key to the tomb of St. Peter and sections of his chains was intended to represent the change of focus and the new bond with Rome. New Frankish religious centers linked to the original site of their relic could be created at will.30 This was to contribute significantly to the fortunes of the Carolingians and their power base, though not to St. Boniface’s own popularity among the Frankish bishops. The link with papal Rome was to open the Eastern Carolingian regions to a clear orientation toward Christian Roman orientation. Other capable missionaries complemented the work of Boniface in other parts of the eastern realms, all at least initially or in principle in the service of Charles Martel and his family. The Carolingian Hausmacht established itself firmly also in those parts of the realm consolidated by
27 R. McKitterick, The Frankish Church and the Carolingian Reforms 789–895 (London 1977), p. xix. 28 Innes, State and Society, p. 43f., for an explanation of the concept of ‘reform’ in response to changing realities affecting the church. See T.L. Amos, ‘Monks and Pastoral Care in the Early Middle Ages, in T.F.X. Noble and J.J. Contreni, (eds.) Religion, Culture and Society in the Early Middle Ages. Studies in Honor of R.E. Sullivan (Kalamazoo 1987), p. 171f. 29 Noble and Head, Soldiers, p. xv. 30 Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 1–93, for a review of the Merovingian Frankish church, its foundations and saints. See P.J. Geary, Furta Sacra. Theft of Relics in the Central Middle Ages (Princeton 1978), and P.J. Geary, Living with the Dead in the Middle Ages (Ithaca, London 1994), pp. 171ff. Also Geary, Before France and Germany, p. 217f.
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proprietary monastic foundations, Eigenklöster,31 royal monasteries founded and virtually owned by them. Some of them, such as Lorsch and Fulda became pillars of economic and socio-political power with extensive networks, through prayer-associations, for instance, Gebetsgemeinschaften. It should not be overlooked, that Charles and his family tired quickly of conversion to Christianity by sermon and persuasion. They readily resorted to the use of force. Those found still engaging in pagan practices were dealt with severely. By means of the sword the hesitant were assured that the Christian paradise was the more desirable choice. Pockets of paganism, where often a veneer of Christian sainthood had been placed over the persistent belief in the old, pagan divinities, among the Alemans for instance, were now made more fully familiar with Christianity. Still, compromise was not unusual and accommodation of some pagan practices was tolerated. In general, Frankish society may not have been that thoroughly Christian.32 The missionary activities of the Anglo-Saxons will be discussed more fully below. When Theuderic IV died (737) Charles Martel no longer troubled to appoint another Merovingian king. He had his own son, Pepin III, adopted by king Liutprand of the Lombards, thereby cleverly raising him to royal rank. Charles died in 741. Willibrord’s successor, the abbot of Echternach noted ‘October 741, Death of king Charles’.33 Charles Martel bequeathed his realm to his three sons. To Carloman he left Austrasia, Thuringia and Alemania. To Pepin III, later known as The Short, he left Neustria, Burgundy and Provence. Aquitaine and Bavaria were assigned loosely to their joint administration. Their half-brother Grifo was to inherit less clearly defined domains within the realm, but Carloman and Pepin challenged the legitimacy of his inheritance, crowded him out of his holdings in Thuringia and imprisoned him.34 The ascent of the Carolingians was not inevitable as 31 Eigenklöster—eigen = to be the property of, Kloster, pl. Klöster = cloister, monastery, convent. 32 McKitterick, Frankish Church, p. 80f. See also R.E. Sullivan, ‘The Context of Cultural Activity’, in “The Gentle Voices of Teachers”, Aspects of Learning in the Carolingian Age (Columbus 1995), p. 75. See J.C. Russell, The Germanization of Early medieval Christianity (Oxford 1994), pp. 192ff. for a summary of Boniface’s correspondence concerning accommodation. 33 J. Verseuil, Les Rois fainéants, de Dagobert à Pépin le Bref (Paris 1996), p. 215. 34 B.W. Scholz, B. Rogers, Carolingian Chronicles—Royal Frankish Annals, Nithard’s Histories (Ann Arbor 1972). Quotations from the Royal Frankish Annals are taken from this edition and indicated as Annals with the year thus Annals 741. Quotations and
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Map 1. The Carolingian Empire.
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uprisings followed the death of Charles Martel in Aquitaine, Saxony, Alemania and Bavaria whose dukes were loyal to the Merovingians and although the revolts were put down by armed intervention, they accomplished that on Odilo of Bavaria’s insistence the Merovingian throne had to be reoccupied by one of the ‘long-haired kings’, the obscure Childeric III (743–751). Odilo retained his duchy. A last attempt to rise in Alemania ended in a bloodbath at Cannstadt (746) where the remnants of the Alemanic nobility were annihilated and replaced by Frankish counts. Since the Alemanic population was still partly pagan, these measures could be put in a justifiable light. Alemania ceased to be an independent duchy. Subjection and conversion were the objectives of the campaigns in Saxony. Though the conversions were not of duration, archeologists are still finding cast off simple metal crosses in the river fords, even in Saxony the uprisings ended with the consolidation of Carolingian control. From the beginning of their rule Carloman and Pepin solicited the assistance of Boniface and his followers in integrating politically and assimilating culturally the eastern reaches into the Frankish realm. Boniface, as legate of pope Zacharias in Germany, even missus of St. Peter, could also provide the needed assistance to the reform project. The first Austrasian reform Synod (21–04–742), convened by Carloman, circumvented the Frankish bishops and placed Boniface at the head of the Austrasian church and its new missionary bishoprics.35 The church lands, which Charles Martel had confiscated and distributed disrespectfully, however, were not returned, because Carloman needed them to maintain the military structures and the loyalty of his magnates, in view of the unrest in the realm. This approach was to create a lasting bond between the Carolingians and the Frankish aristocracy. While the Synod of the following year recognized the principle of church ownership, it also established that the lands were held on loan against the payment of rents and that with the death of the ‘owner’ the land would revert but also leave open the option that it could be reclaimed by the ruler, for in its references taken from Nithard’s Histories are also taken from this edition and cited as Nithard with chapter number. The Annals are interspersed with revisions of disputed authorship. The unsympathetic Annals specify that Grifo’s mother, Swanahilde, a niece of duke Odilo, incited Grifo to seek control of the whole realm. See Collins, p. 31, for contrary argument. 35 Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 157ff. Also Collins, pp. 104ff. concerning the doctrinal and disciplinary interests of the church.
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redistribution lay the ruler’s wealth, military power and authority. In the implementation of the reform Boniface often encountered the resistance of the uncooperative, worldly, largely senatorial GalloRoman and aristocratic Frankish bishops who saw in him and the other Anglo-Saxons a threat to their secular life-style and an infringement on their rights. However, he encountered no insurmountable opposition when it came to the merger of the Frankish with the Roman church. When a Frankish willingness to entertain reforms became apparent, and when Pepin began to deal directly with the papacy concerning aspects of canon law, Boniface receded into the background. The support of the nobility, when combined with its link with the church in Rome, proved to be most opportune political factors when Pepin III reached for the Frankish crown. This was facilitated when in 747 Carloman withdrew to a monastery, perhaps guilt ridden over the massacre he ordered following the battle of Cannstadt. (Annals 746 ) According to Einhard, Carloman desired a retreat from the world and became a monk.36 Einhard claims not to know why, but may have hidden a power struggle between the brothers, which Carloman lost. When a continuing stream of Frankish visitors, probably his former nobles, ‘spoiled’, perhaps compromised his retreat on Monte Soracte, near Rome, he ultimately sought seclusion on Monte Cassino. Once more he was to become politically active when he tried to intervene on behalf of Aistulf, king of the Lombards, only to be sent off to a monastery (754). Once again Grifo had created turmoil elsewhere while Pepin was occupied in the northeast. During the next six years Pepin attempted reconciliations with him. While crossing the Southern Alps into Italy, Grifo was killed in 753 by Frankish border guards.37 Already by 749 a degree of order had been returned to the realm. However, the situation had become such that already in 751, before its final resolution, Pepin could contemplate assuming the kingship for himself. Deposing the last Merovingian king, Childeric III, and assuming the
36
L. Thorpe, Einhard and Notger the Stammerer, Two Lives of Charlemagne, translated with an Introduction by Lewis Thorpe (Harmondsworth, New York 1981), p. 56. Also P.E. Dutton (ed. and transl.) Charlemagne’s Courtier. The Complete Einhard (Peterborough 1998). See Fouracre, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 96. See Collins, p. 32f. for considerations pertinent to Carloman’s withdrawal and the short-lived negotiated succession of his son Drogo. 37 Collins, p. 32, refers to a battle at Saint-Jean-de-Maurienne in which two of Grifo’s counts were also killed.
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crown himself may have eliminated the last bases from which he could be challenged in his primary position. Evidently Pepin’s rise to single rule was not uncontested and not the inevitable result in the ‘unanimous’ political processes represented in the partisan, proCarolingian literature. The stability of the realm was not so threatened that a dynastic change was necessary. The legitimate Merovingian king, Childeric III, was not likely to contest the claim. He was deposed, his long hair shorn and he was sent to a monastery. Einhard, in his Vita Karoli Magni, left a scurrilous caricature of the last of these ‘do-nothing long-haired kings’. Since history is recorded by the victors and since Eginhard/Einhard was a high official at the Carolingian court,38 it is easy to understand the pathetic image of Childeric created by him. He justifies the action by pointing erroneously to the order of pope Stephen II, rather than Zacharias, and the family’s earlier loss of power and possessions, retaining only the empty title of king.39 Content to be an enthroned figurehead with flowing hair and beard, his royal functions had been reduced to receiving ambassadors and parroting coached answers. Completely dependent on the discretion of his Mayor of the palace he had nothing of his own but a poor estate with just a few servants about him. Einhard mocks his manner of travel in an ox-drawn cart with a cowherd to goad them, as he attended the palace and the annual business meetings of the popular assembly.40 Einhard may have cast aspersions on the Merovingians by denigrating a ritual mode of travel quite unjustly, since it is known that already Tacitus described this ritualistic mode of travel for the fertility goddess within the northern Nerthus cult. Cow-drawn bigas were also the means of transport for the moon goddess Selena of Greek mythology. The deplorable image of a miserable, unkempt, longhaired individual with a tangled beard is only too clearly a biased means of ridicule, designed to justify retroactively the coup d’état, the usurpation of the Frankish throne.41 Having organized the Hausmacht
38
Dutton, Courtier, p. xiif. See Collins, p. 33f., 35, who points out that the biographies of both popes make no mention of the resolution. 40 Thorpe, p. 55. D.A. Bullough, Carolingian Renewal: sources and heritage (Manchester, New York 1991), p. 123f. 41 Collins, p. 34f. argues that the whole event may be most questionable and more literary than actual. 39
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of the family and its vast range of dependents, and with the full support of the court poets and the reformed Frankish church, the Carolingians orchestrated a propagandistic body of opinion. It created an effective, both mystical and heroic scenario around the Carolingian king and also laid not only the religious groundwork of the overthrow, but also the basis for the grandiose design of the Imperium Christianum, later to be supported by the cultural invigoration by celebrating the family’s deeds, qualifications and suitability to lead the Christian peoples. Even the liturgy was modified to accommodate the king’s glorification.42 A reference in Book V of St. Augustine’s City of God, and a sentence found in Isidore’s of Seville Etymology, rex a regenda, made it clear that the word ‘royal’ is related to the word ‘reign’. It is an active concept and there were Germanic precedents, which allowed for the removal of the inept. Why was this justification in Christian terms necessary? Traditional notions of royal descent and consecration stood in the way of a simple assumption of regal power. With the Christianization of the Franks, pagan perceptions of the king’s charisma, of his felicitas of his Heil, had already once before been sanctified through the intervention of the church. Chlodovech’s conversion, the change to a new god had been most hazardous, because it jettisoned the mythological divinity of origin of the royal family and jeopardized the Germanic perception of its Heil, the king’s select qualifications, his quasi-supernatural status, his legitimacy. To the Gallo-Romans he had had to demonstrate his felicitas. Both groups had to be shown the prerequisites of rulership. Chlodovech’s conversion to Christianity made these requisites for legitimacy problematic because conversion and baptism meant the surrender of pagan rituals and beliefs, of any mystical sacerdotal functions, and especially the pledge of obedience and submission to the church, unless substitute guarantees could be provided. The assured presence of the Trinity at the baptism guaranteed the support of the Christian God through the agency of the church and thereby assured the continuing effectiveness of the king’s Heil, to be understood as the intransmutability of the semi-sacred bloodline through the generations of the Merovingians.43 Whether the sanctification was transferable to a new family, in the form of a
42 43
Sullivan, ‘The Context of Cultural Activity’, in Gentle Voices, p. 65f. Schutz, Germanic Realms, p. 152f.
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new union of religion and politics, must have been a troubling question. The learned courtiers did not fail to win the king’s favor by making this point in their songs of praise, till the sharing of the benefit of the Heil was possible, even if only through the willing participation of an authority higher than all earthly authority, the cooperative church with its presumed right to guide society and all cultural activity through monasticism, the episcopacy and the papacy.44 Owing to the ‘Roman’ reform of the Frankish church and the closer ties established by Boniface between the Franks and the papacy, Pepin could now also seek advice from pope Zacharias concerning the ‘reform’ of the monarchy. The church was to find itself in a bargaining position. In time it would collect from the Carolingians. If the papal consultation took place, it was a coincidence that a new king of the Lombards, Aistulf, renewed Lombard claims to territories, which the papacy also claimed.45 This Lombardic intention was a distinct threat to Rome when Pepin’s emissaries, Fulrad, the abbot of St. Denis and Burchard, bishop of Würzburg, supposedly arrived in Rome in 750. They posed the question whether it was good or not that in the realm of the Franks kings ruled who did not wield the regal power.46 Pope Zacharias must have realized an opportunity to strengthen his position toward the Lombards by gaining an ally. The Lombard threat to the papacy definitely motivated the pope to charge the envoys to inform Pepin that it was better to call him king who had the royal power than the one who did not. (Annals, erroneously 749 rather than 750 ) In order that the natural order, identified by St. Augustine in the 19. Book of the City of God, not be disturbed, he based his response on St. Augustin, and by virtue of his apostolic authority ordered that Pepin should be king.47 Quite evidently question and answer addressed the principle of suitability for the office as the preferred determining criterion over the principle of dynastic legitimacy. This suitability was expressed by the novel act of the consecration of Pepin. Divine authority was invoked
44
Sullivan, ‘The Context of Cultural Activity’, in Gentle Voices, pp. 66ff. See Collins, pp. 59f. 46 Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 165ff. But see Collins, p. 35, who suggests that the event may be fictitious. 47 P. Riché, The Carolingians. A family who forged Europe (Philadelphia 1993), p. 68. See J.L. Nelson, ‘kingship and empire’, in R. McKitterick, Carolingian Culture: emulation and innovation (Cambridge 1994), pp. 54ff., concerning the possible motivation behind the pope’s reply. 45
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to sanction through the pope the rupture with a pagan, superficially Christian legitimacy by means of a clear act of usurpation. The formal election by the Frankish nobility of Pepin as king of the Franks and of his wife Bertrada as their queen, followed in Soissons, 751. How could the nobility have done otherwise! Selection, anointing, elevation and homage were the decisive official acts, repeated in 754. This Biblical ritual accented the discontinuity and pointed to the growing, new perception at the Frankish court that the Franks had relieved the Israelites as the select ‘People of the Book’ and the community of interests of Frankish clergy and aristocracy disguised the usurpation resting in Pepin’s ascent of the throne.48 Despite the fact that Pepin and Bertrada had both been anointed, as a consecration of the new dynasty, for many years to come their heirs felt very vulnerable, hence the repeated justifications and coronations of the same king. The references, in the psalters, for instance, to the Biblical past as a foretelling of the Carolingian present, the consecration and the reanimation of things ‘Classical’ during the reign of the Carolingians and their willingness to protect the popes against the Lombards, had much to do with bolstering the Carolingians’ debatable claims to continuity and legitimacy. The emphasis on Israel49 and the Old Testament contributes a distinguishing accent to the Carolingian reconfiguration as being something other than just an attempted Renaissance 50 of a pagan Classical antiquity. In the understanding of the church, it was Christ himself, through his Vicar, who had raised Pepin to the throne. Thus the Franks were initially the ‘special people of the pope’.51 To compensate the new king for his lack of royal blood, a bishop, perhaps even the papal vicar and legatus Germanicus Boniface (Annals 750 ), but, in view of the differences between Boniface and Pepin, more likely Chrodegang of Metz, anointed him in order to furnish him with the appropriate sacred dignity and the dynasty with a new consecration.52 Henceforth 48 Collins, p. 36, questions the historicity of the circumstances surrounding the claimed event of 751. 49 M. Garrison, ‘The Franks as the New Israel? Education for an identity from Pippin to Charlemagne.’ in Hen and Innes, The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge 2000), pp. 114–161. 50 Sullivan, Gentle Voices, pp. 3ff., concerning a review of the ‘Renaissance’ in the Carolingian context. 51 Garrison, ‘The Franks as the New Israel?’ in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 124. 52 K.-U. Jäschke, Bonifatius und die Königssalbung Pippins des Jüngeren, in Archiv für
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he was gratia Dei rex, king by Divine Grace. The Biblical precedent must have been appreciated in which the prophet Samuel displaced king Saul by the anointed David.53 The legitimization of Pepin was accomplished. It raised him into the line of Old Testament kings, a first step along the grandiose design, which was to characterize the Carolingians. Already Pepin’s ancestors had been compared to heroes of the Old Testament. Pepin, selected as the anointed of the Lord was raised into the vicinity of God. This selection was an innovation, which reinforced the act of election immensely. However, it introduced and confirmed a vital dimension. Men could place the crown, but by Old Testament analogy, only the church could anoint. In what amounted to a mutual bond, three years later, 754, pope Steven II re-anointed Pepin and his two sons and forbade the Franks, under pain of excommunication, to elect a king from outside the line of Pepin’s descendants. The reanointment may have been intended as an act of cleansing himself of his several broken promises and perjuries.54 It may well have been the only coronation of Pepin. Childeric III was shorn and sent to a monastery to conclude there his shadowy existence. The pope made it clear that this was not just the replacement of one king by another but that through God’s choice a new dynasty had been called and that the sanctity of a bloodline would continue in its legitimate Christian guise.55 By chance and by intent the Carolingians initially established a single line of legitimate succession in which a personal kingship had been replaced by a family institution. In addition the monarchy gained legitimacy and focus through its Rome oriented Christianization. In the west St. Peter and many other Roman martyred saints and their relics, bones and objects, were assembled in the Carolingian churches as a fundamental necessity and as part of a deliberate policy. Relics were the link between heaven, the residence of the saints, and the
Diplomatik, Schriftgeschichte, Siegel- und Wappenkunde, vol. 23 (Cologne, Vienna 1977), pp. 25ff. for a discussion concernig this dispute. He finds that no other Annals mention the involvement and Jäschke concludes, p. 52f. that not Boniface but Chrodegang of Metz was involved. 53 A. Angenendt, Das Frühmittelalter. Die abendländische Christenheit von 400 –900 (Stuttgart, Berlin, Cologne 1990), p. 283f. 54 B. Kasten, Königssöhne und Königsherrschaft (Hannover 1997), p. 127, n. 270. But see Collins, p. 36. 55 See D.H. Miller, ‘Sacral Kingship, Biblical Kingship, and the Elevation of Pepin the Short’, in Noble and Contreni, Religion, Culture and Society, pp. 131ff.
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material world.56 They were given the deepest cultic reverence by the court as well as by the high nobility of the realm. The populace would have only remote access to them. It became the aim that all churches should shelter relics, despite the problems associated with their availability. Concerned about possible forgeries, in 794 Charles demanded a strict examination of the relics.57 Being physically visible, in altars for instance, (Fig. 1) the relics became the central focus of religious devotion, even jeopardizing the cult of an abstract Christ. This policy helped control the creation of new sacred sites.58 This process established a religious network of ties and dependencies between the realm of the Franks and Rome. With the designation of the Carolingians the papacy signaled its recognition of a new focus on western, Frankish authority and signaled its turning away from the authority of the Eastern empire. Already pope Gregory III had sent Charles Martel the keys to the grave of St. Peter and had indicated his willingness to renounce the emperor and transfer dominion to the Carolingians. With the support of the papacy the Frankish Christian realm of the Carolingians could begin turning away from the Greek Christianity of Byzantium, toward its own Imperium Christianum. It will be shown that in their architectural and artistic intentions the Carolingians were never free of their need to demonstrate their legitimate continuity with Christian Rome and continuing legitimacy through the church. Charlemagne had his long-term reasons for being strongly motivated to include the formula Dei gratia in his title. Papal political thinking proved correct when the expansionist king Aistulf and the Lombards threatened Rome itself, 753. Not restrained by religious scruples he attempted to unify all Italy. The Byzantines were preoccupied with the forces of Islam so that Rome could turn to no other source of support than Pepin and the Franks. It was in this context that the curious but only preliminary bond between the universalist papacy and the particularistic Franks was to find its beginnings. Pope Steven II first visited Aistulf in Pavia, to negotiate the restitution of the disputed territories, but unsuccessful with Aistulf, he crossed the Alps in winter to visit Pepin’s court at Ponthion in order 56
Noble and Head, Soldiers, p. xvii. Noble and Head, Soldiers, p. xxxvii. 58 See McCormick, pp. 283ff. concerning collections of relics at Sens and Chelles. See Geary, Living with the Dead, pp. 166f., 185f. 57
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to gain assurances of support for the papacy. The royal anointment, which was to take place during this visit, indebted Pepin to the pope, and the latter would be able to rely on Pepin’s support. While Pepin initially disappointed the pope by not coming to meet him himself, sending his six year old son Charles instead, and making the pope come to him all the way, Pepin received the pope on bended knee and taking the pope’s horse by its reins, led the pope some ceremonial distance to the palace (6.1.754) and in the name of his sons, Pepin swore to St. Peter, represented by the pope and his successors an oath promising defense and assistance. It was probably a reciprocal oath. Pepin ignored the opposition within the realm, including his brother’s, and in 755/56 launched a campaign into Italy and guaranteed, quite unjustly, the transfer of the Exarchate of Ravenna and the Roman duchy, legally still Byzantine enclaves, to a third party, the Roman papacy. Again the pope anointed Pepin’s family as assurance against Byzantium and any possible challenges by claimants to the throne, including Carloman or his sons. All were consigned to monasteries. Perhaps with the emperor’s approval the pope bestowed on Pepin the title patricius Romanorum, previously borne by the representatives of the emperor, including the exarch of Ravenna for all of Italy. If he proclaimed Pepin on his own authority, then the pope had assumed the emperor’s authority. By combining the role of king of the Franks with the role of patricius Romanorum he made him protector of Rome, merging in his person the secular and religious elements. When Pepin now moved against Aistulf, he appeared in that role and the latter quickly submitted to Frankish overlordship and promised the restitution of all his conquests. However, since he did not accept the ‘Romans’ as legitimate negotiators, he reneged on his promises. The pope’s appeal brought Pepin into the field again and this time Aistulf was forced to surrender his acquisitions. Pepin documented the transfer to the church, thereby creating the Papal States. The opposition to Pepin’s designs59 may have anticipated the consequences of an Italian policy. The Pepinid Donation,
59 K. Brunner, Oppositionelle Gruppen im Karolingerreich (Wien, Köln, Graz 1979), deals mainly with references to variant instances of opposition during the 9th century but the discussion has bearing on all such examples. Since the dissensions and conspiracies usually involved members of the imperial family, the annals were loath to mention them. Changing fortunes and grievances among the high nobility provided many such occasions.
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perhaps in exchange for Pepin’s coronation and the various titles, was supported by one of the most significant and successful forgeries ever,60 the Constitutum Constantini, the ‘Donation of Constantine’ according to which in Constantine’s Edict of Milan, 313, the emperor Constantine was claimed to have received a divine hint when he had entered a dream as a pagan and emerged as a convert to Christianity, then retired to Byzantium out of respect for the religious supremacy of the Bishop of Rome, after having given to pope Sylvester imperial rank, the right to ride a white horse like the emperor, (Fig. 2) and the power to bestow the crown on his choice of emperor, to have dominion over Rome and all the provinces of Italy and the west, all as a reward for having been cured of leprosy by Sylvester. Already Constantine was claimed to have held Sylvester’s stirrups and led his horse by the reins.61 The pope had become more than the emperor’s representative. The Franks may have had foreknowledge of this claim precisely because it was in their interest. Pepin needed imperial confirmation to ascend the Frankish throne. Centuries earlier Chlodovech had been crowned with imperial authorization. Into the 7th century Byzantium had represented the empire as such in Frankish eyes. With the 8th century a new perspective was establishing itself. The pope now also had such imperial authority to crown Pepin. By the end of the century the Franks will have gained the insight that the papacy was perhaps just a transition and that they had the merit to claim the reign over a western empire in the guise of an Imperium Christianum. The territorial transfer of Byzantine territory into the hands of St. Peter thus became legal. Out of gratitude Pepin was included in the liturgy of St. Peter’s, as it had only been done for the emperor. Furnished with imperial authorities, the pope as head of the Christian church was raised high above the head of any emperor and deference to the Byzantine emperors faded a bit more. This policy was to burden Central European history with a huge mortgage. In the six centuries to come the papal claim
60
P.E. Dutton, The Politics of Dreaming in the Carolingian Empire (Lincoln Neb. and London 1994), p. 37, supposes that it was composed c. 760 by a Roman cleric motivated by rather elusive intentions. Dutton elaborates on Constantine’s supposed dream, which provided the foundation. 61 J.J. Norwich, A Short History of Byzantium (Harmondsworth, London 1997), p. 119. See also Angenendt, Frühmittelalter, p. 286. Ohnsorge, Ost-Rom und der Westen (Darmstadt 1983), pp. 60ff., argues that pope Leo III was the author of this document. See Nelson, ‘kingship and empire’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 70.
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to primacy was to evolve into a continuing cause for much grief and political turmoil. The defensio ecclesia Romanae became the responsibility and primary function of what came to be known as the Holy Roman Empire. At the time Pepin had not much of a choice, for as the anointed of God and with his royal powers deriving directly from God and king of a chosen people, the Franks, his position in Christendom was made evident by his service to the throne of St. Peter, demonstrated in his oath to St. Peter, not the pope.62 It was not anticipated that the new temporal power of the pope would make that position a desirable possession for all manner of ambitious individuals. The popes became the instruments of interest groups, especially of the aristocracy of Rome, requiring the frequent intervention of the pertinent rulers to come to the pope’s assistance. The papacy came in need of protection. Pepin had been able to concentrate on Lombardic and papal concerns because east-rhenish affairs were relatively settled. However, while Pepin was able to consolidate Frankish control over all of Gaul, the attempts to gain control over the northeast proved premature. The political and religious control over Frisia and Saxony was not progressing well. Willibrord’s missionary accomplishments had been rolled back by a resurgence of Frisian paganism under their king Radbod who died in 719. Attempts to Christianize the Frisians thereafter proved unsuccessful and when in the autumn of 753 Boniface returned to Frisia, he and fifty-two of his missionizing companions were struck down at Dokkum (754) by Frisian pagans. Any further progress would have to await the complete conquest of the North Sea coast. Following the ‘battle’ of Cannstadt (746) and the elimination of the duchy by Carloman, the Alemanic aristocracy had been liquidated in a bloodbath and with the installation of Frankish counts all ducal and aristocratic property had either passed into Frankish hands or been redistributed to those friendly with the Franks. Again Frankish monastic foundations consolidated the gained lands as the realm expanded further eastward. There the Bavarian duchy had rehearsed an armed uprising as it tried to implement independent administrative policies and assume a special position within the Frankish realm.
62 W. Mohr, Die Karolingische Reichsidee (Münster 1962), p. 21. See J. Nelson, ‘kingship and empire’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, pp. 53ff.
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It was their fortune that the duchy remained in Agilolfingian hands, but then they were linked with the Carolingians. Pepin’s sister Chiltrudis was married to the Bavarian duke, Odilo. Upon his death in 748, his seven-year-old son Tassilo III was declared of age under the guardianship of the Carolingians and succeeded to the duchy. Beginning in 743 a category of royal vassals had been created in Bavaria and in 757, at age sixteen, Tassilo paid homage to his uncle king Pepin and swore his vassal’s oath into his hands and those of his sons. (RAF 757 ) According to the Annals he also swore on the bodies of several saints that he would remain faithful all his life.63 His magnates also swore this with him. If these oaths were not an invention, just a later, anachronistic insertion by the chronicler justifying a later course of action, then this evidently was not just a symbolic personal act, but must have expressed a very particular Carolingian concern about the loyalty of the Agilolfingian Tassilo III, a Carolingian on his mother’s side, for it was at the same time the first constitutional dependency agreement between ‘states’. Bavaria was on its way to lose its independence. This royal vassalage was to prove to be the great hurdle when Tassilo tried to cast off his own vassalage from the Carolingians. The original noble families regarded the growing strength of these Frankish dukes with reservations in any event. Tassilo reputedly behaved questionably when in 763 he “brushed aside his oaths and all his promises and sneaked away on a wicket pretext, disregarding all the good things which king Pepin, his uncle, had done for him”. (Annals 763). The violation of his duties as vassal would have been a serious felony. Again, the later chronicler’s tone suggests at least a tendentious interpretation for Tassilo’s return home.64 To Tassilo the situation favoring independence must have seemed opportune. Without repercussion for his supposedly broken oath, he ruled quite independently till 781. Owing to the longstanding family relationship with the Lombards,65 enhanced perhaps by the proximity of the Lombard and Bavarian dialects,66 Tassilo received support from the Lombard king Desiderius (756–774) who returned Alpine regions to him, lost earlier to Liutprand. On the 63
See Collins, p. 81f. Collins, p. 82. 65 Schutz, Germanic Realms, pp. 281–316. 66 W. Jungandreas, Die Einwirkung der Karolingischen Renaissance und das mittlere Rheinland (Stuttgart 1986), pp. 105, 126ff. where he asserts the linguistic similarity of the Germanic dialects and their mutual comprehensibility. 64
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urging of his mother Bertrada Charles had married a daughter of king Desiderius. Tassilo also married a daughter of Desiderius, Liutpirc, VIRGA REGALIS, the royal offspring. This marriage, perhaps also recommended by queen Bertrada, was documented by means of a most unusual ‘document’, the Tassilo Chalice from Kremsmünster, a most significant artistic monument representing the art of the period (c. 769). Suffice it to say here that the chalice mobilizes an impressive range of supportive semiotic, religious and political argument to establish the dignity of the marriage between these two families as a political claim of the highest status. Coincident with the death of Pepin III in 768, the Chalice appears to have been intended to embody a challenge to the presumed, perhaps even usurped rank of the Carolingians. After all, the Carolingians had risen out of the service nobility. It may even have suggested Tassilo’s claim to his own kingship, he had a scepter, over an unspecified realm including Lombard and (eastern?) Bavarian holdings.67 The coronation of the Carolingians had relegated the loftier Agilolfingians to a subordinate position. The Tassilo Chalice stands out because of the Insular Style in which it has been worked. This style may have reached central Bavaria with the appointment in 745 and on Pepin’s orders, of Virgil, an Irish monk, perhaps from Iona, to the bishopric of Salzburg.68 Virgil had good relations with Odilo and became Tassilo’s tutor. Towards Boniface Virgil kept a cool distance. He probably brought illustrated books from Ireland and probably influenced the artistic execution of the cup. Other, architectural and literary, considerations may support the speculations concerning Tassilo’s ambitions to raise the centers of his duchy to royal preeminence. In 767 Virgil and Tassilo began the construction of a cathedral. Between 767 and 774 a surprising church was built, 33m wide and 91m long. Between c. 754 and 775 Fulrad, abbot of St. Denis, built a new church for the Carolingians. The larger dimensions of Salzburg cathedral could not be understood to be but a challenge to the primacy of the Carolingians.69 Already earlier, duke Odilo had sought to establish an independent Bavarian church anchored by the bishoprics of Regensburg, 67 P.J. Geary, Phantoms of Remembrance. Memory and Oblivion at the End of the First Millennium (Princeton 1994), p. 42, suggests strongly that Tassilo conducted himself as a king rather than as a duke. 68 B. Bischoff, Manuscripts and Libraries in the Age of Charlemagne (Cambridge 1994), pp. 13, 18. 69 P. Stollenmeyer, Der Kelch des Herzogs Tassilo, (Rosenheim 1976), pp. 9f.
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Passau, Salzburg and Freising. These, however, remained under the jurisdiction of Boniface, most loyal to the Carolingian cause, although he was not named archbishop for Bavaria. Odilo had succeeded to have pope Zacharias withdraw the jurisdiction over the Bavarian church from Boniface and to transfer it to a special papal legate, as if it could be presumed that the Franks would surrender their suzerainty over Bavaria. Upon Carolingian insistence this legate had to withdraw. The Frankish presence in the Bavarian church was gaining in importance. As was indicated above, Odilo’s attempt at independence was put down in 743 and Virgil was appointed bishop of Salzburg in 745. Sensitive to the elevated cultural standards of his duchy, Tassilo seems to have returned to the idea of an independent Bavarian church. The number of Bavarian monasteries rose to fifty. Just as the Carolingians used monasteries as bases for their missions, so the Agilolfingians founded monasteries as bases for their projected operations. Owing to the patronage, which they enjoyed from the mighty in the land, reflected in their growing wealth from their holdings in land, scattered over large areas, and their memberships in extensive networks of other monastic foundations, the local dynasties created a system of support that could not diminish. And just as the Carolingians had sought to gain, sustain and elevate their kingship by means of the backing of the pope, so now Tassilo sought to obtain papal support for himself and his family. In 772 Tassilo had his eldest son Theodo baptized in Rome by pope Hadrian I. Nine years later, in 781, Charles was to have the same pope baptize his son Pepin in Rome. Quite evidently Tassilo tried to establish a spiritual base with the pope to support his eventual reach for a crown.70 It was not to come to that. When in September of 769 Pepin died his male heirs and undisputed successors were identical. There were no other contending claimants of the throne. His sons Charles (747–814) and Carloman assumed the crowns over a divided Frankish realm.71 According to the Annals (768) Charles on October 9 at Noyon, and Carloman at Soissons. Considering that the Carolingians were Austrasians, both locations are in Neustria. Tassilo may have supposed an opportunity for his ambitions in the tensions, which accompanied the division. 70
Angenendt, Frühmittelalter, p. 302. See Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 181–204, for a detailed biographical discussion of Charlemagne. 71
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As an ingredient in an alliance against Carloman, Charles was induced to marry another, unnamed daughter of Desiderius, so that Tassilo was now not only Charles’ vassal but already his cousin and now also his brother-in-law. With the death of Carloman in December 771, the alliance fell apart as the succession became very clear when Charles assumed the throne for the whole kingdom and unilaterally rejected his Lombardic wife.72 Since Desiderius had once again reverted to an expansionist policy, which threatened the papacy, Charles waged war on him, forced him to capitulate and himself assumed the Lombard crown. Henceforth (774) he was rex Francorum et Langobardorum atque patricius Romanorum with all the responsibilities toward the papacy already described.73 Already in 772, following a victory over the Carantanians, Tassilo had been celebrated as a new Constantine, a title first bestowed on Chlodovech, as he put down uprisings in the eastern expanded territories among the Carantanians and Slovenes. At the peak of his power Tassilo was supported even by the Bavarian bishops who were usually more inclined toward the Frankish Carolingians. Perhaps envious, Charles distrusted Tassilo’s Italian connections as a possible source of turmoil although Tassilo did honor his military obligations as vassal when in 778 Bavarian troops followed Charles into Spain. Nevertheless, in 781 the Annales return to the question of Tassilo’s supposed violation of his vassalage and report that Tassilo was summoned to the diet of the realm meeting at Worms.74 Tassilo agreed to appear on condition that 12 hostages per side were provided to assure his safe conduct, not a good sign for the outcome. The distinct status of Bavaria may have been heading for a review. Tassilo was forced to renew his vassal’s oath once again and to receive Bavaria as a Frankish fief.75 Tassilo in turn was suspicious of Frankish intentions toward him. Charles’ conquests of northern Italy had placed Bavaria into a dangerous situation and Tassilo turned to pope Hadrian I, who had been his supporter in the past.
72
Collins, p. 40. H. Löwe, Deutschland im fränkischen Reich (Munich 1970), pp. 128ff. See Collins, p. 41f. for events after 771. 74 Collins, p. 83f. Argues that advancing hostages was not the manner of lords and vassals, but rather that of equals. Owing to his status Tassilo may have been exempt from annual meetings, but that the new political circumstances concerning northern Italy made Tassilo’s presence necessary. 75 Angenendt, Frühmittelalter, p. 302. 73
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But not this time. According to the Annales (787) the extensive treatment of some insignificant issue between the duke and his king raises suspicions. In what appears to have been recorded as an orchestrated occasion, Hadrian took Charles’ side and scathingly chided Tassilo for his obstinacy and that if he were not to submit, then Charles and the Frankish armies would be free of all sins when they fell with fire and sword upon the Bavarians.76 Charles was now free to summon Tassilo to Worms and when he refused to attend, three armies marched against him in 787—one from the north, Charles with the main army from the west and the vice-roy of Lombardy assumed a hostile position toward the Tirol in the south.77 Partly deserted by his supporters, Charles had been able to draw many of the Bavarian magnates to his side, Tassilo had no choice but to surrender without a fight. Outside of Augsburg Tassilo once again renewed his vassalage and was pardoned. Once returned to his residence in Regensburg and supposedly goaded by his ‘rancorous’ Lombardic wife Liutpirc, ‘a woman hateful to God’ according to the chronicler (Annals 788), he resumed his rebellious ways and supposedly even negotiated with the eastern Avars. Informed, perhaps betrayed, by Bavarian nobles loyal to the Carolingians, Charles summoned Tassilo to the diet at Ingelheim. According to the records, with his family rounded up, not surprisingly, Tassilo confessed his treasonable activities, surrendered his treasure, was deposed and was condemned to death. But since the Carolingians could not execute one of their own, he was pardoned in 788 and sentenced to end his life as a monk in the monastery of Jumièges, near Rouen in Normandy. His two sons were sent somewhere else78 He died there between 794 and 800. He and his sons were probably blinded first. Liutpirc was exiled and the whole family disappeared behind monastery walls— his daughter was cloistered at Chelles—and from the accounts. This was very much of a trumped up charge and it has also been suggested that his original oath of loyalty was reinterpreted as his oath of vassalage, even though he had not become Charles’ vassal till 787 and that it was now that the court remembered his desertion of the campaign in 763 and that it was this act of broken fealty that now 76
See Collins, p. 85, for a version of the pope’s outburst. Stollenmeyer, Der Kelch des Herzogs Tassilo, p. 11. 78 Riché, Carolingians, pp. 101f. See Nelson, ‘kingship and empire’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 63. See Collins, p. 87. 77
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brought the death sentence upon him.79 His wife and children were also confined in convents and monasteries. As was mentioned, it is possible that Tassilo was blinded, as was customary. Henceforth his memory was condemned as he and his family disappeared from the records. The damnatio memoriae was suspended over them. Other hostile magnates were banished and the duchy was abolished and subdivided into jurisdictions administered by Frankish counts.80 It was ultimately joined to Italy and placed under the rule of Charles’ son Pepin. Tassilo had been hauled once more before the great Synod in Frankfurt (794), where he again had to renounce all claims to power. It must have mattered to Charles to have the duchy handed over to him by its last duke. Henceforth counts replaced the dukes and Bavaria and Carinthia were incorporated into the Carolingian kingdom.81 His territorial possessions were distributed, to monastic establishments, for instance,82 Tassilo’s monasteries were entrusted to Frankish bishops. Salzburg was now elevated to an archbishopric. Bavaria had lost its distinct status. In telling this tragic story a number of historical facts have not been mentioned while others have been anticipated. The establishment of Carolingian power, reorganization and ensuing Frankification of the realm involved the suppression of particular interests, including conspiracies to assassinate Charles.83 Covered up in the pro-Carolingian records, these events appear to have been an early expression among others of the Carolingians’ ambitions, their intentions and methods. The grandiose design of an Imperium Christianum allowed the succession through only one dynastic line. Because of his descent Tassilo’s children might have risen to be serious rivals. Having been blinded, he and his were disqualified, as was customary among the Byzantines.
79
Angenendt, Frühmittelalter, p. 302. B. Arnold, Medieval Germany, 500–1300. A Political Interpretation (Toronto, Buffalo 1997), p. 2, suggests that the motive was the confiscation of Bavaria in order to secure the eastern frontiers in preparation for a campaign against the Avars. 81 B. Arnold, Princes and Territories in medieval Germany (Cambridge 1991), p. 93, joins other voices when he attributes the failure of the Carolingian empire to its rejection of an open aristocratic formation with the dukes at its head, in which military, economic and political services to the crown would be forthcoming on the basis of autonomous commands and jurisdictions in the regions. 82 Geary, Remembrance, p. 117, who notes the land transfer to Benediktbeuren. 83 Brunner, Oppositionelle Gruppen, pp. 40ff. Collins, p. 88, emphasizes the traditional ruthlessness with which the Carolingians pursued the elimination of the ducal families with any residual Merovingian ties. 80
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II. Towards Empire Following the death of Pepin III in 769, Charles (21) and Carloman (17) shared the kingdom. Pepin retained the traditional division of his realm but instituted a significant departure from usual practice by dividing the realm into a northern and a southern part rather than into the traditional western and eastern sections. This partition ignored any regional cohesions that may have come into being. The northern sections of Neustria and Austrasia along with western Aquitaine were awarded to Charles. Carloman received Alemania, the Alsace, southern Neustria with Soissons and Paris, Burgundy, eastern Aquitaine and the south. Italy was detached. The effect of this partition was the paralysis of the realm and dissension among the brothers. When Aquitaine revolted, Carloman did not come to Charles’ assistance. To strengthen Charles’ position his mother, Bertrada, was instrumental in arranging the marriage, perhaps in 770, between Charles and the daughter of the Lombard king Desiderius mentioned above. The kingdom of the Lombards was not a cultural backwater, but engaged and well evolved in a cultural renewal of its own. Bertrada may have been keenly aware of possible advantages in such a union of the Franks with the Lombards.84 He repudiated her after only one year, according to Einhard, for no known reason.85 Perhaps the cause can be found in the strained relations between Charles and Desiderius. Neither event was recorded in the Royal Frankish Annals. The brief marriage was childless. Perhaps this was the reason or because he wanted to disentangle himself politically from his father-in-law. Pope Stephen III opposed this marriage and his letter to the Frankish kings bristles with condemnation of the Lombards and the base considerations, which facilitated the marriage.86 The tension between the brothers brought them to the brink of fratricidal war. Carloman’s death, 4.12.771, averted the outbreak of hostilities. Charles became king of the reunited realm. In retrospect it appears that Charles wanted to establish a subordinate Carolingian line in Italy. Ten years later he initiated the first step.
84
W. Braunfels, Die Welt der Karolinger und ihre Kunst, (Munich 1968), pp. 35, 91. Thorpe, Einhard, p. 73. 86 Mohr, p. 33. B. Pollmann (ed.) Lesebuch zur deutschen Geschichte, vol. I (Dortmund 1984), pp. 112ff. 85
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Brief reference has been made to Lombard ambitions to unify Italy under their rule, to annex the Byzantine enclaves and Rome (772). Evidently the pope recognized the possibility of becoming subject to the interests of the Lombards close by and preferred the lordship of the distant Franks. Pope Hadrian appealed to Charles to honor the promised responsibilities, which the royal house of the Franks had accepted toward the papacy, and to carry out the role of defender of the Roman church. Following a long siege the starved out the Lombard capital, Pavia,87 surrendered in June 774, Desiderius was deposed, not usual practice, and Charles himself immediately assumed the unconstitutional succession to the Lombard throne. Any opposition by the heir presumptive, Adalgis, and by the duke of Friuli in 776 was quickly struck down. This move by the Carolingians had a dual effect: Charles undermined the basis of the relationship, which existed between the Bavarians and the Lombards. By attracting Bavarian nobles to his cause, Charles weakened Tassilo’s position. As king of the Lombards, Charles’ role as patricius Romanorum assumed a different guise and as rex Francorum et Langobardorum atque patricius Romanorum did not hesitate to take seriously his role as protector of the Papal states, though it was not till 781 that Charles recognized some of pope Hadrian’s territorial claims. Relations with the imperial court in Constantinople drew closer. At Easter 781 the pope anointed Charles’ sons Carloman, henceforth called Pepin, and Louis, aged 3, kings and though they were still not of age, Charles entrusted Pepin with the provincial kingship in Italy, including Bavaria, and Louis with Aquitaine.88 The intention evidently was the consolidation of the realm through the reintegration of Bavaria and the integration of the newly conquered regions into a unified realm. With his son Charles, heir to the Frankish core lands, Charles may have planned to put the tri-partite administration of the realm into place early. A generation later these plans were to cause serious problems in the succession. Gradually the Frankish nobility—Franks, Burgundians and Alemans—assumed powers in Italy. The Frankish court retained administrative control over the young kings and their government. They remained delegates of the central authority. That
87 Collins, p. 61f. stresses the presumptions reflected in the unusual sequence of events following the victory over the Lombards. 88 Nelson, ‘Carolingian Royal Ritual’, in Frankish World, pp. 102ff.
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same year he expanded his relations with the eastern empire through the engagement of his daughter Rotrud with the future emperor, perhaps as a means of defining the contours of the ideal Frankish realm. Beginning in 774 Charles became the most powerful ruler in the west and an effective partner of the papacy in the formulation of imperial policy.89 The justification for calling him ‘Great’ was becoming evident. Already in about 777 a poem attributed to Paulinus of Aquileia anticipates the much later final conquest of the Saxons, while it glorifies the political use of terror in their conquest and enforced conversion. The poem bestows on Charles a Messianic aura for having overcome the evil, barbaric and unteachable demon worshippers.90 As most Christian protector of the church, as king of the Franks and Lombards, the enthusiasts could propagate the notion that Charles was God’s chosen to rule an empire and as God’s representative protect and guide all Christendom, and beside whom as Christ’s first servant, the bishops could occupy only secondary rank. Surprising in this context is the level of sophistication of Roman legal reasoning, which Charles had in his service. This august position in Christendom attracted Charles to intervene in problems arising on the periphery of his kingdom. His campaign into Moslem Spain (778), actually against Christian Basques, hoped to incorporate some Christian enclaves into his realm but proved unsuccessful. (Annals 778) The loss of his rearguard during the retreat from Spain in an attack by Basques in the Pyrenees, in the valley of Roncesvalles, did lead to one of the great tales of medieval heroism, the Chanson de Roland. To anticipate possible unrest in Aquitaine and to secure this region for the kingdom by recognizing its distinct status, Charles appointed his son Louis, to be known as ‘the Pious’, to the provincial kingship there in 781, at the same time as his son Pepin was crowned ‘king’ of Italy. Charles’ major efforts, however, were to be directed once again against the Saxons in the north. The Avars in the east were to be the last to attract the attention of the Franks.91 Both were considered to constitute a serious threat to the eastern regions of the Frankish kingdom.
89
Mohr, p. 40. Garrison, ‘The Franks as New Israel?’, in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 149. 91 W. Pohl, Die Awaren, Ein Steppenvolk in Mitteleuropa, 567–822 n.Chr. (Munich 1988). 90
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With the emergence of the Rhineland into economic prominence, the Frankish center of political and administrative gravity was shifting into Austrasia, as the palaces at Worms and Ingelheim and ultimately Aachen/Aix la Chapelle became the preferred residences for the court. This entailed greater preoccupation with the non-too distant pagan and aggressive Saxons. Despite the concerted efforts by Anglo-Saxon missionaries to Christianize their ‘relatives’ they were unsuccessful to change their ways, as the Saxons, in their solidarity, clung to the cults dedicated to their Germanic gods. It also seems the Saxons understood the Christianization as pacification and the preparation for the establishment of Frankish dominance over them92 and did their best to hinder the foundation of Frankish monasteries within reach of their domains. Repeatedly fledgling monasteries were destroyed—in 752 some thirty churches.93 In their own worldview the political, cultural and religious elements were so closely interlinked that the removal of one component jeopardized the entire structure. Having helped the early Merovingians destroy the kingdom of the Thuringians (534) they felt slighted during the years following for having to pay tribute and having lost territories to the Franks on their southern flank. This forced their expansion into a westerly direction threatening Hesse and the Austrasian Rhineland. They were not prepared to be reasonable and do things the Frankish way. Nor were they prepared to envisage the fact that opposition to the Franks was going to bring almost thirty years of nearly genocidal war upon them. The Christian Frankish point of view, that any total war for ‘the greater glory of God’ against pagans was indeed a just war, was to have a long future. Already the Merovingians, Charles Martel, and according to the Annals, his sons Carloman and Pepin III had directed punitive reprisals against them almost annually and scored only temporary successes, but gradually the realization took hold that fighting them was akin to sweeping water and that Saxon assurances that the missionaries could work unhindered were most unreliable and the attempts at conversion were fruitless. The Anglo-Saxon missionaries seem to have concluded that only after permanent military victory and conquest would their efforts on behalf of the Christian faith endure. Charles first campaign against
92 93
Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, p. 191. Also Collins, p. 47. Noble and Head, Soldiers, p. xxxv.
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them in 772, according to the Annals 772 launched from Worms, had more the character of a punitive expedition to secure adjoining Frankish lands against Saxon raids. This campaign has assumed a legendary character and stands out because of the capture of the large fortified Eresburg and the destruction of an idol, a column, the Irminsul, sacred to Wodan/Odin, the most venerated pagan cultic ‘tree’ which supported the world and the symbol of Saxon tribal cohesion, erected on an elevation visible from afar. It was a sanctuary at which great treasure had been deposited and blood sacrifices were claimed to have been performed. The justification of the act was given by a water miracle, which provided the thirsting army on drought-stricken terrain with an amply flowing stream. Charles distributed the treasure among his followers, so that the sacred hoard was lost.94 It is not surprising that this violation of tribal identity for the sake of Christianity should have caused embitterment, demands for revenge and have roused the Saxons to utmost retaliatory resistance.95 According to the records, only in response to that treacherous resistance did Charles mobilize his extensive and persistent efforts to finalize the conquest and the Christianization of the Saxons by means of his ‘sermons with an iron tongue’ and their total integration into the realm of the Franks.96 New rules and procedures had to be implemented for the task. It is fair to wonder whether Saxon resistance to Christianity was really the only cause, which solicited the Frankish military effect. About sixty years after the conflict began, Einhard presents the rationale in the 7th chapter of his Vita Karoli Magni.97 No war undertaken by the Franks was more prolonged, more full of atrocities or more demanding of effort. It is worth noting what a severe dividing line Christianity was. Though from Thuringia himself, a Christian Einhard shows no affinity with his pagan Saxon neighbors when he writes that they, like almost all the peoples living in Germany, are ferocious by nature, much given to devil worship and hostile to ‘our’ religion, thinking it no dishonor to violate and transgress the laws of God and man. Along the Franco94 K. Hauk, Überregionale Sakralorte und die vorchristliche Ikonographie der Seegermanen, (Göttingen 1981), p. 211. See Collins, p. 47f. who suggests that the location of this idol may have had to do with erecting a challenge to the Christian God. 95 Collins, p. 45f., indicates that Frankish sources consistently interpret Saxon resistance as rebellion and a breaking of the faith. 96 Collins, p. 48f. for some strategic details. 97 Thorpe, Einhard, p. 61f.
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Saxon border, which Einhard represents as a clear line of demarcation, murder, robbery and arson were constant occurrences and that finally the time had come to stop retaliatory strikes and set out on full-scale war against the Saxons. In this war of thirty years Einhard regrets the great loss of life, especially among the Saxons, but blames them for their faithless violations of promises, submission, rejection and return to ‘devil worship’, his designation for the Germanic cults, followed by their acceptance and rejection of Christianity, and vacillation between surrender and defiance. With some pride he points out that Charles was relentless in the pursuit of his vengeance on them for their perfidy, resorting in the end to the deportation of many thousands of Saxons to Gaul and other parts of Germany. Place names are vestiges of such relocations, the most obvious being Sachsenhausen on the southern edge of Frankfurt. Finally conditions imposed by Charles were accepted by the Saxons who agreed to give up their ‘devil worship’, their old beliefs, and other inherited malpractices. Once they had adopted the Christian sacraments, they were to become one people with the Franks. Einhard mentions no names other than that of Charles, nor does he specify the atrocities committed by either side. He does not mention specifically that throughout the military actions the founding of churches, monasteries and administrative counties, sometimes even entrusted to Saxons, kept pace and that Saxon hostilities were directed repeatedly against these colonizing establishments. Wehrkirchen, fortified churches, probably also located in larger fortifications, will have been characteristic features of this conquest and conversion. It was appreciated that these foundations were latent centers of political power and control. Evidently the Saxons, led by one of their chiefs, Widukind, were fighting a guerilla war conducted by some resistance groups, ‘freedom fighters’, among the Saxons. The Saxon guerilla tactics were interpreted as sneak attacks by the chroniclers of the Franks. Einhard does not mention that the Saxons under Widukind98 took advantage of Charles’ campaign in Spain to revolt. (Annals 778) These annals report victories, which, however, require frequent repetitions. Submissions have to be renewed. On at least one occasion, in 782, a Frankish force was annihilated along with some thirty courtiers 98 Collins, p. 50f., speculates that as in other duchies, Widukind may indeed represent a ducal family installed earlier among the Saxons by the Merovingians, but who had come to share the community of interests with their people.
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and nobles. This catastrophe caused much shock in the kingdom. The Annals for the year 782 speak of a large assembly along the river Lippe, attended by Norse representatives, envoys of the Avars, and of all the Saxon chiefs except for Widukind. Son-in-law of Siegfried, the Danish king, Widukind was able to rely on the support of the Danes and saw no need to be one of the friends of the Franks. Not yet. At that assembly a law had been passed which presumed the land of the Saxons to be integrated into the Frankish realm, divided into Frankish counties administered by Saxon nobles and subject to severe Frankish laws.99 The imposition of death sentences was a frequent punishment. Widukind easily found a willing following within the tribe to rise with him against the Franks. The Annals indicate that the Saxons defeated a Frankish force that was actually intended to be a thrust (unmotivated?) against a few defiant Slavic Sorbs on the upper Elbe River. Upon hearing of the Saxon revolt they changed the assignment to attack the Saxons. The records don’t seem to deal with the defeat and rather than reporting the truth, claim a victory with the death of only two magnates. The Revised Annals for that year tell of an incompetent campaign, hampered by jealousies among the Frankish leaders, which led to the disaster and the losses indicated. Part of the Frankish force was surrounded by the Saxon battle line and cut down almost to a man.100 The accounts may be a cover-up. Charles’ response has left a blemish on his reputation. In the autumn of 782 he entered Saxony and at Verden, where the rivers Aller and Weser join, the loyal Saxons came to submit to the authority of the king and handed over 4500 malefactores, ‘evildoers’, to be punished. The number seems high and is probably typically inflated.101 There is, however, no mention of hostages or of binding agreements. Charles seems to have reached the end of his patience. In a single day he had all of them beheaded. Widukind had escaped to the Danes. A year later, the Saxons resumed their rebellion. Einhard did not mention the event.
99
See Collins, p. 52f., for details of the severe pronouncements contained in the clauses proclaimed against pagan practices among the Saxons. The document also offers insights into the (economic) terms under which churches were established. 100 Collins, p. 54. 101 Fouracre, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 103, speaks of 4000 decapitations, which may well have prolonged Saxon resistance. See Collins, pp. 54f., 57, who draws a parallel with the destruction of the Alemans as an effective power at the battle of Cannstatt forty years earlier, in 745/46.
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Who were these Saxons on whom Widukind, his name meaning ‘Wodan’s child’, could rely for support? The simple answer would suggest the simple folk, the conservative elements of the population which rejected what was foreign and new, because it was not easily understood positively, who were more closely concerned about the possible loss of familiar traditions and values, of their religious identity and their traditional divinities, all those levels of society which are most vulnerable to socio-political changes, whose imagination can much more easily envisage losses but not readily perceive the potential gains. Not so the Saxon nobility who had seen the opportunity to realize a community of interests with the Franks a long time earlier and had begun to establish marriage ties to the highest Frankish nobility, economic links with Frankish towns and cities even beyond the Rhine, to the Christian church. This group did not provide the core for the Saxon resistance. As was mentioned above Saxon nobles were sharing in the distribution of the power structure in those areas over which the Franks were gaining control. Charles knew how to attract the Saxon nobility to his cause by means of assurances concerning property and the promise of royal protection. Already earlier, Anglo-Saxon missionaries had been rescued by Christian sympathizers among the Saxons, and evidently Charles could count on Saxon support when he asked that the responsible ‘evildoers’, ‘freedom fighters’, ‘terrorists’ be surrendered. The request doesn’t seem to have led to turmoil among the Saxons as it is likely that the victims were selected from among the unfree and lesser free who only had material value and were handed over as a form of payment, the Wergeld. There will not have been any nobles among the executed malefactores. The gentle king serving his gentle God had lost his credibility. Was it a divine judgment that first his beloved wife and then his mother died within a few months after the executions? Hereafter the Saxon wars entered a new dimension as resentments and resistance really flared up. Even the eastern Frisians joined in. Once again Widukind assumed the leadership. ‘Terrorism’ prevailed on both sides. Three campaigns of destruction in as many years, including a devastating winter campaign in 784/85, were necessary to bring about the surrender, baptism and reconciliation of Widukind in 785 at Attigny. He chose Charles to be his godfather.102 Contrary 102 See J.H. Lynch, ‘Spirituale Vinculum: the Vocabulary of Spiritual Kinship in Early medieval Europe’, in Noble and Contreni, Religion, Culture and Society, pp. 181ff.
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to more customary practices Widukind was not ‘deprived of his eyes’ but was rewarded with vast estates near Enger. The Enger Reliquary, reputedly Charles’ gift to Widukind, is interpreted to be a symbol of his Christianization. According to the chronicler, writing a few years later, the whole of Saxony was then subjugated. (Annals 785 ) Contrary to this assertion the popular uprisings continued for nearly another twenty years, even without the active participation of Widukind.103 It is conceivable that his baptism was a ploy to ease the lot of his Saxons. Later, having become an integral part of the power structure in church and state, the Ottonian line of Saxon kings was proud of the dynastic link with Widukind. The Saxons were ultimately to be integrated into the Frankish realm. To bring this about ‘martial law’ was introduced in 785, which made it clear that conversion by force was the best method to achieve Saxon submission to Frankish rule. Under these laws, the Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae, perhaps already issued in 782, ruthless conversion on pain of death was mandatory. Any violation of churches, church property, of the clergy and obedience to the church, was met with the death penalty. Resisting baptism, eating meat during lent, were punishable by death. Cremating the dead drew the death penalty. A breach of loyalty to the king entailed the death penalty.104 A Frankish administration, as well as a church structure were imposed on the Saxons. The payment of tithes was introduced as a priority and rigorously enforced, while the religious work among them was neglected. Mass baptisms were no substitute for personal spiritual conversions, (Fig. 3) but there was no substitute for the shortage of missionaries. With Charles away fighting the Avars, the Saxons responded with another popular uprising in 792/93, which involved the whole region. In 794 Charles was able to restore order, only the lands between the Weser and Elbe Rivers, as well as northern TransElbia toward Holstein remained in revolt. During the next five years, and then again in 802 and finally in 804 Charles took the field against the opposition to his rule. By means of devastation, depopulation, resettlement and the replacement through Slavic populations he did gain control over the Saxons.105 In 804 a depopulated 103
Collins, p. 55f. Riché, p. 104. See Wallace-Hadrill, p. 413f. for excerpts from the first Saxon capitulary. 105 See Collins, p. 163, n. 20. 104
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Map 2. Secular Locations in the Carolingan Empire.
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North-Elbia was ceded to the Slavic Abodrites who advanced as far as Hamburg. Thanks to the mitigating influence of Anglo-Saxon legal advice, the revised Capitulatio de partibus Saxoniae had been issued in 797 as the Capitulare Saxonicum. Then in 802 the Lex Saxonum was issued, which created a synthesis of traditional popular law and Carolingian law.106 Within a framework of Frankish aspects, Saxon practices and structures remained essentially in place. It contributed directly to the merging of Franks and Saxons, which by the 10th century was to lead to the formation of medieval Germany. Most significant was to be the work of the established monasteries of the realm, which placed new foundations into Saxon lands, thereby integrating the new territories into the Frankish kingdom. Bishoprics were created in Münster, Osnabrück and Bremen and in 795 were placed under the new archbishopric of Cologne. Others had already been integrated into a network under the archbishopric of Mainz in 782/83. Many of the locations, like Paderborn, had begun as fortified Frankish sites during the wars with the Saxons. The Christianization of the Saxons was neither individual nor voluntary. Rudimentary Christian instruction followed by mass baptisms was imposed by force of Frankish arms. The Elbian north was not to come to rest just yet, as in 808 Danish land and naval forces began to lay claim to the northern coastlines and lands. A trading center, later known as Haithabu, was to anchor west-east trade across Jutland. The Franks responded with the erection of a fortress at Itzehoe, as well as the renewed extension into northern Elbia and perhaps even the construction of the Limes Saxoniae. A war with the Danes was averted when their king was murdered (810) and the possible reversion of the Saxons to paganism was avoided. Hamburg became Saxon again in 811. Danish southward expansion remained a factor for several centuries to come. It marked the up beat for what was to become the turmoil brought by the Scandinavian Vikings, an uncertain designation, which the 9th century English used for the pirates, perhaps intended to identify the ‘men from Viken’, the region of the Oslo Fjord. Most sources speak of Nortmanni.107
106
Riché, p. 106f. See Collins, pp. 167ff. Also B. Sawyer, P. Sawyer, Medieval Scandinavia from Conversion to Reformation circa 800–1500 (Minneapolis, London 1993), p. 52f. 107
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Towards eastern Elbia the Carolingians established several strongly fortified control points, such as Bardowick, and Magdeburg, where the W-E trade routes crossed the River Elbe. They also appeared to have tried to transform the Elbe-Saale river system into something of an eastern frontier in the form of the former Roman RhineDanube limes, extending via Bamberg and Regensburg to the Danube. The experiment, however, failed, owing to the lack of sustainable long-term Frankish power along the Elbe. There seems to be no mention of an attempt to link the river frontier between Elbe and Danube.108 Having incorporated Lombardy, Bavaria, and with the conquest of Saxony well under way by 790, Charles could turn to the last threat to his frontiers from the east, the Avars.109 These Avars no longer represented the power, which they once were in earlier centuries. They had compacted their domains territorially and were no longer expansionist. When in 788, the Annals speak of a last aggressive and expansionist phase in which they reputedly threatened Bavaria and northern Italy and were repulsed, the sources may very well have disguised the Franko-Bavarian eastward expansionist aggression, a compensation for Bavaria’s loss of its duke, Tassilo III, and of its relative independence in 788. In 788 two Avar armies moved westward, but were both repulsed. In 790 Avars tried to negotiate their western border and it appears that the Franks made territorial claims to which the Avars would not agree. Charles’ moves in 791 may also have been intended to secure the territorial claims, though supposedly they were a response to the supposed threats of the Avars, or also possibly represented as a punishment for their willingness to assist Tassilo, when in 781 an Avar army had appeared on Bavaria’s eastern border as though to support Tassilo. Once again expanding Christianity may have contributed to the cause.110 The campaign proved ineffective at first. The Annals 791 describe the campaign in some detail and the elaborately spectacular religious preparations for
108 M. Hardt, ‘Hesse, Elbe, Saale and the Frontier of the Carolingian empire’ in Pohl, et al. The Transformation of Frontiers From Late Antiquity to the Carolingians (Leiden, Boston, Cologne 2001), p. 231. 109 Pohl, Awaren, p. 310f. for a discussion of Bavarian and Avar relations during the 8th century based on archeology. See Collins, pp. 89ff. 110 Collins, p. 93, considers Bavarian missionary activity a possible factor for the frictions along the border.
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the encounter. From Regensburg the army marched along both banks of the Danube while the supplies were transported on the river.111 Before this army the Avars withdrew, leaving abandoned regions to the Franks. A disease killed off most of their horses. The Frankish accounts appear to have exaggerated the ‘triumph’, because the Avars avoided a pitched battle and all that could be reported was wide scale devastation and pillage. The vast treasures of silver and gold were elsewhere. The weaknesses of the Avars had been made evident. For a war of conquest, however, greater preparations were necessary. Charles stayed in Regensburg where he became receptive to the idea that a canal could utilize the existing navigable river system to link the Rhine River with the Danube and such a canal was started. It was not to be completed because the marshy terrain undid over night what had been achieved during the day. The idea was to be revitalized periodically and in the 1980s became a reality, but is only moderately successful. Perhaps relying on the Avars, revolts erupted between 792 and 795 among Saxons, Frisians and Slavs and the emir of Cordoba saw opportunities and with family strife to boot, Charles was forced to transfer his attention away from the Avars.112 In 795 and 796 more extensive preparation and sporadic campaigns brought success to the Italian preemptive strikes, under the leadership of Eric of Friuli and Pepin, Charles’ son, sub-king in Italy, respectively. (Annals 788) Slavs had assisted Eric and together they captured the treasure of the Avars and sent large amounts of it to Aachen, with some going to St. Peter’s in Rome. (Annals 796 ). The long-term effects of the campaign of 791 revealed the inherent weakness of the Avars, as tribal tensions pulled their realm apart. By 796 the rulers of the Avars had submitted to the Franks and accepted Christianity and Frankish overlordship.113 In the end eight years of campaigns were so successful that the Avars ceased to exist as a people, their lands left nearly vacant. Einhard tells us this and also that their nobility was completely eliminated and that all of their wealth now passed into Frankish hands. Never before had a war so enriched
111 Pohl, p. 316, mentions that the records name the presence of a Nibulunc. Vestiges of this campaign may have provided basic elements for the later Nibelungenlied, the great German medieval epic. See Collins, p. 93f. for details concerning the preparation for the campaign. 112 Pohl, p. 318. 113 Pohl, p. 319.
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the Franks and increased their material possessions.114 The formerly Roman Pannonian provinces south and west of the Danube had been incorporated into the Frankish kingdom as the East March, the Ostmark, eventually to be known as Österreich, Austria. Missions from Salzburg and Passau in the north and Aquileia in the south were given the task of completing the integration of the gens bruta et irrationabilis. The Avars were only gradually converted, for the process of subjugation and Christianization was a more protracted one than the easy victory would have suggested.115 Other than dealing with an uprising of the Avars in 799, the Franks showed no future interests in the regions beyond the frontiers of their eastern conquests.116 Subsequently the Avars felt the pressure of the Slavs to the point that they sought modest settlement and support from the Franks, as the Slavs established the realms of the Moravians and Bohemians on the territories once dominated by the Avars. In just over twenty years Charles had reclaimed much of the Roman Empire in the west. All of the former western imperial capitals, it was argued,—Rome, Trier, Ravenna and Milan God had placed under his rule. He had extended the kingdom to include lands in Central Europe, over which Rome had not been able to gain control—Lombardy in 774, Aquitaine and most of Italy including the Papal states in 781, Bavaria in 788, Saxony in 799, and Pannonia of the Avars in 796. Saxony was the territorial addition, which was to remain problematic along its northern edges, because of Danish expansions into the region. The Annals for the next few years indicate that the Avars were not beyond staging revolts either. However, for the Franks military expansion was no longer an option as, owing to military misadventures, they had exhausted their qualified human resources through battle losses to staff the administrative infrastructure. Their peasantry was no longer available for recruitment and frontline service, other than as occasional selected groups for defense.117 Not till the later reign of Ludwig, erroneously to be called
114
Thorpe, p. 67. See also Pohl, p. 312 who sees in this victory over the Avars a significant step toward the establishment of empire. 115 Pohl, p. 319f. 116 H. Reimitz, ‘Conversion and Control: The establishment of Liturgical Frontiers in Carolingian Pannonia’, in Pohl, et al. Frontiers, pp. 189ff. Reimitz, p. 197, suggests that the disappearance of the Avars was a heavy blow to Carolingian policy and its orientation. 117 T. Reuter, ‘The End of Carolingian Military expansion’, in P. Godman,
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‘the German’, was the East Frankish kingdom again able somehow to put several armies into the field simultaneously.118 Already some fifteen years before his imperial coronation in 800 Charles came to be seen in terms of his greatness and assumed something of the triumphant role of the Roman emperors.119 Alcuin had argued that Christ had reserved the sovereign status for Charles which outstripped the powers of the papacy and of the Byzantine court. He wielded not only the temporal power, but the religious power as well and it is fair to argue that despite the military preoccupation, he intended to create the Imperium Christianum, of which Alcuin had spoken earlier, a theocracy of the realm, which he had inherited from his father. By means of a reform of the Frankish church, Pepin and Boniface had laid the groundwork for such an edifice. Charles, however, had departed from the norm and risen to a higher plane of support by placing the resources of the realm behind the reform effort, equating church and state,120 intent on creating the Imperium Christianum. It was a strategy of grandiose intent, which culminated in his imperial coronation. The great events, cultural initiatives and accomplishments of his reign fall into these two decades and point clearly to the realization of his grand objective. Literacy and learning from authentic, correct and unambiguous texts, true faith and devotion, victory and conquest, loyalty, art, architecture and the participation of all in the one great vision were the means by which a free people tended to its spiritual well-being and united in its Christian faith, supported by an army of saints, inhabiting a united, sanctified Christian realm, could be consolidated and prepared to assume its great, singular, Christian role. The Admonitio generalis was to bring this about. His coronation in 800 was a logical conclusion, though not, apparently, his overriding objective. He was to derive the idea that he was a new Moses, a new David now leading his chosen people to salvation. In 789 the Admonitio generalis recalled the Old Testament king Josiah and although Charles modestly
R. Collins (eds.), Charlemagne’s Heir, New Perspectives on the Reign of Louis the Pious (814–849) (Oxford 1990), pp. 391–405. 118 T. Reuter, Early Medieval Germany (London, New York 1991), p. 90. 119 Fouracre, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 104. See also Arnold, pp. 78ff. 120 T.F.X. Noble, ‘From Brigandage to Justice. Charlemagne, 785–794’, in C.M. Chazelle (ed.), Literacy, Politics, and Artistic Innovation in the Early Medieval West (Lanham, New York, London 1992), pp. 51ff.
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rejected the association, he did emulate that king by personally tending to the needs of the realm through his tours of inspection. Probably not generally perceived, this association was yet another indication how much the Carolingian court sought not only the image of the royal role-models of the Old Testament,121 but the extent to which Biblical history was taken to be an allegory, replicable as contemporary history, as if it was God’s divine plan to transform the ‘New Chosen People of the Franks’ into the ‘Chosen People of Israel’.122 The Moses association recommended itself for Charlemagne who is seen to be leading the Christian people into the realm of universal Christendom, the new ‘promised land’. The pedagogy of school and pulpit bore this responsibility. It will be demonstrated below how much Carolingian art reflected and supported this association. Art of the illuminations was to make visible the renewal, the Revelatio within the Restauratio, Renovatio, and Reformatio.123 One sought the mirror image, the emphasis on deeds in addition to the signs of spiritual dedication. Later when pope Hadrian I wanted him to cede the promised lands in Italy, he appealed to Charles to act as a new Constantine. Following his father’s lead, Charles took special interests and acted decisively in the reforms of the church, its texts, its organization, its foundations, the standardization throughout the realm of the liturgy concerning the Sacraments in Roman terms, such questions of Theology as dogma concerning the identity of Christ as God, and the cult of images. All point to the traditional identification with Christian Rome as the pure source.124 121 Garrison, ‘The Franks as the new Israel?’ in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 120, indicates that it was Charlemagne’s non-Frankish entourage who was responsible for the promotion of the idea. However, see Noble, ‘Brigandage’, in Chazelle, Literacy, Politics, pp. 55ff. See also Contreni, Carolingian Learning, p. III, 64, for the modest, practical, educational demands. Also pp. V, 75f. 122 Mohr, p. 41f. See Nelson, ‘Carolingian Royal Ritual’ in Frankish Worlds, p. 108f. D. Janes, ‘The world and its past as Christian allegory in the early Middle Ages’, in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 103. argues that the Bible was used “as a succession of allegories”. See also M. de Jong, ‘Religion’, in R. McKitterick, The Early Middle Ages, Europe 400–1000 (Oxford 2001), p. 138f. suggests that this equation was only an early analogy drawn by the Franks and that by 820 this equation had been replaced by the idea of a ‘church of the Peoples’. See also Collins, pp. 109ff. for a discussion of the ecclesiastical character of the prescriptions, many reissued. 123 Wallace-Hadrill, p. 196. 124 Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, pp. 175–186, discusses the royal legislation pertinent to facilitating the episcopal administration. See H. Schneider, ‘Roman Liturgy and Frankish Allegory’, in J.M.H. Smith (ed.), Early Medieval Rome and the Christian West (Leiden, Boston, Köln 2000), p. 344.
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From that dispute on the distinction between the eastern and western church appears to have become a consideration reflected in the Libri Carolini, 790–93, formerly attributed to Alcuin, but actually, owing to the many Hispanicisms, edited and commented by the Visigoth Theodulph of Orléans.125 This was a collection of papal letters collected by Charles in which his distinct religious and optical role was emphasized as an indication of the congruence of religious and political considerations, which motivated him. Generally speaking, Charles returned to the theme of the Admonitio generalis and his concern with his program of educational reform to promote the qualified membership in the Christian realm, the ‘new Israel’, ruled by the ‘new David’. Specifically the collection is to be considered as a royal response to the Second Council of Nicea of 787, concerning the Byzantine veneration of icons and the charge of idolatry, which in the 720s had caused the Byzantine Iconoclasm, the destruction of icons. Eventually the dissension extended to a concern for the return of some Byzantine possessions in Italy and consequently strained relations with the papacy and the Carolingians owing to their respective territorial ambitions. In 787 the empress Irene convened the Council at Nicea, which was intended to restore the conditions preceding the Iconoclasm.126 Since pope Hadrian I was represented, his representatives returned with a Greek account of the proceedings, which were subsequently not only poorly translated into Latin, but ‘improved’ by the translator.127 A faulty translation caused misunderstandings of the Council’s decision and great upset when the rendition seemed to order all Christians to venerate images and threaten all those who did not comply with excommunication. Such
125 See A. Freeman, Opus Caroli Regis contra Synodum (Libri Carolini) Monumenta Germaniae Historica (Hanover 1998), pp. 12ff., 17ff. According to Collins, p. 135. Alcuin was away in Northumbria during most of the period. See L. Nees, ‘Carolingian Art and Politics’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, p. 194. Also T.F.X. Noble, ‘Tradition and Learning in Search of Ideology’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, pp. 227ff., for a review of the considerations concerning this source. Also Noble, ‘Brigandage’, in Chazelle, Literacy, Politics, pp. 61ff. for a summary of the text. 126 Freeman, pp. 1ff. See Noble, ‘Tradition and Learning’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, pp. 229ff. Also Nees, Early Christian Art, p. 146f. for a background to the Iconoclasm. See W.J. Diebold, Word and Image. An Introduction to Early Medieval Art (Boulder 2000), pp. 99ff. Also C.M. Chazelle, The Crucified God in the Carolingian Era (Cambridge 2001), pp. 39ff. 127 D.S. Sefton, ‘The Popes and the Holy Images in the Eighth Century’, in Noble and Contreni (eds.), Religion, Culture and Society, p. 120f.
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a copy somehow reached Charlemagne. Using the works of the early Christian authorities,128 Theodulph had begun a well-intentioned, occasionally sarcastic response to the Second Council of Nicea in 790/91 and parts of this response had been forwarded to the pope, entitled Capitulare adversus synodum, who in 792 rejected it angrily point by point. The unexpected response ended the discussion and a rift was avoided. Hadrian had sponsored the Council himself in the hope of bridging the gap between eastern and western Christians concerning the veneration of images and thereby contributing to the reconciliation of the two churches. Hadrian appeared to accept the decision at Nicea as orthodox. In Rome it was misunderstood that the Franks were not opposed to images, only to their veneration. Veneration was reserved for God. The educational value residing in the admiration of saints and in edifying pictures, as means of the beautification of interiors, was entirely acceptable. To the Franks the pope’s dictum to comply with the Byzantine decision did not reflect their faith. Accommodation to it was necessary.129 Deuteronomy 6:13 and Matthew 4:10 provided the basis in Scriptures. Repeatedly the Libri challenged the Greek attempt to equate their images with truly holy objects. Almost finished, the Libri were abandoned on the eve of the scheduled Synod of Frankfurt in 794 and the agenda was modified. Charles could not publish his manifesto. The Carolingians may have pursued a different agenda in their objections, to establish their claim to be the true successors of the Biblical kings and not the Byzantine emperors.130 Only four copies of the Libri Carolini are extant.131 It would appear that Charles accepted the principles outlined in chapter 24 of St. Augustine’s De civitate dei, on the felicity of Christian emperors. According to Einhard, Charles preferred to be read to at mealtime from ‘The City of God’.132 Augustine had stressed that the earthly kingdom was merely a reflection of the eternal kingdom of God.133 While God’s kingdom was eternal, the earthly kingdom
128
See Freeman, pp. 51ff. for a review of the authors Theodulph used. Freeman, pp. 8f., 25. 130 Noble, ‘Brigandage’, in Chazelle, Literacy, Politics, pp. 62–65. 131 Freeman, pp. 67ff. also Noble, ‘Tradition and Learning’, p. 332. See Chazelle, Crucified God, pp. 69ff., for a discussion of the influence of Theodulfs work. 132 Thorpe, p. 78. 133 Riché, p. 130. G. Brown, ‘The Carolingian Renaissance’, in R. McKitterick, Carolingian Culture: emulation and innovation (Cambridge 1994), p. 25. 129
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changed its rulers in accordance with God’s purpose. Thus God’s favor for Saul was withdrawn and transferred to David. Thus the Byzantine emperors had forfeited their select status, which was now to be transferred to Charles as God’s chosen. Hence the equation between king David and king Charles. Since Christ was of the house of David, the realization of the kingdom of Christ became the purpose of the idea of the Frankish kingdom. It accounts for the rejection of the Roman, formerly pagan, tradition. For Augustine, Rome was to be equated with the Whore of Babylon, now linked with Byzantium. In Augustine, the kingdom of David is represented as a reform, which redirects it toward the new and eternal kingdom of Christ.134 Rather than referring to the Imperium Romanum of the eastern emperors, one contrasted it with the Imperium Christianum. The papal letters of the Libri Carolini were the voice of the church, and reflected the voice of St. Peter himself concerning these questions. The letters indicate that the popes elevated Charles to the position, which he now claimed for himself. The Synod of Frankfurt (794), the most significant synod in Charles’ reign and the counterpart to Nicea II, supports this claim. It had a deliberately ecumenical appearance, which the Frankish sources stressed as a synodus universalis. The Annals 794 speak of the great council of Gallic, German and Italian bishops. The first three items on its agenda were the theological dispute about Adoptionism, the Second Council of Nicea135 and the Tassilo affair. The Synod rejected the ‘spurious’ council of the Greeks at Nicea as ‘not universal’ and ‘entirely invalid’, but the matter of images was dropped. Among other things, the king as rex et sacerdos emerges as the supreme lord of the church.136 As such it became his function to combat the visible
134
Mohr, p. 44. Freeman, p. 9. Also Noble, ‘Tradition and Learning’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, p. 235. See also T.F.X. Noble, ‘John Damascene and the History of the Iconoclastic Controversy’, in Noble and Contreni, Religion, Culture and Society, pp. 95ff. Also D.S. Sefton, ‘The Popes and the Holy Images in the Eighth Century’, in Noble and Contreni, pp. 117ff. Concerning other heresies, see Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, p. 187f. 136 Angenendt, p. 351f. See J. Nelson, ‘kingship and empire’ in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 61, who cites Alcuin’s quotation to pope Leo III: “Our job is the defense of the church and the fortification of the Faith; yours to aid our warfare by prayer.” Braunfels, p. 125, suggests that in 794 Charles stopped being the itinerant ruler on horseback and became the residential ruler seated on a throne. Collins, p. 128, suggests that this synod may have been the most important ecclesiastical council of Charles’ reign. Collins lists some of the attendees and items on 135
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enemies of the Christ, while the bishops employed the spiritual weapons of prayer on his behalf against the invisible enemies.137 The exercise of his function makes the task of the church possible. This division of powers becomes the basis of the idea of empire. The king rules the visible kingdom of which Christ is the invisible Lord. The power for both church and state derives from God. As the visible realm was a reflection of the invisible realm of God, and as God stands above Christ, so the king stands above the representative of the spiritual authority, for the bishop as representative of Christ is in second place.138 Einhard tells us that Charles was personally qualified to assume the leadership in such a creation as an Imperium Christianum, in Alcuin’s words.139 Einhard speaks of Charles’ great personal devotion and piety, his concerns for religious proprieties, the generosity of his gifts in gold and silver to his cathedral at Aachen, his attention to reforms in the liturgy, his disinterested charity within his kingdom and all Christians beyond papal Rome, the church of St. Peter in Rome as well as the pope himself were not only to enjoy his protection but benefited particularly from his treasury, especially from the treasure of the Avars. According to Einhard, the city of Rome was intended to regain its previous position of splendor.140 In view of his accomplishments he came to be credited with holding a position bestowed on him by God, to rule the Christian world. According to Alcuin, who was most probably the author of Charles’ letter to the new pope Leo III, (795–816) welcoming him to his position, Charles claimed for himself both the outer and inner guidance of the church, while the pope was to restrict his activities to supportive prayer. As king, God had armed him with the Two Swords of the Two Authorities of royal power and priestly authority with which he was to protect the church from false doctrine and the attacks of all heathen and unbelieving enemies and to confirm the Christian faith through knowledge of the doctrine. The pope was
the agenda. Concerning Adoptionism, see Collins, pp. 129ff. and other sources. See Noble, ‘Tradition and Learning’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, pp. 237ff., for a summary of the content and organizational logic of the Libri Carolini. Also Sefton, in Noble and Contreni, p. 124f. 137 See Arnold, p. 81. 138 Mohr, p. 50. 139 Löwe, p. 155. See also Riché, p. 119. 140 Thorpe, pp. 79ff.
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restricted to support any struggle through his power of prayer.141 With these ideological considerations in mind Charles had convoqued synods to combat the spread of heresies and had taken a very strong stand in the disputes concerning the worship of images, insisting that the pope Hadrian excommunicate the emperor. In 796 Alcuin termed him ‘Lord and Father, King and Priest, the Leader and Guide of all Christians’. Already pope Gelasius I (492–496) had proposed a division but also a coexistence of competencies to rule the world—the higher power of the hallowed sanctity of the bishops, auctoritas, and the imperial power, potestas. Church and state were to share authority on earth without strife.142 Pope Hadrian had attempted to abrogate some of the king’s powers to himself. Though a source of conflict during the later periods, at this time the Two Authorities were seen to be of relatively equal value.143 Owing to the strength of his own personality Charles personified both Authorities. He never deferred to the pope or approached him as the higher authority. Charles was able to play the role of the king-priest, rexsacerdos, more effectively than the Byzantine emperor, than his Carolingian successors. To Alcuin Charles was the appointed of Christ to lead the Christian people. Earlier notions of Eternal Victory/Eternal Empire had been adopted and adapted by the Imperium Romanum in its Christian guise.144 The unification, order and peace, which Charles had brought to his Christian realm, were taken to be a most significant portent and proof that the new Aachen had replaced old Constantinople. In 795 Leo III had succeeded to the papacy. He presented the situation, which invited the implementation of the new order. The Libri Carolini prepared the way to empire.145 With the support of his scholarly entourage, by the middle of the decade Charles had implemented the components of an ideology which consolidated the realm internally and externally, which created the primacy of the Carolingian realm and established the primacy of the western church and which gave Charles a pastoral role at the head
141
Angenendt, p. 352. Also Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, p. 140. S.C. Easton, H. Wieruszowski, The Era of Charlemagne, Frankish State and Society (Princeton, Toronto, London, New York 1961), p. 166f. From a letter of pope Gelasius to emperor Anastasius, 491. 143 Angenendt, p. 69. 144 Schutz, Germanic Realms, p. 188. 145 Noble, ‘Tradition and Learning’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, p. 249. 142
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of state and church. Through his sponsorship of learning, of the arts and architecture he provided the emphasis on the holistic idea of the Imperium Christianum in which all the peoples of the regnum Francorum had become the congregation of ‘Franks’ upon whom had been bestowed the role of the ‘chosen people of God’. Its salvation was the primary, even the sole purpose of the realm.146 We shall see below how the artists who prepared the illuminated manuscripts interpreted this political theory into artistic representations. A confluence of events and circumstances prepared the way for the creation of an empire with Charles as emperor. In 797 the Byzantine palace revolution had created a vacuum in the eastern empire. Einhard used the opportunity to tell Charles that the welfare of the Christian churches rested upon him. But Charles appears to have proceeded only with deliberate haste. Two years later, according to Einhard147 the inhabitants of Rome had seized the new pope, Leo III, and had blinded him by putting out his eyes and cutting out his tongue, forcing him to flee to the king, his ‘protector’. The attempted mutilation was not entirely successful. The cause for the Romans’ anger lay in that Leo had unilaterally accepted the new idea of the Christian realm and had sent Charles the banner of Rome with the promise of loyalty and the request for Frankish emissaries to come and receive the Romans’ oath of allegiance. He quite clearly placed his papal rule under that of Charles and dated his proclamations by the years of Charles’ reign. For good measure he was also charged with sins of the flesh and perjury. According to the Annals 799, he had been ambushed, mutilated and left lying in the street, naked and half-dead. The duke of Spoleto provided him with shelter and when Charles heard of this indignity he asked that Leo be brought to him at Paderborn with full honors. This was a rather great distance, which Charles did not see fit to shorten, by meeting him half way. The Annals do not reveal the conversations and report only the pope’s return to Rome in full honors while Charles returned to Aachen. The terms of a future relationship may have been detailed at this time. Leo may have urged Charles to accept the imperial role.148 The Annals for that year also report the
146 147 148
Noble, ‘Brigandage’, in Chazelle, Literacy, Politics, p. 67. Thorpe, p. 81. See also Collins, pp. 141ff. Riché, p. 151.
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coincident arrival of a monk from Jerusalem who brought blessings and relics of the Lord’s Sepulcher to Charles from the patriarch of Jerusalem. The next year Charles dismissed the monk and sent him and Zacharias, a priest of the palace, back with rich gifts for the Holy Places. Einhard does not mention this monk, nor an Italian campaign against the Beneventans. Einhard quickly and soberly comes to the heart of the matter and reveals that Charles really came to Rome to restore the ill state of affairs of the church, spending the whole winter there. By way of preparation pope Leo had a mosaic prepared which made visible his idea of the order of the Christian realm. In an apse of the Lateran palace, in a recessed arch, he had a representation of the enthroned Christ giving the keys and banner to St. Peter; to the left he gives the imperial standard to the emperor Constantine in the presence of pope Sylvester I (Fig. 4a), both of them kneeling at the feet of Christ; to the right St. Peter hands the pallium to pope Leo and the banner of the city of Rome to Charles, both of them kneeling at the feet of St. Peter.149 Herewith pope Leo gave expression to a religious and political context, as if determined by the highest authority. (Fig. 4b) A convergence of imperial and papal ideas was projected, showing the partnership of pope and emperor jointly doing the work of Christ, a symbolic distancing from the Byzantine Empire. The Annals 800 indicate that Charles was greeted with an imperial reception and elaborate how pope Leo sent the banners of Rome and large crowds of townspeople and pilgrims to meet Charles some distance outside of Rome, to line the streets and acclaim the king on his arrival. Pope Leo, surrounded by clergy and bishops, awaited the king on the steps of St. Peter’s and welcomed him when he dismounted and ascended the stairs of the church and accompanied by the chanting of the multitude the pope led Charles into the church. This was an imperial reception with which Leo recognized the position of the king before he crowned him emperor. On December 1, 800 Charles convened an assembly in order to deal with the affairs of the church and set himself to examine the charges against the humiliated pope Leo. Charles was expected to function in his Davidic
149 Angenendt, p. 353f. Mohr, p. 55. See Braunfels, p. 102. Also Nees, Early Medieval Art, p. 190, who points to the clear political message.
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capacity. By virtue of his vocation by God, the king and no longer the emperor in Constantinople has the Christian empowerment to set the affairs of the church in order. Pope Leo purged himself of the charges by oath in the name of the Trinity on December 23. Perjury had been one of the charges levied against him. No one had come forward to reiterate the pope’s crimes. In any case the Symmachean forgeries (501) prevented that a pope could be put on trial, unless 72 witnesses could support the accusation. The Annals report that that same day the priest Zacharias returned from Jerusalem with two monks sent by the patriarch who brought for Charles the keys of the Lord’s Sepulcher and of Calvary, also the keys of the city and of Mount Zion along with a flag. The keys of the city may have been a token sent by the Caliph of Baghdad, Harun-al-Rashid, the other objects were likely ecclesiastical tokens of recognition of his elevated status over the Christian church. An evident honor and an inescapable link with king David and his city and an allusion to the kingdom of God. Einhard mentions none of this. The arrival of the gifts from Jerusalem could not have been more opportune. They marked the ‘Fullness of Time’. Charles had probably orchestrated the events. The Annals 801 record what happened next very succinctly. On Christmas Day (800), when the king rose from prayer in front of the shrine of St. Peter, pope Leo, in a Byzantine inspired gesture, placed a crown on his head, and he was hailed by the whole Roman people: ‘To the august Charles, crowned by God, the great and peaceful emperor of the Romans, life and victory!’ After the triple acclamations of the Romans and the laudes of the clergy, the pope dropped to his knees and addressed him in the manner of the old emperors. Instead of patricius, he was called imperator et augustus. It is likely that Charles did not appreciate the practical significance of this event. A new empire had been created, but one with a skewed purpose. Once again Einhard has no comments to make concerning the sequence of events, other than to express Charles’ reservations and that he would not have entered the cathedral at all, had he known the pope’s intentions.150 Einhard is more intent on commenting 150 Thorpe, p. 81. W. Ohnsorge, “Neue Beobachtungen zum Kaisertitel Karls des Großen”, in W. Heinemeyer, K. Jordan (eds.) Archiv für Diplomatik, Schriftgeschichte, Siegel- und Wappenkunde (Köln, Wien 1975), p. 2f. argues that Charles felt himself to be king and that the imperial title was only an additional dignity for him, and that
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on the hostility and jealousy of the other ‘so-called Roman Emperors’. Einhard may not be the definitive source concerning this event. No Christian ruler could have missed mass on Christmas Day. There can be little doubt that Charles had the event arranged. That he could not admit to such a plan may have lain with his attempt to avoid any accusation of having manipulated yet another usurpation. Why was Charles so reticent and displeased? Probably not because of the title and the coronation itself, but because of the implications with which it was performed. Charles had probably not been surprised and deprived of the initiative. Had his father Pepin III not already been anointed like a new David, had he not had a new prologue written for the law code in which the Franks were identified as God’s chosen people, and had the Carolingian kingdom not been based on papal Davidic ideas?151 He clearly did not want his coronation to be seen as a mere translation of the old Roman imperial tradition.152 The Roman imperial proclamation clearly contravened his ideas of the new Imperium Christianum. He wanted to rule over the Christian people, the populus Christianus, and wanted to have his imperial dignity to derive from the Biblical David and hence from God. Not from the Caesars and not as the choice of the populus Romanus. As his chosen he felt answerable to God for the welfare of his people. In this he saw the saints to be his spiritual and the bishops to be the worldly supports of his reign. According to the deliberations above, Charles saw a different basis for his proclamation than the words with which he had been proclaimed. However, Alcuin had begun to use the term Imperium Christianum some time earlier,153 but had also honored him with the name David. It is accepted that
he did not feel himself to be any more than Theoderic the Great, viceroy of the Byzantine emperors, had been. Fouracre, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 105, suggests that Einhard resorted to the device of showing the humility natural to great and good personages. See also Collins, pp. 144ff. concerning the claimed reluctance about the imperial coronation. It had been previously approval by a council on November 30, 800. Also L. Nees, A Tainted Mantle (Philadelphia 1991), pp. 112ff. 151 Mohr, pp. 21ff. Enters into this question at great length, beginning with the argument put forward by pope Stephen II that the Carolingians were predestined by God and that Pepin was a new Moses and a brightly shining king David. See Wallace-Hadrill, p. 189. 152 See the arguments advanced by Collins, pp. 147ff., that the inclusion of Saxony in the realm required a new constitutional basis. 153 Nees, Mantle, p. 114f.
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the Franks as ‘chosen’ people did not want to become Romans and that Charles had not wanted the Romans to act as primary people of the realm since it was the Franks who had secured the rule and the realm. Although Charles had visited Rome, as a pilgrim would, repeatedly before his coronation, he was never to return to Rome. What had mattered was the memoria there of his own person and that of his dynasty.154 Hence Charles refused pointedly the title imperator Romanorum for he evidently was not willing to suggest any rivalry with the disqualified emperor in Constantinople, nor see himself as successor to the pagan Romans. Nor was he content for the pope to have performed the act of coronation since it suggested that the pope thereby assumed and gained primacy over the emperor. After all, until the break with Byzantium in 803, Rome was still under the titular jurisdiction of the Byzantine Empire. Perhaps the pope merely wanted to compensate for his humiliation two days earlier. On the other hand, the myth of the Constitutum Constantini, gave him the imperial authority to perform the act. Charles was equally unhappy that the city of Rome assumed the primacy over Aachen. It would appear that Charles was sensitive to the significance of precedents. The coronation resembled an investiture. In view of the Synod of 794, the coronation reversed the authorities, at least by implication. Charles’ imperial title was to be serenissimus augustus a Deo coronatus magnus pacificus imperator, Romanum gubernans imperium, qui et per misericordiam Dei rex Francorum et Langobardorum.155 Calling him magnus pacificus imperator may be the basis for the name by which posterity was to call him Carolus magnus, corrupted in time to Charlemagne.156 The title makes it clear that referring to the Carolingian empire as ‘Holy Roman Empire’ is quite premature. Furthermore, the Romans are only to be governed, steered by him, who by the grace of God sees himself primarily as king of Franks and Lombards. Aachen was the ‘New Rome’ to him. Repeatedly the idea surfaces, that Charles looked upon his coronation and title as a personal honor paid to
154
F. Andrews, ‘Introduction: Rome and Romanitas: Aspects of Transition’, in Smith (ed.), Early Medieval Rome, p. 14. 155 Löwe, p. 158. Ohnsorge, ‘Kaisertitel’, p. 8f. argues that Charles had already been Romanum gubernans imperium on behalf of Byzantium since 781, a formula used occasionally in 6th century Ravenna. See also Collins, p. 150, on this point. 156 By c. 875 his other ‘biographer’, Notger Balbulus, the Stammerer, entitled his work De Carolo Magno. Nithard, in his Histories, (before 845), spoke of his grandfather Charles as rightfully called ‘the Great’.
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his person, rather than as a dynastic aspiration.157 But what importance did he see in the equestrian statue of the Ostrogothic king, Theoderic the Great, to go to the great exertion to have it brought north? What fascinating association did he see with Theoderic? Both bore the title patricius. The statue may actually have been of the Byzantine emperor Zeno. At least as enhancing an association. After 803 Charlemagne abandoned the designation Romanum imperium and replaced it with Renovatio Romani imperii as he slipped into the imperial role. In 812 the Byzantine emperor recognized Charlemagne as emperor in the west. Byzantium also finally renounced all claims to the territories surrounding Rome. Charlemagne insisted that his empire was a new Christian Empire not related to the old pagan empire and stressed the use of the term Renovatio Romani imperii. It was renewed in a distinctive Latin speaking Christian faith and neither an expansion nor an extension of the Greek speaking Byzantine Empire. With the 25th of December 800 Europe entered a new historical phase. The contemporaries will not have noticed the watershed event. For Charlemagne the date marked the pinnacle of his life. He had coordinated a cohesive Christian realm in which questions of territorial expansion were displaced by attempts to implement concerns about the administrative and legal systems, fealty to God and himself, the cultural heritage, a more intensive reform of the church, social measures to protect the powerless and to prevent their decline into economic dependency, legislation to protect slaves and serfs, the control of feuds and the maintenance of the peace of the realm. Oddly enough, the realm began to show centrifugal tendencies and early signs of weariness. In his last years he had reasons to believe that the execution of the body of his reforms had not been entirely successful. Of course he could not know what his contribution to the advent of the new age was. Originally he had followed the Frankish tradition of treating the realm as his personal property and divided it among his sons. Especially the implementation of the illusory realm along Davidic and Augustinian lines did not advance well. A number of practical problems deprived him of his freedom of action and a lack of resolve began to appear. In 806, motivated by administrative concerns, the Divisio regnorum reverted to the
157
Dutton, Politics of Dreaming, p. 115.
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traditional partition of the realm between his three sons, perhaps also motivated by the fear that upon his death, discord might arise in the realm.158 His oldest son Charles was assigned all of the Frankish core area, Louis to rule Aquitaine-Burgundy and Pepin to rule ItalyBavaria. A supportive interest group drawn mainly from church circles attempted to give the illusory idea of a constitutional unity a legal basis. When his older sons died, a practical realization presented itself in that Louis would become his only successor of a unified empire, as if God had willed it thus. Latent discord was provided by the dissenting inclinations toward either the Roman or Davidic ideas of empire. Charlemagne convened an imperial diet at Aachen in 813 to deal with increasing criticism and the issues concerning the illusory constitutional unity, nature and order of the realm. With the choice of Aachen as his permanent residence and seat of government, the aging Charlemagne and his court no longer played the supervisory role of an earlier time when an active itinerant king could personally review the state of affairs in the realm, but rely on others to tend to matters of concern. The missi dominici could often no longer be entrusted with the reliable flow of information and a competent approach to the emperor’s administrative objectives.159 The increasing power of the magnates and their oppression of the economically weaker levels of society became a chief but vain concern for him. It would be unfair to expect him to have been able to appreciate the vulnerability of his overextended realm of the day and to project a teleological view for his empire. His visionary idealism, age and inertia probably distanced him from the governmental needs of the realm on earth. He probably relied more on the church as the executor of his ideals than on the competence of his son to guide the empire into the future. To improve conditions in the church, Charlemagne instituted five Synods in 813, to be convened at Mainz, Reims, Tours, Châlons and at Arles. Intended as ‘Reform Councils’, their resolutions were to serve as foundations for reforms.160 He, who had once been proclaimed defender of the church, sole custodian of its salvation, guide of the Christian people and blessed with God’s wisdom, now turned the guidance of the church 158
See Collins, p. 157f. Nees, Mantle, p. 125f. 160 Mohr, p. 71. Also McKitterick, Frankish Church, p. 12. See Reuter, Germany, p. 38, itemizes the key intentions of the reform. 159
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over to meetings of aristocratic bishops, who now regained significant preeminence, and who did not hesitate to express themselves critically about the emperor’s government. Perhaps in anticipation of difficulties over the succession, the resolutions contained more than a hint of the increasing expectations of the church in the realm. With the conclusion of the expansive conquests, it seems that the overriding concerns for the unity of the vast and overly extended realm were no longer to be expressed in terms of military force and administrative terms. Instead of a well-organized bureaucracy, a pastoral consolidation of the realm was to be entertained, by means of the recruitment of priests, their heightened doctrinal education and the pastoral training of the clergy.161 However, this was soon to be understood as the implementation of a religious realm on earth. For the better part of the century the bishoprics were to represent the royal intentions as they issued and collected legal and disciplinary directives, theological and liturgical texts and by means of simple sermons assisted the individual parishioner within his community to contribute under pastoral guidance to the realization of the Christian kingdom162 locally, while thinking in the larger designs and intentions of the realm. Such Christian rituals as baptism, marriage, the mass, its liturgy, sermons, communion, penance, prayer and communal chanting were intended to bring this about simultaneously with the displacement of pagan cultic practices. In the recently conquered tribal areas abjuration of heathenism and a mere and more or less communal acceptance of the new faith will have preceded the actual personal conversion to it. A participatory ritual commonly practiced throughout the realm would have contributed to the development of a commonly felt membership in the mysteries of the Christian cult. It follows that purified, standardized texts would be a co-requirement in the consolidating process. Nevertheless, despite contempt for them, some pagan practices were assimilated or even absorbed by Christianity. The Diet of 813 expressed an apolitical and illusory, theoretical, religious idealism, which was intended to maintain the realm by means of the unanimity of spiritual and worldly positions
161 Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, p. 150. See Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 195ff. concerning the court’s understanding of study and education. Collins, p. 120, comments that this had already been a serious concern to Charlemagne. 162 See McKitterick, Frankish Church, pp. 80–114. Also Collins, p. 114f. concerning Charles’ attention to the standardization of the liturgy.
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among Christians. The imperial ‘state’, never completely unified, centralized or even provided with a well functioning bureaucracy, was to become Ecclesia, universal Christian humanity embraced within the universality of the faith, founded on the belief in one father, God in heaven, one mother, the church, one faith and one baptism,163 proclaimed by means of one language, spoken and written Latin, in which the emperor occupied the primary place. The church was to be the conscience of the realm, the emperor’s support but not his master. An indecisive Louis, sincere in his faith and his piety, could not help but feel subordinate to the church. In general the interest groups were expecting more pro-active policies if the ideal was to be implemented and looked to Louis for leadership. In September of 813, at the Diet in Aachen cathedral, without any papal presence, Charlemagne himself crowned his only surviving son Louis co-emperor, till then no more than the designated sub-king of Aquitaine. The Annals 813 state simply that the emperor invited his son Louis to a general assembly at Aachen, placed the crown on his head and shared the co-regency of the empire with him, at the same time passing on to him the nomen imperatoris.164 He quickly sent him back to Aquitaine. Einhard does not reveal that he himself openly acclaimed Louis as co-emperor, thereby representing certain interests of the nobility. Louis’ acclamation as imperator and augustus by the Frankish magnates followed. Clearly the Franks were the new people of the realm. This coronation was distinct from the one on Christmas Day 800 in Rome, just as clearly an anti-Roman gesture. However, in 816 the Annals inform us that Louis still agreed to have the pope, Stephen IV, crown and anoint him emperor during his hastily arranged visit to Louis in Reims in 817. Einhard165 informs us that the coronation of 813 was performed with the agreement of all who attended and was accepted with great enthusiasm, ‘for it seemed to have come to him as a divine inspiration for the welfare of the state’. Louis may not have been convinced of the validity of his coronation by his father and submitted to the pressures 163 E. Boshof, ‘Einheitsidee und Teilungsprinzip unter Ludwig’, in Godman and Collins, p. 175. 164 Riché, p. 139. Löwe, p. 160, indicates that Louis took the crown off the altar and placed it on his own head. Mohr, p. 74, wonders whether this act should be considered to have more a symbolic rather than any real significance. It may not even have been a coronation in any real sense. See Wallace-Hadrill, p. 189. 165 Thorpe, p. 83.
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exerted on him by representatives of the church. While Charlemagne had ordered the succession of his sons in 780, with their papal coronation taking place in 781, he confirmed it in 806 as a result of which his three sons were to succeed him in a tripartite succession— Charles, actually his second son, set up in the core lands, Pepin in Italy and Louis in Aquitaine—, the premature death of two of his sons and the accidental survival of only one son was interpreted as a divine judgment. It made of Louis the ‘Chosen of the Lord’ and a realization of the Davidic kingdom as a universal principle.166 Einhard adds that this ‘increased Charlemagne’s authority at home and at the same time it struck no small terror into the minds of foreign peoples’. If we could take Einhard at his word, then the particularism of the regions of the realm was reconciled. It was also to be the exceptional instance in Carolingian history that the monarch designate was to inherit an unpartitioned realm in what was seen to be God’s own intervention. Yet the process of division of the political realm was to return during his reign, even though its parts, such as the east-rhenish lands, were to experience significant consolidation.167 The Imperium Christianum was not affected. In January 814, Charlemagne came down with a fever, accompanied by a pain in his side, which Einhard identified as pleurisy and on January 28, 814, Charlemagne died.168 According to Einhard many portents had preceded his death. Charles had ignored or denied them all. Actually Einhard had condensed events from over a sixyear period. Charles was buried the same day in a Roman sarcophagus of the 2nd century, ornamented with the story of the rape of Proserpina in his palace church at Aachen.169 (Fig. 5) Three years before his death Charles had distributed all of his possessions. Charlemagne’s Last Will and Testament is extant. Einhard recorded it in all details, deploring that Charles had started it too late and had not been able to finish it. Einhard informs us that Louis, ‘who 166 See Nelson, ‘Carolingian Royal Ritual’, in Frankish World, pp. 103ff. for a detailed analysis of the concepts involved. 167 See Innes, State and Society, p. 195, who sees in the arrangement of establishing sub-kingships a means of retaining dynastic control over the various integral parts of the vast realm. The permanent partition appears when hindsight is applied from a future perspective. 168 The English translation speaks only of ‘a week-long illness’, Riché, p. 139. The German translation mentions pleurisy as the cause of death. 169 J.L. Nelson, The Frankish World, 750–900 (London and Rio Grande 1996), pp. 223–242. Braunfels, p. 379.
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succeeded him by divine will,’170 was its scrupulous executor. In Chapter 22 of his Vita Hludowici, Astronomus171 informs us that ‘as Lord Louis read what was written, he fulfilled all those things, dutifully performing the task’.172 Despite Charlemagne’s initiative, the succession had not been regulated permanently. Louis’ accession of the throne was not unproblematic despite the perceived choice of God. Already during his lifetime his sons, supported by magnates of the church, contested his authoritative position. Louis’ coronation of 813 was not accepted as absolute despite the anointment, the substantiation of the legitimacy of his rule through pope Stephen IV and the proclamation that he was a ‘new Clovis’ at Reims and not in Charlemagne’s Aachen. Clovis had been baptized at Reims yet Louis’ visit to Reims in 816 and his renewed coronation there had not removed all challenges to that legitimacy. His nephew Bernard, Pepin’s illegitimate son, yet sub-king/subregulus of Italy, at first loyal follower of the king, was maneuvered into contesting the succession and he revolted in 818.173 Quickly overcome, the increasingly customary dynastic punishment by blinding, through the loss of eyes by gouging, of all his accomplices as well, killed him within three days.174 At the same time Louis had his illegitimate stepbrothers and presumptive rivals tonsured and placed in monasteries. In 822 his remorse led him to recall them to court from where his illegitimate stepbrother Drogo was to begin a brilliant career in the church as bishop of Metz, as early as 823, marked in art by his Psalter. At the Diet of Aachen, 817, the Ordinatio imperii introduced future problems while it tried to adhere to the illusory principles of constitutional unity. Louis tried to argue that being the only one chosen
170 Thorpe, p. 90. Also Nithard, Histories, ch. 2. See Wallace-Hadrill, p. 235f. for a biographical note. However, Collins, p. 158, quarrels with Einhard’s claim. 171 A. Cabaniss, Son of Charlemagne, A contemporary life of Louis the Pious, translation of Anomimus’ Vita Hludowici imperatoris, in Monumenta Germaniae Historica (Syracuse 1965). Ch. 22. 172 See R. McKitterick, The Frankish Kingdoms under the Carolingians, 751–987 (London, New York 1983), p. 160 refers to sources, which question this assertion. See also Wallace-Hadrill, p. 204. 173 Werner, in Godman and Collins, pp. 42ff. argues extensively that it was the empress Irmengard herself who intrigued against her illegitimate nephew. 174 Astronomus, ch. 30:1, indicates that Louis could have imposed a much harsher sentence, death, rather than just blinding. Nithard, ch. 2. See also Brunner, Oppositionelle Gruppen, pp. 96ff.
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by God also signaled God’s approval of the inviolate unity of the realm.175 Louis saw no inconsistency in the unity principle and the skewed tripartite division of his realm among his three sons. This was to prove to be the failure of the principles of unity and ushered in the eventual natural disintegration of the realm. Louis regulated the succession among his three sons along the approximate lines of the Divisio regnorum of 806 in which the oldest son was to receive the larger Frankish core area with the imperial title as well as the dominance over his younger brothers. Lothair (I.), the oldest son, was crowned co-emperor and raised over Ludwig,176 later called ‘the German’, rex Germaniae, in Bavaria and over Pepin of Aquitaine. It was in this context that no mention was made of Bernard, king of the Lombards. His kingdom was incorporated in that of Lothair. It was to transpire that the Carolingians were to emulate the Merovingians in fratricidal animosity. For years to come, oppositional and hereditary interest groups, removed from offices, wronged by injustices, expropriations and confiscations fanned discontent and focused on the old Frankish and tribal nobilities. These readily formed around the middle-aged sons and presumptive heirs, who resented perceived preferences on the part of the father and were eager to assume the authority in their own right. The oath of allegiance introduced by Charlemagne177 and demanded repeatedly of all by Louis the Pious was intended to counteract any such inclinations. Beginning in 817, Louis’ generosity toward the church in the context of the Renovatio of church and state caused the empire to lose ground vis-à-vis the papacy.
175 J. Semmler, ‘Renovatio’, in Godman and Collins, p. 132. See J. Fried, ‘The Frankish kingdoms, 817–911: The East and Middle kingdoms’, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 142ff. 176 J.L. Nelson, Charles the Bald (London, New York 1992), p. 2, points out that only the West-Frankish writers called him thus. To avoid confusion the form ‘Ludwig’ will be used for the German kings with the name Louis. W. Hartmann, Ludwig der Deutsche (Darmstadt 2002), pp. 1–6, for a discussion of the justification of the name. 177 See Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, p. 116. Also Innes, State and Society, p. 187, sees this oath to be a consequence of the intrigue of 785. See also Collins, p. 126f., who suggests that the oath of loyalty first surfaced in 789 and may be a consequence of the difficulties with Tassilo.
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III. Charlemagne’s successors
Already Walahfrid Strabo, Abbot of Reichenau (died 849), refers to Louis as ‘the Pious’ and deems it a miracle, ‘when the Frankish state was shaken by innumerable troubles of all sorts and was falling to pieces in many areas, with God to watch over him and with a certain sense of direction in his personal conduct which can only have been divinely inspired, he preserved this reputation for brilliance which laid him open to the malice and ill-will of other men.’178 This testimony to the contrary, posterity was to judge Louis unfairly with critical blame for providing the conditions, which brought about the disintegration of the Carolingian empire. While his contemporaries praised his religiosity, his piety, his monastic inclinations, peaceableness and kindness, expected royal virtues, and his biographer ‘Astronomus’ in the Vita Hludowici,179 held him up as the ideal representative of the Christian ruler, later times interpreted these virtues negatively and saw in them bigotry, indecision, hesitation and the weakness of a pliable character. One failed to judge him in terms of his own premises and historical conditions. At the beginning of his reign one called him a new Solomon, a new Clovis, but then the contrast with his father was simply too great, although the realm was already showing administrative flaws and centrifugal problems of cohesion during the last years of Charlemagne’s reign. Einhard was too much the courtier and Louis’ immediate beneficiary to criticize the king. When in 830 he asked to be relieved of his duties at court for reasons of health, it was also because of his critical observation of the decline of morals at court and his resignation over the deterioration of the realm and Louis’ unwillingness to heed his warnings.180 The idealized ship of state built of conceptions of a Christian universalism combined with spiritual and secular power was seen to be drifting into reef-strewn waters. Though the process of particularistic regionalization may have been a natural development it did not reflect well on the one in whose reign it happened. More recent analyses have tried to amend Louis’ reputation.181 178 Thorpe, p. 50. Walahfrid wrote the introduction to Einhard’s biography of Charlemagne sometime between 840 and the year of his own death in 849 (Thorpe, p. 173, Note 9). 179 Astronomus, Prologue, 2. 180 E. Boshof, Ludwig der Fromme (Darmstadt 1996), pp. 3ff. 181 Godman, Collins, Charlemagne’s Heir.
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In 778 Hildegard, she was only 13 when he fell madly in love with her, Charlemagne’s third wife, gave birth to twins who were named Louis and Lothair. She had already borne two sons, Charles and Carloman (Pepin) and two daughters Adelheid and Rotrud, of whom Adelheid died soon after birth in 774. Questions have been raised, why Charles would give his sons such unambiguously Merovingian names.182 One consideration proposed is that their two older brothers had already been named with the two Carolingian royal names. The link with the great names of the Merovingians may have reflected a deliberate dynastic association with the ‘long-haired kings’. The Carolingian concerns for maintaining the perceptions of legitimate continuity with the previous dynasty of the Merovingians may have weighed heavily on Carolingian minds following their usurpation of the throne. Lothair may have died in 779. She was to give birth to three more daughters, Bertha, Gisela and Hildegard.183 Their older sister Rotrud was to be affianced to the Byzantine imperial heir Constantine VI. The marriage did not come about. Charlemagne had four or five wives, Germanic women all, and at least four concubines. In order to exclude his firstborn son, Pepin, the Hunchback, a condition that evolved during his youth perhaps the result of a vitamin B deficiency or of sclerosis,184 from the succession, his mother, Himiltrud, may subsequently have been degraded to the level of concubine. Only those physically sound could be heirs. Only a legitimate wife could be the mother of heirs. The process of exclusion took eleven years at the end of which Pepin rebelled, was condemned to death but then sent to the monastery at Prüm. His supporters were publicly beheaded, or crucified, or scourged and deported.185 The annals come to negate Pepin’s existence. His name
182 See K.F. Werner ‘Hludovicus Augustus, Gouverner l’empire chrétien—Idées et réalités’, in Godman and Collins (eds.), pp. 21ff. who argues extensively that while the royal Carolingian names were ‘Pepin’ and ‘Charles’, the names Hludovicus and that of his twin brother Hlotarius were chosen deliberately as a link with the Merovingian names Clovis and Chlotachar. Louis was to be a ‘new Clovis’ who was born in Aquitaine and hence justly and intentionally named sub-king there as champion of Catholicism. Louis’ son was hence named Lothair. Carloman had been renamed Pepin for that same reasons. Other names, such as Drogo, Hugo and Bernard were reserved for the natural offspring. 183 Boshof, pp. 23ff. 184 Kasten, pp. 139ff. 185 Braunfels, p. 61. See Collins, p. 126, concerning a conspiracy to put him on the throne.
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was given to Carloman, the third son. His Lombard wife bore no children before her repudiation. Hildegard, an Aleman, gave birth to the heirs. Fastrada, a Saxon, had two daughters. His marriage to Liutgard, another Aleman, remained childless. After she died in 800, he did not remarry. From his concubines—Madelgarda, Gersuinda, Regina and Adallindis—Charles also had a number of illegitimate sons and daughters. Charlemagne was particularly attached to his daughters and did not let them leave the court.186 It is an ironic twist that in the end the successor was to be Louis, with the Merovingian name. At the age of 3, surrounded by mentors and advisors, Charlemagne yielded to aristocratic pressure and sent Louis to Aquitaine as its sub-king. His mother died in 783. With his energetic stepmother Fastrada he appears to have had good relations. She was present when he was invested with his sword as a sign of having come of age at the Diet of Regensburg in 791, preceding the advance against the Avars. He was entrusted with her care when her health was failing. She died in 794. Most probably it was she who instigated the removal of Pepin the Hunchback from the succession, in favor of the sons of Hildegard, though her motives are obscure.187 In Aquitaine Louis appears to have enjoyed most ‘le plaisir de gouverner’, concentrating on hunting, and naively committed some administrative blunders, perhaps as an expression of his generosity or more likely, owing to a lack of experience, such as the diminution of the royal possessions as gifts to the magnates of the kingdom, or the remission of all fiscal demands, the requirements of fodder, wine and grain in all the northern districts of Aquitaine. Charlemagne rectified such mistakes, taking care not to cause the impoverished Louis to lose prestige and authority among his nobles.188 Being sub-king in Aquitaine may have been the height to which Charlemagne had intended Louis to ascend. It would appear that the loss of his stepmother was made good by his marriage that same year, 794, to Irmingard, from the house of the Arnulfingians. Liaisons with one or two concubines gave him a daughter whom he named Alpais, the name of the mother of Charles Martel, and a son, whom he named after the founder of the dynasty, Arnulf. Perhaps he, with the Merovingian name, wanted 186 187 188
Braunfels, p. 998. Kasten, p. 150. Boshof, pp. 56ff.
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to assert the Arnulfingian origins of his family. Already a year later, 795, Irmingard gave birth to Lothair, named after Louis’ own deceased twin brother, to Pepin, 797 and to Louis/Ludwig, 806, later to be known as Ludwig the German.189 Two daughters, Rotrud and Hildegard were born in 800 and 802/4. The marriage provided stability to the court in that Irmingard tended to all domestic affairs, allowing the king to deal with the affairs of state. In 806 Charlemagne had ordered the succession and the inheritance among his three sons, Charles the Younger,190 Carloman-Pepin and Louis. The succession of the three kings secured the dynasty. Charles was the designated and recognized successor, as if ‘firstborn’. According to the Annals 806 the tripartite jurisdiction of the realm assigned to each son the government and protection of his part, while the fraternal links ensured reciprocal benevolence and affection. Pope Leo III gave his consent and affixed his signature. The Annals, with their propagandistic argumentation, aimed at their nobles, and in support of the select and preordained Carolingians, may have been composed to persuade the Carolingian nobility that their allegiance and benefits lay with the ruling dynasty, even if it meant manipulating the sources.191 What was not resolved was the question concerning the legitimacy of the imperial title in the west. The identity of the future emperor was secondary. Death solved the problem when Pepin died in 810 and Charles the Younger in 811. The underlying question concerned the co-emperorship, which had no fundamental basis in the west and where Charlemagne’s emperorship was still only a first and perhaps unique case. Whether Louis would succeed to the imperial title was not established. Only in Byzantium was this an established practice. Help came when the Byzantine imperial envoys acclaimed Charlemagne as basileus, as emperor. In 813 Charlemagne was free to recognize Louis. That he was the sole survivor was interpreted as God’s choice and hence he was the uncontestable heir to the
189
Riché, p. 145. Hartmann, p. 1f. indicates that the name was not completed with ‘der Deutsche’ until the 19th century, although already in the 9th century he was referred to as rex Germanicus along with other derivatives. 190 Kasten, p. 151, argues that the court records completely ignore the fact that on December 25, 800 a double coronation took place, the imperial coronation of Charlemagne as well as the royal coronation of Charles the Younger. Only Alcuin mentioned it. 191 Hen, ‘Annals of Metz’, in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 187f.
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entire realm. Evidently the idea that the succession was determined by chance, the death of his brothers, could not be entertained, except that in a universe in which God is all-knowing, the very concept of chance is blasphemous. Certain court circles, probably even the emperor and perhaps even Louis himself had reservations about his suitability.192 Nevertheless Charles obtained the momentous agreement of the highest and lowest of his lords to bestow upon Louis the imperial title, the nomen imperatoris.193 On September 11, 813, in full imperial regalia, and according to Einhard, Charlemagne crowned Louis co-emperor and ordered that he should be called emperor and Augustus.194 This itself was Byzantine ritual. The Annals 813 spend one sentence on the event. Einhard informs us that the emperor then sent Louis back to Aquitaine, while he went hunting195 despite his enfeebled condition. In view of circumstances one could have expected him to keep Louis in his presence to prepare him for the imminent tasks and for the eventual succession to the office. Louis must have seemed less than the ideal heir and was given little opportunity to make influential contacts and gain some administrative experience at Aachen. Actually the ceremony was two years later than might have been expected after the death of Charles the Younger. Louis must have felt the affront. Anxieties and suspicions may have prompted his father’s decision to keep his son at a great distance. When Charlemagne died in January 814, Louis cautiously made his way back to Aachen, hesitating and stopping on his way as if to assure himself of support and as if he did not have absolute confidence in his coronation.196 Emissaries were sent ahead to prepare the reception of the new emperor. Astronomus (21.1) suggests that their real assignment was to make certain that all evidence of the political power struggles and intrigues active behind the scenes be eliminated before his arrival. Bloody fighting may have taken place. Subsequently Astronomus writes (23.1) that ‘the entire female company’—which was very large—be excluded from the palace, meaning that the former disreputable worldliness, all wantonness and moral decay, including possible incest, demonstrated by Charlemagne and his daughters, 192
Boshof, p. 87f. Boshof, pp. 86ff. 194 Thorpe, p. 83. 195 Nelson, pp. 45, 122 sees hunting as an exercise to promote and demonstrate cooperation, collaboration and interaction in group activities. 196 Boshof, p. 91f. See Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 226ff. 193
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concubines and courtiers, be cleared away.197 Charlemagne may have anticipated this situation. His disposition of 806 had given them the choice between a monastic life or appropriate marriages and in his Last Will and Testament, Einhard informs his readers of the emperor’s wish to provide some economic security for the sons and daughters, which his concubines had borne him.198 He had left it too late and hence unfinished. Among Louis’ first acts was the confinement of his life asserting, unmarried sisters in convents, to restrain their physical exuberance. Not unlike his father, he may not have wanted to entertain the possibility that their marriages to Frankish magnates might introduce legitimate princes and princesses who might grow up to be dynastic contestants. When unrest arose in the realm, he eventually also forced his half-brothers to enter monastic orders and end their days in monasteries, in case they chose to side against him and ask for their share of the realm. It did not take long for him to put the affairs of the realm in order. However, in retrospect, it was to become apparent that Louis was the wrong son to inherit the empire. Sincerely pious, kind and virtuous, his talents did not lie in the area of any Realpolitik. There were no external enemies to threaten seriously the security of the realm and after many years of exhausting wars his reign was marked by external peace.199 During his reign relations with the court in Constantinople remained generally unproblematic. In the north the Slavic Abodrites were the cause of concern owing to disputes in the tribal succession, especially when they allied themselves with the Danes. These too were involved in inner conflicts until Abodrites, reinforced by Danes, invaded northern Elbia, only to be repelled by the Franks. Inherited problem zones were located in Brittany in the west and in Gascony and the Spanish March in the south. These conditions should have favored internal social and administrative 197 Dutton, Politics of Dreaming, p. 58f., suggests that Louis instituted a very wideranging investigation in the capital to identify any moral turpitude at all, even in the imperial family. One of his sisters’ lovers was executed, another was blinded, while other sentences were commuted, see Werner, in Godman and Collins, p. 30, n. 100. 198 Thorpe, p. 87. Riché, p. 134. See Nelson, pp. 236ff. for a discussion of the women at the court of Charlemagne and their unofficial role, influence and authority. 199 Fouracre, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 105, suggests that living in peace was not a Frankish inclination and that it was the energy of Charlemagne’s will and the exercise of military force, which had created the empire. Such was now needed to maintain it.
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reform, political consolidation and general stabilization. Supported by his advisers Louis saw this consolidation in the only manner available to him, in the attempt to reconcile the Christian kingdom on Earth with the kingdom of Heaven, to create the Imperium Christianum. Of such a symmetrical realm Louis wanted to be emperor, a clearly different empire than that of ancient pagan Rome. It was to be one in which Rome, as represented even by the papacy, was to be relegated to a subordinate position. In due course, the realistic contours of the political empire receded behind the spiritual projection of a Christian community. The synthesis of political realities with spiritual idealities was not to be possible and instead, insensitive to the gradual alienation of his support, internal enemies arose during his reign, who contributed to the internal dysfunctional situation, which led to the gradual regional crystallizations within the empire. The actual realm, which Louis inherited from his father, was very vast—over a million square kilometers—regionally and ethnically diverse, unfinished, decentralized, unevenly settled, developed, controlled and at peace. According to the preamble to the reforms of 819, the emperor looked upon these years of peace as a gift from God, an opportunity to complete, improve, to undertake what was necessary to assure the well being of the church and the common weal at the moment and in future. The God of victories could be best served by giving the first place in the Imperium Christianum to the church, which, however, excluded the preeminence of the papacy in Rome. Louis was concerned about the assessments of his contemporaries and of the future. He wanted to contrast life at his court from that of his father and introduced greater morality, discipline, effectiveness and efficiency to counteract disorder, carelessness, criminality and corruption. It has become a modern commonplace that new administrations blame existing conditions on the malpractices of the previous administration. Louis and his administrators behaved similarly. One should not imagine that the administration was an extensive apparatus, which ruled the realm effectively from Aachen, the ‘capital’.200 Certainly toward the eastern parts of the realm communications were very tenuous and any sense of belonging to the empire must have been rather limited, if not for the high nobility, 200 Reuter, Germany, pp. 24ff., discusses at length the administrative responsibilities of the palace, the chancellor and the chapel, the rule by means of capitularies, counts and their counties, and the missi dominici.
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then certainly for the common farmer, craftsman and other laborers. At first he energetically pursued the administrative supervision through the missi dominici, the royal emissaries,201 which Charlemagne had instituted to tour the lands, inspect counts and judges for any practice of oppression, address abuses and remedy unjust conditions and especially to pass judgment according to the written law and not personal inclinations. It was understood that the implementation of measures required the consent and co-operation of the nobility. These royal emissaries were gradually to lapse in effectiveness, if indeed they had ever been really effective. Although the subdivision of the kingdom into counties continued to maintain the administrative link with the central authority, vast tracts lost this connection in the long term, even where vice-regal authorities were placed in charge. Viceroys, counts, administrators and royal emissaries could not be relied upon to forego their own interests. New ideas appeared at court with the new corps of Aquitainian advisors who now generally replaced Charlemagne’s counselors. Among these some had previously surrounded Louis in formerly Visigothic Aquitaine. As was mentioned above, they appear to have sponsored an estranging attitude toward Rome. These formative experiences may account for his lifelong dependence on his entourage of advisors and exposed him to the charge of weakness and paralysis. As of 819 the court chapel was under the direction of Hilduin (died 840/44) who stressed the office as that of the arch-chaplain who conducted the religious services at court as an Old Testament High priest. A counselor of superior skill, who represented the idea of imperial unity, he turned away from Louis in 830 and lost his office. An actively functioning chancellery came into being as that of Charlemagne was expanded under the capable archival talents of the Aquitainian Helisachar (died before 840) and the unified imperial system was maintained. As an administratively effective instrument it was to consolidate the diversity of the realm. For Louis this was a sincere concern. Eventually an administrative hierarchy dealt with the affairs of state, allowing those at the top of the hierarchy to rise to higher positions at court with greater political power over governmental decisions. In the process they became abbots and acquired
201 Innes, State and Society, p. 162f. Innes points out that a complex system used relay stations.
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abbeys and other church properties. Helisachar was followed in 819 by Fridugis, an Anglo-Saxon pupil of Alcuin’s, who displayed exceptional administrative skills and survived the upheaval of 830.202 Einhard appears to have maintained his position at court, but it was primarily Benedict of Aniane, actually Witiza, a Spanish Visigothic noble, who rose to prominence.203 He assumed the name Benedict in emulation of St. Benedict and renewed the strict observances and ascetic Benedictine Rule in his new foundation at Inden/Kornelimünster, near Aachen. Raised at the court of Pepin III and Charlemagne, Louis entrusted to him the monastic reform in the realm. Kornelimünster was to serve as rolemodel. Already in 816 Benedict was charged to introduce the Benedictine Rule in all monasteries and convents as the only valid rule. The regula mixta established in Merovingian times was henceforth superseded. Benedict died in 821. Three other Aquitainians officiated at Louis’ side. Ebo, his former librarian, was raised to the highest bishopric, the archbishopric of Reims in 816. In that capacity he cared not only for the spiritual well being of his congregations, but also retained an active role in imperial politics, and took charge of the northern missions. In the struggles about the constitutional unity or traditional administrative partition of the realm he at first sided with Louis, but in 833 it was he who in the name of his fellow bishops forced Louis to do public penance. When he lost his archbishopric he finally sought refuge with Ludwig, the German, who made him bishop of Hildesheim, from 845/47 till his death in 851. Jonas of Orléans remained loyal to Louis to the end. He represented the fundamental thoughts concerning the reform of church and realm: the idea of the dualism of powers within the unified Corpus Christianum and the freedom of the church in spiritual matters. The welfare of the realm depended on the total acceptance of the Christian way of life and on the freedom of the church from secular domination to fulfill its task of bringing salvation. Smaragdus, abbot of St. Mihiel, on the river Maas, NE of Verdun, formulated the idea early that the office of the ruler was a ministry bestowed by God, for the execution of which an account must be rendered to God. Evidently, Louis took this teaching
202
Angenendt, pp. 363ff. Boshof, pp. 102–107. See also Noble and Head, Soldiers, pp. xxxviii, 213–254, for a translation of his Vita. 203
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very much to heart.204 It formed the preamble to the reforms of 819. Louis’ ‘constitutional’ concerns therefore were concentrated on the ideas borne by the Imperium Christianum, which depended on the lived and practiced Christian faith as expressed by Jonas and Smaragdus. Because of the uncertainty of life, the king above all and his subjects below him, had to live a daily life pleasing to God. The king’s reign represented the responsible leadership toward spiritual fulfillment for which he was responsible to God, though not to the pope. In this new context the king/emperor bore the responsibility toward the people in his care. The king pleased God when he cared for his people. This care was demonstrated as justice, piety and humility before all his people. Not by right of inheritance from his father, but by God’s grace did he act as protector and guide of the church and reign over his people. For Louis the reign was a task set him by God and for which he was responsible to God. It was also a challenge for it depended on the correct fulfillment of the service to God. This concept readily led to a close association between the crown and the princes of the church, for it was they who knew what was Christian and most pleasing to God. Already under Charlemagne the church had come to be ever more intricated in the affairs of state and secular society as well as in the affairs concerning the religious and moral life. During Louis’ reign the church came to assume increasingly the right to reserve the ‘correct view’ and to play a rival, though still codetermining role in these affairs.205 In any case the church was an arm of the aristocracy, which helps account for the segregation of the common people from some of the religious practices. However, the relationship with the papacy lost its preeminence and the church reforms were advanced without special reference to Rome.206 Influenced by Benedict of Aniane, Louis’ pious disposition saw in the monastic and canonical reform of the church the greatest priority for the organization, stabilization and maintenance of the empire. Continuing the reforms begun under Charlemagne in 813, he introduced, as of 816, embracing religious and secular reforming rules
204
Angenendt, p. 364f. Angenendt, p. 363. 206 J. Fried, ‘Ludwig der Fromme, das Papsttum und die fränkische Kirche’, in Godman and Collins, pp. 231ff. for details of the distanced imperial contacts with Rome. 205
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and regulations. The energetic reforms addressed the clear definitions and aristocratic distinctions between laymen and priests, monks and cannons and their submission, despite their reluctance, to the specific rules concerning daily practices.207 He demanded the strict adherence to the Benedictine Rule. The reforms were to be implemented within one year. From 814 onward he bestowed immunity on churches while granting royal protection at the same time. The latter was an aspect of vassalage and the ensuing obligations of service, including military service by designated lay retainers. In exacting its position the nobility was not loath to abuse its priests and appropriate church property.208 The reforms applied in a very complex manner not only to the foundations created by the Carolingians. This as well as the adherence to the one valid rule could only tighten the bond between church and realm. Since it was the objective for all secular life to be permeated by the principles of Christianity, to realize the constitutional unity of Christendom, even of the common people within the Frankish empire, in order to establish God’s kingdom on earth, all aspects of the church hierarchy from highest bishop to lowest parish priest had to be mobilized.209 To realize the Imperium Christianum all aspects of the faith, knowledge of the scriptures, the minute details of the cult and its duties—baptism, penance, marriage—were to be carried to the common people in every parish. This was the implementation of Charlemagne’s ideas about the theocratic state, the Old Testament, Davidic notions discussed above, which saw the illusory basis for the unified state in the reality of one father, God in heaven, one mother, the church, one faith and one baptism. The idea of the unified realm was to make of the ethnic diversity one Christian people, the populus Christianus, subject to one Christian law based on the Old Testament, a clear departure from the traditions of the pagan Roman Empire. The Benedictine Rule was one of the unifying monastic components. These considerations did not include surrendering
207 Nelson, ‘Wealth and Property in the Carolingian church’, in Frankish World, pp. 146ff., for a list of domestic duties expected of priests dependent on a lord if removed from a bishop’s canonical jurisdiction. Also on the economic conditions of monks and priests. 208 Angenendt, p. 369, points out that at the abbey of Prüm a substantial component of the domain and the farms was not subject to the control of the abbot, but under the control of the military vassals. See Boshof, pp. 120–126. 209 Reuter, Germany, pp. 37ff. discusses church functionaries, dioces, Eigenkirchen, Eigenklöster, monasteries, councils at greater length.
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the social hierarchy, nor the emperor’s authority over the papacy, though gradually the popes’ claim to crown the emperor was realized. Many other principles became established for which the Curia in Rome had an excellent long-term memory. In the political dimension Louis introduced a disruptive element. Following a small accident in 817 documented as if a triviality in the Annals 817, more fully reported by Astronomus, ch. 28: 1, a shoddy, worn out and rotted wooden arcade connecting the palace with the church had collapsed on top of him, injuring him slightly, he acted perhaps too quickly and issued the Ordinatio imperii, by means of which his succession was to be regulated, with Lothair as the intended consort and imperial successor. Something very new was emerging. Benedict of Aniane may well have stood in the background. Louis tried to synthesize two mutually incompatible principles—the indivisible empire and the divisible inheritance of the Franks. Initially Louis showed no concerns for the establishment of the succession. But then following the practice established by Charlemagne the indivisible empire was to be entrusted to his three sons, the oldest son Lothair, to rule the newly created kingdom of Bavaria, while the younger sons were to rule nominally their parts of the empire in a vice-regal fashion, subject to the rule of the older brother, Pepin (19) in Aquitaine and subsequently Ludwig (10) in Bavaria. Lothair was to succeed upon his father’s death. Not until about 825 were they allowed to share in the father’s tasks. A rank ordering was being established among the sons of Irmingard. Future divisions were to be forbidden for all time, for just as the church was indivisible, so the empire was to be indivisible. The ‘unity party’ had apparently triumphed over the partitionists.210 In accordance with Charlemagne’s Divisio regnorum of 806 he still divided the realm according to the number of his sons, contrary to seeming administrative logistics, but probably in accordance with the realization that to maintain the whole, the effective administration of the parts was essential. The decision concerning Bernard’s rule in Italy was left for another occasion. In Louis’ Ordinatio imperii illusory concerns for the unity of the Christian Empire were pre-eminent, based on the logic that the constitutional unity of the empire was divinely ordained through God’s choice of Louis and a reflection of the encompassing body of Christ
210
Boshof, p. 131. Also Kasten, p. 168f.
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represented by the holy church. Only Christianity could maintain the spiritual unity of the realm. To that end the purpose was the realization of an eternal peace for the Christian people and at the same time the precondition for the living faith.211 Peace among the brothers and the protection of the church were the objectives of the Ordinatio imperii, which thus became not his personal testament, but the realization of the new order of the realm. In 817 Louis renewed the agreements, which Pepin and Charlemagne (756, 781, 787) had made with the papacy concerning the so-called ‘Constantinian donation’. The later Humanists were to prove it a forgery.212 With the death of pope Leo III in 816, the question arose anew, whether the newly elected pope needed the emperor’s confirmation. Previously this had been the jurisdiction of the emperor in Constantinople. Now, with the existence of an emperor in the west, what was the nature of the protocol going to be? As long as the Franks had kings, these were merely informed. An approval of the elected pope was not usual. A change in the person of the pope happened for the first time during the reign of Louis. It will be recalled that pope Stephen IV visited Louis in Reims in 816 and crowned him and his wife emperor and empress. The real reason given for the visit in the Liber pontificalis was the confirmation of peace and the unity of God’s holy church.213 Pope and emperor appear to have agreed on mutually satisfactory points, burdening the relationship between future emperors and the papacy. Louis’ coronation may well have sealed the negotiations. The pact is no longer extant. It was renewed in 817, when a new pope, Paschalis I, succeeded to the papal throne. This order was to be challenged by Bernard, Pepin’s son and subking of Italy, who was manipulated into playing the rival and refusing to subject himself to his cousin Lothair following his exclusion from the Ordinatio imperii of 817.214 We saw above, that in 818 his uprising was struck down surprisingly quickly and Bernard was blinded. The resentment and narrow dynastic thinking of his Arnulfingian wife, Irmingard, may have been influential in the machinations and 211
Boshof, p. 132. See also Riché, p. 147f. and Kasten, p. 174. See Arnold, Medieval Germany, p. 77. 213 A. Hahn, Das Hlodiwicianum, Die Urkunde Ludwigs d.Fr. für die römische Kirche von 817, in Archiv für Diplomatik, vol. 21 (Cologne, Vienna 1975), p. 23. 214 Boshof, pp. 142ff. See also Werner, in Godman and Collins, p. 41. See also J. Nelson, ‘The Frankish kingdoms, 814–898: the West’, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 212ff. 212
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in the severity of the punishment. He died from the ordeal. In accordance with Charlemagne’s plans for a Carolingian Italy, at the Council of Aachen of 813, Louis had been sworn to respect and protect this nephew. Perhaps quite innocent, he was now overwhelmed with remorse and when his wife, Irmingard, died that same year, October 3, 818, his sense of guilt and grief was such that he considered abdication. How could he not think that her death was divine punishment? His advisors dissuaded him and tried to distract him by introducing him to a series of potential brides. He was to be spellbound by Judith, the daughter of the Alemanic count Welf—a Frankish family which originated around Metz—,215 a name to gain in importance over the centuries. He married her in February 819. Louis became very vulnerable to her influence. She was a beauty in whom intelligence and activity were joined.216 Ermoldus Nigellus devotes extensive space to her in his verse biography of Louis the Pious of 828. Just a few months later Walahfrid Strabo pays homage to her in his poem De imagine Tetrici, in which he draws an analogy first between Judith and her affection for her son Charles and the Biblical Rachel, Jacob’s second wife and her affection for her son Benjamin. He then links her with the Biblical Judith. To praise Judith as an extraordinary person of learning and wisdom he also makes extensive comparative references to the Greek poetess Sappho and the Biblical prophetess Holda. Other tributes to her continue in this vein.217 Hostile voices implicated her in intrigues, including adultery, and arranged for her imprisonment in 830. It should be apparent that in her wisdom the fortunes of her son would be paramount, so that she would act in a manner, which would not jeopardize his part in the succession. From 820 onward Louis’ eagerness for reform diminished and came to a halt in 829. Following the death of Benedict of Aniane in 821, he recalled his banished relatives to court and was reconciled with them. The Annals 822 and Astronomus (35:1) record briefly his voluntary repentance for his past misdemeanors, such as the death of Bernard. Louis used the Diet of Attigny of 822 to render a public confession of his sins ‘in the presence of the whole people’ in 215
Werner, in Reuter, Medieval Nobility, p. 148. See E. Ward, ‘Caesar’s Wife, The Career of the Empress Judith, 819–829’, in Godman and Collins, pp. 205–227. 217 Ward, in Godman and Collins, p. 223f. 216
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order to demonstrate the new ethical expectations by his own example that a ruler was also subject to expiation if his actions were detrimental to the welfare of the realm. His deferent confession and penitence were consistent with his view of his own shortcomings toward his understanding of the failed definition of his Christian Empire. Was this no more than a grandiose posturing gesture by which means he could demonstrate his responsibility for all to the Almighty and consciously place himself in the tradition of the repentant Theodosius?218 He took the ethical postulates of Christian rule too literally and exposed himself in helpless vulnerability to the arbitrary judgments of his opposition. It is very probable that his spiritual ideals were not universally understood, except as a weakness to be exploited. Whatever his intention, Louis showed himself to be vulnerable and subjected himself to priestly criticism, condemnation, removal and domination in future.219 It was too easy to subjugate him, to bring him to account, to induce him to want to play the sinner seeking forgiveness. However, again and again we read how following such events Louis would go hunting for edible game, presumably, in the Ardennes or the Vosges Mountains. Judith bore him first a daughter, Gisela, then a son, Charles, in 823, and the order of the succession was seriously disturbed as she eventually prevailed on Louis to have Charles, later known as ‘the Bald’, share in the inheritance. Lothair was committed by being asked to act as godfather to his half-brother.220 Aspersions were soon to be cast on her fidelity and virtue. She was linked with the chamberlain, one Bernard of Toulouse, who began to play the role of a mayor of the palace, recklessly abused the imperial power and undermined it entirely. Eventually the intrigues around the two were to have the aim, once again, to send Louis off to a monastery. It was to be a palace revolt by the ‘loyal opposition’ in the name of Lothair and the order ordained by God in 817, which in 830 primarily aimed at the disempowerment of Bernard and Judith.221 Ultimately, 844, Charles had him beheaded. Judith had died in 843. 218
Semmler, ‘Renovatio’, in Godman and Collins, p. 136. See Staubach, p. 15. Riché, p. 149. 220 According to Nithard, ch. 3, Lothair regretted his willingness and from then on tried to undo what his father had arranged. See Nelson, Charles the Bald, for a detailed biography. 221 Astronomus, ch. 44.1 intimates that Louis was ‘baffled by certain delusions’. See also Astronomus, ch. 44:2 for the pressures brought to bear upon Judith to get 219
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Reverses along the borders pointed to disruptive conditions in the interior. The Annals 818 and following, tell of Pannonians repeatedly invading from the southeast, while Northmen were beginning to ravage the coast south to Aquitaine (820), following the rivers into the interior. Diplomatic relations were maintained between the court and the sporadically feuding Slavic tribes and with the Danes in the northeast. Armed disputes, corruption and the decline of morals among the priesthood, their failing spiritual care owing to poor education and the deplorable qualifications of the ignorant country clergy and their exploitation for menial work and faltering discipline were the fault of the local gentry, of court officials and the lax attention paid by the crown. The Imperium Christianum was in jeopardy. The Annals list natural catastrophes and devastations, eclipses, famines, storms, miracles, strange visions and bad omens. It was argued that God had been insulted.222 The emperor, responsible for the realm, was not sufficiently pro-active to care for justice and the faith, and the selection of his officials. Resistance began to surface about the primary role of the emperor over the religious and secular jurisdictions. The writing of corrective dreams and reprimanding visions became a literary activity. The blend of the Two Authorities is seen as undesirable. The freedom of the church had to remain inviolate. The emperor could protect the church, but not dispose over it. Again one pointed to the relationship between misdemeanors of men and the retribution of heaven. Louis convened four synods to address the faults listed. Of these the writings of Jonas of Orléans at the Synod of Paris, 829, played pointedly into the context of the power dualism in that the Synod attempted to delimit the competence of each power within the Corpus christianum. Within this construct both kings and bishops were vicars of the rex et sacerdos Jesus Christus. Jonas revisited the teaching of Gelasius who had envisaged the Two Authorities represented more in a worldly state and a spiritual church.223 The unity party was driven onto the defensive. Now the dignitaries of the church resisted any tendency toward the development of a state church and demanded instead the superior and autonomous role in determining church affairs.224 her to have Louis abdicate and enter a monastery. Boshof, p. 182f. Also Brunner, pp. 109ff. 222 Nithard, ch. 3, recounts the deterioration of the empire. Boshof, p. 174. 223 Angenendt, p. 381. 224 Boshof, p. 176.
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This jurisdictional conflict became acute in 829 when Louis clearly abandoned the principles of the Ordinatio imperii and proceeded unilaterally with the implementation of the partition of the inheritance, giving Charles the Bald large parts of the realm—Alemania, Alsace, Chur and a part of Burgundy—rather than dealing with the problems, which in the eyes of the church dignitaries needed attention. Though a new kingdom was not created, the act did resemble a traditional reallotment, which was taken from Lothair’s share.225 The results were to affect the next 13 years, the remainder of his reign, as his other sons, realizing that they were being played off against one another by their father, concentrated on the acquisition of territories and power in their own right.226 His advisors, among them the former chancellor Helisachar and the arch-chancellor Hilduin, mentioned above, staged the coup in 830 in which the empress was involved. Part of the resolution consisted of Judith being sent to a convent, but Louis having to do penance and accept the Ordinatio imperii as final. For a short while Lothair assumed the reign, but then the positions were realigned and a power struggle ensued, as his younger brothers preferred their father to their brother who proved not to be equal to the task. Louis revoqued his designation as coruler, though he could not change the fact that Lothair had been anointed, and sent him to Italy. Louis had saved his throne, though at a considerable loss of prestige. Judith could purge herself by an oath of the charges against her and regained her influence. He bought the support of his younger sons with the promise of the enlargement of their domains. A lack of determination among the supporters of the unity idea had cost them their power.227 Soon Ludwig rose in force, but when his support dwindled before the approaching emperor, he realized that his support among the high nobility west of the Rhine was limited and he submitted. Pepin of Aquitaine began to show open resistance against his father, who retaliated with force of arms, pillage and desolation and in the end, 833, Pepin was dethroned and expelled. In 830 he had been a conspirator of the first hour 225
Boshof, ‘Einheitsidee’ in Godman and Collins, p. 183. See J. Fried, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 143f. See Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 241–257 for a characterization of Charles the Bald. 227 Nithard, ch. 3. Boshof, p. 188. See Nelson, Charles the Bald, p. 88f. See Nelson also in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 116ff. Also McKitterick, ‘Charles the Bald and the Defense of Carolingian kingship’, in Frankish Kingdoms, p. 170f. 226
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and in 832 his kingdom was awarded to Charles, the Bald. When Pepin died in 838 his son was pushed aside and Charles, the Bald, succeeded him in the west. In 831 Louis issued a new document, the Regnio divisio, in which Pepin, Ludwig and Charles, the Bald, were to share the realm in the event of Louis’ death. Till then he retained full authority over all of the empire and the succession.228 Astronomus (48.2) describes how at Colmar, in Alsace, in 833, in the presence of pope Gregory IV (827–844), Louis’ sons faced their father on the ‘Field of Lies’. He had to feel the threatening anger of the crowd and watch the desertion of his own followers and troops. Nithard claims that the sons enticed Louis’ supporters away from him by promising various favors.229 This loss of support was interpreted as divine intervention on behalf of imperial constitutional unity and the rejection of Louis and his inclination toward partition. The pope realized an opportunity to assert the superiority of the spiritual authority as a guarantee of peace and unity.230 This was to be the first papal intervention in the politics of the empire. Prominent, but fanatical churchmen again placed all blame on Judith, the new Jezebel, pursuing the advantages of her son Charles. On July 30, the emperor became the prisoner of his sons. Judith was banished once again. To northern Italy this time.231 Self interests, power and territories were the main motivating factors not the unity of the realm. Once again the sons tried to induce him to enter monastic orders. On behalf of the papacy, Gregory proclaimed the pope’s authority over that of the empire. Louis conceded to the point that he did penance once again. At Soissons, Ebo, arch-bishop of Reims, his friend since youth, accused him of breaking the Ordinatio imperii, of sacrilege, murder, misgovernment, negligentia, pravitas and perjury and recalled those cases for which the emperor had already done penance in 822. His biographer Astronomus did note the peculiarity of that. Not to have been able to resist the seductions of his sinful wife, the violations of his divinely bestowed office sufficed to remove him from office. Instead of listening to false advisers, he should have listened to priests. He had become a tyrant. In the opinion of Lothair’s supporters Louis could only submit to the Hand of 228 229 230 231
Kasten, p. 191. Nithard, ch. 4. Riché, p. 155f. Nithard, ch. 4.
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God and do penance.232 Only complete penance could preserve his salvation. In the monastery of St. Médard, worn out by the confinement, he threw himself three times or more at the feet of the bishops, confessed his guilt, begged for forgiveness and the assistance of prayer, and promised to fulfill all tasks. Prostrated in front of the altar he confessed his sins publicly by means of the spoken and written word. He declared himself unworthy of the office, laid down his arms and donned the penitent’s garb handed him by the bishops. He was to accept lifelong penance and be unfit to rule. The unexpected effect of the abuse of majesty was the crisis of the monarchy through the loss of its authority. During these procedures an embassy from Constantinople was visiting the Frankish court. Their gifts were not presented to Lothair. The unkind treatment of his father, whom he dragged from place to place under strictest guard, the abuses of power by Lothair and by his favorites and the rivalry among his closest supporters transformed the mood of the people in favor of the old deposed emperor. The support for Lothair and his party had not been unanimous in any instance. His younger brothers had obtained the additional territories, which they wanted and Ludwig proceeded to claim greater independence. Till now he had been designated ‘king of Bavaria’ and dated his documents according to the reign of his father, as of 833 he assumed the absolute royal title rex and dates his documents without reference to the empire rex in orientali Francia. Even though the Diet of Nymwegen refuses to grant him this title, hereafter this itinerant king claims and defends all the east Rhenish lands as his domain and forms stronger links with the east Frankish nobility.233 Pepin did not imitate his brother. Two points of contradictory procedure were to reverse Louis’ situation—having been condemned a second time for transgressions already confessed earlier and being deposed for transgressions for which penance was supposed to be the actual deliverance.234 Lothair had behaved in a most undignified manner and his younger brothers, seeking independent kingdoms, revolted and the situation came to be reversed. Louis was completely rehabilitated owing to the efforts 232 Astronomus, chs. 48:3, 49:1. Astronomus gives a detailed description of the events. Boshof, pp. 196ff. 233 Boshof, p. 198. Brunner, p. 118. See also Innes, State and Society, p. 199. 234 Angenendt, p. 382.
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of the abbot of Fulda, Hrabanus Maurus, who, by becoming politically involved, became the mouthpiece for an opposition, which formed around Ludwig, the German.235 In response to a request from Louis the Pious Hrabanus Maurus compiled Biblical texts supporting his demands that sons show respect for their father, the people’s loyalty for their ruler and expressed the wish that the profoundly injured emperor could forgive all those who had wished him ill, especially Lothair. Just at this time he had prepared commentaries for the Biblical figures Judith and Esther and these he dedicated to the sorely tested empress Judith, praised her virtues and placed her at the side of the Biblical heroines. In a medallion-shaped likeness of the empress he shows her in a carmen figuratum, a picto-poem of a text of assembled letters, under the blessing Hand of God. That text asks for Judith’s protection from Christ, the right hand of God. She is encircled by the words ‘Give to her, God, blessed gifts, the crown on high’.236 He is confident of her triumph over all of her enemies. Also Walahfrid Strabo, the abbot of Reichenau, since 829, captivated by her, in her service and tutor of young Charles,237 placed his skills into the service of the emperor and dedicated a poem to her in which he criticized sharply the double treachery against Louis. By the end of the year 833 Ludwig negotiated successfully with Lothair on behalf of his father.238 By 831 the younger brothers were developing a different structure for the realm and refused to submit their real interests to the ideals of imperial unity. At the end of February 834 military forces caused Lothair to flee. Nithard recounts how Lothair’s supporters were either condemned to death or forced into exile.239 Already on March 1, bishops freed Louis from his penance and his regal garments and his weapons were restored to him. Shortly later he renewed his coronation and Judith Augusta, as Astronomus called her, was freed and returned to the court at Aachen.240 235 Dutton, Politics of Dreaming, p. 103. See Wallace-Hadrill, p. 333f. for Ludwig’s contacts with scholarly men. 236 E. Sears, in Godman and Collins, p. 620. Also M. de Jong, ‘The empire as ecclesia: Hrabanus Maurus and Biblical historia for rulers’, in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 206f. 237 Nelson, Charles the Bald, pp. 82ff. for details of the interaction. 238 Boshof, pp. 204ff. 239 Nithard, ch. 3. Also Innes, State and Society, p. 201. 240 Nithard, ch. 4, indicates that Judith was not readmitted to the royal bed until she had reestablished her innocence of the accusations with which she had been charged, infidelity and adultery, by means of an oath. See also Nelson, p. 45f.
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The life of Frankish royal women could be trying. Although this is best demonstrated among the Merovingian queens it also appears to have applied to someone like Judith. A queen’s status hinged on her ability to give birth to an heir and on her skills to keep him and a mother’s aspirations for her son alive, despite the rivalries and court intrigues. In turn her security and influence depended on the survival of her son(s). To protect the heir’s future was worth any struggle. Being mother of the heir, made her a favorite in the king’s eyes and in that role she could act as a buffer working against the interests of others and as a serious influence on the king in her own right. It follows that a strong queen, especially if she was well educated and ambitious and also had three grown step-sons, would polarize positions of envy, personal interest and opportunity around her and while she found devoted followers in some, she would be a hateful Jezebel to others. The latter group would certainly be interested to bring about her downfall and removal. She would require considerable skill to be perhaps irritatingly insistent on the pursuit of her own aims, without endangering her own position and personal safety through the loss of favor. Wrongfully or not, Judith was accused of an adulterous relationship with Bernard, the chamberlain. In 830, she had to purge herself by means of an oath.241 There was no accuser. Louis’ spiritual opponents were banished. Ebo, archbishop of Reims, had fled to Fulda. Brought back, he had to answer to a synod, confessed his transgressions, declared himself unworthy of his office, renounced it voluntarily and was removed from it in March 834. He was returned to Fulda and placed under the supervision of Hrabanus Maurus.242 Lothair and his supporters fled south, to Vienne. Subsequently Louis’ imperial forces were badly defeated by Lothair’s supporters along the border of Brittany. Lothair himself took the offensive in Burgundy, and, as Astronomus (52.3) described, sacked the city of Châlons sur Saône, lost control over his fanatical troops, letting them plunder the churches and commit atrocities. He had several nobles, at least one of them vassals of the emperor, beheaded.243 Louis finally called up his forces, including Ludwig’s troops from east of the Rhine. 241 242 243
Riché, p. 154. Astronomus, ch. 54:1, for Ebo’s situation. Boshof, p. 211f. Nithard, ch. 5.
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Lothair avoided a pitched battle, but when Pepin of Aquitaine advanced against him as well, he capitulated to the emperor. He and his followers prostrated themselves and confessed their guilt. Louis exiled him to Italy with the order not to leave it without his permission, and not to get involved in affairs of the realm.244 His supporters were granted amnesty without loss of most of their possessions and the freedom to follow Lothair to Italy. Louis was gracious and merciful, partly in keeping with the ethics expected of a Christian monarch, partly in keeping with political expediency, for the inheritance of Charles, the actual cause of all the turmoil, was still not settled. Owing to the terms of reconciliation Lothair and his magnates retained power and influence and Louis needed their support if he wanted to settle this question to his satisfaction.245 Since most of the reformers and the advocates of the union of the realm had sided with Lothair, Louis sought his supporters from among his family, even those whom he had sent away from court in his early years and raised them to positions of dignity in state and church, once again concentrating the high offices around his own person. He reclaimed a degree of royal effectiveness, reconsolidated his position and in assemblies of magnates and bishops had the humiliations of his dethronement reversed. To mark the restitution his coronation was renewed once again in Metz in 835. Even though Louis had regained his authority, the approach to dealing with the political situation concerning the partition question as well as the external threat from the north, was no more than a stalemate with a resentful Lothair confined to Italy, a resigned Pepin in Aquitaine and a restive Ludwig east of the Rhine. Charles remained hopeful in his possessions straddling the upper Rhine. During the twenty-six years of his reign Louis the Pious reorganized the succession ten times.246 Louis’ attention should have been directed elsewhere. The annals of these years engage in annual reports of raids and invasions, devastations, destruction, pillage and killings.247 Throughout the 9th century the Northmen were mainly Danes and according to
244 Astronomus, ch. 55:2, indicates that Lothair and his following in Italy violated the conditions of their oaths and that they were harassing with special brutality the church of Saint Peter, promised safeguard by his father and grandfather. 245 Boshof, pp. 206–210. 246 Kasten, p. 198. 247 R. Collins, Early Medieval Europe, 300–1000 (New York 1991), pp. 313ff.
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the records, most of their leaders were related to the royal house of Denmark. In 817 Louis the Pious had invited a Danish fleet to attack the Abodrites. A few years later the Danes came on their own, perhaps taking advantage of the hostilities between Louis the Pious and his son Lothair. In 834 Danes raided Frisia, freely plundering such trading centers as Dorestad—four times between 834 and 837—in the Rhine estuary and thereby inaugurated the recurring raids of the Northmen, later to gain notoriety as Vikings. In 838 already the king of the Danes, Horic I, demanded that Frisia and the land of the Abodrites be ceded to him. Rouen was destroyed in 841, Quentovic in 842, Nantes in 843, Toulouse in 844, Hamburg and Paris in 845, Bordeaux in 848, Orleans in 853, Poitiers in 865 on the request of Pepin and Soissons in 886. Repeatedly Carolingian dissension proved a boon to the Vikings.248 Much effort brought little success against them. Although Louis ordered better organization and improved coastal defenses, the measures could not prevent the incursions and the increasing damage. The troops moved in to remedy the situation will have contributed to the problem as they tried to compensate in marauding ways for a missing supply system. Isolated outposts had to be abandoned. The inhabitants fled, the site was set aflame and 36 hours later the raiders had disappeared. The defensive measures of the realm could not match mobility, flexibility, speed and surprise, the aggressive methods of the seafaring raiders in their superior ships, though their vast number of ships (700?) and men (40 000?) are highly exaggerated.249 They were not pirates intent on systematic destruction. Diplomacy could not prevent the return visits to obtain more material goods, which brought greater yield. The Northmen could go ashore at will, the Frankish troops, including the cavalry,250 248 H. Harthausen, Die Normanneneinfälle im Elb- und Wesermündungsgebiet mit besonderer Berücksichtigung der Schlacht von 880 (Hildesheim 1966). Harthausen argues that the Viking raids were a response to dynastic turmoil in their homelands, when some leaders were driven away and had to find means of survival elsewhere. See also Angenendt, p. 385, for raided sites. See Nelson, Charles the Bald, pp. 37ff., 151ff. Also S. Coupland, ‘The Vikings in Francia and Anglo-Saxon England to 911.’ in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 190–201. 249 Harthausen, Normanneneinfälle, pp. 5ff., discusses the size of ships and crews of the Viking dragon ships and calculates crews of 50, 30 to man the oars and 20 other specialists. The size of the ships was limited by the length of the keel, a single oak beam. The small populations of the homelands will not have provided such large surpluses of men as the monastic records suggest. 250 See Nelson, ‘Ninth-Century Knighthood: The Evidence of Nithard’, in Nelson, Frankish World, pp. 75–87.
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could not intercept them. At first their intent was to find booty and it was the speed of their ships, which made the attack of several sites in a short time possible. They were led by endangered members of the royal Danish house who had been excluded from sharing dynastic power and been driven into exile, who could gather adventuresome warriors with whom to raid western Europe to gather great fame, wealth and power.251 Voices in the church proclaimed the raids to be punishments sent by God to scourge Christian wickedness and sins. Slow communications in the reporting of raids may have made their numbers appear much larger. Only later did the raids become conquests. During the 840s the Northmen established settlements in the estuaries of the Rhine, the Schelde, the Seine and Loire and penetrate unhindered up the Rhine into the interior to Cologne, Koblenz and Trier and up the Seine into Burgundy. Liège and Aachen were equally accessible. Reevaluations indicate that such settlements tended to foster markets, attracted merchants and promoted the exchange of goods with the neighboring populations, which may have outweighed the initial damage.252 Churches and monastic establishments were favored sites of attack because of the availability there of such concentrations of precious metals as silver and gold and ornate fabrics. It is conceivable that the local populations participated in these raids in order to improve their own fortunes. The records of such events were largely kept by the clergy and among them the cry was raised that these raiders were instruments of God, inflicting due punishment. Without a fleet the Frankish forces could never react in time. The parts of the empire needed to respond, as individual situations required it. The central authority, but also the local nobility, failed to respond adequately to the needs. Neither saw the common short-term threat to the realm, perhaps because the Vikings were actually contributing to the long-term economic growth of Western Europe. Thus most towns survived the Viking invasions without significant disruptions, to prosper from the tenth century onward as centers engaging in long-distance trade.253 The nobility saw to its own advantages and interests. Mutual support was becoming a set of contractual agreements.254 The thinking behind centuries 251 252 253 254
Sawyer and Sawyer, Medieval Scandinavia, p. 52f. Nelson, Charles the Bald, pp. 38ff. A. Verhulst, The Carolingian Economy (Cambridge 2002), p. 8. Riché, p. 189f. Nelson, Charles the Bald, p. 21, indicates that Charles the Bald
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of waging offensive war could not easily be converted to the mentality required for defensive strategies. In 834 the Frisians were not particularly helpful to the Franks in mounting a defense. Their community of seafaring interests may have been much closer to that of the seafaring Danes. Once again defeatism spread as the aggressive Northmen were deemed to be a scourge sent by God. Louis tried to negotiate with the king of the Danes, who now made demands and set conditions and asked for the cession of Frisia and the land of the Abodrites in return for any agreements. While Carolingian military competence was declining, the Northmen were becoming conscious of their power and advantages contributing to a worsening situation in the northeast.255 During the 9th century the payment of tributes and ransoms depleted the available reserves in bullion almost completely. Thus in 845 a Viking fleet had sailed to the gates of Paris and had exacted about 7000 pounds of silver from Charles the Bald. In 858 he paid a ransom of 688 pounds of gold and 3250 pounds of silver, 4000 in 866 and 5000 pounds of silver in 877.256 The repeated payments of tribute caused the reduction of the silver content in the coinage,257 considerable impoverishment and great unrest among his nobles, as Charles exacted the amounts from them. By 859 Viking war bands had become a destabilizing factor in Frankish finances, economics and politics, sometimes as raiders, more often as mercenaries, even fighting one another, in Frankish disputes and open rebellions. Noteworthy is the attack of the nobility on an association of peasants, which had wanted to put up active resistance against the Vikings. The nobles saw in this an intolerable potential threat of their own authority.258 In 838 the Slavs had been disturbed by the negotiations between the Franks and the Vikings and rose in arms. In the southeast Moravians259 and Bulgars260 were forging centers of power. The Mediterranean was coming under the control of the Saracens. had to give away royal land to gain the support of his nobles, no longer being able to distribute the spoils of war and expansion. 255 See Astronomus, ch. 55:2. Also Boshof, p. 224f. See Nelson, Charles the Bald, p. 20. 256 Nelson, Charles the Bald, pp. 186, 250. 257 Verhulst, Carolingian Economy, p. 134. 258 Nelson, Charles the Bald, pp. 193f., 204ff. See especially C.R. Bowlus, Franks, Moravians, and Magyars. The Struggle for the Middle Danube, 788–907 (Philadelphia 1995). 259 Riché, p. 230. See Hartmann, pp. 113–119. 260 Hartmann, p. 119.
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Louis’ foreign policy was not a total failure. The expansionist era had already come to a close in Charlemagne’s time. At this moment the threats to the periphery of the realm were only just beginning. Such as they were, they did not merit the preoccupation that was needed to solve the inheritance question. Constant distractions were his passion for the hunt and a very severe and persistent case of gout, occasionally so severe that he could not move. Not eating game would have helped tremendously. Judith had every reason to want to see Charles’ inheritance settled, especially in view of the improving relations between Louis and Lothair, starting in 836. The party promoting imperial unity was once again gaining ground. However, disputes over the restitution of church properties delayed the process, especially when Lothair claimed illness and did not attend a court gathering. In 836 the Synod of Aachen faulted Pepin of Aquitaine for this very reason. He yielded. This will not have endeared his father to him. However, the main purpose of the Synod was the elimination of confusion and the restoration of order in the realm. The text of the Synod of Paris of 829 was reactivated. Again the dualism of powers first raised by Gelasius was revisited. A renewed restorative synergy of church and state was reformulated. Lothair was also affected by the demand for the restitution of church property. He had used it to compensate his followers and could not easily redistribute it. Louis had invited Pepin and Ludwig to join him on his voyage to Rome, which did not enthuse Lothair at all for he could see through the device to impose a control on him. He closed the Alpine passes, but Louis had to tend to an invasion of Frisia by Northmen and cancelled his trip to Rome. Lothair resisted all attempts of a rapprochement when, according to Astronomus (56.2), an outbreak of disease in Italy in 837 killed off a large number of his expatriate Frankish supporters. Henceforth he could no longer object from a position of strength. Ludwig drew nearer to his brother Lothair. In 838 Louis reacted immediately by transferring a long strip of territory between the North Sea and Burgundy to Charles, without making him king, so that the typical partition had not yet taken place, but magnates ‘gave their hands to Charles and swore oaths of fealty’.261 This brought about a serious clash between Louis 261 Astronomus, ch. 59:1. See Nithard, ch. 5, for a list of the ceded territories. Innes, State and Society, p. 205, argues that the conflict was really about the Imperial control of the region of the middle Rhine.
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and his son Ludwig. Ludwig was deprived of all lands but Bavaria, a serious reverse to his plans to consolidate his share. Judith and some influential churchmen probably promoted this design, for it met with Judith’s intentions. At the diet of Quierzy that September Louis went a step further. According to Astronomus (59.1) Charles was ‘girded with manly weapons’. i.e. invested with his sword, as a sign of having come of age and crowned king of parts of Neustria between Seine and Loire. The magnates of Neustria present ‘gave their hands to Charles and swore oaths of fealty’. Pepin was restored in Aquitaine262 and Lothair was reminded of his duties as Charles’ godfather. With the creation of this kingdom, the Ordinatio imperii was finally overcome. With this outcome, the partinionists had won. In 838 Ludwig made a last attempt to secure the Rhine as boundary for his East Frankish lands and occupied Frankfurt just when Louis wanted to use the site for an assembly. As Louis assembled his forces, including members from the east-rhenish tribes, Ludwig’s Thuringians, Alemans and Eastern Franks fell away. The required cohesion had not yet come about. Ludwig withdrew to Bavaria.263 His magnates were either rewarded or punished, but all were recommitted to Louis by the oath of fealty. In December of 838 Pepin of Aquitaine died and in view of Louis faltering state, Judith once again turned to Lothair as primary candidate in the partition to take the part of Charles, his godson. A reconciliation of Lothair with his father took on the story of the parable of the Prodigal Son and Lothair accepted the terms of partition, that Charles should inherit half of the realm, west of the line Maas—Saône—Rhône. According to Nithard Louis left the partition to Lothair, provided he would let Charles have first choice. Unable to divide the kingdom, he yielded to his father’s wisdom. Lothair was to take the east and Italy, with the exception of Bavaria, this partition to come into effect upon Louis’ death.264 Evidently Louis tried to maintain the spirit of the partition of 817, leaving Lothair as representative of the idea of constitutional unity. Ludwig the German was also committed to the maintenance of this new agreement and was threatened with mili-
262
Nithard, ch. Astronomus, 264 Nithard, ch. Charles from now and Lothair. 263
5. ch. 61:1. See also Nithard, ch. 6. 6. writes that Lothair would enforce his father’s will regarding on. See also ch. 7 for details of the reconciliation between Louis
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tary force, should he leave Bavaria. Ludwig found it advisable to come to terms, except that he too asked for guarantees. A council at Châlons was to resolve the Aquitainian situation. In the meantime the magnates of Aquitaine had passed over Charles and elevated Pepin’s son to the throne, insisting on the Ordinatio imperii and its provision that sons should succeed their fathers. Louis had violated that provision repeatedly, solving the problems by means of force majeure, power politics. This time military intervention proved a failure. During Lent of 839 the news reached him that Ludwig had once again risen against his father and with some Saxons, Thuringians and East Frankish troops had once again reached Frankfurt and repeated his claim to the east-rhenish lands. Once again his uprising was a failure as Louis pursued him into Thuringia, making him recognize the father’s superiority. Louis had been suffering from bronchitis and now an additional ailment laid him low. Astronomus (62.4) describes the symptoms, which a modern diagnosis interprets as cancer of the esophagus or stomach. An eclipse of the sun was taken to be an omen indicating his end. Astronomus elaborates Louis death in considerable detail, how on his deathbed he distributed his possessions, worried about the church and his sense of failure and answered those who tried to persuade him to reconcile himself with Ludwig. Astronomus (63.3), recounts how Louis recited a list of Ludwig’s ingratitudes, forgave him, but reminded him how much he had contributed to the death of his father and had discarded God’s commandment.265 Of his family only his half-brother Drogo was present. He died on June 20, 840. According to Astronomus (64.2) Louis’ last words belonged to the exorcism vocabulary as if to drive off a malign spirit, which he had seen. He was buried in an antique sarcophagus in Metz, alongside his mother, his sisters and other Carolingians. Louis the Pious, a Carolingian though he was, saw his legitimacy in his conviction that he was king/emperor solely because of God’s grace and did his understandable best to live up the challenge, which that divine vocation entailed. In serving the realm in his ministry, he served God. Falling short in the perception of others he made himself vulnerable to criticism, opposition, rebellion and his own
265 Nelson, ‘The last Years of Louis the Pious’, in Frankish World, pp. 40ff. Also Dutton, Politics of Dreaming, p. 110.
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enforced humiliation. By accepting the bishops as his judges he did not appreciate that it was in the interest of their power politics to have him assume willingly the role of repentant sinner. Before his death Louis had sent a crown and a richly ornamented sword to Lothair, according to Astronomus (63.2), and charged him to tend to Judith and his brother Charles and to leave him the share, which had been apportioned, to him. Thereby Lothair was designated imperial heir in accordance with the Ordinatio imperii of 817 adjusted to reflect the new circumstance. Lothair adhered to the unity idea and attracted recognition and many supporters among the highest nobility to his cause when he crossed the Alps to ascend the throne.266 However, once again, owing to his scheming ways, he alienated his supporters when in his dealings with his brothers he once again reverted to insincerity and deception. He roused his brothers Charles and Ludwig to take joint military action against him and at the unjustifiable Battle of Fontenoy near Auxerre, June 25, 841, Lothair’s forces were decisively defeated, despite the assistance of Pepin II of Aquitaine.267 It was one of the bloodiest battles of the Middle Ages, with some 40 000 casualties on Lothair’s side. While Lothair’s opponents preferred to consider the defeat a divine judgment, which granted the brothers their fair share of the realm, he did not, claimed victory and remained belligerent. Since he persisted with his cause, the fratricidal war dragged on till 843, costing him ever more support and influence. On February 14, 842, the armies of Ludwig and Charles had met at Strasbourg where the kings swore a set of oaths, actually a nonaggression pact, Charles in German, Ludwig in French in front of each other’s army. Both oaths were originally recorded in Nithard’s Histories, preserved only in copies, but as examples of early German and early French. Just before each oath Nithard introduces the terms romana and teudisca lingua, as follows, Lodhuwicus romana, Karolus vero teudisca lingua iuraverunt. Exactly what these terms were intended to
266 Nithard, Bk. II, ch. 1, presents a rather disenchanted impression of Lothair’s assumption of power. But then Nithard leaves little doubt that he is writing on behalf of Charles the Bald. Nithard devotes the chapters of Bk. II and III to summarize events during the next three years. 267 Nithard, Bk. II, ch. 10, Bk. III, ch. 1, renders a shocked summary of the battle and its aftermath. See Nelson, Charles the Bald, pp. 114ff., 118ff. Also Angenendt, p. 382. Also Brunner, p. 123.
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mean is not clear.268 What is clear, is that Nithard wanted to emphasize the significance of these oaths by setting them off in an unprecedented, seemingly spontaneous, verbatim ‘vernacular’ of sorts, for the text into which they are placed is in Latin. ‘Vernacular’, because neither language existed at that time in this common form, and certainly not as official languages. Both parts of the realm used a multitude of regional dialects reflecting the large tribal groups in which Latin served as the general language of communications, although it was no one’s first language. A Latin original will necessarily have underlain the ‘vernacular’ versions. That the teudisca lingua should be quite different is perhaps not surprising. What is more surprising is how different the romana lingua is from Latin by mid-ninth century. Being the older, Ludwig swore first, in the following words: Pro deo amur et pro christian poblo et nostro commun salvament, d’ist di un avant in quant Deus savir et podir me dunat, si saluarai eo cist meon fradre Karlo et in aiudha et in cadhuna cosa, si cum om per dreit son fradra saluar dist, in o quid il mi altresi fazet, et ab Ludher nul plaid numquam prindrai, qui meon vol cist meon fradre Karlo in damno sit. Charles swore as follows: In godes minna ind in these christianes folches ind unser bedhero gehaltnissi, fon thesemo dage frammordes, so fram mir so mir got gewizci indi maht furgibit, so hald ih tesan minan bruoder soso man mit rehtu sinan bruodher scal, inthin daz er mig so sama duo, indi mit Ludheren in nohheiniu thing ne gegango the minan willon imo ce scadhen werben.269
The oaths followed established rhetorical formats in their address of God—People—Ruler as each brother indicates his intention to unite with the other brother against the third brother out of love of God, for the sake of their Christian people and their own salvation. Each oath implies a condition based on the mutual exchange of Christian brotherly love, provided that God give to each wisdom and power. The early German text is not totally identical to the text in early French. Ludwig mentions Charles by name. The French text does not mention Ludwig. Both mention Lothair in a negative exclusion clause with the implication that the agreement is void if one of the brothers enters an agreement with Lothair damaging to the other brother, his equal partner. 268 See Arnold, pp. 4ff. concerning the use of derivatives of the word ‘Teuton’. The original Teutons were a Celtic people, annihilated by Marius in 103 B.C.E. Cf. Schutz, Prehistory, pp. 339ff. 269 S. Becker, Untersuchungen zur Redaktion der Straßburger Eide (Bern, Frankfurt/M. 1972), p. 26f. Nelson, Charles the Bald, pp. 122ff.
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In modern English the text reads as follows: For the love of God and the common salvation of the Christian people and ourselves, from this day forth, as far as God give me wisdom and power, I will treat this my brother as one should rightfully treat a brother on condition that he does the same by me. And with Lothair I will not willingly enter into any agreement, which might injure this, my brother.270 Their followers swore oaths with identical texts, each in the others’ language: If Louis/Charles keeps the oath which he swore to his brother Charles/Louis and my Lord Charles/(my Lord Louis breaks the oath he swore to him) does not keep it on his part, and if I am unable to restrain him, I shall not give him any aid against Louis/Charles nor will anyone whom I can keep from doing so.271
This oath raises a number of interesting legal aspects about the evolving understanding of vassalage. Primarily the oath sworn between the brothers was witnessed by the armies, who in turn state their understanding and commitment to the terms. The collective oath is the sacramentum fidei, the oath of loyalty to himself and his sons exacted after his coronation in 800, which every Frank at the age of 12 had to swear to his ruler, an oath reintroduced by Charlemagne.272 These vassal armies refuse their duties as vassals, should their liege lord act unjustly against his partner. This is of legal interest, for the vassal voices his right to reserve judgment about the cause to which the oath of allegiance is to commit him. The collective oath points in the direction of the autonomy of the individual to reach his own decision rather than following his liege lord in unconditioned obedience. The oath has something of a ‘social contract’ about it. It may imply that the followers could change sides. What was the significance that contemporaries attached to these oaths? It is of interest that only West Frankish records either existed or have survived. In the East Frankish kingdom the oaths appear not to have been documented. For the moment the ideal of the constitutional unity of the empire had been preserved. It is noteworthy that following the partition Ludwig was able to attract to his cause some of his most important opponents.273
270
Nithard, Bk. III, ch. 5. Ibid. 272 Becker, p. 33. See Riché, p. 128. Nelson, ‘kingship and empire’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 67, concerning the oaths. 273 Brunner, p. 128. 271
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IV. Towards the partition of the Empire Following the Battle of Fontenoy Lothair had retired toward Aachen and in the months following had carried the treasure away from there. A gathering of bishops and priests at Aachen of March 842 used the divine judgment of the battle to review Lothair’s career and to disqualify him from rule and twelve commissioners to a side, selected by the brothers, charged them to share the empire.274 His defeat, the oaths against him and the loss of the imperial seat at Aachen persuaded Lothair to yield and gradually and reluctantly come to terms with his brothers in a treaty. No wording of the treaty actually exists. Nithard ended his Histories in December 842, with the marriage of his Lord Charles to Ermentrude, the daughter of count Odo of Paris. The last lines deal with an eclipse the following March. He is dejected that ‘rapine and wrongs of every sort were rampant on all sides, and now the unseasonable weather killed the last hope of any good to come.275 The empress Judith died that April and Northmen invaded the coastal regions. For Charles a decision had to be reached. It was the eve of a new chapter in the history of Western Europe. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 was a fraternal partition, intended to guarantee the realm, lasting for most of the next 30 years. The new Treaty of Meersen in 870 eliminated Lothair’s unviable strip between the West and East Frankish kingdoms, with Lombardy a separate entity. In 843 Charles was the west Frankish king, Lothair was emperor and received a strip from the North Sea, parts of Austrasia, Burgundy and Carolingian Italy to south of Rome. Ludwig was East Frankish king in Saxony, Swabia and Bavaria, including the vast territories of the bishoprics of Mainz, Worms and Speyer.276 The objective rested in the equal division of territories and royal resources, without any consideration given to notions of ‘nationality’. For a while this fraternal tripartite arrangement worked well enough since a unified Christian church preserved the overall unity of the realm. The divisions followed only approximate linguistic lines, because dynastic concerns were the primary issue, so that no ‘homogeneous’ or ‘ethnic’ kingdoms came into being. Divergent processes came into 274 275 276
Nithard, Bk. IV, ch. 1. See also Riché, p. 163. Nithard, Bk. IV, ch. 7. See also Wallace-Hadrill, p. 238f. Löwe, p. 178. Riché, p. 165f. Innes, State and Society, p. 210.
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play as the ‘community of interests’ showed rifts. The linguistic differences only symbolize the gradual deterioration in communications between the parts of the vast realm. Basic to the territorial arrangements may have been a condition expressed first by Charlemagne in his Divisio regnorum of 806 and then by Louis the Pious in Ordinatio imperii of 817 in which it was required that a vassal receive lands only within the jurisdiction of his lord, as no vassal could swear homage to several lords. The logic behind the partition then was a question of compacting the parts of the realm, in order to keep powerful vassals within a king’s realm.277 Unfortunately the compacting administrative exercise meant the surrender of enclaves and hence a further loss of overall cohesion as offshoot establishments lost the link with their motherhouses. Consistent with a Carolingian practice introduced by Charlemagne each sub-king, or even co-emperor, fulfilled a dual (apprenticeship) role as king in the Frankish realm and as king of a particular kingdom. Thus Ludwig the German was undisputed king of Bavaria. His support lay not among the high nobility, but among the lesser Frankish aristocracy perhaps from the former entourage of Tassilo III. The formation of an independent eastern kingdom was not in the interests of the older nobility278 and the creation of a separate France and Germany was not the initial objective at this time, but an inevitable development as the constitutional unity of the empire, the church, the peoples and of a cohesive historical culture became ever more subject to divergent forces. Linguistic differences had little to do with the emergence of regional interests. It will become apparent that the external pressures on the parts of the realm required particularistic responses. Defense and economics played major roles in forcing the abandonment of the idealistic notions of rule over a united empire in favor of pragmatic, territorial, administrative needs. Despite years of sincere effort to maintain a defensive unity, circumstances imposed a concentration of common interests in terms of a particularistic Realpolitik. Charlemagne’s empire had been a unique configuration, which overextended the available, realistic, administrative, communicational, economic and spiritual possibilities. 277 Riché, p. 167. See especially Innes, State and Society, p. 196, who claims that it was only a small group of observers, with inordinate long term influence, who lamented the division. Division was a means of retaining dynastic control over so vast a territory. 278 Brunner, p. 120.
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Map 3. The Partition of the Carolingian Empire following the Treaty of Verdun 843.
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Following the death of Lothair in 855, the realm was further divided into five parts when he divided his part among his three sons. Rivalries, expansionism, aggression, opportunism, self interest prevented the realm from coming to rest. Ludwig the German was part of the problem and a synod of bishops tried to subject him to an equally humiliating submission and repentance to which they had subjected his father. However, in the face of virtually unanimous opposition, Ludwig yielded to the pressures and at Koblenz, on June 7, 860, Charles and Ludwig swore once again, though this time each in his own language. The bishops had provided the text. In their eyes they had restored the unity of the realm. At the same time a most important feature was introduced into all future negotiations between the empire and the church. Based on the forged documents of a certain Pseudo-Isidore, new grounds for the inviolability of church property and the omnipotence of the episcopal office were formulated. Most decisive was the attribution of new juridical powers to the pope. These forgeries favored the definition of bishops and especially the empowerment of the papacy, which now energetically assumed the responsibility for the illusory unity of the Imperium Christianum, including the right to dominate the bishops and to crown the emperor.279 In retrospect the papacy was only too ready to grow into the paternal role of guardian of the unity of all Christendom gradually being vacated by the divided temporal powers. Lothair’s heirs came under the pressure of the Saracens in Italy and of the West Frankish kingdom when Charles the Bald increased his aggression against Provence and Lotharingia/Lorraine in the north. Ludwig the German tried to keep these two states as buffers between himself and Charles, unsuccessfully, for this ended when Charles seized Lorraine.280 In August of 870, at Meersen,281 just north of Aachen, a Treaty redrew the partition of the empire along different lines: Lombardy became an independent kingdom with its own sovereign king, Louis II, who also had the imperial crown, while most of Lotharingia and Burgundy became parts of the East Frankish kingdom. Ludwig was able to make his case forcefully, because he had
279
Angenendt, p. 394f. for details of the forged documentation. Also Riché, pp.
170ff. 280 281
Nelson, Charles the Bald, pp. 217ff. Ibid. pp. 224ff. for details of the Treaty of Meersen.
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Map 4. The Partition of the Carolingian Empire following the Treaty of Meersen 870.
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just scored some successes along his southeastern boundaries against the Moravian Slavs.282 In the end the more pragmatic traditional political practice of partitioning the realm was established. The community of interests could no longer be communicated. The abstract idea of the universal empire proposed by some, could not be maintained except as the Imperium Christianum.
V. The emerging profile of Central Europe Among the Frankish kingdoms, the East Frankish lands compared unfavorably with the others. The East Frankish kingdom was smaller, with a smaller population, least developed economically, politically and culturally. Compared to the others, it could not draw on a Roman heritage with respect to administration, organization, cultural cohesion, yet it proved the more stable. Most of its territories had never been under Roman jurisdiction. Except along its western fringes its ruling elites had not risen through the kaleidoscopic changes of the Gallo-Roman and then Frankish civilizational experience. In many ways the old elites, located especially in the church, continued to share the power in the realm with the king as the kingdom continued to consist largely of loosely linked cultural, religious and political oligarchies and enclaves in largely unconnected, tribal regions, over which a Frankish unifying rule had been in place for only relatively short periods of varying duration. When the Carolingians faded, it was these elites, old and new, which for many centuries to come determined the history of France. It has been shown incidentally that Ludwig’s position as rex orientalium Francorum was only relatively secure. His realm could expand or shrink on very short notice. Notker Balbulus, the Stammerer, devotes several pages to him, in the second part of his Gesta Caroli.283 Written for Ludwig’s son, Charles, later unjustly called ‘the Fat’, Notker highlights Ludwig’s praiseworthiness, his wisdom, recognized by Charlemagne when Ludwig was only six years old, the grandfather’s kiss before the court which proclaimed his rank, his claim to equal status with his father Louis the Pious, and the emperor’s pre-
282 283
Löwe, pp. 186ff. In Thorpe, pp. 149ff.
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diction that the boy would become someone great. Devout in his faith, he was to be the protector of those who served God, a champion of the weak. Notker mistakenly calls him king and emperor of all Germany and of other lands, and thinks of him as a man of greatness and magnanimity, as well as a man of large stature and noble presence, with bright eyes and of clear and manly voice. Wise and of acute intelligence, a tireless student of the Scriptures, Ludwig was quick to foil conspiracies, halt disputes among his subjects and favor those loyal to him. A terror to the heathen, he never broke his word in judgment and following a massacre never again shed Christian blood, not even in a condemnation to death. Instead he banished them from his presence and deprived them of their offices and property. Repeatedly Notker associates Ludwig with such figures as St. Ambrose or St. Martin and applies a quotation from Isaiah to him. He was devout in his religiosity, which gained him the title pius from some contemporaries, walked barefoot to church, tore down walls in Regensburg to build a church, used the gold found in rich graves to decorate the church and to make sumptuous book covers. He rejected illiterate churchmen and favored those monks who kept their vows. He scorned finery in battle, the Viking’s tribute in gold while he tested the quality of their swords with his own hands, being strong enough to bend tip to hilt and snapping some of them. Notker records him to have been a man of good humor who could make others happy and set affairs aright with a glance, just like the eternal judge. For Notker, Ludwig was singled out by the grace of God. This description has something of the panegyric about it, including the grandfather’s prophecy of Ludwig’s future greatness. Even if the list of qualities and virtues was intended to serve as a guiding mirror for Ludwig’s son, Charles III, the Fat, the list reflects a tangible quality.284 Born perhaps in 806, according to Notker, little Ludwig had won the favor of his grandfather. He was designated ruler of Bavaria at age 10, came of age at 15, but was kept at court in Aachen, till in 825 the 19-year-old prince was sent to Bavaria as its king. By the end of the decade he had to campaign defensively against the Bulgars on his eastern frontiers. At age 21 Ludwig was married to Hemma,
284 Hartmann, pp. 18–24, in addition to Notker also refers to Regino of Prüm for other testimonials concerning Ludwig the German.
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his stepmother Judith’s sister.285 She may have been only 15 years old. A 13th century stone relief of Hemma is still respected in the church of St. Emmeram in Regensburg where she was buried in January 876. A stroke in 874 had taken her power of speech. What was the nature of the realm over which Ludwig the Bavarian, a more accurate term than Ludwig the German, came to rule? It is not really possible to project an impression of a cohesively structured, uniformly motivated realm in which a community of interests provided any sense of direction. That was yet to come. Later, because the partition of Verdun placed the river Rhine in the kingdom of Lothair, Ludwig’s kingdom did not have a N-S line of communication and was hampered in the development of its trade and economy.286 What did he mean when after 833 he laid claim to all the east-rhenish lands and their defense, and called himself rex in orientali Francia? Soon afterwards he was called rex in Alemannia. Later he assumed a leading role in the attempted rehabilitation of his father and stepmother/sister-in-law with the intellectual leaders of his domain circled around him and in early 834 contributed militarily to his father’s freedom. In 838, when Charles the Bald came of age and was awarded a share of the realm, Ludwig’s holdings were reduced. Revolt was in vain and until his father’s death in 840 Ludwig repeatedly had to recognize his father’s superior might. Whenever he wanted to rise against him in the pursuit of his own interests during the political maneuvering in Louis’ last years, Ludwig incurred the displeasure of his father, who promptly reduced his holdings to Bavaria and cut him off from the Carolingian core lands. Ludwig did mount some ineffective resistance and when he showed reluctance to accept the renewed partition of the realm, Louis threatened him with military action. Ludwig was prepared to entertain all manner of concession as long as he could avoid outright submission. Ludwig rose again when he saw an opportunity to reclaim his lands during his father’s absence in Aquitaine. We saw above that a true reconciliation between father and son was not to come about, as on his deathbed Louis reviewed a list of wrongs done to him by his son. Yet Ludwig was his father’s most loyal son, who repeatedly came to his aid, as during the troubles in 833/834 when Ludwig arrived with a large
285 286
Hartmann, p. 64f. Löwe, p. 185f.
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army raised in his lands. Later Ludwig was to suffer feelings of guilt. Following the emperor’s death in 840, Ludwig was quick to regain his lost lands even though his two brothers stood against him. Owing to Lothair’s imperious ways, a realignment came into being, which pitted him against his brothers. The Battle of Fontenoy, 841, was the outcome. The victory of Charles and Ludwig was deemed a divine judgment. The Oaths of Strasbourg of 842 confirmed yet another partition of the realm. Linguistic boundaries were not observed.287 There was no evident constitutional framework, no crystallizing state institutions, nor a power-conscious nobility to demand participation in the structured rule of the kingdom, i.e. no system of vassalage. With the partition of 843 most of the old imperial nobility had not followed Ludwig the German and so he had to attract members of the tribal and territorial nobility to his banners, once again demonstrating the willingness of the magnates to hitch themselves to the Carolingian star. In his kingdom they were ready to grasp new opportunities and advantages for themselves and their relations. They easily became the interpreters of the Franks and implementers of Frankish policies. There was little need to heed representatives of the church to criticize and check his dealings with the church and its rights, prerogatives and independent voice. In the eastern realm vassalage was less well established and there is no record there of an anointing of the king with its concomitant commitments. Evidently the ceremony was not needed. As a result, and contrary to the western realm, the power of the king was not reduced by the church and it is a significant point of difference that the royal right to determine and to intervene in the appointment of bishops remained secure in the eastern kingdom into the 11th century. Among the diets and councils only four, between 847 and 895, deserve any attention. Though ruler of this realm, he really only controlled Bavaria from his power center in Regensburg and the Frankish region of the middle Rhine from its centers of power at Mainz and Frankfurt. There he refurbished the palace and emulated the royal/imperial seat at Aachen. With most of the diets assembling at Frankfurt, that region became the center of gravity. Saxony, Frisia, the Elbian lands, Thuringia and the eastern marches were peripheral and observed
287
Hartmann, p. 42.
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only a most tenuous connection with his rule, as was illustrated repeatedly when he rose against his father and their support faded away. However, in the end, the East Frankish kingdom, far from any sense of statehood and anything but a prosperous and homogeneous region, crystallized around Bavaria.288 The north was allowed to evolve as in a vacuum, with the consequent result of the rise of Saxony under the leadership of the family of the Luidolfingians, better known as the Ottonians. These descendants of Widukind did not leave the service of Lothair till 855 and managed to retain their secular and religious positions. By means of the marriages of his daughter and sons with members of the regional nobility, he tried to tie them to the local dynasties and to establish them in the respective regions as heirs. With Lothair’s death in 855 Alemania could be integrated into his kingdom. Ludwig’s eyes were directed mainly toward the west, where Lothair’s middle and Charles’ western kingdoms were the more promising regions deserving his attention.289 Any signs of weakness there, such as Viking raids, could present opportunities to gain territory. Such opportunism was to compromise his image. However, the historical processes had been set in motion as the Franks and Saxons realized, though only unclearly, their community building roles, as the bishoprics along the Rhine and the great eastern monasteries provided economic, political, religious and cultural focal points,290 and as Ludwig the German and later especially Ludwig the Younger began to draw the great and influential families of his kingdom closer to him and to provide the setting in which to identify with the separate sovereignty of an East Frankish realm by the beginning of the tenth century. Expansionist efforts toward the middle Danube and the Balkans stand out, but there too the successes were limited. Following the demise of the Avars, the Moravians filled the vacated spaces.291 Missions were conducted from Salzburg, but the Slavic princes pursued a policy of distancing themselves from the Carolingian church toward the eastern, Byzantine church, as represented by the missionary activ-
288
Fried, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 144ff. Hartmann, pp. 48ff. 290 Innes, State and Society, p. 104. 291 See Angenendt, p. 391f. Also Riché, p. 187f. provides greater detail on the internal struggles in Moravia. Also Hartmann, pp. 113ff. and especially Bowlus, passim. 289
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ities of Methodius and Kyrillos. Ludwig’s family became embroiled in the political developments in the eastern marshes as disputes arose between Ludwig and his sons. For about twenty years, the Moravians were a problem for the East Frankish kingdom until they finally submitted. The attempt to gain a degree of independence ultimately failed in the Magyar/Hungarian assaults on them during the last decades of the 9th century.292 During Ludwig’s reign, the less prosperous East Frankish kingdom was less affected by Viking raids. Their raids aimed at the estuaries of Lorraine and of the Atlantic coast. In any case, the eastern kingdom had emerged the stronger when compared with the western kingdom. Though the Danes destroyed some of the western centers, the west-east trade between Frisia and the Baltic Sea was not seriously affected. Not until Ludwig overthrew the Abodrites did the Danes attack and destroy Hamburg in 845.293 Nevertheless, under Ludwig’s protection, Ansgar, since 831/34 archbishop of Hamburg, was able to associate his mission with the commercial ventures and continue his missions from Bremen to the Danes and into Sweden, though with only moderate success. The archbishopric of Hamburg was dissolved and distributed to Bremen and Verden. Hamburg entered a phase of recovery evident in the archeological evidence. A 40cm thick layer of burnt material is immediately superseded by expanded, intensive, even ‘rich’ settlement debris. With the destruction and the relocation of the religious center the religious life was much reduced, but mercantile activity flourished. The trade in Christian slaves is mentioned in the records.294 Ansgar tried to interfere with that trade. During the following decades there is no evidence that Ludwig the German offered any assistance in the north. His attention was focused elsewhere. Ludwig’s last years were marked by the imperial succession and the partition of the lands of the emperor Lothair I. In 869, upon the death of Lothair II, Charles the Bald occupied Lotharingia, while Ludwig lay deathly ill in Regensburg. In the Treaty of Meersen of 870, Lotharingia was divided, with Ludwig acquiring the larger part.
292 Angenendt, p. 391f. See also Fried, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 151ff. Hartmann, pp. 208ff. See Bowlus, pp. 235ff. 293 See Harthausen, pp. 16ff. Also Fried, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 151. 294 Harthausen, p. 19f.
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Disputes concerning the inheritance of the realm were alive among his younger sons. Louis II, emperor in Italy, had assured Carloman, the eldest son of Ludwig, the imperial crown. Though Ludwig himself had ventured into Italy on several occasions, these trips did not have Rome as an objective. Louis II died in 875 and thanks to Charles’ imperial image making, pope John VIII favored Charles the Bald and invited him to Rome and, in clear imitation of the coronation of his grandfather, crowned him emperor at Christmas 875.295 The pope expected less interference in Italy and a greater degree of protection from Charles against Byzantines and Saracens. In February 876 the Italian magnates elected Charles king in Pavia.296 Ludwig the German threatened his security and invaded Lorraine causing Charles to retire from Italy. Ludwig withdrew in view of unpromising prospects and died at the end of August 876. He was buried in the abbey at Lorsch. Charles was to die a year later, so that within just two years this group of royal adversaries passed from the scene. In view of his focus on the west and only passing interest for Alemania, Thuringia and Saxony, it would not do to see in him the founder of ‘Germany’. The acquisition of Lotharingia with its ancestral lands was his intensive interest. In this he had been partly supported by the territorial interests of the Imperial aristocracy who held properties in more than one realm297 and who in this case preferred to side with Ludwig rather than with Charles, a circumstance confirmed in the Treaty of Meersen in 870.298 Intertribal communal interests were yet to emerge. Ludwig had dealt with his sons’ ambitions during the years 859–865, and averted the typical threats, which a royal father had to fear from his maturing sons when supported by injured and discontented men of ambition, when he assigned powers and jurisdictions in the border regions to them, less than his own, also in former tribal areas, which needed cohesive development. Bavaria, including Carinthia, and then Italy were assigned to Carloman, Franconia and Saxony, and eventually Lotharingia to Ludwig the Younger, and Alemania
295 Riché, pp. 197ff. See Nelson, Charles the Bald, p. 242, for some details of the coronation. 296 Nelson, Charles the Bald, p. 242f. concerning Charles’ imperial notions. See Wallace-Hadrill, p. 254f. for a brief discussion of the papal support for Charles. 297 See Geary, Remembrance, pp. 48ff. 298 Innes, State and Society, pp. 2213ff.
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to Charles III. Already at an early age the older sons had been entrusted with important military commands.299 The division of the rule allowed for the simultaneous royal presence in various parts of the kingdom, although queen Hemma’s perceived preference for Carloman, drove her other sons to revolt, however, without serious harm to the realm. In 873 an open rebellion was narrowly averted. It was not to come to open hostilities between the brothers as long a their father lived. Ludwig settled the disputes by repeatedly giving them more power.300
VI. The last unification of the Empire Following the death of his brother Ludwig in 876, Charles the Bald attempted to gain all of Lorraine and perhaps even all of the East Frankish kingdom, in order to substantiate his imperial title. In any case, he tried to shift the center of gravity of the realm away from Aachen, exemplified by the relocation of much treasure and art. Already in 869, exploiting his brother Ludwig’s illness, he had himself proclaimed Emperor and Augustus of the western and middle kingdoms complete with some of the original ‘heavenly oil’.301 The religious manuscripts which were prepared for him projected his imperial claims by means of resplendent display pages. In 872, to commemorate the third anniversary of his imperial proclamation, he exacted from his assembled bishops and magnates an oath of loyalty to ensure his holdings and to assist him with the acquisition of his new realm.302 Of his nephews he demanded submission, arguing that the Treaty of Verdun only applied to their father and not to them, under pain of blinding. From their followers he demanded surrender of their possessions or exile.303 However, Charles lost the Battle of Andernach in October 876304 against his nephew Ludwig
299
Hartmann, pp. 67ff. Fried, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 154f. as well as Innes, State and Society, p. 220f. for assessments of Ludwig as a ruler. Innes also attributes a lower volume of administrative documentation to the closer personal contact between the king and his subjects. 301 Nelson, Charles the Bald, p. 119f. 302 Staubach, p. 336. 303 Fried, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 155. 304 Nelson, Charles the Bald, p. 244f. for some details of the prelude to the battle. 300
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the Younger, who thereby maintained the partition of Meersen of 870 and the consolidation of his kingdom. In Frankish fashion Ludwig’s sons had divided the eastern kingdom among them in accordance with their father’s will: Carloman ruled in Bavaria with claims on Italy, Charles, undeservedly called ‘the Fat’ in Swabia and Raetia, and Ludwig the Younger in Saxony, Thuringia in Franconia.305 With each of the Carolingian lines retaining the names Charles and Louis, it is a challenge to keep all of these often-warring second and third cousins in order. However, events showed that an inner stabilization of the realms was proceeding, as the respective nobilities adopted a sense of regional adherence. Charles the Bald, hard pressed by the incursions of the Northmen and without the support of his magnates overextended himself in the pursuit of his imperial ambitions. Carloman drove him out of Italy. Charles died during his withdrawal in October 877. Malicious joy accompanied the decaying corpse, forcing a hurried burial on the way. The kingdom passed to his son Louis the Stammerer.306 Carloman received the homage of the Italian magnates. However, illness forced his departure, so that he could not also acquire the imperial crown. The principle had become established that only the papal coronation in Rome had validity following a formal papal examination of the candidate’s worthiness. The pope had acquired the role of codeterminant in the election of the emperor. With his ailing brother’s consent Charles III, the Fat, entered Italy and in 880, the pope consecrated him king. On this occasion the pope obtained from Charles III the assurance to ‘respect the constitution and privileges of the Roman church’, which meant the coronation became a condition of the assurance, for centuries to come.307 Charles showed reluctance at the implication of becoming the pope’s servant and delayed going to Rome for one year, even though the pope was beset on all sides by the Saracens, the duke of Spoleto and the citizens of Rome. The papacy was becoming a plaything of the Roman factions and deteriorated almost to insignificance. Carloman died in 880 and Ludwig the Younger incorporated his share in his own realm, even venturing to claim the West Frankish kingdom when following the death of Louis the Stammerer 305
Riché, p. 188f. See Kasten, pp. 498ff. for the succession in the Eastern kingdom. Brunner, p. 136. See Riché, p. 191, for a brief summary of Charles the Bald’s offspring. 307 Riché, p. 216. 306
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in 879, some Frankish magnates invited him to assume the western crown as well. As his father in 876, Ludwig the Younger was astute enough to appreciate the foolhardiness of the undertaking and recognized the western heirs.308 Charles the Bald had decreed in 877 that the customary legitimate succession of heirs among the nobility be established, in effect advancing the institution of feudalism in the west.309 The effect saw the strengthening magnates gaining against the weakening monarchy. By recognizing the heirs, Ludwig the Younger implemented that decree. When the ailing Charles III received the imperial crown from the pope in 881, Ludwig the Younger was not pleased and his annals kept at Fulda did not record the event. During these years Slavic incursions put an end to the northern mission. In 880 Danish Vikings returned in force to the northern estuaries of the Elbe and Weser rivers and decisively defeated the Saxons. The battle indicates that attacks by small raiding parties, customary in the west, had also been transformed into open field battles by larger armies in the north.310 In the Treaty of Ribémont (880) Ludwig the Younger had acquired Lorraine and now the Vikings were also his problem. From their base on the river Maas they raided throughout Lorraine and destroyed many of the centers, including Aachen and many of the surrounding monasteries. Such a force may have come even further east, into the Saxon lands. The sources exclude a Danish attack and suggest that an independent Viking army of late arrivals, disappointed in its hope to gain land or at least booty in the west, returned to correct their fortunes by raiding in Saxony.311 As was so often recorded from Roman times onward, rival claimants to power, such as Hugo the illegitimate son of Lothair II, hired outsiders to influence outcomes, who then defended their own territorial claims. Large forces of Vikings raided Lorraine and Aachen, Cologne, Bonn, Trier and the Rhineland were pillaged and put to the torch.312 Seriously ill, Ludwig the Younger could not personally oppose them. He died on January 20, 882.
308
Riché, pp. 211ff., Nelson, Charles the Bald, p. 241. Riché, p. 203f., concerning the Capitulary of Quierzy. Also Nelson, Charles the Bald, p. 248f. 310 Harthausen, pp. 34ff. Also Riché, p. 215f. 311 See Harthausen, pp. 54–61. 312 Fried, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 156f. 309
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Map 5. The Partition of the Carolingian Empire following the Treaty of Ribémont 880.
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Charles, the Fat, once again ruler, nominally, of the whole East Frankish kingdom, was able to surround these Vikings in 882, at a place called Ascloha on the river Maas, but bought them off by a payment of tribute, the baptism of their leader Godofrid and by granting them the Frisian fiefs granted to the Danes at an earlier time. In 885 Godofrid was murdered and that put an end to Viking rule in Frisia.313 Charles suffered seriously from epilepsy, had not performed creditably, though perhaps diplomatically, against the Vikings, nor supported the pope against the Saracens in Italy, nevertheless, with the death of the West Frankish kings in 882 and 884, hope became focused on this inept man to reunite the whole empire once again.314 The western magnates were giving up their loyalty to their own Carolingians and in 885, by circumventing the questionable legitimacy of Charles, the ‘straightforward’, erroneously called ‘the Simple’, the five-year-old son of Louis the Stammerer, they offered the crown to Charles the Fat. One thought him to be best suited to defend the realm.315 However, it was too late and the irony lay in the fact that he was the very one to demonstrate that the community of interests with its illusory unity principle could no longer be communicated, let alone enacted. The kingdoms had reached such a state of independence, that his documents were dated differently in each of his lands. Regional assemblies replaced the imperial diet. He was not up to the task of dealing with the external threats. The Moravians acted at will. The Viking siege of Paris was ably fought by Odo, the Capetian count of Paris, when on the verge of their defeat Charles needlessly bought them off once again with huge sums and by granting them winter quarters in Burgundy. Inner turmoil was disrupting the East Frankish kingdom. He gave repeated evidence of his weakness, poor judgment and general incompetence, causing dissension and open hostility, allowing the only active Carolingian, Arnulf of Carinthia, to claim his due. Arnulf was the illegitimate son of Carloman, and grandson of Ludwig the German, 313
Riché, p. 217. Löwe, pp. 197ff. Riché, p. 216. See especially Fried, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 158. Reuter, Germany, p. 115, indicates that de facto he was king in three kingdoms. 315 Riché, p. 216. There is some divergence in the translations of Riché’s work. See Nelson, Charles the Bald, p. 257, concerning the name. See also Nelson, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 130–141. 314
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whom Ludwig the Younger had had recognized among his leading lords, but whose claims had been pushed aside by Charles the Fat. The East Frankish nobility had begun to be dissuaded by Charles’ absenteeism and incompetence and when Arnulf gathered forces from the German duchies, they began to side with the usurper. All the tribes elected him king and eventually he was crowned at Regensburg. Charles’ attempt to convoque a diet at Frankfurt failed when Arnulf appeared before Frankfurt. Deserted by all, Charles died soon after, on January 13, 888.316 The universal empire collapsed only partly because of the incompetence of its last ruler. Without division and independent focus on regional problems, it seems to have been impossible to maintain the myth of a cohesive realm. In view of the absence of royal heirs, members of the high nobility succeeded to contested thrones and to the insoluble problems of administrative coherence and outside attacks. They could not project the image of representatives of Christ. These circumstances contributed to the centrifugal forces affecting the realm. Towards the end of 887 the East Frankish magnates had elected the illegitimate Arnulf king (887–899). In the other Frankish kingdoms claimants reached for the crown who could point to Carolingian descent only through the female line.317 Because Arnulf was the most vigorous Carolingian with an established and secure power base, these claimants sought their confirmation from him, their liege-lord, even though he considered himself only heir to his grandfather’s realm. None was a rival. During the late 880s Arnulf recognized princes in Italy, Burgundy and the West Frankish kingdom, thereby accepting the partition of the realm.318 When the pope invited him to come to Rome, Arnulf declined for reasons of greater necessity, like a battle with the Vikings, who, having left their winter quarters in Burgundy, staged a last raid in a northerly direction. Soundly defeated by Arnulf in 891, they left the continent and settled in the Danish lands in England. After
316 Riché, p. 219. The English translation identifies the place as ‘Neidingen’ rather than ‘Neudingen’. It also mentions that Charles III, the Fat was buried on the island of Reichenau. The German translation does not mention this. See Innes, State and Society, p. 223f., who proposes that the failure of Charles III was based on the absence of the king from places in crisis, on the distance between the king and his regional magnates, increasingly estranged by the lack of Königsnähe, proximity to the king. 317 Löwe, pp. 200ff. 318 Fried, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 161.
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894 the Moravians paid homage to him and in 895 the Bohemians joined the Sorbs in the north and resubmitted to Arnulf. Arnulf had made one very serious mistake when in 892 he solicited the support of the Magyars, erroneously associated with the Huns, hence ‘Hungarians’, against the Moravians and to advance his interests in Italy.319 Subsequently they were to return with great regularity. Italian politics threatened pope Formosus and his cry for help brought Arnulf to Italy in 894, where his recognition as king in Italy was very problematic. Two years later Formosus crowned him emperor. But there already was another problem. During a campaign in Italy Arnulf suffered a stroke and had to return across the Alps. He had secured his succession by having his magnates pay homage in 897 to his four-year-old son Ludwig, to be known as ‘the Child’, even though he had raised one of his illegitimate sons, Zwentibold, and anointed him king of Lorraine.320 The eastern realm had survived the turmoil of the reign of Charles the Fat as an autonomous realm and presented sufficient stability to accept a four-year-old king and a rule by regency. Compared to the older West Frankish kingdom, the eastern kingdom was less affected by privileges, immunities and particularistic interests.321 Despite Arnulf ’s good relations with the church, he resorted to obtaining the support of his high nobility in all of the tribal areas. In Saxony especially he drew on the support of the Liudolfingians who, though doubly linked by marriage to the Carolingians, used the distance from the Carolingian courts to develop an independent power base in the east. Other magnates attempted to rescue such fragments as they could. As stable domains came into being in Saxony, Lorraine, Bavaria, Swabia and Franconia, their growing cohesion and strength furthered the gradual regression of Frankish-Carolingian elements. Nevertheless, the eastern magnates had not gained so firm a hereditary grip on their particular territories as was the case in the west. These magnates were mainly Austrasian appointees, sometimes related to the royal family, placed over the tribes by the Carolingians. They had not yet bonded that firmly with their ‘people’.322 Even half a century later Otto I was 319
See Bowlus, p. 235f. See also Geary, Remembrance, p. 43. See Innes, State and Society, p. 227f. 321 See Fried, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 163ff., for a compact account of East Frankish conditions. 322 See Riché, p. 228f. for a more detailed discussion of the eastern dukes and their duchies. 320
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still able to remove these ‘tribal’ dukes at will. Arnulf had been able to maintain the balancing act between royal and aristocratic power, but during the years of Arnulf ’s illness, and after the removal of Ludwig from the care of his mother, and then during the regency in the early years of Ludwig the Child, the key magnates of church and state gained somewhat over the monarchy.323 When Arnulf died in 899, his religious and secular magnates remained loyal to his son, now six years old and proclaimed him in February 900. Owing to his minority, the council of regents could have offered the crown to the West Frankish Charles the Simple. Deserted by his Lotharingians, the eastern Carolingian Zwentibold died in battle in August 900. The East Frankish aristocratic leadership realized the possibilities of developing a still greater sense of autonomy as the magnates accepted the legitimate Carolingian, Ludwig the Child (900–911). His weak rule was to foster the political ambitions of non-Carolingian dukes. A new, though scaled-back, order was emerging in the East Frankish realm. The most serious challenge to the eastern kingdom was to originate to the east, where the nomadic Magyars/Hungarians had seized Pannonia in 895, (Fig. 6) raided in northern Italy 899 and while in 900 and 901 the Bavarians were able to defeat them, the collapse of the Moravians in 906 opened the way to Saxony that year and to Bavaria in the next year when the Bavarian forces were destroyed at Bratislava. Northern and southern Germany now lay open to the Hungarians. Three years later Ludwig the Child was defeated by them on the Lechfeld, the alluvial plain of the river Lech, south of Augsburg. Many leading personalities fell during these conflicts. For the next fifty years the raiding Hungarians destabilized Central Europe. Between 899 and 955 northern Italy suffered 35 Hungarian incursions, Cologne was partly destroyed on three occasions during these years. They reached Provence and Spain, the tip of Italy, Aquitaine and the Atlantic coast, criss-crossed the West Frankish kingdom more than once, roamed freely throughout Central Europe for years, in the Balkans and reached Constantinople in 931. The East Frankish regency was not equal to the defensive strategies required and in its place the regional duchies had come into being, less reliant on the monarchy and claiming royal prerogatives. Under the external
323
Löwe, p. 204.
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threats they began to assume the coordinated defensive and organizational tasks required against the invaders—Saxony, Bavaria and Alemania. The immense destruction caused by the raiders in 908 constituted a major rupture in the development of Central Europe. Saxony, Bavaria and then Thuringia came to have the responsibility of providing the first line of an eastern defense against Slavs and Hungarians. The survivors in the great families of these regions, former Carolingian, mainly Austrasian appointees, showed successful initiatives, fearlessly assumed the titles of ‘dukes’ and emerged as the future focal points of new tribal dukedoms in pursuit of their particularistic interests. To survive they seized regional power, resisted the invaders, broke the continuity of association with the crown before subscribing to the new order.324 The king did not interfere. They were members of his council of regents. It is interesting to note that the external threats from the north and east contributed directly to the crystallization of a new political reality in Central Europe. The dangers demanded strong leadership. The exception was Franconia, along the river Main, the Merovingian/Carolingian holdings first colonized during the early 6th century. Here, less threatened by external enemies, the leading families struggled for supremacy amongst themselves. When Ludwig the Child died in 911 at the age of 17, unlike the other eastern duchies, Lorraine turned west, where Charles the Simple was gaining successes against the Vikings, indicating actually that circumstances determined that the partition of the realm was not to be reversed. The East Rhenish duchies looked for leadership against the Hungarians in their own ranks and, adopting a practice already established in the west, exercised a noteworthy constitutional choice—Franconia and Saxony elected their own king on November 10, 911. For two months Swabia and Bavaria withheld their vote, signalling a potential problem. However, all of the eastern duchies no longer felt bound to the Carolingian line, even though Charles the Simple still ruled in the west, and, as had happened earlier, in the case of Charles III, and according to the laws of inheritance, Charles the Simple should have become ruler over both realms. However, the centrifugal forces were displacing the centripetal interests. Following Lothair’s partition of his realm in 855 among his three sons, the imperial crown had become a plaything
324
Arnold, Princes, p. 113.
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of their and ultimately Italian politics. The eastern council of regents confirmed the electoral principle of an elected kingship and compromised by electing and anointing one of their own king, the effective Frankish Frankonian duke Konrad, as Konrad I. Though not of the royal line, he had Carolingian relations. Even the Ottonian dynasty, which followed, did not deny its Carolingian family ties. By anointing him immediately, they raised him above the other nobles. It is significant that this act signalled the departure from the Carolingian principle of treating the united realm as the monarch’s personal property to be divided among his heirs. This new monarchy no longer implied this claim. Thus they did maintain a continuity and hence the appearance of a legitimate Frankish character of the kingdom. Though Frankish administrative traditions survived, since Konrad wanted to rule anachronistically like a Carolingian, the election ushered in the notion of a self-sufficient political entity, with the single succession, determined and confirmed by an election. The principle of an eastern, independent, indivisible kingdom was being established.325 Nevertheless, the birth pains of this emerging, ‘federated’ kingdom were very difficult, because the dukes tried to pursue their own autonomous interests.
325
Löwe, p. 206f.
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PART B
BOOKS, GEMS AND IVORIES
VII. The recapitulation of origins In the early middle ages Rome was both a place and an idea.1
The underlying premise for the revival must be sought in the patronage available at the court of Charlemagne, who, following occasional Merovingian examples, was able to create an esthetic climate around him which attracted great scholars, poets, artists and craftsmen to his court. Considering the regional disparity within his empire, the poor level of communications, the pursuit of a common basis of understanding, of approaches, toward a commonly accepted framework of public opinion and even a unifying cultural ideal, such as the Imperium Christianum, appears to be an admirable purpose. One vehicle bridging the disparity was the implementation of a uniform script, first perfected at Corbie—Carolingian Minuscule,2 a standardization which initiated the spacing of words with blanks and provided splendid exemplars, which also served the establishment of the religious doctrine and the consolidation of the Carolingian authority. Rather than searching for a common, cohesive denominator, it seems Charles wanted to establish an innovative context of cultural and intellectual pursuits carried by a wide range of creative practitioners within an extensive, synthesizing program of assumptions, reforms, incentives, sponsorships and innovative initiatives which would ignite the imagination of enthusiastic contributors. He hoped to generate a momentum, which would affect all of society. Much remained fragmentary. Some things flourished in highly productive enterprises. Walahfrid Strabo’s Prologue to Einhard’s Vita Karoli attests
1 J.M.H. Smith, ‘Old Saints, New Cults: Roman Relics in Carolingian Francia’, in Smith (ed.), Early Medieval Rome, p. 317. 2 Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, p. 161. Also McKitterick, Frankish Kingdoms, pp. 154ff., for examples of the evolution of script systems, including uncials and minuscule. See also McKitterick, pp. XII, 1–33.
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to this purpose when he wrote that ‘Of all kings Charlemagne was the most eager in his search for wise men and in his determination to provide them with living conditions in which they could pursue knowledge in all reasonable comfort.’3 The comfort will have been debatable. The context of this statement is his lament, that only a few decades later, in their ‘own time the thirst for knowledge is disappearing again: the light of wisdom is less and less sought after and is now becoming rare again in most men’s minds.’ Motivated by this pursuit of a superior knowledge Charlemagne and Louis the Pious used the terms Renovatio romani imperii and Renovatio regni francorum4 in their imperial seals respectively. Evidently, with the intention to proceed programmatically, renovation, restoration, renewal, rebirth were operative Carolingian concepts which under Charles and Louis the Pious, and in their religious guise were to find application in a wide range of non-military, administrative, political, religious and cultural activities of the Imperium Christianum, summarized in the modern conventional, though flawed, term Carolingian Renaissance.5 What actually happened as a result was a transformation, or rather, a recapitulation of many diverse elements, sponsored by the crown and promoted among the talented of all classes through the educational policies and royal directives issued to and the financial assistance of the monasteries, which went far beyond a ‘rebirth’ of what had existed before. St. Boniface could be placed at the beginning of the latter, Pepin III and his wife Bertrada with the former.6 Charles’ background provided much of the direction, he being primarily interested in the period of Constantine I, Justinian and the early Christian Empire, not the empire of the pagan Caesars, though they called themselves Caesar. Louis the Pious saw his rolemodels in the Biblical kings David and Solomon, as well as the Roman emperors Constantine I and Theodosius I. Hence mainly the late Classical, already Christian models ignited the imagination. Carried mainly in Latin, some of it is innovative in that it finds expression in the regional Germanic vernaculars. Under Louis the Pious it included a relationship between
3
Thorpe, Two Lives of Charlemagne, p. 49f. J. Semmler, ‘Renovatio Regni Francorum’, in Godman and Collins, pp. 125ff. 5 I. Wood, ‘Culture’, in McKitterick, Early Middle Ages, pp. 186ff. See also Sullivan, Gentle Voices, pp. 31ff., 37f. concerning a revised list of contributors to this renewal. 6 J.J. Contreni, ‘The Carolingian Renaissance: Education and Literary Culture’ in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 709. 4
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the Carolingian crown and the papacy. As long as the religious Christian life, the idea of the Imperium Christianum, motivated the cultural range of secular activities, the reanimation flourished in a variety of forms. With the increasing secularization of the religious life, the ‘renaissance’ declined. With the decline came a centrifugal fragmentation of the secular and religious institutions, as well as a contraction of the economy and a general impoverishment of the realm. It has become conventional to interpret the Carolingian ‘Renaissance’ mainly as a rescue of Classical civilization, a rediscovery of the written word, of the Latin and Christian Classics and of Classical education, which brought the light which finally overcame the cultural pessimism and illuminated western consciousness in its supposedly sinister and ignorant ‘Dark Ages’ during which all cultural knowledge was thought to have been lost, overlooking the fact that the period was mainly characterized by an oral culture.7 Commonly the cause for this loss of culture and learning was taken to lie in the ‘barbarian invasions’, their lack of interest in Roman culture, their overlaying of Classical cultural expression by their pagan or worse, Arian, inadequacies, and their lack of competence in Latin and the ensuing inadequate ‘bilingualism’ and the consequent loss of a language of learned thought and expression, in a disastrous clash of Germanic and Mediterranean cultures. It has been demonstrated elsewhere that this was not entirely the case. It was much more the case of a fusing recapitulation, since the northerners had been affected significantly by the early contact with Rome, by the Roman craftsmen among them, which had put their adaptability to the test even well before they crossed the frontiers.8 The Saracen invasions of southern Gaul in the early 8th century with their significant destructions, coupled with a decline in interest on the part of the court, also contributed to any decline. On the other hand, the dispersal of immigrants from Visigothic Spain and the preservation of Classical literature in the monasteries of the Benedictines contributed to the retention of literary traditions and scribal skills to parts of the west.9 However, echoing the life-negating tone of earlier historians, Gregory of Tours,
7 Sullivan, ‘The Context of Cultural Activity’, in Gentle Voices, pp. 55ff. See Chazelle, “End of the ‘Dark Ages’”, in Chazelle, Literacy, Politics, p. 3. 8 Schutz, Tools, Weapons and Ornaments. 9 Bischoff, Manuscripts and Libraries, pp. 5, 134ff. for a list of Classical works preserved in the various monastic libraries in the north.
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in his Preface to Book I of The History of the Franks, laments the waning and perishing of liberal culture, of the pursuit of letters and the loss of understanding of the learned words of the rhetoricians during the Merovingian period.10 No doubt, this view among the Classically educated was too gloomy, ironic and deliberately misleading. It is steadily being revised as it certainly appears that the Merovingian Franks left an extensive and literate Gallo-Roman intelligentsia in possession of its love of books,—between the 2nd and 4th centuries books, codices,11 had replaced scrolls—, its schools of rhetoric and law, administrative, economic and ecclesiastical positions and that there was a usable continuity of Roman institutions after the fifth century in which the heritage of the written word continued in use as a valued medium and that there was a strong link between Merovingian and Carolingian literacy. The competence in administrative and religious literacy remained quite widespread. There can be no question that well into the middle of the 7th century the leading figures among the ‘Merovingians’ were literate and that their contribution to the continuity of cultural features into the Carolingian period was considerable.12 Only then did something of a discontinuity, a cultural decline, appear to have set in, lasting almost a half-century during which even writing skills seem to have become very inadequate, as the skill became the virtual reserve of the clergy, owing to the circumstance that any formal education had become religious and was imparted in the clerical schools, while literate laymen were eclipsed even in the royal and mayoral chancelleries.13 The power struggle leading to the change in dynasty will have played a significant role in diverting cultural energies and adversely affecting the interest in cultural matters. Physical prowess gained the ascendancy over the need for literacy. The fact cannot be denied, that between 450
10 P. Heather, ‘Late Antiquity and the Early medieval West’, in. Bentley (ed.), Companion to Historiography (London, New York 1997), p. 80. 11 J.J.G. Alexander, Medieval Illuminators and their Methods of Work (New Haven, London 1992), p. 35. 12 I. Wood, ‘Administration, Law and Culture in Merovingian Gaul’, in McKitterick, Uses of Literacy, pp. 63ff. Also p. 71f., concerning Gregory’s lament, pp. 78ff. See further G. Brown, ‘The Carolingian Renaissance’, also V. Law, ‘The Study of Grammar’ in R. McKitterick, Carolingian Culture: emulation and innovation (Cambridge 1994), p. 3, and pp. 88 respectively. See Sullivan, ‘The Context of Cultural Activity’ in Gentle Voices, p. 59f. 13 Geary, Before France and Germany, p. 213. See also Contreni, Carolingian Learning, pp. II, 13; IV, 81ff.
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and 850 Latin ceased to be a spoken language. Especially after 650, first the common active and then also the passive command of Latin disappear in a practical sense.14 However, tendencies remained alive which Charlemagne could use to remedy this ‘darkness’ by stressing the revival of Christian learning in general and the educational emphasis on Christian literacy in particular. The available models were to be found mainly in the Classical Christian traditions.15 Despite efforts to preserve any pagan Classical consciousness, this was a Christian society in which the fervor of the new faith, with its conviction of the Latin Bible being the only necessary source of knowledge, the enthusiasm which motivated the establishment of Christianity affected literature adversely as it did much to eclipse the ‘misleading’ and pagan literary inventory. By sheer weight of numbers, the religious Christian literature overwhelmed the secular inventory of books. Pope Gregory I and other church leaders held the extreme view that the pre-Christian works of antiquity might interfere with the Christian faith. Gregory of Tours retells the story of St. Jerome’s vision of being led into the presence of God, of being bound and lashed severely, for having read too often the ‘clever arguments of Cicero and the false tales of Virgil; . . . and that he would never henceforth read or discuss anything except that which was judged worthy of God. . . . Having glanced at all these events built on sand and soon to perish, we return rather to divine and evangelical miracles.16 In rejecting the questionable lives and deeds of the ancient gods and the mythological characters, he also rejects the fabulous stories, which Virgil mendaciously invented or depicted in heroic verse. Yet Virgil was saved by focusing on the exegesis of his theme of a man’s whole life journey and by fitting his lines on a Christian foundation and into the essential medieval curriculum.17
14 M. Banniard, ‘Language and Communication in Carolingian Europe’, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 698f. 15 Sullivan, ‘The Context of Cultural Activity’, in Gentle Voices, p. 56. Also Chazelle, ‘Dark Ages’, in Chazelle, Literacy, Politics, p. 5. 16 Easton, Wieruszowski, p. 106f. “Therefore we ought to pursue, to write, to speak, that which builds the church of God and by sacred teaching enriches needy minds by the knowledge of perfect faith. For we ought not to recall the lying stories, or to follow the wisdom of the philosophers which is hostile to God, lest we fall under the judgment of eternal death by the decision of the Lord”. 17 M. Carruthers, The Craft of Thought. Meditation, rhetoric, and the making of images, 400–1200 (Cambridge 2000), p. 59.
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Edifying and practical components in the old literature that could prove useful, such as Vitruvius on architecture, Galen in medicine, Pliny on natural history did find a restrained interest and were copied occasionally and thus rescued into the Christian curriculum, especially if the works had entered the writings of any of the Church Fathers.18 During the 9th century Hrabanus Maurus, still concerned about the dangerous influence of the classical authors, recommended the study of such authors as Virgil, Ovid and Horace for their style, their ornamental eloquence and not for their ideas.19 He invested this ornamentation with great moral and inventive power in aid of Christian meditation, thus rescuing the pagan authors because of the ethical and cognitive stimulation, which they offered.20 The educational promotion of Biblical knowledge and scholarship is then meant to offer an alternate vehicle to advance literacy and Latinity, deemed essential for reforming God’s people and for laying the foundations of the universal Imperium Christianum of the Carolingians.21 Charlemagne himself gave direction to this effort and encouraged its coordination. In his Epistola de litteris colendis, soon after 774, he requested that the study of book-knowledge be pursued in a humble manner, and for it to be learned in a manner pleasing to God so that the secrets of divine scriptures might be penetrated more easily and correctly.22 The aim was not the Classical, worldly model, but the religious component of the Carolingian Renovatio, which was to represent the tangible form and direction of this effort. In this regard sermons continued the intellectual content of earlier times and contributed directly to the Imperium Christianum. The question concerning literacy then splits in two. On the one hand, there is the eclipse to near oblivion of Classical, pagan, Latin
18 G. Brown, ‘Renaissance’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 38f. Also Sullivan, ‘The Context of Cultural Activity’ in Gentle Voices, p. 60. 19 See Diebold, p. 107, who quotes Hrabanus Maurus as follows: ‘For script is the perfect and blessed norm of salvation and it is more important in all things and is more use to everyone. . . .’ 20 Carruthers, p. 128f. 21 According to Contreni, Carolingian Learning, p. III, 59. The Carolingian renaissance formed part of a program of religious renewal that Carolingian political and clerical leaders sponsored and encouraged in the hope that it would lead to the moral betterment of the Christian people. 22 See Wallace-Hadrill, p. 329. V.H. Elbern, Goldschmiedekunst im frühen Mittelalter (Darmstadt 1988), p. 31f. See J.J. Contreni, ‘The Pursuit of Knowledge in Carolingian Europe’, in Sullivan Gentle Voices, pp. 107ff.
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literature, or any literary activity for that matter. On the other, there is the continuing and necessary promotion of the teaching and learning of a functional Latin literacy preserved with the emphatic dependence on and the retention of the written Latin word for all forms of communication during the post-Roman, Frankish, Merovingian period. It might have been reasonable to expect a rebirth of the Druidic oral tradition based on memorization. The need for schools, basic Latin teaching texts and books in general will have to be sought in the surviving efficiency of the administrative structure of postRoman Gaul and the immense amount of governmental communication and documentation and the ensuing need for organization. Thus the rediscovery of any ancient writers, such as the Church Fathers, or historians such as Jordanes and the Venerable Bede, or Gregory of Tours and Fredegar, had more to do with the retention of the scribal tradition of a functional Latin literacy, style, correct Latin composition, the correct use of Latin grammar and even punctuation, than with the subject matter of the literary works. Literature should be studied as the handmaiden to grammar and provide a stylistic context. Some authors used the ancient, pagan sources eclectically. It posed no conflict for Carolingian scholars to copy and study pagan and Christian texts simultaneously. The pagan authors were understood to represent literary excellence.23 The educational value lay in the mechanics and skills represented and not the content, not literacy and not chronological history. Yet the educated and well-read Septimanian lady Dhuoda, probably of Austrasian parentage, advised her son, as he left for the court of Charles the Bald, that ‘God is learned about through books’. She meant Christian books and in the manual, which she sent him, her religious sources have been identified. She may have reflected a more general emphasis on the writings of Christian authors. The quality of her command of written Latin is commendable.24 The political value of the use of written Latin lay in its universal application in overcoming the vernacular regional differences. However, owing to the attempts to restore written Classical Latin, it may have differed very significantly
23
Bullough, Renewal, p. 19. Also Bischoff, p. 103. R. McKitterick, The Carolingians and the written Word (Cambridge 1989), p. 123f. wrote a book for her 16 year old son, full of heartfelt advice. See Geary, Remembrance, p. 49, for her advice to remember his genealogia, his wide flung family relations. Also Geary, Living with the Dead, pp. 79ff. 24
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from spoken Latin, Romance,25 as illustrated in the Oaths of Strasbourg. With time the regional multilingualism of the Frankish realm will have affected the pronunciation of Latin, to the point that the inherited orthography no longer reflected the phonemes of the spoken language and a new orthography had to evolve, probably even to record the spoken Frankish dialects. There will have been interferences with the use of spoken ‘Classical’ Latin as a ready lingua franca throughout the different regions of the empire. However, though affected regionally, the use of Latin will have been nearly universal, certainly in western Frankish Europe, or the Romance languages would not have come into being. Fortunately the love and need of books expressed the desire to retain as much extant knowledge as possible which led to the copying of books, a boon to posterity, as almost all known antique sources were preserved as Carolingian copies. Charlemagne himself may have provided the stimulus for the creation of writing centers when c. 780 he asked to receive copies of any rare and unusual books that might be stored in any centers of learning.26 No doubt a relationship existed between the need and use of books and their production. What, however, motivated the production of books beyond actual local needs, considering the material costs? In fact much of the ‘Reawakening’ during the Carolingian period was inspired by the Imperium Christianum, and based on the production of copies, not only of Latin works, but also of Roman painting, glass making, crystal and ivory carving, the portable arts in short, and even architecture. Astonishing is the support of the written word by generous Frankish patrons with the means of a wealth of precious materials made available to a range of specialists by those who valued the recapitulation, participated in the grandiose design and who treasured these objects and the intellectual wealth which they represented. The participation could not be uniform across the Frankish subkingdoms. Even a simple survey of maps dealing with the distribution of such Carolingian features as cities, monasteries, cathedrals, churches, diocese and the like, shows many more significant con-
25
McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 10f. Bischoff, pp. 20–55. R. McKitterick, ‘Eighth Century Foundations’. in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 681. Contreni, Carolingian Learning, p. I, 20, suggests that during the 7th and 8th centuries there were only 77 centers of learning in Western Europe. 26
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centrations of these in the West-Frankish kingdom than in most parts of the East-Frankish kingdom. This information allows the conclusions that while the Franks had assumed mainly military power, continuity from Gallo-Roman to Frankish cultural foundations is very pronounced where Roman administration continued to function. Hence a many-faceted life under the Frankish rulers was possible until the growth of genuine Germanic political and legal institutions evolved. Thus the bishoprics had initially continued to be the domain of the Gallo-Roman senatorial class, until in the end they also became the termination of a career of the educated Germanic high nobility in royal service. Owing to personal name changes the two groups lost their distinction in the records and appear as a single social group. The use of Latin, Christianity, Roman Law, Church Law and the education of the Gallo-Roman population survived, even though Charlemagne’s key officials no longer represented the old imperial Gallo-Roman senatorial nobility, but primarily men of Germanic origin. Education and communicative competence in Latin was the skill, which identified the members of the Carolingian elite. A functional bilingualism or even multilingualism can be assumed.27 In the eastern regions where Old High German was spoken, even the regional dialects have been identified. The written documentation was very extensive and much has been preserved. It is discussed below. In that sense, by the middle of the 9th century, writing affected more people than just the learned groups. In the east-rhenish lands, by contrast, there were only a few such concentrations and then mainly in the former Roman provinces, such as Raetia and Noricum, pointing to any continuities with any highly developed past. Such a comparison also makes clear why a Carolingian ‘Rebirth’ would have to be rather ambivalent, the term resting on a rather different frame of reference, a ready tradition and familiar and extensive infrastructure in the west, and only little of that in the east. In the west the revival already begins in Merovingian times as much more of a continuation from earlier times. In the east the remains of Roman Provincial Culture and the few monastic establishments did not leave as significant an identifiable basis on which a ‘rebirth’ could take place. Such foundations as there were had been established during
27 Jungandreas, p. 135f. lists names of bi- or multilingual individuals at court, including the emperors.
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Frankish times. To apply the term ‘Carolingian Renaissance’ or even Renovatio, to the East Frankish realm is hence rather inappropriate. Except for the radiating effect from the several east-rhenish religious centers, new foundations and production centers such as an impressive St. Gallen, or Reichenau, Echternach, Regensburg, Freising, Salzburg, Würzburg, Hersfeld, Fulda, to identify just a few, there was not that much of an eclipsed, formerly established, continuing, latent, cultural tradition there, that could be ‘reborn’. The formative initiatives, often originally Anglo-Saxon, were to be mainly new, soon to be staffed by indigenous monks,28 using regional forms of German vernaculars, and quite remarkable among all levels of society. Germanic scribes adopted the insular style of writing, for instance at Fulda, where neither its first abbot nor most of its earliest monks were English, and book production so that it survived till after 800. By c. 850 the insular style was no longer being written.29 The Carolingian Gallo-Roman west and south was not to play a role in this directly. Rather Frankish bilingual German- and Latin-speakers, who could transmit the Classical heritage as well as the Christian faith into the vernacular, participated in original ways, in much larger numbers and in many more intellectual areas to bring the undereducated eastern regions to a par with the western and southern levels.30 The enclaves of Latini, Roman remnant populations in Raetia and Noricum were never represented by large numbers, so that a comparison with their role in Gaul would not be very productive.31 What the cultural awakening did provide through the standardization of the minuscule script, the Latin literary link between Christ and the Cross, was a heightening of the educational qualification of an extensive audience, represented through the reform work of the many new monasteries, convents and schools and the forms and motifs of the Classical Christian past, inspired by the thrust toward the newly conceived Imperium Christianum. Very soon afterwards the reforms affected a brief, episodic, intellectual ‘flourish’ in German literature with its own audience. A very convincing contribution is 28 McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning in the Frankish Kingdoms, 6th–9th Centuries (Gower House, Brookfield 1993), pp. IV, 315ff. 29 McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning, pp. IV, 297f., 301, 304, 305. 30 Jungandreas, pp. 117ff. McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning, p. IV, 318. 31 Schutz, Germanic Realms, p. 289. See McKitterick, The Carolingians, pp. 81–126, concerning the survival of written culture in these regions. McKitterick’s discussion creates the impression that the population of Latini is much larger.
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a flowering of such portable arts as manuscript/book illumination, ivory carving and the work in metals, which gave the East Frankish kingdom a position of leadership in Central Europe. Examples of Carolingian architecture and of some wall painting are still in evidence today. As was shown above, beginning in the 740s a central factor was the reform of the ever less effective Merovingian Frankish church and the invigoration through the Romanization, or what was perceived to be the Roman rite, of the Merovingian liturgical practice as part of the ensuing Carolingian liturgical reforms. Through his links with apostolic Rome St. Boniface may well have contributed to this Romanization. This reform was to affect all aspects of an individual’s physical and spiritual life within the earthly kingdom and his ideas concerning death. Perhaps the coincidence of religious and secular education affected the understanding of the purpose of life and of all meaning. It was to have a renewing effect on all society as the early Carolingians tried to idealize their Christian realm into a replica of the heavenly kingdom on earth, the Imperium Christianum. Education had to assume the primary role to help fulfill this intention and hence religious education had to outweigh any secular needs. The benefits of a secular sort were incidental. This renewal was to find expression in art as well. In addition to the implementation of the Christian imperium based on divine authority, the interest of demonstrating a Christian imperial continuity and legitimacy of the Carolingians had to be maintained by means of recapitulating methods. This transformation into a Christian realm did utilize the development of a Rome- and Ravenna-inspired state symbolism most overtly demonstrated in architecture, but also supported by traditional Roman, Germanic and Church Laws, Classical literature, secular and religious art, as well as manuscripts and carved ivories, and a general body of ideas inspired by and developed from Germanic portable art and Christian Roman models. Tangible aspects of Roman Law continued deliberately in all of the tribal law codes, which were widely distributed. The Vitae of saints, missionaries and king/emperors followed Roman examples; the symbolism of catacomb art as well as the pagan (Roman) personifications were adopted, adapted and actually reinvented by the Carolingians in such Christian art as the ivory carvings. It has already been noted how the language of majesty was Romanized. The style of representing majesty or elevated status was
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also borrowed from Roman prototypes, as the transfer of the idea of the Cosmocrator from Roman imperial representations to the apocalyptic Majestas effigies of Christ and the return of this Roman representation of the imperial pictorial image under the heirs of Charlemagne. The introduction of sacerdotal concepts and of such symbolic Biblical practices as the anointing of the Carolingian imperial head in the manner of king David, for instance, was a deliberate attempt to develop the ‘hereditary’ association with the Old Testament kings, first appreciated by those surrounding Charlemagne. The liturgical imperial acclamation formulas echoed Germanic/Roman tribal/military practices, while the ever-increasing emphasis on official imperial ‘portraits’, as on coins, served to elevate the image, the ideal of the medieval imperial ruler in the revived tradition of the Roman emperors and reestablish earlier ideas of the sacerdotal essence of the ruler, in the Imitatio sacerdotii. Such coins, stamped with Charlemagne’s portrait and the classicizing capitals ‘KAROLUS IMP(erator) AUG(ustus)’ represent a singular tangible and appropriate illustration of the so-called Carolingian Renaissance.32 Charlemagne attempted to emphasize the legitimacy of his rule and its continuity from earlier Merovingian times by naming two of his sons with Merovingian dynastic names. He stressed his link with imperial times by identifying with Theoderic the Great, Roman Patricius and Viceroy of the emperor in Constantinople, and transporting his equestrian statue, or was it that of the emperor Zeno, along with the Classical porphyry columns, (Fig. 7) books and the general symbolic plan of the Byzantine church of San Vitale in Ravenna, the last capital of the West Roman Empire, to Aachen, Charlemagne’s own capital. All were erected in the new palace complex, the church to become his palace church. These concerns found expression under his descendants in other architectural examples as well, as for the sake of the Imperium Christianum, their universal Christian Empire the Carolingians made every attempt to emphasize the dominating interrelation with Christian Rome. Pepin and Charlemagne were associated with glorious Christian Roman emperors, while later Holy Roman Emperors deliberately emulated Charlemagne and fostered this show of continuity with him, with the Christian Roman emperors, with the Testaments, and especially with the Old Testament kings.
32
Nees, ‘Art and Politics’ in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, p. 186.
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VIII. Carolingian scribal culture Contrary to the East-Frankish kingdom, in the western Frankish realms the Gallo-Roman cultural elites had survived in the church and its institutions where they succeeded in the transmission of at least some of the Classical ideals of culture and civilization in their Christian end phase, resulting in that synergetic collaboration between church and state. Clearly the religious aspects indicate that the concerns, which made up the intellectual recapitulation during the Carolingian Renaissance, went far beyond the revival of the interest in the Latin Classics and skill of writing Latin. The Latin Classics could never be more than the handmaiden to Christianity. In the eastern kingdom this was at best a transfer, but certainly a show of firsts. Throughout the Carolingian empire religio-political interests made the distribution of all literature an essential concern, where it consolidated Carolingian rule. Literacy in Carolingian times, a fundamental historical concern, is a topic treated very extensively in the pertinent literature dealing with the Carolingian recovery. Originally the idea was linked to Latinity and narrowly defined to refer to someone learned in Latin. While this underlying meaning is present in this discussion, it quickly also becomes applicable to our modern, more generally understood frame of reference. A functional command of the written language in private and in public is evident as many middle and upper levels of society needed it for the interpretation of the law and the administration of church and state.33 The social elite had readers and scribes available to overcome its handicaps. As demonstrated above, reading and writing skills did not commit an individual to an inclination toward or an appreciation of letters, a situation encountered frequently again today. Also not unlike today, more people will have been able to read than to write well. The tensions between oral and scribal traditions are upon us again. We know from Einhard, that Charlemagne liked to be read to aloud from St. Augustine’s City of God, but he reputedly especially liked to listen to the old Germanic heroic poems, 33 Nelson, ‘Literacy in Carolingian Government’, Frankish World, pp. 1–36. Also Nelson, in Charles the Bald, pp. 7ff. Also McKitterick, The Carolingians, and R. McKitterick (ed.) The Uses of Literacy in Early Medieval Europe (Cambridge 1990). R. McKitterick (ed.), Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation (Cambridge 1994).
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which he wanted to have recorded.34 Evidently texts were accessible in this fashion as well, just as today the text of a computerized book can be accessed through a digital reader and read out loud by means of a choice of male or female electronically synthesized voices, reading at a chosen speed, in an accent of choice. Clearly, the modifiable spoken language will have dominated its fixed written use by sheer weight of numbers, for otherwise Latin would not have undergone the etymological changes toward the development of French. Modern analogies are easy to find. Literacy, beyond the merely functional, may not be assumed for the lesser clergy, whether monk, nun or priest.35 Clearly the Christian hierarchy had inherited the traditional use of Latin from Roman times and the determination to make the empire a unified Imperium Christianum would have recommended the use of Latin as the given unifying agent of thought and ritual. Primarily education was intended to consolidate a person’s religious appreciation. While many more people had a more easily acquired reading comprehension and an oral command of it, depending on memorization for extended recall in the place of available texts, only a smaller scribal elite will have had a command of the difficult written Latin, let alone used Latin for the expression of one’s literary abilities. Nonetheless networks of correspondents appear from the letters, as for instance the letters written by Lupus de Ferrières to Einhard asking for books.36 Queens and princesses, abbesses and other aristocratic women will have figured prominently among those competent in Latin and at least among the functional literates, in some cases as writers, but certainly as listeners and readers of history and also as writers of correspondence and of poetry in their households and in the great convents.37 They will have been multilingual and at least bilingual with Latin being one of the languages. The cathedral and monastic schools were generally located in regions of economic prosperity and political stability. The monastery and convent schools taught both history and poetry
34
Geary, Living with the Dead, p. 53, points to the improbability of this assertion. J.L. Nelson, ‘Literacy in Carolingian government’, in McKitterick, Uses of Literacy, p. 264f. See especially McKitterick, Frankish Church, pp. 45–79. 36 Bischoff, p. 124. 37 Nelson, ‘Gender and Genre in Women Historians’, in Frankish World, pp. 184ff. Also McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 226, pp. 227ff. See also McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning, pp. XIII, 1–43. 35
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in its Christian guise perhaps equally to boys and girls.38 However, the attitudes advanced by the Church Fathers restricted the role of women severely to areas not associated with men. While initially copyists worked independently, since the time of St. Martin of Tours, c. 360, monks and nuns were engaged in the copying of manuscripts.39 Women must be largely assumed to have been active in convents in the schooling of girls, as scribes and as copyists of materials not linked with the church services. One must conclude that literate women were also active outside the convent walls.40 Initially parental, i.e. maternal and/or private tutoring, some secular schools and admission to the monastic schools prepared people for entry into convents and monasteries. In 789, responding to the poor command of language in the correspondence reaching the court, Charlemagne issued the Admonitio generalis for the administration of the Frankish church and the clergy and decreed that schools were to be established for boys of all classes41 and expected every diocese and monastery to supervise the restoration of education, nearly defunct, and to have its schools and establish a curriculum in the Liberal Arts for the children of freemen and nobility alike, subordinate only to the study of Scriptures, evidently in the service of the grand idea. Teaching children of the lower classes was particularly successful. This path was available to those wishing to enter the ranks of the lower clergy, and in some instances realize the possibilities of a degree of upward mobility. The Merovingian courts had schools attached
38 McKitterick, The Carolingians, pp. 211ff. Also Brown, ‘Renaissance’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 36. Also van der Horst, The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art, p. 12f. See Contreni, ‘Pursuit of Knowledge’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, pp. 111ff., for a discussion of schools and the education of women. See McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning, p. XIII, 38, points out that the decrees of 816 did not specify whether the girls had to pursue a religious life. 39 Bischoff, p. 6. 40 Contreni, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 716ff. See Innes, State and Society, pp. 111ff., who makes the clear case that scribes were very much involved in the drafting of contracts, charters and other transactions. See McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning, p. VII, 1ff. for ‘Nun’s scriptoria in England and Francia during the 8th century’. Also pp. XIII, 2ff. 41 McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 220. Also Brown, ‘Carolingian Renaissance’ in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 20f., pp. 28ff. Also McKitterick, Frankish Church, pp. 1–44, who provides the details concerning regulations, obligations, priestly pedagogic and pastoral functions with the intent of stabilizing personal and social concerns in the kingdom. See also Braunfels, p. 98f. See Contreni, ‘Pursuit of Knowledge’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, pp. 107ff., p. 115.
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to provide such basic aspects of education to the court. A Carolingian council in 813 recommended school attendance, if for no other reason than to learn the basic tenets of the faith, but especially to train people to function in central and local jurisdictions. A closer reading of the Benedictine Rule may have segregated the religious from the secular domains which may have led to the segregation of the schools into external schools with a functional, more pragmatic curriculum for laymen and internal schools with more sophisticated courses of study for those heading into the clergy and the monasteries in the service of the grandiose design. Some Latin will have figured in both, but especially in the latter.42 For the lower clergy there existed a rather modest, rudimentary learning program—to be able to teach the Symbol, say Mass, give pre-baptismal instruction, know and teach the Lord’s Prayer.43 Clerics, notaries, heralds, readers, singers, writers and the clergy had to be able to read and write a vast amount of material and to convert written text into public announcements. Certainly the missi dominici, the ministerial envoys of the king, who in pairs toured the districts of the realm tending to administrative domestic affairs and tendering reports of their tours of inspection,44 had to have more than a merely pragmatic oral and written functional competence in the correct interpretation, elaboration and implementation of oral and written royal and governmental directives, verdicts, decrees, royal letters, capitularies and charters.45 Just as today, an order in writing will have carried more convincing emphasis than one delivered by word of mouth. Their implementation will have had to be verified. In the pragmatic dimensions the preparation of itemized tabulations of property, personal recollection, for record-keeping in matters of military obligations, levies of all sorts, the payment of the tithes, fees and fines, for the making of administrative lists, tallies and ratifications, some functional 42
See McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 221, who cites the example at St. Gallen. Contreni, Carolingian Learning, pp. II, 14; IV, 84. 44 Nelson, Charles the Bald, pp. 41ff., details the whole political context in the realm of Charles the Bald. See also Nelson, ‘Literacy’, in McKitterick, Uses of Literacy, pp. 258ff., p. 269f. who suggests that even those who were not literate had some formulistic comprehension of the written directives. 45 See Nelson, ‘Literacy’ in McKitterick, Uses of Literacy, pp. 286ff., concerning capitularies. See especially McKitterick, The Carolingians, chapters 2 and 3, ‘Law and the written word” and ‘A literate community: the evidence of the charters’ respectively. See also Geary, Remembrance, p. 86, who uses evidence that charters also had a commemorative function in addition to a legal one. 43
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numeracy and limited writing and reading skills would be essential. Competent, though not necessarily literate, bilingual copyists, men and women, had to provide the countless numbers of accurate copies of any texts and documents in written and memorized versions needed for circulation in written and oral form throughout all the regions of the empire.46 Whether pertaining to pagan or Christian texts, the Carolingians placed great emphasis on correct copies and authentic texts, which resulted in the preservation of much Classical literature for posterity. The enacting infrastructure was pyramidal in that the written directive was addressed to the count, who would read it, or have it read to his lords, or transcribed and distributed to them, who then passed the information on orally. For future records, the directive was to be kept on file. The material, documentary, governmental evidence indicates that there were regional differences and that the former Merovingian west could rely on a higher degree of practical linguistic continuity at many social levels. The eastern, less Romanized Frankish kingdom could not. For scribal and interpretational services people had to turn to clerics. The German speakers would find governmental communications somewhat less accessible, making the services of translators necessary. Nevertheless, it must have been accepted that Latin was the universal administrative language of the New Israel, common not only to all parts of the universal Imperium Christianum, the universal faith and as the language of the Bible, that it was probably also the language of God. That Charlemagne was very interested in learning is well known and he gathered to his court the scholars of the day. It was probably Alcuin, who recommended to him the idea of the Christian Empire. Others could present a competent curriculum, such as the one in the Christianized Seven Liberal Arts. Originally these had been nine, including Philosophy. It was established by Alcuin in accordance with Neoplatonic authors of Classical antiquity and as confirmed by Martianus Capella of the 5th century.47 These were
46
Nelson, ‘Literacy’ in McKitterick, Uses of Literacy, pp. 262ff., p. 270, suggests that even in the eastern Germanic areas most of the free populations, and even some of the unfree, were passively, pragmatically literate. Also McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 28. See Contreni, ‘Pursuit of Knowledge’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, p. 116f. 47 See Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, pp. 82f., 151ff. Also Bischoff, pp. 105ff. pp. 99–109, for a summary of the curriculum. Also Contreni, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 725–747.
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organized as the trivium—Grammar, Dialectic (Logic) and Rhetoric; and the less important quadrivium—Mathematics, Geometry, Music and Astronomy. The trivium was considered most applicable when trying to unlock the mysteries of the Scriptures and when trying to ascertain the Will of God. Especially the study of Grammar enjoyed intellectual primacy, because it was held that the examination of grammatical structures was the first step toward appreciating the structure of truth and hence of divine knowledge. It was the fundamental and leading qualification for membership in the sublime empire. At more elevated levels Theology was conceived to be the crowning course of study.48 In each subject one read prescribed texts complemented by universally known authors. The works of a great many grammarians were available creating the effect that the study and transmission of Classical grammar was of primary importance.49 In view of the many Celtic and Germanic languages and dialects, the cultivation of Latin as the universal language of communication was essential. Such students of Latin were not well served by the available grammars, for they were more like review grammars rather than introductory basic texts. For students of the trivium familiar with Latin in a Latin-speaking environment, elementary grammar was the Ars minor by Aelius Donatus, the teacher of St. Jerome, c. 350, and for advanced grammar it was his Ars maior,50 and also Priscianus, Institutiones grammaticae in 18 books, early 6th century. As was mentioned, these were not basic teaching texts from which grammar could be learned, but sources with which grammar could be discussed, sometimes at a highly specialized level. Most important, grammar was actually the study of literature, ‘the science of the things said by poets, historians and orators; its principal functions are to read, to write, to understand and to prove’.51 For both grammars one Asporius had prepared a rather Christian version, the Ars Asporii. 48 See D. Ganz, ‘Theology and the Organization of Thought’, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 758–785. See also Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 304– 389. Also Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, pp. 157ff. See also Contreni, Carolingian Learning, p. II, 20. 49 Bischoff, pp. 98ff. 50 Law, ‘Grammar’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 89f., for a summary of the books’ contents; p. 95f. concerning Priscianus. 51 Brown, ‘Renaissance’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 37. The author is reminded of his own introduction to the study of Gothic, beginning with the first words of the Gospel of Matthew, imperatives and present subjunctives though they were.
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Alcuin relied on these authors when he contributed his own Ars grammatica.52 Evidently Alcuin, Charlemagne’s teacher of grammar, responded to a real need for a teaching text and it appears plausible that Alcuin was not the only one to do that. Already Boniface had made an attempt in this direction and Paulus Diaconus and Peter of Pisa did the same. Before Smaragdus became abbot, he was active as a grammarian and it was he who in a very popular book particularly amplified Latin grammar with Biblical quotations.53 The objective for such a text can easily be linked with the preparation for inclusion in the universal Christian empire. It figures as a pedagogical preparation and application of pertinent teaching materials, to suit a situation and to maximize on resources, energies and results. Production will have reflected perceived need. The teaching objectives will have played a determining methodological role, then just as now. Teaching tended to take the form of dialogue54 between teacher and pupil in which both master and pupil will have relied on the ability to quote verbatim from memory. Memorization was taught as a conscious discipline with degrees of accomplishment.55 The worldly pedagogical objective was the mastery of the known body of knowledge, of truths, and not innovation.56 For Rhetoric Cicero was the target ability, but two more elementary works authored by Alcuin were more suitable. Where appropriate, both subjects were illustrated with references to the poetic works of such Classical authors as Virgil and Ovid. One turned to Boethius for theoretical Music and the singing of hymns and the liturgy were stressed. Some Mathematics and Geometry was derived from Boethius and one also read the Aristotle fragments translated by Boethius. The Bible, with the commentaries of the Church Fathers, especially those of St. Gregory the Great figured prominently in the course of study. The Venerable Bede and Isidore of Seville were two other authors to be read. This rather demanding curriculum came into use following the attempt to convert the non-monastic court schools into academies for the
52
McKitterick, The Carolingians, pp. 13ff., 18ff. for an extensive discussion of the teaching of grammar in Carolingian regions. See Law, ‘Grammar’ in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, pp. 90ff. 53 Law, ‘Grammar’ in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, pp. 99ff. 54 See Bischoff, p. 106f. on Alcuin’s dialogues. Also Law, ‘Grammar’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, pp. 92ff., especially the discussion on dialectics, pp. 95ff. 55 Carruthers, The Craft of Thought, p. 66. 56 Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, p. 153, quotes Alcuin on this point.
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more advanced students. The elementary schools will have offered an introductory program of study to respond to the needs indicated earlier. The trivium satisfied most of those needs. The quadrivium represented the more advanced program.57 Not unlike today, more people will have been satisfied with the acquisition of skills than the pursuit of an abstract ideal. That spoken Latin was undergoing significant changes is best illustrated in the Old French version of the Oaths of Strasbourg. The Old German version of it shows just how much the development of the German vernacular began to distinguish the German speakers within the Frankish empire. It was mentioned above, that neither language existed at that time in this ‘common’ form, and certainly not as official languages, and that both parts of the realm used a multitude of regional, though at the time comprehensible dialects, reflecting the large tribal groups. An understandable form of Latin had to serve as a common means of communication, both oral and written. The chosen populus Christianus of the Franks had to be able to share the teleological message and use the language of the Christian church, the ‘Word of God’, if it wanted to be the Chosen of God in the Imperium Christianum. For the educated orders of society literacy provided access to the elites and to this realm. Aiming to present a figure worthy of being a rolemodel, Einhard had written his Vita Karoli Magni, in itself an innovative work of historiography, despite its indebtedness to Suetonius’ Lives of the Caesars. Classical Philosophy as such was virtually lost. What philosophy was preserved, entered the theology of the Christian church in its philosophical end phase: true philosophy is true religion. It was preserved in the writings of the Church Fathers, in this case in St. Augustine, and their indebted commentators, as was demonstrated above. The authority of the source mattered. The thought mattered only to the extent that through the use of Logic it could be adjusted to fit the doctrine of the faith. While in antiquity the pursuit of knowledge and reality was a function of an esthetic joy of cognition, now the intellectual pursuits had become rather functional and with only one focus: the interpretation of the scriptures, the faith and its grandiose purposes. Philosophy’s share in the Carolingian recapitulation of learning was the incidental custodial preservation of Classical
57
Easton, pp. 90ff.
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thinking as it underwent its Christian transformation. It will be much later before philosophy will be freed of this indebtedness to engage in the self-satisfied joy of speculation. For nearly a millennium, philosophical problems are mainly antique problems in Christian guise. The process involved resembled the modifying efforts spent by those grammarians who replaced pagan textual examples with Christian ones. The novelty lies in the transformed application. As was indicated above, the basis for the Christian ‘philosophical’ pursuits of the true knowledge of Revelation, to be found in the studies of the trivium and of the quadrivium, the study of the Seven Liberal Arts.58 This preoccupation accounts for the emphasis on the study of Grammar and its objectives. Such as they were, according to incomplete and eclectic lists, most libraries were incidental collections, bereft of books, which led to a considerable and widespread ‘interlibrary loan’ system, active borrowing, lending, mass-copying and binding of books.59 Most books appear to have been basic teaching texts, Bibles, not always complete, almost encyclopedic commentaries and books of a religious nature, written mainly by the Church Fathers. Some were better stocked with pagan Classical authors than others. No library appears to have accumulated more than a thousand volumes. Considering the costs, how could they? Books were tremendously expensive to produce and hence relatively rare. Nevertheless, the total estimate of some 50 000 volumes speaks to the need for books among the Carolingians. An unknown number of books was produced during the last decades of the 8th century, but well over 7000 Carolingian manuscripts, including copies of most of the Classical authors, are known from manuscripts produced during the 9th century.60 Their 58 J. Marenbon, ‘Carolingian Thought’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, pp. 171ff. 59 Bischoff, pp. 93–114, esp. pp. 95ff. for respective lists. See van der Horst, et al. The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art. Picturing the Psalms of David (Utrecht 1996), p. 10f. McKitterick, The Carolingians, pp. 166ff., 169ff. for some holdings. Also McKitterick, ‘Scholarship, Book Production and Libraries: The Flowering of the Carolingian Renaissance’, in Frankish Kingdoms, pp. 200–225. Also Hartmann, pp. 235ff. for numbers of volumes in the respective libraries of the East Frankish kingdom. See Contreni, Carolingian Learning, pp. V, 83ff. 60 R. McKitterick, ‘Script and book production’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, pp. 221, 226. Also McKitterick, ‘Eighth-century Foundations’, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 684, for other estimates of manuscript production. See also D. Ganz, ‘Book Production in the Carolingian empire and the Spread of Caroline Miniscule’, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 786.
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material value made them attractive objects of theft and resale on the open and ‘black’ markets. That there was a market for books is indicated in Einhard’s account of Charlemagne’s Last Will and Testament, in which he ‘decreed that the large collection of books which he has made in his library shall be bought at a reasonable price by anyone who wants to have them’.61 How many volumes were in that library? Who were the authors? Some of them were rare works by early Christian authors as well as the pagan authors of antiquity. These included Lucan, Terence, Claudian, Juvenal, Horace, Cicero and Sallust dealing with such areas as histories of the Roman Republic and the Empire and Latin epic and lyric poetry. Charlemagne’s court library had the most complete collection in this regard. This unusual, by needs rather random collection does seem to have served as an influential model for building other collections, including that of Louis the Pious, for copies along with illuminated gospels produced at the Court School were registered at other monastic libraries and major churches.62 Charlemagne had issued a decree that books from many lands be accumulated in the court library. What happened to all of these books? It is a characteristic of the Carolingian libraries to list Biblical texts and the writings of the Church Fathers to serve as the sparks with which the lamp of Christian learning was to be ignited.63 An extensive number of Carolingian books were not derivative from classical models, but continued the Germanic traditions of lavish surface ornamentation. Innovations constituted a significant proportion among the works created. Already in Merovingian times the scriptoria of the great monasteries could supply the rulers with the occasional resplendent, bejeweled, dedicated manuscripts.64 In this respect the ‘renovatio’ predated the appearance of the Carolingians, who then knew how to recognize the Merovingian appreciation of old books and how to build on them by preserving them as copies. Most of the newer material consisted of Christian sourcebooks so that little effort was spared to make them precious—embossed and
61
Thorpe, p. 89. Bischoff, pp. 63, 95, suggests that Charlemagne’s court library was emulated and that copies of the holdings and the holdings themselves experienced a wide distribution. 63 Brown, ‘Renaissance’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 33. 64 McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning, pp. I, 173–207. Also XII, p. 2, for a definition of such writing centers and the question of styles and scripts. 62
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engraved sheets of gold, all manner of gem encrustations, filigree, settings of pearls, cloisonné enamels, powdered glass melted in cells on the covers, dyed parchment pages with gold and silver and polychrome lettering, not to mention artistic skills applied and the esthetic effects achieved on the illuminated pages within the interiors—and unique treasures. In that respect they were the preserve of the few, clerics and aristocrats, who upon admission contributed some of their personal wealth to the monastery and any books to the libraries. Regrettably during the Carolingian Period the earlier Celto-Germanic and polychrome decorative styles were replaced. The northern intertwine of the Germanic Anglo-Saxon-Northumbrian abstract, curvilinear, intertwining vegetative and animal complexes of surface covering, as evident on the first Lindau Gospel cover and on parts of the Tassilo Chalice, were rather quickly replaced by anthropomorphic representations, as on the Tassilo Chalice and on the second Lindau Gospel cover, and indeed also on the effigy pages of the nearly contemporary Book of Kells. The polychrome space-filling, abstract ornamentation found on Germanic personal ornaments and portable art could not be developed and was given up. By the 8th century the originally purely ornamental interlaces of the largely abstract Celtic Insular Style found on religious vessels and on the carpet pages in the exquisitely illuminated gospels and sacramentaries was gradually surrendering its indecipherable, non-communicative designs and was abandoned, as the rediscovery of narrative Classical forms imposed an emphasis on representational, message carrying art. The Insular Script had come to eastern Austrasia/Thuringia during the middle of the 8th century, when the Anglo-Saxon monks founded Fulda and Würzburg. The textual evidence indicates, however, that only a few books were imported from England.65 Owing to characteristics of script and decorative conventions, insular books can be distinguished from books written on the continent.66 From c. 750 onward they were of local manufacture, their handwriting betraying the English, Irish or German origins of the scribes.67 The synthesis of 65 McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning, p. III, 402, argues that many books were brought from England. 66 McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning, p. III, 399. 67 P. Riché, Education and Culture in the Barbarian West, From the Sixth to the Eighth Century, transl. by J.J. Contreni (Columbia N.C. 1978), pp. 433ff., for an inventory of manuscripts and their sources. McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 172. Also WallaceHadrill, p. 337f., for details concerning Fulda and Würzburg and the effectiveness of Hrabanus Maurus.
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Insular and continental scholarship taking place so far to the east and away from the western centers produced some of the best, original work during Carolingian times. Within a relatively short time, heavily influenced by the art forms of the Mediterranean cultures, this Renovatio favored a shift to Classical styles, and applied more of an anthropomorphic, homocentric, representational, narrative and engagé, message-oriented religious and political art as part of the Christianization, centered on the representations of the human effigy, especially that of Christ. In this regard the resurgence demonstrates its most evident concluding effect. Though some of the Carolingian gospels retain display initials decorated in the nervously dashing calligraphic intertwines for a while, gradually the creative imagination is pushed aside by the imitative eye in the service of key principles of the sacred dogma and the great expense of the golden, gem encrusted, carved ivory covers and the colored portrait pages of the illuminated Carolingian gospels, sacramentaries and other manuscripts. Over 7000 Carolingian books survive. About 50 000 may once have existed. The disposable material wealth and the inferred status of the Carolingians must have been astounding.68 There is most extensive information available about the libraries within the Alemanic region of the eastern kingdom of the Franks at Reichenau and St. Gallen, as well as at Fulda and Würzburg.69 The island monastery Reichenau, in Lake Constance, possibly erected on or near the remaining foundations of a Roman villa, was founded in the spirit of Hiberno-Frankish monasticism by St. Pirmin in 724 under orders from Charles Martel, to consolidate the Christianization and pacification of the still pagan Alemans. Strictly speaking, based on the archeological evidence presented elsewhere, these were no longer pagans, though not because of any Irish missionary work among them. The bishopric of Constance had been founded at the end of the 6th century. Irish monks from the Alsace had been active along the fringes of the Alemanic lands, though there are no records that any missionary activities were actually pursued beyond the Rhine. Even Gallus, the associate of St. Columban, was reluctant to leave his cell. The island was owned by one Sintlas and hence known as 68 McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 163. Also Brown, ‘Renaissance’ in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 34. 69 See Ganz, ‘Book Production’, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 787f.
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Sintleozes Auua, the Meadow of Sintlas. Only later was it named the ‘rich meadow’, Reichenau. Owing to its very favorable climate, today the island produces five harvests of vegetables annually. The abbot Ermenrich of Ellwangen praised its abundance of fruit and wine. Legend represents the familiar topic that the island was crawling with repulsive snakes, toads and gruesome worms, which all left when St. Pirmin arrived.70 For three days and nights they swam away from the island, never to be seen again. In the author’s imagination the heathen figured as vermin. The monastery established on the island had one of the greatest scriptoria. Of the over 40 churches and chapels once on the island, only three religious establishments have survived the secularization at the end of the 18th Century. Today a causeway connects the island of Reichenau to the mainland peninsula. During preceding centuries islands along Europe’s coastlines were preferred sites chosen by the peregrine Irish monks in their search for deserted solitudes. This was also true for islands located in the River Rhine. Subjected to many transformations, one of the remaining churches (Niederzell) contains stonework dating to 799. St. George’s church (Oberzell), on the former site of the abbot Hatto’s cell, is a late Carolingian flat roof basilica dating to c. 900, now famed for its Ottonian frescoes. Already in 827 Walahfrid, the Cross-eyed (c. 809– 849), had praised its favored location in a poem. A former student of Hrabanus Maurus, tutor of prince Charles (the Bald), Louis the Pious named him its abbot in 839. During a mission of reconciliation between the brothers Ludwig and Charles into the western Frankish kingdom, he drowned in the Loire. Reichenau was to enjoy particularly good relations with several of the medieval imperial German dynasties. The many monks on the island carried their teaching in a wide radius into the lands around Lake Constance. The foundation differed from others in that it did not first require to be cleared, and swamps did not first have to be drained. With Carolingian support the monastery could dedicate itself to its work almost from the start. Charlemagne’s wife Hildegard may have favored the monastery with royal privileges. Its abbot Waldo, who simultaneously administered the bishopric of Pavia, was the trusted emissary of the king on many missions. His successor Hatto, also bishop of Basel, led the mission to Constantinople in 811, there
70
Wallace-Hadrill, p. 176f. concerning Pirmin.
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to obtain the Byzantine recognition for the Carolingian empire. On the Reichenau he introduced the Benedictine Reform. Walahfrid Strabo was full of his praises for him for being as full of wisdom as a box full of books. These Carolingian abbots expanded the political and cultural relations far beyond the immediate region into northern Italy, the western Frankish realm and north to Lorsch and Fulda. Waldo and Hatto are credited with assembling one of the largest libraries of the time. St. Pirmin is said to have laid its foundation by arriving with 50 volumes.71 415 volumes are listed in a catalogue of 821, the 8th year of Louis’ the Pious reign.72 Beside several luxurious examples of Mediterranean origin, many of the volumes were produced by the monks of the Reichenau scriptorium. Forty-two volumes were copied or donated alone by the learned bookworm Reginbert, who was set on enlarging the library collection.73 Excellent monastic contacts brought other volumes to the library. Essentially a subject catalogue was arranged in 821/22 by functional importance, it listed first Bibles and Testaments and related texts (35), then the Church Fathers, Augustine (28), Jerome (28), Gregory (19), vitas (18), liturgical texts (137), assorted authors including Vitruvius and Josephus, Roman, tribal and Carolingian laws, Gregory’s of Tours History of the Franks, Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne, manuscripts of common law, monastic rules, such educational books as grammars (10), and so forth. The educational thrust aimed to promote Christian learning. Approximate chronological order dominates within the categories. Irish original manuscripts are also represented, but they form a special collection, while the manuscripts revealing Insular influences are an exception within the library’s inventory, and within the work of the scriptoria show no influence, probably because of the fruitful relations with Italian, West- and East Frankish scriptoria.74 The Reichenau scriptorium was to prosper under Hatto’s successor, the abbot Erlebald (823–838), who punished errors in Latin grammar severely, so that the incorrect use of the subjunctive could bring harsh beatings upon the ignoramus until he appreciated the sinful71
Wallace-Hadrill, p. 341f. concerning the library. McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 179, for a discussion of the content and organization of the catalogue. She wonders if the catalogue is an example that was followed elsewhere, or a preserved example of a generally applied system. 73 Ibid. p. 181, for the scope of his work. 74 J. Authenrieth, ‘Irische Handschriftenüberlieferung auf der Reichenau’, in H. Löwe (ed.), Die Iren und Europa im frühen Mittelalter (Stuttgart 1982), p. 915. 72
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ness of his failings. In principle the scribes did not have to follow a ‘house style’.75 Future acquisitions were not integrated, but merely added at the end, as when the histories of Paulus Diaconus and the Venerable Bede were added. The monastery illustrates well the workings of such an establishment in terms of its educational interests in a wider sense, teaching and the emphasis on the production of books by means of which the lofty educational mandate could be realized. The collections also allow conclusions about the uniform cultural context of the monastic traditions and rules of conduct in which the establishment of the monastic Benedictine Rule took place. The catalogues of the 9th century, in Reichenau, for instance, list the rules of the Irish, of Augustine, the Regula Pauli et Stephani, of Macarius, Pachomius, Caesarius and Columban. At St. Gallen are listed the rules of Basilius, Columban, Augustine and Macarius as well as the Regula Pauli et Stephani. Benedict of Aniane was able to summarize the monastic tradition in his Codex of rules and to establish the Benedictine conformity of the Frankish monastic establishments.76 St. Gallen was not an Irish foundation; Gallus may actually have been a Frank, but rather the result of an Anglo-Saxon impetus.77 It began in 612 as a cell, which during the 8th century became a monastery of prominence because of Gallus’ reputation. Like the Reichenau it was to serve as source in the Christianization and education of the Alemans. One Otmar was the actual founder of the monastery during the first half of the 8th century, placing it under the Benedictine Rule. The monastery had a school, a famous scriptorium and a library, which is still renowned today. The first catalogue was prepared c. 850–60 and completed by 880. About three hundred entries list an inventory of 426 volumes for the library. Among these only four pagan Classical authors are represented: Virgil, Servius, Justinus and Josephus. A supplementary inventory list of another 158 entries from that century indicates nine additional authors, including Aristotle, Claudian, Seneca, Sallust and Ovid.78 Marginal notes inform about the book traffic. Similar to the Reichenau 75
Ganz, ‘Book Production’, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 790ff. F. Prinz, ‘Die Rolle der Iren beim Aufbau der merowingischen Klosterkultur’, in Löwe, Die Iren, p. 217. 77 J. Duft, P. Meyer, Die irischen Miniaturen der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen (Olten, Bern, Lausanne 1953), p. 13. Duft reviews the early history of the monastery. Riché, Education and Culture, p. 437. See Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 342ff. 78 Brown, ‘Renaissance’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 35. 76
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catalogue Bibles and Biblical materials come first. Then come Gregory the Great, surprisingly first, then Jerome, Augustine, Ambrose, Prosper, Isidore, Origen, Pelagius, Cassiodorus, Eusebius and Gregory of Tours. Among others works there are works by Alcuin, assorted rules, vitae, decrees and laws, as well as liturgical materials. As at Reichenau, schoolbooks related to literacy are last.79 Donations by abbots of their private libraries and the production of the scriptorium increased the essentially conservative library collection. One of the best-known volumes produced at St. Gall is the illustrated Golden Psalter. What speculations about their organizational logic could the catalogues bear? As was mentioned earlier, function provided a rationale. To place the Bible first in the collection probably reflects the deference toward this book, and a completed, entire manuscript of the Bible, a pandect, was rare and therefore deserving of the highest respect. The Davidic message, which the Testaments proclaimed, coincided with the primary Carolingian concerns and aspirations to realize the illusory Davidic fulfillment on earth. Individual gospels could be more easily produced. Other texts may not have met with the same respect and were frequently assembled without immediate reason and bound out of convenience. School texts, which emphasized skills, were usually last. This ranking probably did not reflect the esteem in which they, as vehicles of Christian learning, were held and in view of the universalist intentions of the Carolingians, compared in importance with the edifying religious texts. Why were subsequent acquisitions not integrated, but merely added at the end? Why was an alphabetical order not implemented when a sense of chronology did prevail? The speculative but simple answer may have to do with a lack of storage space. German university libraries still work that way. When books are shelved by date of acquisition, this system eliminates the need for reserved empty spaces on the shelves, only perhaps to be filled in subsequently. Hence the need for catalogues, lists, cards or today electronic retrieval systems, by means of which the collection must be accessed. While the library in St. Gallen did not accumulate many contemporary authors, the collection held many Classical authors. The total number of books at the monastery was probably larger than indicated so far, as essential books were also housed elsewhere about
79
McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 183.
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the compound. Probably best known are the reproductions of the layout of the large, uniquely logical monastic plan, originally drawn by abbot Heito on the Reichenau, c. 820, made of five large sheets of parchment. Its original intention appears to have been a means to promote the ideal organization of a monastic society centered on the cloister and the life of meditation, which that suggests. It was never built.80 The plan shows a two-storied addition to the choir of the church indicating that the scriptorium was on the lower floor, while the library was on the upper floor from where a passage led to the choir, to make the needed liturgical texts more easily accessible. In 895 the monastery housed 101 monks. Pilgrims on the way to or from Rome would stop and stay at the monastery and on several occasions leave books as tokens of appreciation. In this fashion books with Insular script came to be added to the library’s collection. In the catalogue they were entered with the indicative notation. The occasional author and title can also be found in Reichenau. This catalogue is preceded by a rare, special list entitled Libri scottice scriptii. While the main catalogue orders the holdings by subject areas—Bibles, Church Fathers and religious authors, followed by worldly subjects and authors, the 30 books written in Irish are listed without system, thus: Epistolae Pauli, Actus apostolorum, Epistolae canonicae VII, Tractatus Bedae in proverbia Salomonis, Ezechiel propheta, Evangelium secundum Johannem, and so forth.81 The inventory lists two books from the Old, seven books of the New Testament (Gospel of St. John, Acts of the Apostles, Epistles of St. Paul, seven canonical letters, twice the Apocalypse, all bound in one volume), three commentaries to books from the Old Testament, such as Bede’s Commentaries to Solomon’s Proverbs and his Song of Songs and to the Books of Kings, some works of Christian poetry, but only one example of Classical poetry, Virgil, and that with a Christian interpretation. It would have been used in the school as an educational text along with Bede’s Metrics and Boethius’ Arithmetic. This collection need not be seen to be unusual, for the titles are
80 Carruthers, pp. 228ff. acknowledges Braunfels as the source of the statement. See Nees, Early Medieval Art, p. 133. See R.A. Stalley, Early Medieval Architecture (Oxford 1999), p. 184. who stresses the Utopian nature of the plan. 81 J. Duft, Miniaturen, pp. 40ff., 52ff. for commentaries and descriptions of the manuscripts. See also Luft, ‘Irische Handschriftenüberlieferung in St. Gallen’, in Löwe, Die Iren, p. 923.
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quite representative of the library inventories. That the books were not integrated in the collection but remained an unsystematic assemblage would suggest that in their Insular script they were perhaps an awkward curiosity, because of the script, eventually illegible, unfamiliar to those accustomed to Carolingian script. Disgruntled readers felt free to record their displeasures.82 Or perhaps they were a respectful link with Gallus and a consideration for Irish monks on their pilgrimage to and from Rome, the way one flies American flags to make American tourists feel welcome. As was the case elsewhere, in Würzburg for instance, a direct Insular influence on the scriptorium at St. Gallen cannot be determined. It was too sporadic. Even the Insular motifs on the illuminated pages, such as the ornamented display initials, cannot be attributed to the Irish, but are already of continental origin developed during pre-Carolingian times.83 A later catalogue no longer lists these books and they were forgotten and worse, cut up to become part of the binding of other books, not the only victims of the self-assured Carolingian period. Of the collection next to nothing is left. Though the collection escaped the Hungarian raid of 926, the holdings were affected by a great fire in 937 and again in 972 when the future Otto II had some of the most precious volumes removed.84 What survived the Reformation was scattered after a local war in 1712 when the soldiery of Bern and Zürich treated the books as booty. Much ended in central libraries.85 In the decades around 800 there is evidence in the form of books of Irish peregrini in central Germany. Finding them in Fulda and Würzburg is not entirely surprising. Here too the volumes do not have a context and none of them was written on the continent. Provenance, itinerary, models and effect cannot be determined. No volume can be linked with such Irish missionaries as St. Kilian, active in Merovingian times. They can be linked with sites clearly associated with the missionary activities of Boniface and of his successors, such as Fulda, Mainz and Würzburg but not with individual Irish monks. No Irish visitors are indicated at Fulda, yet several manuscripts and
82 McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 182f. She raises the question whether the book lists are actual catalogues, or mere checklists, p. 199. 83 Duft, Miniaturen, p. 45f. 84 J. Duft, Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen (St. Gallen 1987), p. 8. 85 Duft, Stiftsbibliothek, p. 10. Also Duft in Löwe, Die Iren, pp. 924ff. for an itemization and discussion of the extant Irish manuscripts in St. Gallen.
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fragments appear to have had Irish models. Though one knows of Irish churches, there are no vestiges of any Irish colonies. The fragmented index of the Fulda library collection indicates no school texts. Fulda and Würzburg entertained an active exchange of books, but while in Würzburg the collection of manuscripts has remained in place, at the other centers the volumes have wandered off. The manuscripts left no influence upon the scriptoria of the region either.86 The foundation of the monastery of Lorsch in 764 differed from the ones mentioned above by having been founded by a count, very much in the service of the Carolingians. Soon afterwards it passed under the jurisdiction of the bishop Chrodegang of Metz and thus came into the immediate sphere of interest of the Carolingians.87 The monastery shared their ascent and in 772, early in Charlemagne’s reign, it became one of the many royal monasteries, which Charlemagne used as bases for the conquest, and conversion of the Saxons. Lorsch was the recipient of extensive gifts and acquired great wealth.88 Church establishments especially shared significantly in the material wealth and the lands acquired by the Franks during the campaigns of expansion and passed on to them under their patronage. A favorite East-Carolingian site, many diets and councils and trials took place at Lorsch, which prospered as it accumulated donations in land and gifts and became one of the leading components of an extensive network of monastic foundations. Ludwig the German and other members of the Carolingian house were to be buried here. Lorsch figured prominently as a wealthy monastery, as a scriptorium and library, intellectual and cultural center. Its catalogues are but a pale indication of its wealth in books. One of them lists 600 volumes arranged in 63 sections, 18 alone for St. Augustine and 6 for St. Jerome.89 During the Thirty Years War, 1622, Tilly, the general of the Catholic League had the collection as well as the Bibliotheca
86 H. Spilling, ‘Irische Handschriftenüberlieferung in Fulda, Mainz und Würzburg’, in Löwe, Die Iren, p. 876f. 87 M. Innes, State and Society, pp. 14ff., 18ff. Innes details the early history of the monastery, the donations of land—over 100 annually during the first 5 years, and gifts received and the current intermonastic relations. 88 See Geary, Living with the Dead, pp. 77–92, concerning gift-giving as the fundamental relationship between the living and the dead, as the dead were seen to continue to be involved in the affairs of the living. 89 Brown, ‘Renaissance’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 36. Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 238ff.
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Palatina, 3500 manuscript volumes and over 5000 prints, the collection of the Elector of Heidelberg, transported to Rome in partial repayment of funds advanced by the pope to help finance the war. A large number of these books is still housed in the Palatine collection of the Apostolic Library of the Vatican. Others are in Oxford. Four 9th century catalogues exist, of which one is at Fulda and the others are in the Vatican.90 These were compiled by different scribes between c. 830 and 860 and intended to provide for the library an inventory of the production and acquisition of books during the earlier part that century. Thereafter the library entered a less productive period, probably because of the political turmoil. The catalogues may have been prepared for circulation, thereby suggesting a canon of standard works, to make bibliographical information available to other monastic libraries. Leadership and initiative became the tasks of the abbots in stimulating the scriptorium and the curriculum of the school. As was demonstrated elsewhere the Christian agenda was the main component of Carolingian education. Of interest is a catalogue of 833, belonging to the cathedral library in Cologne, which lists laymen and laywomen as borrowers. That library renders a good image of its role in support of the school and the cathedral, of education and of the ministry.91 From the monastery of Murbach comes clear evidence that the monk who administered the library was very familiar with the books authored by a particular individual, for repeatedly a number of known and desired works is given. How did he arrive at such a wish list? Bibliographies must have been in circulation. Occasionally the author would list his other publications, or those known of others. Citations in a rudimentary scholarly apparatus could help complete the picture, as could a more extensive unsuspected exchange of catalogues. The standardized configurations of the catalogues will have reflected the main theological and educational concerns and objectives in the attempt to renew the consciousness of the Christian people: Biblical studies, guidance of the Church Fathers, literacy and Latinity of the clergy, of some laymen and laywomen through grammatical and literary texts. With the emergence of the East Frankish kingdom as a largely self-sufficient political and cultural realm, the great monasteries within 90
McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 188f., lists the inventoried holdings. McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 192, summarizes the holdings and their organizations. See also McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 241. 91
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, 167
Map 6. Religious Establishments under the Carolingians.
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it came to play an increasingly influential role in a growing systematized network of the court, the monasteries and their schools, their libraries and their student exchanges. Beyond the monastic foundations already mentioned, this network included more or less loosely such establishments as Solnhofen (founded 750), Heidenheim (752) and Eichstätt (c. 745) in the southern part of the kingdom, Hersfeld (769), Fritzlar (723/24), Büraburg (741/42), Erfurt (742), Halberstadt (827) in the center and east, Paderborn (777), Münster (804), Osnabrück (785) and Bremen (782?) in the west and north and Corvey (817/22), Gandersheim (859), Hildesheim (815), Verden (786/808) and Hamburg (831) toward the north, to mention just a few. The network was even more extensive when we consider that these foundations were extensions of yet other monasteries, for example Corbie in France and Corvey in Saxon lands, or that these foundations were placed under the jurisdiction of such bishoprics and archbishoprics as Mainz, Fulda, Würzburg and Cologne. Thus Münster, Osnabrück and Bremen were elevated to bishoprics in 795 and placed under the archbishopric of Cologne. Würzburg was linked with Paderborn and Fulda laid the groundwork for the bishopric of Minden. West Frankish missionaries from Reims and Châlons-sur-Marne worked in Hildesheim and Halberstadt. These bishoprics were placed under the suzerainty of the archbishopric Mainz. Similar activities prevailed in the Bavarian southeast. That a high degree of all manner of communication took place between them can be expected. Many of these foundations became royal/imperial monasteries, in which case they were also charged with the furtherance of the interests of the realm. This had already been an element in the policies of the Merovingian Dagobert I (623–638), who insisted that missionary work should be coordinated with the eastward expansion of Merovingian power and influence as part of an active Austrasian Ostpolitik.92 Thus the distribution of the missionary directions coincided with the original thrust of the campaigns of conquest.93 It has been suggested94 that thanks to monasticism Germany assumed the vanguard of the intellectual renewal during the first half of the 8th century as a compensation for the ruined culture of Gaul.
92 93 94
Schutz, Germanic Realms, p. 199. Löwe, Deutschland im Fränkischen Reich, p. 143. Riché, Education and Culture, p. 439.
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Books could also be found in private hands. There is some evidence that laymen, such as Einhard, had private libraries, which figured as divisible property. The intention behind some histories and vitae was that, written in the tradition of aristocratic family histories, they were to extol the glorious past and the manifest destiny of the family, as Gregory of Tours, Fredegar, Einhard and Nithard had done and Cassiodorus and others before him.95 In most instances prior private ownership and subsequent donations to libraries cannot be identified in the collections. The life story of a family saint offered an additional significant dimension of glory by association, as foundations, cults, patronage and family histories were itemized, cultivated and celebrated. Practical manuals and borrowed books figured among the holdings. There are indications that the libraries kept lists of borrowers from among lay and religious individuals. No doubt these individuals enjoyed particular rights and privileges appertaining to their social position and their relationship with the foundation. What of the price of books? The information is scant, but c. 840 a book containing the Lombard Law Code and an account of the passion of one Servulus sold for 8 denarii which when converted into terms of the standard of living was the equivalent cost of 96 twopound loaves of wheat bread.96 What of the cost of a gem encrusted, illuminated volume? Of such necessary materials as pens, ink, dyes, parchment, ivory for the covers, binding and the like? Of the costs of production? Where did the value lie? In their irreplaceable uniqueness? In the text or in the cost of the materials? For Alcuin it was clear that the content of a book and its spiritual value far exceeded its material value and that the labor dedicated to its production had a higher value than its material value, for it ‘serves the soul’.97 Libraries did not necessarily have adjoining production centers. While some of the scriptoria had their own parchment makers, other production centers relied on suppliers. There were instances when requests for copies of a book were accompanied by a supply of parchment. Evidently a coordinated infrastructure was required. Parchment was
95
McKitterick, The Carolingians, pp. 238ff. McKitterick, The Carolingians, pp. 136ff. for an exemplary and extensive discussion of this topic. 97 McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 150f. See Ganz, ‘Book Production’, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 792f. 96
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obtained from the skin of young sheep and goats, and calves. The skins would be soaked in lime to remove hair and fat, then wrung and stretched on a frame to dry. After a final scraping the skin would be cut to size. Depending on the size of the skins and the number of pages of a book as many as over 500 skins might be needed. A large Bible would require many more. Thus one of the largest, the Codex Amiatinus weighs 34 kg., its 2060 pages were 20 cm thick, written on the skins of 515 calves.98 One can only imagine the requirements of a well functioning scriptorium. Clearly such a center had to have the wealth to support such an industry. An enterprising scribe, whether monk, nun or professional layman, could not just give in to a whim to make a book, let alone a splendid book.99 As many as twenty scribes, some of them monks, some laymen,100 some doubling as illuminators, might be involved in the completion of one book. There is a record of a monk copying the commentaries of St. Jerome in thirty-four days, producing an average of eleven pages per day.101 The largest expenses were related to the pigments, gold and silver, needed for the ornamentation of the books. The illuminations were the result of a synthesis of Roman, Insular and Merovingian styles and techniques evolving during several centuries of book production. The most familiar Carolingian production centers were the Palace Schools of Charlemagne and of Charles the Bald102 and such centers as Soissons, Rheims, Metz, Lorsch and St. Gallen. Mining, gathering and extensive trading networks to distant and exotic parts were integral to the infrastructure which prepared the ingredients of such colors and pigments: purples, reds, lapis-lazuli and aquamarine blues, but preferably the more easily available azurite, required a supply of the needed raw materials and trained craftsmen with an extensive knowledge of ‘Chemistry’ and of the risks involved in working with materials, producing fumes for example, as when mixing
98 Nees, Early Medieval Art, p. 165. See Diebold, p. 33. See McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning, pp. III, 397ff. on the preparation of writing surfaces. 99 McKitterick, The Carolingians, pp. 138ff. Also McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, pp. 237ff. 100 Alexander, pp. 12ff. 101 See Ganz, ‘Book Production’, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 793, for examples of the speed of the copyists. See also Bischoff, p. 87 102 See Wallace-Hadrill, p. 247f., concerning the palace school of Charles the Bald.
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and heating mercury with sulfur, mining and using ochres and hematites, copper and tin, salts and other oxides, obtaining saps and vegetable dyes.103 Some of this knowledge was already available to the makers of fibulas and the other earlier body ornaments. The purple dye was obtained from mollusks and beetle eggs, which were also used for the production of carmine ranging from reddish violet to purple, orange and brown when mixed with alum or acetic acids; pigments from flowers and fruit juices modified through additional acidity or alkalinity contributed through the addition of wood ash, stale urine or quick lime. The addition of white lead, itself the product of a hazardous process, to these juices would produce pinks. No doubt, something of the black arts will have attached to those versed in the crafts. And the book was not yet begun. Purple dyes were prohibitively expensive and projected great wealth and elevated position of the donors of books ornamented with such pages with lettering in silver or gold. The gems, with their own symbolic meanings, mounted on the covers, would add yet another spiritual and fitting dimension to the envelope of a sacred text, perhaps the Word of God. Such a volume, if a commissioned votive gift to a church or a saint, was indeed regal. The gift probably implied a contractual commitment. It is evident that the Carolingian court supported the writing of uncritical, positivistic, contemporary general and dynastic histories and annals, family histories and genealogies, which in the Merovingian tradition tried to enhance a glory of association with coveted traces of splendid origins sought among the Trojans and the Romans.
IX. Religious literature It has been demonstrated104 that the Carolingian rise to power was accompanied by a sort of politically strategic fiction. Against a nostalgic background of Charlemagne’s reign having been a ‘golden age’ these writings were intended for a specific audience. Deliberate messages were cast in the form of a tangential literature of dreams and visions. Composed at Reichenau, St. Gall, Mainz and Reims the 103 McKitterick, The Carolingians, pp. 142ff. for details of the manufacturing process of dies and pigments. See also Alexander, pp. 35ff. 104 Dutton, Politics of Dreaming, p. 38.
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scriptoria produced prescient texts which projected a heavenly vision on earth or supported pragmatic intentions, endorsed plans and justified correct actions, or made predictions, censured faults, judged royal wrong-headedness and projected punishments for their kings and predicted a dire end for the disintegrating realm as a reliable indication of God’s Will, since evidently dreams and visions were accepted not to be the work of man, but the mysterious intercessional workings of the divine. Visions became the monastic vehicle for expressing critical thought in images.105 Intent on reform, their centrist tendencies run counter to the illusory imperial universalist policies of the Davidic conception. Already Gregory of Tours had retold the story of St. Jerome’s vision of being led into the presence of God for having read unworthy books. A select few believed sincerely that God had enabled them to stand apart and to have otherworldly and critical insights, which with the power of revelation could affect the course of events by attracting the monarchs’ attention to perceived problems. The illuminated manuscripts were to show this sanction through the divine in the representations of the dextra dei, the Right Hand of God, reaching into the world of man and of his activities. The Carolingians could refer to an extensive catalogue of Classical authors, Biblical sources, historical examples of dreams, such as the Dream of Scipio, sightings and visions: pharaoh’s dream of the seven years of plenty and of dearth, the visions of Daniel, Nebuchadnezzar’s dream of the statue with the feet of clay, the dream of the wife of Pontius Pilate before he pronounced sentence, Constantine’s vision of the Cross before the victorious battle at the Milvian Bridge, Chlodovech’s vision before the battle with the Alemans, as well as the many such incidents in the Classical writers describing events in the lives of the emperors. The Carolingians had many august rolemodels to emulate, such as the Vision of St. Paul, and the Vision of St. Jerome, mentioned above, so that their literary dreams and visions too came to focus on regal personalities, beginning with Charlemagne after his death, in the form of behavioral criticism, admonishments, disappointments, commentary on the use and abuse of power, attempts at persuasion, but also praise. From the 820s onward Carolingian writers added contemporary royal concerns to the dreams of ancient potentates,106 such as Audratus 105 106
Carruthers, p. 184. Dutton, pp. 60ff., pp. 93ff.
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Modicus’ collection of his prophetic visions, the story of the blind dreamer Aubrey of Aquitaine who claimed that the archangel Gabriel had dictated about a dozen chapters which Einhard was to show immediately to Louis the Pious for implementation, the Vision of Rotcharius and other moralizing visions and dreams associated with the monasteries in general. At Reichenau two names are pertinent, abbot Heito and Walahfrid Strabo, of whom the former prepared a prose version of the Visions of Wetti, the dream discourse between Wetti, a sick monk on Reichenau, with an angel, in which Charlemagne had to pay for his sins and began to serve as the prototypical negative example of the debauched king. The young Walahfrid Strabo recast it in verse.107 This Visio Wettini is something of a precursor of Dante’s Inferno. The Vision of the Poor Woman of Laon, which reflects the Vision of Wetti, focuses on Louis the Pious. The Vision of Bernold is a dream text written by Hincmar of Reims during the reign of Charles the Bald. For Charles’ son, Louis the Stammerer, Hincmar selected the lessons from the Vision of Bernold. Hincmar’s work was to serve as model for the later Vision of Charles the Fat, also written at Reims. The Vision of Raduin intended to establish the primacy of Reims and the prerogative of its archbishop to crown the king.108 The literary examples were to present object lessons to the rulers. In that sense they served the role of Fürstenspiegel, didactic mirrors for princes. In about 865 a monk, perhaps from Augsburg, composed a Visio Karoli Magni, a Vision of Charlemagne in which Charlemagne had a vision of a specter, probably an angel, holding a sword, which according to the specter was sent by God, for Charles to protect himself and to heed its four Germanic inscriptions.109 According to the Annals of Fulda, during Lent of 874, Ludwig the German dreamt of his father Louis the Pious in dire straits, asking him to be rescued from his torments caused by his many sins of omission as a weak king,110 such as his failure to establish constitutional unity, peace and order, rather allowing the realm to slide into disorder, violence, war and destruction; such as his failure to provide a centralizing and 107 See M. Brooke, ‘The Prose and Verse Hagiography of Walahfrid Strabo’, in Godman and Collins, pp. 551–564, esp. p. 556. Also Carruthers, pp. 180ff. for an analysis of the vision. 108 Dutton, pp. 230ff. 109 Geary, Living with the Dead, pp. 50ff., 59. On the Medieval symbolism of swords, see pp. 61ff. 110 Geary, Living with the Dead, p. 60.
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unifying leadership in the face of fragmenting dynastic traditions; such as ignoring the instructions of the angel in Wetti’s vision and those which the angel Gabriel had dictated to Aubrey. Ludwig took the dream very seriously.111 In the Visio Karoli Magni and especially in Ludwig’s dream the image of the father suffering for his sins began to be a recognizable motif. The later examples of dreams and visions are to be associated with the bishopric of Mainz.112 There was little to recommend the Frankish kingdom, let alone Aachen, to act as the source of this great design. Thanks to the royal will the court at Aachen came to serve a dual function: it was centripetal in that it attracted great men and their ideas to its center; it was centrifugal in that from this center much cultural stimulation was disseminated. Among many personalities who attended the Carolingian court at various times there were Paulus Diaconus, Peter of Pisa, Paulinus, Bornrad, Cathwulf, Theodulf and others whose names are known but not their works.113 It is interesting to note that none of these was a Gallo-Roman. Several great personalities can be associated with the cultural initiatives: Alcuin, Einhard for the earlier period, Hrabanus Maurus and his student Walahfrid Strabo for the middle period, to name just four. The Anglo-Saxon Northumbrian Alcuin, Albinus in Latin, coordinated the Palace School at Aachen from 782–796.114 This was not a ‘school’ in our modern sense, but rather a working association representing a variety of skills. Of him Einhard wrote in the Vita Karoli (25) that he was ‘the most learned man anywhere to be found’. He had been sent from York to Rome to receive the pallium and on his return journey had met Charlemagne at Parma. Charles invited him to Aachen, in part to be his personal teacher, but officially to assume the responsibility for
111
Dutton, pp. 219, 223. Geary, Living with the Dead, p. 55f. suggests that the visions belonged to the propaganda literature of Ludwig the German, intended to glorify him as defender of the Church in a realm identifying with its Germanic traditions. 113 Garrison, ‘Latin literature’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 119f. sketches the interaction of these individuals at court and gives brief illustrations of their work. See also Jungandreas, pp. 104–116. Also Wallace-Hadrill, p. 191f., and Collins, p. 113f. 114 Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 205–216. Also Collins, pp. 112f., 123f. However, see Nees, Mantle, pp. 4ff., who argues that Alcuin may be given too much credit for maintaining the interest in antiquity. McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning, p. IV, 293, refers to him as ‘both the peak and the climax of the English contribution to intellectual culture’. 112
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the Palace School. Previously the non-monastic court schools had been as itinerant as the courts. With Aachen becoming the official royal residence, the secular Palace School had also found a permanent location and Alcuin came to assume a leading role at court. According to Einhard, Alcuin was Charlemagne’s teacher in rhetoric, dialectics and astronomy. However, he was not only Charlemagne’s teacher, for many of the great minds of the following decades had been his students. He devoted his energies to scholarship, religion, the Davidic idea, law, statesmanship on behalf of the kingdom and the reform of Christian learning and of the liturgy. An adept poet, he found poetic expression for many occasions. He wrote books on grammar, on rhetoric, dialectics and orthography. As a practicing teacher, his effectiveness extended beyond his own time. In many pieces of correspondence he spoke for or with the approval of Charles.115 Though he was not a philosopher he adopted the views held by Isidore of Seville concerning the definition of a king, as well as a modification of the Gelasian theory of royal power and religious authority, the ‘Two Authorities’, already referred to above. In Charles he saw the divinely appointed defender and protector of the church and helped even the relationship with the papacy, a perception already discussed earlier. To Charles he stressed his primary function as protector of the Christian church and of the Christian faith.116 He certainly represented to Charles the Augustinian theory of the Christian emperor. The hand of Alcuin appears in much attributed to the reign of Charlemagne. Unfairly, modern misunderstood assessment of his intentions, his work is faulted for not being that of an original thinker and he for being only a middling poet. He had vitality and a great capacity as administrator and teacher who reorganized education to facilitate the acquisition of literacy and literary confidence. Through his high level of organizational skill he was able to give form to Charles’ unrestrained enthusiasm for innovation and reform, which achieved the strong impetus and most
115
See L. Wallach, Alcuin and Charlemagne, Studies in Carolingian History and Literature (Ithaca, NY. 1965), for a detailed discussion of Alcuin’s work as a political theorist. Concerning the documents composed for Charlemagne see pp. 140ff. Also Brown, ‘Renaissance’, and Garrison, ‘Latin literature’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, pp. 30ff., and p. 118, respectively. 116 See Wallach, pp. 15ff. for examples of Alcuin’s letters to Charlemagne and of the ideas which he presents to his king, including the link with his Biblical prototype David.
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enduring results.117 He created the political and religious framework in which the cultural growth could take place. When he left Aachen for Tours his creative influence brought forth significant accomplishments there as well. It was he, the implementer of Charles’ ideas, who gave Biblical and historical names to the members of the court, of which twenty-three are known.118 Thus Charlemagne came to be named ‘David’. He named himself ‘Flaccus’ and Einhard was named after Bezeleel, the maker of the Ark of the Covenant. With that name Alcuin circumscribed Einhard’s range of activities very well.119 More than any of his contemporaries he represented the spirit of the Carolingian Renovatio in his own person.120 Einhard, c. 770–840, was of the Thuringian nobility. Educated at the monastery at Fulda, Einhard mastered Latin, the Bible and the Classics. In his early 20s he was recommended to Charlemagne as a fitting addition to the court. The expanding kingdom required competent and literate administrators to staff the court offices. Einhard arrived at court just to see some of the great men of the day leaving the court—Paulus Diaconus, Peter of Pisa, Paulinus of Aquileia. The learned circle around Charlemagne was thinning out and even Alcuin was to leave for Tours only a few years later. Owing to his energy and agility Einhard easily assumed several roles in which he could demonstrate his skills and remarkable range of talents. Beginning as Alcuin’s pupil at the Palace School, he advanced to the highest political and intellectual positions at court during the reigns of Charlemagne and of Louis the Pious. Something of a ‘Lord-High-EverythingElse’, Einhard became commissioner of works and director of the imperial workshops where, according to his own writings, he was minister of fine arts and as a practicing artist himself, played an important role in creating the Carolingian Style. And yet he appears to have suffered from a high degree of self-denigration. Initially his nickname was ‘Nard’, perhaps a play on the ending of his name or because of his small stature, but it almost seems that his busy ways, his desire to be useful and accommodating, were a device with which he compensated for feelings of inadequacy. While a degree of selfabasement was part of the deliberate humility a Christian was expected 117 R. Hinks, Carolingian Art—A Study of Early medieval Painting and Sculpture in Western Europe (Ann Arbor 1966), p. 106f. Also Dutton, Courtier, p. xiif. 118 Wallace-Hadrill, p. 197f. 119 McKitterick, in Frankish Kings, p. 162, lists others. 120 Jungandreas, p. 103. Also Wallace-Hadrill, p. 202f.
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to display, the negative terms, which he heaped upon himself, were many. Most often he portrayed himself as peccator, the sinner in a sinful courtly world.121 Needlessly it would seem, for his later nickname ‘Bezeleel’ originated in Exodus (31:2–5) in the Old Testament, where Bezeleel is described as being filled with the spirit of God, wisdom, understanding, knowledge and all manner of workmanship, to work with skill and artistry in gold, silver and copper, to cut and set stones, to cut wood artistically in order to complete the work and make the Ark of the Covenant. Except for one design of a triumphal gate vaguely associated with him, no specific work can be attributed to him, but his reputation was such that the Aachen of Einhard became a center in which the many Carolingian portable objects had their beginnings. Einhard moved among painters, makers of reliquaries and tiles, organ builders, all manner of palace workmen, as well as royal scribes, and he was able to employ them to fashion a coherent, representative program of work. Einhard is credited with introducing method, order and a deliberate aim into the imitative reliance on Classical models as he worked toward preparing artists to aim for the use and development of narrative skills by means of which a pedagogical purpose could be pursued.122 The lesson to be taught was the message of Christian salvation. Einhard’s intention, implemented by other means, coincided with that of Alcuin, to be engaged in the teaching and learning of the same lesson that was on the political and theological curriculum, the universal kingdom of heaven and earth, the Imperium Christianum. At first the artist, illuminators and carvers could do no more that to establish an inventory and to imitate and adapt what was available from the Classical heritage. Owing to the general orientation toward the Classical world of Christian Imperial Rome, not least in which was the Carolingian concern for dynastic continuity and its legitimacy, it was natural that the dept to Christian Classical examples actually in their hands would help create a need for such Classical forms and shape a Classical framework of Christian expression. That Einhard’s Vita Karoli Magni, composed before 821,123 was fashioned in the manner of Suetonius’ ‘Lives of the twelve Caesars’, especially that of Augustus, thereby 121
Dutton, Courtier, p. xxxvii. Hinks, p. 110f. 123 M. Innes, R. McKitterick, ‘The writing of history’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 204. See also Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 180, 203 who dates the work c. 830. 122
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placing him among them, can almost be expected. It would have suited the tastes of the court of Louis the Pious. It is noteworthy that as a vehicle of the Renovatio, the unique Vita Karoli found few imitators. It was mentioned above that what philosophy was preserved, entered the theology of the Christian church in its philosophical end phase: true philosophy is true religion. It was preserved in the writings of the Church Fathers and their indebted commentators. Scholarship consisted of compiling compendiums of subject related commentaries for the convenience of users. The works of older authors were republished in abbreviated form with new titles. St. Augustine was a particularly favored source. Original thought was not the objective, the command of available knowledge was, such as that contained in the writings of the Church Fathers. Early Carolingian thinking then reveals next to no original thought as it submits to the primacy of scriptures.124 The reputation of Hrabanus Maurus was based on the use of this technique with which he prepared his famous Bible commentaries. His extensive scholarly activity earned him the title praeceptor Germaniae. Compared to Alcuin, Maurus’ gifts are more reproductive but the breadth of his effectiveness was most extensive. The life and work of his pupil Walahfrid Strabo will show the emergence of a more original approach. Magnentius Hrabanus Maurus, since 801 consecrated deacon and then abbot of Fulda from 822 to 842 and Archbishop of Mainz from 847 to 856, has appeared in these pages on several occasions.125 As part of his patronage, his father had donated him to the monastery as a child-oblate.126 He created the best-known monastic school in the East Frankish kingdom. Born c. 780/83, he was raised, like Einhard, in the monastery at Fulda, only just over 30 years old, from where they were both sent to Alcuin’s school. As was indicated Einhard went to Aachen and stayed there. Hrabanus may have first gone to Aachen and then to Tours, to which Alcuin had had himself transferred. It was Alcuin who gave him the name Maurus, in analogy with St. Benedict’s favorite student. He returned to Fulda
124 J. Marenbon, “Carolingian Thought’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 179f., elaborates and argues against this misleading judgment. 125 Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 314–322, summarizes his scholarly production. 126 See Innes, State and Society, pp. 65ff. concerning the family of Hrabanus Maurus and their property dealings.
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and its 700 monks, to become abbot in 822 and to serve in this capacity till 842. At the time of the dynastic struggles and Oaths of Strasbourg, Hrabanus Maurus, owing to the intervention of Ludwig the German, renounced his office, only to become Archbishop of Mainz, the most important prelate of the eastern kingdom and of its most important archbishopric five years later, by virtue of the intervention of the same king.127 The encounters with Alcuin appear to have been most decisive. His influence on him as a rolemodel and teacher contributed to the monastery school at Fulda becoming the leading school in the east. Before the time of Hrabanus Maurus, Fulda, understandably, could not stand out for any noteworthy achievements. In Hrabanus’ time it became one of the empire’s finest schools and, as was demonstrated above, soon one of the finest libraries of the ninth century in the eastern kingdom. Among its students were to be Walahfrid Strabo,128 Lupus de Ferrières129 and Otfrid von Weissenburg.130 In his own work Hrabanus Maurus was chiefly a skilful and celebrated compiler of extracts. His best-known early work, however, is his figure poem In honorem sanctae crucis also identified as Liber de laudibus sanctae crucis, c. 810, c. 831, probably the 3rd generation of the book, the version now kept in the Austrian National Library (Cod. 652).131 This unique work of singular educational excellence concerning the triumphant cross brought him fame in his own lifetime. Twenty copies of the work are known.132 He had begun it at Tours with Alcuin’s support, who had worked in the same direction. The genre of the carmen figuratum, the Bildgedicht, the ‘Poem in Pictures’ had its beginnings with Optantius Porphyrius, 325 at Constantinople in Christian late antiquity at the court of Constantine. Several later representatives included Scottus, Alcuin and Theodulf.133 The dedicatory pictures and their iconographic derivation indicate their courtly origin. Maurus’ encyclopedic De laudibus sanctae crucis represents the
127
Wallace-Hadrill, p. 333. Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 322–326. 129 Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 305–314. 130 Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 385ff. 131 Unterkircher, Abendländische Buchmalerei, (Graz, Wien, Köln 1967) p. 38f. See Chazelle, Crucified God, pp. 6, 99ff. for a theological discussion of Carolingian considerations. 132 Chazelle, Crucified God, p. 128f. 133 Chazelle, Crucified God, pp. 14ff. 128
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Carolingian peak of this literary genre in which letters are emphasized to form figures.134 Hrabanus Maurus gives Hatto credit for his collaboration in the work, by providing the drawings and colorations. A brief descriptive account may be in order here. Dedicational miniatures are associated with the various versions of the work, one introductory page and twenty-eight picto-poems, each augmenting the laudation of the cross, the other a picto-poem as dedication to the emperor Louis the Pious as Miles Christianus, Warrior in Christ. The introductory poem shows Christ wearing a cruciform halo, assuming the representation of the cross, suggesting that the cross is Christ the Savior, the way to the Father. (Plate 1a) The background consists of 47 lines of unspaced Latin poetry in red lettering, difficult to decipher. The outline of his body is emphasized with black lettering, spelling out edifying statements, such as ‘The Eternal Lord leads the blessed to the stars,’ around the feet and the inside leg. The halo spells REX REGUM ET DOMINUS DOMINORUM (King of kings and Lord of lords).135 The letters in his hair spell ISTE EST REX IUSTITIAE (This is the King of justice). On the cross beside his head appear the letters A and V. One of the other miniatures clearly indicates the technique used to make the pictures: the whole page is divided into little squares by means of a sharp stylus. On the page in question, a tonsured Hrabanus Maurus presents a book supported by Alcuin, identified as Albinus abbas. (Plate 1b) They approach the enthroned archbishop of Mainz, Otgarius episcopus Moguntinus, from the right, who has turned slightly toward the donor. Otgarius faces us frontally, seated on the regal cushion roll. Owing to a mistake made by the copyist Otgarius was supposed to be identified as St. Martin of Tours. The view is rather two-dimensional. The three figures are of equal size. The colors of the miniature are light brown, beige, light and dark blue. The figures are drawn as short, stocky and compact bodies with elongated fingers. Alcuin was long dead (804) by the time this work was begun, so that the depiction of his support is then more of an expression of appreciation to his teacher and master, and perhaps a reference to the originator of the idea and a reference 134
Chazelle, Crucified God, p. 101. Nees, Early Medieval Art, p. 196f. See also Diebold, p. 109f. who claims that if the letters are removed, the images disappear, which does not seem a logical proposition. See Chazelle, Crucified God, pp. 115ff. for a detailed theological commentary. 135
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to the early years, which Hrabanus spent with Alcuin at Tours. The second dedication is a four-line dedication to pope Gregory IV (827–844), which dates the work to after 827. A dedication picture shows Hrabanus handing the book to pope Gregory IV. A reference to Louis receiving gifts from the Persians relates to a Persian delegation visiting in 831, indicating the work can be dated between 831 and 840, Louis’ death.136 Louis himself is not associated with sponsoring a palace school producing illuminated manuscripts. The page with the picto-poem of the emperor Louis the Pious137 is a page of continuous text filling every little predrawn square138 and beginning with the words REGUM DOMINUS MUNDUM DICIONE GUBERNANS (King of kings ruling with Might as Lord of the World). (Plate 1c) This page was added for the 831 version of the work and then included in all other copies.139 The figure of the emperor in this copy is accented through the use of color, holding in his right the all-powerful long cross, a round shield in his left. The pose relates very closely to that shown on Roman ivories of Roman generals, such as of Stilicho, for instance.140 Originality, as we understand it, was not a Carolingian objective. That he is holding a cross rather than a lance makes him a fighter for Christ, a MILES CRISTIANUS, the carrier of the spiritual Christian reform movement, so that this type of picture functions as an historical document. Louis is singled out as the sacerdotal representative of the idea of the universal Imperium Christianum. This image most clearly represents Hrabanus Maurus’ idea that the temporal and religious realms were one, that the empire was ecclesia.141 At the time Louis was embattled with his son Lothair and soon after he was to be his prisoner. In a synesthetic process, Hrabanus’ picture restored to him the singular regal dignity of the reform, of which he was being deprived in life. His head is surrounded by a halo. The colors also accent the letters contained within these objects. Thus the nimbus
136
Unterkircher, p. 40. E. Sears, ‘Louis the Pious as Miles Christi. The Dedicatory Image in Hrabanus Maurus’ De laudibus sanctae crucis’ in Godman and Collins, pp. 605–628. 138 Sears, in Godman and Collins, p. 606. 139 Braunfels, p. 368. See Chazelle, Crucified God, p. 129. 140 See Sears, in Godson and Collins, p. 611f. for a discussion of the type. See Chazelle, Crucified God, p. 20f. 141 M. de Jong, ‘The empire as ecclesia: Hrabanus Maurus and Biblical historia for rulers’, in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 225. See Chazelle, Crucified God, p. 130. 137
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around the head spells TU HLUDOUUICUM CRISTE CORONA (You, Christ crown Louis). The cross and vertical staff spell IN CRUCE CRISTE TUA VICTORIA VERA SALUSQUE OMNIA RITE REGIS (On your cross, Christ, is victory and salvation, all things you rule justly.) The purple shield bears the words—For the shield of faith repels the evil arrows, protects the emperor, prepares glorious trophies of victory, confirms the pious heart, drives the enemy host to flight. The ‘helmet’ contains the words IESU CRISTE. Hrabanus Maurus provided an interpretation to the code—it is the helmet of salvation, the shield of faith and the breastplate of justice. The abstract words are focused on the tectonic image of the symbol. The idealized portrait gives to the triumphant emperor an exclusive identity in the universal Christian realm. How could it be otherwise, since he was divinely chosen? All of these letters are part of words—versus intexti—which cover the page running horizontally through the figure, nimbus, ‘helmet’, cross and shield. Since no square may remain empty the texts are rather forced and by themselves not of great value, but since the texts are made up of single letters, groups of letters and also whole words, the result is a complex but highly artificial composition of interspersed lettering, carried on throughout the book, for instance the lettering on the cross, where the words on the crossbar are completed at the top of the cross, while the initial letter of Christ is bold as it overlaps the initial ‘C’ in ‘cruce’, a rather clever, simple, yet theologically complex design. C E INCRU R I S emperor’s hand T E The diagram enhances the text with meaning as the cross and Christ are brought into a fundamental interpretative relationship, fostering a visual understanding of the key idea of the faith. The contoured image intimated an approximate form for the abstract idea. The
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exacting technique saw the design start with the ‘image’ and the intended number of letters. Only then did one laboriously fill in the remaining area of squares. Though the product looks rather workmanlike, the creative challenge must have been very demanding.142 On an incipit right page, Hrabanus Maurus places his name and authorship in 6x6 equidistant squares, each containing a letter of his name—MAGNENTIUS HRABANUS MAURUS HOC OPUS FACIT. Every 7th letter is on a yellow background framed in red. He prepared a similar dedication page for the empress Judith, when he presented her with a book of commentaries to some books of the Old Testament. The ruler ‘portrait’ appears on fol. 3 verso. On folio 3 recto Hrabanus Maurus highlights a large cross using the same technique, but beneath it kneels the author himself in a supplicatory pose.143 Each arm of the cross, horizontally or vertically, repeats the sequence of the letters in reverse order—OROTERAMUSARA*ARASUMARETORO. The kneeling figure spells out a prayer, RABANUM MEMET CLEMENS ROGO CRISTE TUERE O PIE IUDICIO.144 The twenty-eight poems in Praise of the Cross-which follow demand nearly encyclopedic knowledge and are too complex to summarize fully.145 Combined with aspects of numerology, twenty-eight ingenious variations on the cross are used in reference with the 4 regions, 4 categories of substances, 4 realms of nature, 4 humors; 9 choirs of angels, archangels, cherubim and seraphim; patriarchs, prophets, apostles, martyrs; 4 squares symbolizing the construction of the house of God; 4 cardinal virtues; 4 elements, directions, times of day; 4 elongated hexagons filled with text of 91 letters in each, all centered on C, for a total of 365 days of the year; 5 clusters of 14 squares to total the mystical number 70 referring to the 70 years of the Babylonian captivity, 70 years of life, 70 elders of Moses, 70 weeks of Daniel, and all of that in reference of the first ten crosses. There follow the 5 Books of Moses, 4 continents known to the Greeks, 46 142 J. Backhouse, The Illuminated Page, Ten centuries of Manuscript Painting in the British Museum (Toronto, Buffalo 1997), p. 58. A 12th century copy of the book and part of a Harley manuscript has replaced the purple halo, cross and shield with gold. See Sears, in Godson and Collins, p. 607, Figs. 35, 39–46, for other copies. 143 Braunfels, pp. 337, 389, ill. 281. See Chazelle, Crucified God, p. 109, for the euphoria represented in the adoration. 144 L. Nees, ‘The Originality of Early Medieval Artists’, in Chazelle, Literacy, Politics, p. 87f. Also Nees, Early Medieval Art, pp. 195ff. 145 Sears, in Godson and Collins, pp. 607ff. See Chazelle, Crucified God, this adoration may also be the 28. poem.
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years for the building of the temple in Jerusalem, 276 days to Christ’s birth, 5231 years from the Creation to the death of Christ, the tetramorphs and the apocalyptic lamb, 7 gifts of the Holy Spirit, 8 Beatitudes; the numbers 40 and its secrets, such as Christ’s fast of 40 days in the desert, etc.; 50 and its references to the flight of 50 days to Egypt, Pentecost, etc.; 120 and its mystical meaning composed of the number 30 multiplied by the 4 Gospels, the Christogram, the stylized letter Chi Rho providing Greek numerical values of 1260 days of Christ’s teaching and 1335 days between the downfall of the Antichrist and the return of Jesus; the number 24 and its meanings—24 spheres of heaven, 24 hours, 24 books of the Old Testament, the 24 sons of Aaron, etc., the meaning of Alleluia and Amen arranged in the form of a cross. The last line reads EXPLICIT DE INVANTE OPUS MAGNENTI RABANI MAURI IN HONORE SANCTAE CRUCIS CONDITUM. As was mentioned above, the last page shows an idealized type image of Hrabanus Maurus as a tonsured youthful monk in prayer at the foot of the cross. Evidently Hrabanus Maurus was pleased to associate himself with the great Alcuin, to pay tribute to him and to be his continuator of the intellectual tradition begun in the Carolingian palace schools. It is also evident that he was most open about being a supporter of Louis the Pious and the ideas, which he represented. This work ‘In Praise of the Holy Cross’ reveals Hrabanus Maurus to have been an exemplary scholar, who had a masterful textual and interpretative command of Biblical as well as of secular knowledge. A priority of the age was to assemble, thereby safeguard and to transmit an inventory of available knowledge. To counteract any withdrawal into increasing particularization, regression of studies and depreciation of learning in the monasteries he played a major role in resisting this endangerment. He was an eager participant in this reversal and with keen ability compiled widely scattered knowledge. He also had the bent to establish a blending of the two areas of knowledge in the context of this act of his faith. Quite clearly his educational work exemplifies his close ties to his master Alcuin, to his methods and his orientation on Alcuin to preserve and teach what was known. In that he did not meet modern expectations of scholarship and of intellectual property, but then in that era originality lay in being able to tailor knowledge to contemporary needs. The book made him a most respected scholar of his day. His pupils were to continue, augment, elaborate and even improve his work. The imaginative
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variations of visual representations cannot detract from the emphasis on text and its demonstration of the skillful manipulation of language. His next major work, which also found extensive acclaim, was his De institutione clericorum, which attempted to regulate clerical life, responsibilities and tasks concerning sacraments, festivities, liturgy, the faith and the importance of a fitting life style and the education of clerics. Based on an older work, it compiled and restated these principles for his generation. In his De rerum naturis he produced an encyclopedia of 22 volumes. In it he returns to an encompassing representation of extant knowledge to be accommodated in the interpretation of scriptures, ranging from the realm of heaven to earth. Its subjects include God and the angels, figures from both Testaments, the faith, the Bible, the church and its institutions, religion and philosophy, man and finally animals, medicine, the crafts, metals and minerals and foodstuffs. The novelty in the arrangement of this encyclopedia lies in its religious foundations and its theological range extending from God to the World. Isidore of Seville was one of his sources. These volumes did not meet with a similarly wide acclaim. Most effective were his Bible commentaries.146 Both Alcuin and Hrabanus Maurus were talented and inclined to collect, organize and transmit what constituted the core of the scholarly tradition. Hraban helped rekindle the love of learning and his growing reputation made Fulda one of the most famous schools of the Frankish realm. After Einhard and Hrabanus Maurus the poet Walahfrid Strabo, the philologist Lupus de Ferrières, the historian Rudolf von Fulda and the theologian Otfrid von Weissenburg were to be among the third generation of its graduates. It was mentioned above that, barely 20 years of age, Walahfrid Strabo had been selected chaplain of the empress Judith and tutor for Louis’ the Pious youngest son Charles, to be called the Bald, and that Walahfrid had made his skills available to the emperor during his troubles with his sons and had dedicated a poem to the empress Judith in which he criticized sharply the double treachery against Louis. Of Alemanic origin, he entered the monastery school on the Reichenau probably at the age of 9 and in 825 was admitted to the monastery at age 15. Shortly after he joined Hrabanus Maurus in Fulda. In 829 he became tutor to the prince Charles. In
146
Angenendt, p. 434.
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838 he was back on the Reichenau, but following the death of the emperor Louis the Pious and as antipartitionist and as adherent of the imperial idea and supporter of Lothair, he spent the years 840–842 in voluntary exile in Speyer, Murbach and Fulda. From 842–849 he was abbot of Reichenau. While abbot of the monastery on Reichenau Walahfrid Strabo wrote his Liber de cultura moratorium.147 It is an example of natural history in poetic form. Classical themes and forms provide something of a skeleton for the poetic work. In this and his other poetic works he shows himself to have a masterful command of poetic Latin and can be placed quite happily in the company of Virgil, Ovid and Horace. Following three poems in the style of Virgil in which he deals with horticulture and its difficulties and the eagerness and productivity of the gardener he describes 23 flowers and herbs and their ornamental, practical and medicinal properties in 23 Latin poems of unequal lengths. The twenty-seventh poem is the dedication of the work to the abbot Grimaldus of St. Gallen. Grimaldus had been Walahfrid’s teacher on the Reichenau and as chancellor of Ludwig the German he reconciled Walahfrid with the king. Grimaldus became abbot of St. Gallen from 842–872. In the context of the Benedictine admonition hora et labora, prayer and work, garden activity as an aspect of asceticism within the cloister makes perfect sense. Thus a Benedictine attitude to life, the resolution of (garden) work and meditative (garden) contemplation in the cloistered hortus conclusus, finds expression in this work. Contemplation should not deteriorate into idleness. Walahfrid itemizes the necessary work—soil preparation, fertilization, seeding and planting, watering, weeding. The area under cultivation was too small to supply a community of a hundred monks with an almost exclusive diet of fresh vegetables—fresh greens with an oil and vinegar dressing— meaning that the produce was perhaps sufficient for the abbot’s table as tasty complements and deserts, while the curative herbs served the community. The poems allow conclusions about the systematic arrangement of the garden into hortulus and herbularius, the divided inventory of plants into flowers, vegetables and herbs and their characteristics, quite similar to the garden at St. Gallen. What is
147 H.-D. Stoffler, Der Hortulus des Walahfrid Strabo, Aus dem Kräutergarten des Klosters Reichenau, mit einem Beitrag von T. Fehrenbach (Darmstadt 1985).
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immediately noteworthy is that Walahfrid profits from learning and experience and that he proceeds as a botanist, quite ‘scientifically’ by accurately observing and describing each plant botanically and by complementing these observations pharmacologically, rather than by excerpting an ancient source. His interest in these plants and herbs is primarily medicinal, for, in accordance with the Rule of St. Benedict, he sees his responsibilities at the head of a monastery to lie emphatically with the care and recovery of the weak and ill, having precedence over all other duties.148 In itemizing the specifics of each plant Walahfrid Strabo employs as many of his senses as is possible. Thus he does not only describe color and form, but also fragrance and taste. Only occasionally does he mention feel and touch. Frequent are the references to pagan illustrations. Thus the first poem begins with a reference to the obscene pagan god of gardens and fertility, Priapus, and then continues in a very secular manner about garden work and its merits. The second poem describes nature realistically and deals with the difficulties of this work during the seasons and the challenges and tasks, which they present. The third poem itemizes the gardening tasks mentioned above if the gardener wants to enjoy the fruits of his labors. Bacchus, Apollo and Vulcan, by implication, the muse Thalia find mention. To express this joy he appeals to his skills as a poet, his understanding and beauty of expression to proclaim the names and powers contained in such a rich harvest in which even insignificance may be resplendent. In each of the following poems he deals specifically with the plants of his garden and praises their ornamental, alimentary, aromatic, savory, functional and pharmaceutical characteristics: sage, pumpkins, melons, absinthium/wormwood, fennel, gladiolas, chervil, lilies, poppies, mint, celery, ambrosia, radishes and the rose, to name the most obvious. Some of their curative properties are still known in the realm of homeopathy: breath-freshening tea from sage; antidotes for hidden poisons from rue and others; headache and pain remedies from wormwood; digestive and pulmonary remedies from herbs; fennel for ailments of the eyes, when mixed with goat milk against constipation and when taken in wine against coughs; powdered gladiolus rhizome dissolved in wine as well as pulverized celery against bladder
148
Stoffler, p. 12.
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ailments; levisticum as a diuretic; chervil, mint or poppy compresses for abdominal pains; crushed lily juice mixed in Falerno wine against snakebite, or applied to contusions and sprains; the opiate derived from the poppy; and of course the many types of mint steeped as tea for all manner of rough and sore throat; celery root as a means against stomach upset and when mixed with vinegar and water, ingested as a tea, a means against the urge to vomit; ground up vettonica, fresh or dried, to accelerate the closing of open wounds or generally drunk as a daily tea. The last poem is devoted to the rose, its fragrance and the oil, which can be pressed from its petals. The rose is associated with the lily and praised as the centuries old symbols as the blood of martyrdom and the splendor of the radiating faith. Only occasionally does he draw inferences from the Christian literature. Thus the lily is placed centrally among the plants, the lily as splendor, fulfillment and beauty of Christ. Twice the lily is the subject of the twelfth poem. Though number symbolism is present, it is not very obvious. The number 4 and its multiples is central, though treated in a very subtle manner. Logically drawn from nature are the four seasons and the four elements. More abstract are the four cardinal virtues, the four Gospels and dimensions of the cross. The work itself consists of 444 hexameters. In association with the curative characteristics of the many plants the garden may well be an allegory for salvation. The ending of the dedicational poem could suggest this, when Walahfrid expresses the wish to Grimaldus that reading this modest gift, God may sustain him in eternal virtue and thus blessed, win the palm of eternal life, which Father, Son and Holy Spirit may graciously grant him. This poetic work is interesting in that it does not have the validation of the Christian faith as its intention. Though Walahfrid admits his background readings and his reliance on a certain tradition, the knowledge he presents is very much that of personal experience, observation and interpretation. Rather than being theoretical, the poems are entirely empirical and practical, yet literary treatment of the evidence. It also demonstrates a personal, subjective almost lyrical oneness between a God-given nature and mankind. In troubled times nature, as represented by the garden, perhaps an allegory, offers him and all those like him a place of contemplation and idyllic refuge. Walahfrid’s poetic debut was the poetic version of the Visions of Wetti, referred to above, in which Wetti anticipated something of
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Dante’s Divine Comedy. The visions depict the journey through Hell, Heaven and Purgatory. The angelic guide, the descriptions of the punishments, the notion of purgatory as a mountain, the insertion of personal and contemporary moments and the ordering of Paradise point to similarities with the later work. These Visions of Wetti are also a theological and mystical conception in which the path of purgation, the belief in judgment and eternal life are treated with the imagery associated with the Middle Ages. Vainly does Wetti appeal to the intercession of blessed priests and martyrs. By appealing to the blessed Virgins, Christ grants complete forgiveness.149 The state of mind, which generated these visions, is not some divine inspiration, but the result of reading the Psalms, and the writings of Gregory and quite within the context of monastic meditation.150 While in Aachen as tutor to the prince Charles (829) Walahfrid Strabo writes his Versus in Aquisgrani palatio editi anno Hludovici imperatoris XVI. de imagine Tetrici. ‘Verses composed in the palace of Aachen in the sixteenth year of the emperor Louis concerning the statue of Theoderic’.151 Charlemagne had had the equestrian statue of Theoderic, perhaps actually the Byzantine emperor Zeno, brought from Ravenna to Aachen as part of his attempt to indicate continuity with the late Roman Empire and Theodoric’s autonomy within it. In the form of a dialogue between himself, Strabus and Scintilla, perhaps his idea of his muse, Walahfrid contrasts the dark Arian Theoderic with the brilliance of the Carolingian house. He disapproves and opposes a foolish Theoderic with the portrait of Charlemagne as the great Moses. By this time the image of Theoderic had changed from that of the hero to that of the servant of Satan. The poem hints at the foolishness to come, when Louis’ sons fail to imitate the wisdom of the great rolemodel, Charlemagne/Moses and resort to paternal-fraternal dissension. The poem also develops a laudatory analogy between the empress Judith and the Biblical Rachel. Strabo based his position on true loyalty to the unpartitioned realm. He was to seek voluntary exile during the civil wars, which followed.
149
Stoffler, p. 66f. Carruthers, p. 182f. 151 Innes, ‘Teutons or Trojans?’ in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, pp. 242ff. supports the suggestion that the two positions reflect a conflict between interrelating ‘Christian-intellectual’ and ‘popular-oral’ traditions and that Walahfrid was participating in a debate concerning a historical figure. 150
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Walahfrid was actively involved in the movement to reform the Gallo-Frankish liturgy in accordance with an enriched Roman liturgy. Confession and Penance, quiet prayer and an active participation of the congregation during mass by singing the Gloria, Sanctus and Gloria patri. Walahfrid contributed his Liber de exodiis et incrementis quarundam in observationibus ecclesiasticis rerum, ‘On the origin and development of individual parts of the liturgy’. In 32 chapters he treats the origin of churches and altars, the origin of diverse religions, the origin of the Christian religion. In the seventh chapter he deals with the appearance of Latin and Greek loanwords in the German vernacular. In this he rendered a tremendous service to the German language even though he conceded it to be a barbaric tongue when compared to Latin. Between the lines of Latin texts he wrote German glosses and translations in Old High German. Some of the works of Isidore of Seville and of Hrabanus Maurus were treated in this manner.152 As envoy of Ludwig the German to Charles the Bald, Walahfrid Strabo, bishop of Mainz, drowned on August 18, 849 while crossing the River Loire. He was on a mission of reconciliation. A text in Reichenau claims him to be buried there and to have died when only 40 years of age.153 It would appear that in a time of considerable confusion Walahfrid Strabo was not only a man of the church, motivated by concerns for the Christian faith, but one who very firmly also occupied his space in this world aided by empirical observation, responsible practicality, political engagement and realistic impulses. In dealing with it he revealed himself to be a master of language. Einhard informs us in the Vita Karoli154 that Charlemagne had ‘directed that the age-old narrative poems, barbarous enough, it is true, in which were celebrated the warlike deeds of the kings of ancient times, should be written out and so preserved.’ However, no evidence of any such collection of Germanic texts exists. Einhard may have followed Tacitus’ Germania and adapted a feature from Suetonius’ De vita Caesarum, which had no actual basis in fact, when he itemized ‘good king’ Charlemagne’s virtues and initiatives. On the other hand, Hrabanus Maurus encouraged the king to seek rolemodels in Biblical history while the religious fervor of Louis the 152 153 154
Stoffler, p. 63f. See also Jungandreas, pp. 130ff. Stoffler, p. 57. Thorpe, p. 82.
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Pious, is sometimes blamed for the disappearance of this collection of pagan materials, even though Charlemagne’s court library was not completely dispersed, a librarian is documented, and books were expressly copied for him and dedicated to him.155 The reference is valuable in that it indicates a former oral repertoire of heroic, probably pre-Christian, narrative poetry among the Germanic peoples. It points to the probable existence of a two-tiered literacy in Latin as well as in Germanic dialects.156 Though many Latin works have vanished, the evidence for a Latin literature is established. What is extant of other Latin literature shows origins in Franconian, Bavarian, Visi- and Ostrogothic, Lombardic and Saxon and even a mixture thereof. Charlemagne’s collection might well have reflected this mosaic. While very little secular poetry is known to have originated in Romance or Old French in the western kingdom, there are indications of such increasing activity in Latin and of its improved preservation.157 This poetry is now at best historically interesting though not historically lasting. As court poetry, intended for immediate presentation and consumption, form and content are little more than trivial exercises, sometimes antagonistically personal, sometimes laudatory of events and excessively flattering of persons, in traditional Classical declamatory styles, reflecting greater interest in the entertaining display of an effective rhetorical and recitational use of language, application of self-satisfied, propagandistic, ethnic clichés and a disappointing reflection of historical fact. With the exception of the poems of the later Walahfrid Strabo, it does not address the human condition in any lyrical way and appears not to have been taken seriously in its own time. As may have become apparent, the court of Charlemagne was characterized by having attracted to Aachen an entourage of poetic and scholarly talent from many parts of Europe.158 It is a curious circumstance that the remaining fragments in Old High German (OHG) indicate much more extensive
155 Bischoff, p. 77. See de Jong, ‘The empire as ecclesia’, in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 196, n. 13, who cites Thegan’s Vita Hludowici, in which Louis the Pious rejected the poetica carmina gentilia, which he had learned in his youth, and refused to hear, read or teach them. Also p. 205. 156 Wallace-Hadrill, p. 198. See also Innes, ‘Teutons or Trojans?’, in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 240. 157 M. Garrison, ‘The emergence of Carolingian Latin literature and the court of Charlemagne’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, pp. 111ff. 158 Garrison, ‘Latin literature’, in McKitterick, Carolingian Culture, p. 117f.
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activity in the German vernacular. It would appear that the eastern Carolingians created a climate in which questions of language and literature were topics of consideration. The quotation from Einhard suggests that the heroic poetry was part of an oral tradition yet to be committed to writing. This may never have happened. Germanic had come under Roman Latin influence during the time of the Roman Empire. This was the case especially for loanwords from agricultural, administrative, economic, some military activities, the building trades and the days of the week. The Christianization introduced some Greek vocabulary but much more Latin into German, especially in the external and administrative areas of the religious life. Based on Greek and Latin models, some abstract concepts came into being as well. German, however, developed its own vocabulary when it came to concepts of salvation and of the faith.159 An open question is the level of sophistication when the vernacular was used to express abstractions. One has estimated that Old High German had adopted 3% loanwords, 10% loan formations and 20% of borrowed meanings. Each was the result of a complex process. Not all of this vocabulary survived into Middle High German. It should be kept in mind that ‘German’ as used here does not represent a single language but an assemblage of tribal dialects, as spoken German does to this day. Only over many centuries did a more or less standardized form of German evolve. During the Merovingian period early regional forms of German entered the various law codes. In Carolingian times, directives to bishops, abbots and priests stressed the use of the vernacular as a means of bringing ecclesiastical and secular elements of the population closer together.160 Hrabanus Maurus and, as we saw, Walahfrid Strabo contributed to the development of German as a written language. The first appearance of the word for German, theodiscus, appears in 786. Charlemagne himself speaks of teudisca lingua in 801. It appears again in 825 as nationes Theotiscae. Walahfrid refers to Theotiscum sermonem and Nithard told us that the Oaths of Strasbourg were sworn in Teudisca and Romana lingua. Otfrid von Weissenburg uses theodisce in the Latin introduction to this Evangelienbuch (Book of Gospels). It would appear that variations of this term were used for the language in a preliterary form, well before it was applied to the speakers of this language, and even in 159 160
McKitterick, Frankish Church, pp. 85ff. McKitterick, Frankish Church, p. 84f.
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Carolingian times it was primarily the language of monks and clerics. In the correspondence between the scriptoria of Reichenau and Fulda common linguistic forms emerge as a means of facilitating the exchange. Latin did not have enough letters for German sounds and that circumstance alone contributed to a degree of uniformity. Such written examples as have survived are primarily of a religious nature originating in the Christian, missionary context. There are no indications of the actual speech of the people.161 As was mentioned above, Otfrid von Weissenburg was another of the graduates of Hrabanus Maurus at Fulda. In the Evangelienbuch of 863/71, he belatedly raises the justifiable question why the Franks should be the only ones not to sing the praises of the Lord in Frankish. Nu es filu manno inthihit, in sina zungun scribit, . . . (Now that many undertake to write in their own tongue) sie in frenkisgon biginnen/sie gotes lob singen? . . . (Why should they not begin in Frankish, to sing the praise of God?) Nu frewen sih es alle, . . . . . . (Now everyone rejoices, . . .) Thaz wir kriste sungun, in unsara zungun. . . . (That we sing to Christ, in our tongue.)162
Otfrid’s rejoicing was to be premature, for the use of German, coincident with the reign of Ludwig the German, was to be short-lived, as Latin was to remain the literary language. We have no real idea what poetry Einhard attributed to Charlemagne to have had in mind when he supposedly asked that it be written down, because with the exception of a very few fragments, none of the earliest pre-Christian material has been preserved. By etymologically retracing words we know that words for ‘song’ such as liod, leich, ‘song’ and ‘lay’ are very old words and most probably echo old practices without any relation to the church and its missionary activities. Because of their formulaic character, proverbs, riddles and incantations are very resistant to change. Their earliest appearance was in runic form, where the word ‘rune’ is quite fittingly related to the word ‘raunen—to whisper’ in modern German. The 161 H. Moser, Deutsche Sprachgeschichte (Tübingen 1965), pp. 98f., 106ff. R. Priebsch, W.E. Collinson, The German Language, 5th edition (London 1962), pp. 264ff., H. Sperber, P.V. Polenz, Geschichte der deutschen Sprache, 6th edition (Berlin 1968), pp. 35ff. See also M. Innes, ‘Teutons or Trojans?’, in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 232. 162 Moser, p. 107f. See McKitterick, Frankish Church, pp. 198ff. for an extensive discussion of this work.
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word ‘incantation’ itself reminds us that magic formulas were once chanted, suggesting that the earliest ‘poetic’ materials such as prayers, supplications, sacrificial formulas, charms and invocations had functional intentions and were connected with native magic and cultic practices. Two such pagan examples have been preserved in OHG, in a Christian context, perhaps representative of many lost others, the Merseburger Zaubersprüche. These unique texts are the only ones preserving references to the cults of pagan divinities. Obscure in meaning, these magical pagan verses were written into a 9th century missal, sometime during the 10th century, probably at Fulda, from where they were later transferred to Merseburg. The first of these charms is unusual in that it is to free someone from captivity. The mythic battle maidens, Valkyries, once sat about mending fetters, harassing foes, loosening bonds. They are conjured to intervene and help the captive escape his bonds and flee from his enemies. The charm was to be repeated three times. The second charm was medical and to be spoken over the sprained leg of a horse. Several gods, including Frija and Wodan, are named first. The very compact verse ends in a repetitive formula, asking that if it be bone, or blood or limb, bone be joined to bone, blood to blood and limb to limb, as if they were glued together. Reflecting a popular, oral character, the words alone have the power, while the magical spoken repetition tends to be the pagan activating feature of magic charms. Having worked once before, the incantations are to work once again, hence the imperative form. The verses may be allegories: the first one against cramps and paralysis, the second against all manner of sprain, not just for animals. Usually oral in nature, why were the verses written and into a religious manuscript at that? Perhaps as portable protective magic? Perhaps to cancel their power? The two incantations are followed by a prayer in Latin, which asks for God’s help for anyone whose name is to be added.163 It is an example of
163 W. Hauk, B.K. Vollmann (eds.), Frühe deutsche Literatur und lateinische Literatur, 800–1150 (Frankfurt a.M. 1991), p. 152f., for the bilingual text in OHG and NHG. B.F. Murdoch, ‘The Carolingian period and the early Middle Ages’, in H. WatanabeO’Kelly, (ed.), The Cambridge History of German Literature (Cambridge 1997), p. 12f. Also J.K. Bostock, A Handbook of Old High German Literature (Oxford 1955), pp. 16ff. See also B.O. Murdoch, Old High German Literature (Boston 1983), p. 50f. H. de Boor, Die deutsche Literatur, Von Karl dem Großen bis zum Beginn der höfischen Dichtung, 770–1170 (Munich 1964), pp. 94ff. Also G. Ehrismann, Geschichte der deutschen Literatur, bis zum Ausgang des Mittelalters, Part I, (Munich 1959), pp. 100ff. See also
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later, Christian verses of this type, which place their trust in the power of Christ or God. One other linguistic fragment derives from the Lex Salica, the Law code of the Salian Franks from Merovingian times. Known as the Malbergische Glossen, these glosses are vernacular legal terms inserted into the code. The ‘malb’ refers to the ‘Maloberg’, the Hill of Judgment or of Execution. An early Carolingian work is the Abrogans of 764/72, motivated by bishop Arbeo of Freising in Bavaria.164 Influenced by Lombardic scholarship, the work is a glossary, a collection of Latin synonyms interspersed with OHG words, named after the first Latin keyword. While the original Bavarian edition has been lost, it is extant in three Alemanic versions from Reichenau-Murbach. About 775 a similar work was prepared in Fulda in the form of a Latin/German version of an antique Greek/Latin Dictionary. Known as the Vocabularius Sti. Galli, it originated as a Latin/Anglo-Saxon work. The Abrogans contained an OHG version of the Lord’s Prayer: Fater unseer thu pist in himile uuihi namun dinan qhueme rihhi din uuerde uuiloo diin so in himmile sosa in erdu prooth unseer emezzihic kip uns hiutu oblaz uns sculdi unseero so uuir oblazem uns sculdikem enti ni unsih firleiti in khorunka uzzer losi unsin fona ubile. (Codex Sangallensis 911). (Fig. 8)
At the end of the century, c. 790–800, there appeared a prose translation of Isidore of Seville’s De fide catholica contra Judaeos. Written in an undetermined dialect, the work may have originated in the circle around Alcuin, in Lorraine. Two manuscripts have been preserved, one in Paris, the other in Vienna among the Mondsee—Wiener Fragmente. Here Isidore defended the Christian Faith and the Trinity against the objections of the Jews. During the last third of the 8th century an early Christian ‘prayer’ came into being, possibly derived from an Anglo-Saxon source and
Wallace-Hadrill, p. 379. See also S. Lerer, ‘Literate Authority in Bede’s Story of Imma’, in Chazelle, Literacy, Politics, p. 23f. 164 Wallace-Hadrill, p. 380, concerning glosses.
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composed in Fulda, founded during the conversion, only just a few years earlier. The dialect is Bavarian with Old Saxon and AngloSaxon traces. It is an assemblage of two parts and may reflect two authors. The first part is a short, creatively imaginative poetic narrative of nine alliterative lines of verse. Alliterative verse consists of a long line of eight strongly accented syllables along with an indeterminate number of unaccented syllables. The alliteration is a substitute for the end rhyme. The accented words or syllables had to have the same initial consonant, such as welaga, waltant got, wewurt skihit, line 49 of the Hildebrandslied. A long line could have as many as 4, but a necessary minimum of 2 alliterations. As a rule two words of the first half-line must begin with the same consonant as one word in the second half-line. This particular prayer retells the most marvelous and miraculous wisdom, the creation of the world by God out of the void. The negative frame of reference is the earth indicated by the absence of trees, mountains, stars, sun or moon and sea. The second part is theological, a prayer in less imaginative prose which asks of almighty God, who is before creation, for his gracious gift of the right faith, good will, wisdom, good sense and the strength to resist devils, avoid evil and to fulfill God’s will. Having good will appears to be a precondition for doing God’s will. The prayer has been preserved in a manuscript of loosely related fragments in the Benedictine abbey at Wessobrunn in Bavaria and is known as the Wessobrunner Gebet.165 More a poem than a prayer, it is of some literary importance. The poem has an ambiguous title, De poeta, which may mean ‘Something Poetic’, or by inference from the Greek, ‘On the Creator’, a translation consistent with the thrust of the poem. The counter piece to the story of the Creation is the vivid early 9th century (c. 830) apocalyptic vision of the world, warning of the ending in the all-consuming conflagration. The vision is entirely Christian eschatology. The meaning of Muspilli may be a related opposite of ‘God-spell’ or ‘Gospel’ and mean ‘verdict’, ‘pronoucement of judgment’, hence ‘judgment day’, the judgment and verdict which everyone in the anxiety of his solitude has to face in the 165 Hauk, Vollmann, p. 48f., for the text. Ehrismann, pp. 138ff. Also WatanabeO’Kelly, p. 11f. See de Boor, p. 52f. Also Murdoch, pp. 65ff. for an English translation. Bostock, pp. 114ff. refers to the poem as ‘The Wessobrunn Creation and Prayer’. See Wallace-Hadrill, p. 382.
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end.166 Originally untitled, this title was added subsequently, c. 1830, to focus on this didactic knowledge of final things. Composed in Bavarian dialect, it is proof that complex concepts could be expressed in the spoken language. It was found at St. Emmeram in Regensburg and may well have been copied there at a later time, or again at Fulda. As with other examples an Anglo-Saxon source may be supposed. It was clumsily written into the margins and three pages of a beautiful 9th century manuscript, which had been sent as a gift, dedicated by Adalram, the bishop of Salzburg from 821–836, to king Ludwig the German. The beginning and end of the poem are missing. They may well have been written on the lost inside covers of the codex. The extant text of 103 alliterative167 lines may have been an assembly of fragments, introduced by a memento mori, reminding the reader of his mortality. The terrorizing sermon establishes the popular theme of later medieval art and architecture—the dispute between the forces of heaven and hell over the souls on judgment day. Already the Wessobrunner Gebet introduced the conflict between good and evil, the Muspilli states the conflict even more clearly. The first extant lines could be entitled ‘On things after death’, for they tell that when the soul rises from the body and follows its way, then two hosts, one from heaven and the other from hell, will contest its possession. The soul may anxiously await the host to which it will fall. Five hundred and then eight hundred years later, the High Middle Ages and again the Baroque period, will preach terrorizing sermons to Christians in artistic and literary forms respectively, that the sinner take heed lest he hear the call and not be able to render a satisfactory account for the actions of his life. No one is exempt from this call. As in a struggle by combat between the Antichrist and Elijah, the opinions concerning the outcome are divided. If Elijah falls and his blood drips on the ground, then the world will be set aflame and in projected catastrophic visions reminiscent of Revelation, no one shall be safe from the fire (muspilli ). In an accumulation of terrifying visions mountains, trees shall burn, the waters and moors shall dry out, sky and earth shall be consumed by flames, the moon shall fall and Midgard, the (middle-) earth burns ( prinnit mittelagard ), 166 Wallace-Hadrill, p. 383, calls it ‘another original vernacular composition that deals with great issues’. He summarizes the content. 167 See Bostock, pp. 156ff. for a detailed discussion with examples of this and other literary devices.
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no stone will be left unturned. When the rain of flames falls, the soul will be in mourning, not knowing how to repent. The poetic sermon anticipates many a later Romanesque and Gothic westwork where the heavenly horn summons the sinners before the judge and his host and the angels open the graves and bring the dead to judgment. Salvation will be for the righteous. The crucified Christ displaying his wounds will appear on the cross as the judge.168 From the 2nd century was transmitted a comprehensive account of the life of Christ. It was a synthesis of the four Gospels, the Diatessaron, attributed to the Syrian Christian Tatian. During the early 9th century, c. 830, a Latin translation was used as the source for a translation in OHG prepared by several monks at Fulda, probably on the urging of Hrabanus Maurus. This Evangelienharmonie, a Harmony of the Gospels, was an inferior, unskilled, word for word rendition into German, which maintained even Latin syntax.169 Its value lay in that it stimulated two other works, the Heliand and the Evangelienbuch of Otfrid von Weissenburg. Thus the New Testament narrative is recast and dramatized and the ‘rebel’ Jesus is identified as ‘the savior’. Taken together, two such major works in very quick succession represent a remarkable literary output for their time. At about the same time an outstanding epic synopsis in OHG of the life of Christ came into being consisting of nearly 6000 lines of alliterative verse, imitative of the AS epic Biblical poetry. It is a work of exemplary caliber, all the more noteworthy as it has no Saxon predecessor. In about 1830 it was named Heliand, Modern German Heiland, meaning ‘Savior’.170 It is preceded by a Latin preface which names Louis the Pious, or perhaps Ludwig the German, as its commissioner, but its origin may be an unrelated insertion. It is not very likely that the author of the Heliand may have been Hrabanus Maurus himself. The pedagogic intention of this work was the modification of a Germanic worldview into the new edifying Christian Weltanschauung of the Imperium Christianum. This Heliand was an instrument in the conversion of the recently conquered Saxons and in accordance with its missionary task is characterized by an accessible folkish approach
168 Hauk, Vollmann, pp. 50–57, for the text. Bostock, pp. 120–134. Murdoch, pp. 68–72. Also de Boor, pp. 53–57. Ehrismann, pp. 147–156. See also A. Masser, Bibel- und Legendenepik des deutschen Mittelalters (Berlin 1976), pp. 131–136. 169 Bostock, p. 136f. 170 Wallace-Hadrill, p. 384f.
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and lack of learnedness and dogmatic theology. To enhance the appeal to an audience of fighters, perhaps, Christ is a leader in war and his disciples are his warriors.171 The author of this folk-epic was an educator, perhaps a popularizing missionary who tried to divert his Germanic listeners from superstition and bring the message in Christ’s life closer to these recently converted Saxons by retelling the events in his own words, in familiar regional settings and those of his Saxon audience. Nevertheless, he was a sophisticated cleric who knew the works of Augustine, Gregory the Great, Tatian, Alcuin, Bede and Hrabanus Maurus. Two complete manuscripts and some fragments are extant written in a dialect that cannot be identified precisely. In a copy kept at the Vatican, fragments of about 600 lines of an Old Saxon Genesis172 and Patriarchal History were entered. At the center of the Heliand is the Sermon on the Mount, the message of peace, love and humility, pronounced by a majestic Son of God, the hebancuning, the ‘heavenking’ who commands respect. This Christ is the proclaimer and creator of a new world.173 Similarly the language of the poem surprises because of its epic and heroic character. The work is on the verge of becoming ‘literature’, in that the author applies stylistic liberties and dramatizes the didactic narrative of the Gospels and turns the language of the Gospels into dramatic, tragic text with popular appeal. Even nature descriptions, appropriate in the epic, are used to underscore events and play a larger accompanying role than they do in the Gospels. In the scene in which Peter denies Jesus three times, Jesus is cast in the role of Peter’s liege lord, Peter is his vassal and their relationship is based on the oath of fealty, which Peter has broken. Jesus is of the best birth and termed the son of the greatest lord. His disciples are thanes and when Peter breaks into tears over his betrayal, his tears assume the color of blood out of heroic anger. Repeatedly the vocabulary is that of the later medieval epics. By redefining words the author
171
See Chazelle, Crucified God, p. 134. Hauk, Vollmann, pp. 60–63, for the text. 173 Hauk, Vollmann, pp. 64–71, for the text. K. Langosch, Die deutsche Literatur des lateinischen Mittelalters in ihrer geschichtlichen Entwicklung (Berlin 1964), p. 45f. See K. Bertau, Deutsche Literatur im europäischen Mittelalter, vol. I, 800–1197 (Munich 1972), pp. 51ff. For a very extensive analysis see especially Bostock, pp. 141ff., esp. pp. 148ff. See also Murdoch, pp. 73ff. and de Boor, pp. 58–64. See B. Boesch, German Literature, A Critical Survey (London 1971), pp. 12ff. Ehrismann, pp. 157–178, provides a most extensive analysis of the poem. See Masser, pp. 19–28. 172
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also carries out an educational task as he replaces concepts more typical of a warrior society with the new meanings of the Christian worldview. Since he knew his public, he omitted Christ’s instructions to turn the other cheek when struck on one. Humility was not yet seen to be a virtue as long as its Germanic translation was deomuot, NHG Demut, the courage of a slave, clearly a virtue not readily understood. Thus manly pride becomes superbia, a cardinal sin, destiny is no longer blind fate but providentia Dei, God’s providence. The humility exemplified in this work is characterized by noble dignity and reserve, borne by the great lord without rancor, but with forgiveness and love for his enemies. Quite clearly the conversion to Christianity was dependent on vocabulary acquisition. Repeated usage transformed meaning. The narrative language makes the Heliand a complex and nearly original work. At the same time, despite the Germanic coloring, this is not an illustration of Germanized Christianity. With 5983 lines, this outstanding poetic work is the longest OHG work in alliterative verse. It was also to be the last major work of this type, without significant lasting effect. The longest, 7104 long lines, and last work in this religious genre is the Evangelienbuch of Otfrid von Weissenburg mentioned repeatedly, in passing. Sometimes entitled a ‘Harmony’ it actually isn’t, but rather a narration and commentary of 7000 rhyming lines. Otfrid was a Frank whose optics were determined by the Frankish church and its long Latinized Christian tradition. He was another of the well-educated and trained pupils of Hrabanus Maurus from Fulda. He had become the head of the monastery school and very active scriptorium at Weissenburg, in the northern Alsace. Between 863 and 871 he completed this work and along with three other dedications, writes an adulating dedication to Ludwig the German in which he also relates him to David. This dedication suggests an increasingly regional cultural particularism. In his dedication to Liutbert, the archbishop of Mainz, he is the complete Latinist and theologian. The work exists in several manuscripts, including one final copy possibly bearing his own corrections written in his own hand. Organized in five books, to conform symbolically with the five senses, the work is a deliberate poetic representation of the Life and Suffering of Christ derived by means of his own excerpts from the Gospels, the commentaries and writings of the Church Fathers, as well as from sermons. His poetic rolemodels are the Latin-Christian poets of late antiquity, such as Juvencus and Prudentius, but also
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some of the pagans, Virgil, Ovid, whose appeal survived into the Middle Ages. The Heliand is not a chronological account and reflects older treatments interspersed among later ones. Unlike the poet of the Heliand, the outside world of the people is not a frame of reference for Otfrid. In fact Otfrid turns away from the people and any vestiges of an Anglo-Saxon poetic heritage, representing a rather more axiomatic Frankish understanding of the faith. In the service of the lofty Christian Empire he seeks instead the attention of the literate, initiated, cloistered elites educated in the Latin tradition, but especially the magnates of the empire. In his dedication to Liutbert he indicates his intention to produce a work, which would counter the cantus obscenus laicorum, common poetry, which insults the pious ears of the learned and which he intended to displace. His work, Gospel derived literature in the vernacular, was intended to be didactic. In that sense he is an instrument of Carolingian expression. But while the original idea of empire had been to create a universal Christian people to inhabit the Christian Empire, by the time of Otfrid this idea had been subverted by elitist thinking and Carolingian culture has become that of the select few. Being a master and theologian, scholar rather than talented poet by inclination, Otfrid’s Evangelienbuch is an innovative academic work, intended to edify, complete with references to sourcebooks, with which Otfrid von Weissenburg addressed a select clerical public and the educated nobility. The royal dedication might even suggest that he expected his audience to include the court. While the former catered to the interests of his audience, engaged in occasional lengthy narrative and descriptive detail expressed in alliterative verse, Otfrid addresses the members of his audience personally, but remains factually, even dogmatically objective as he includes discursive commentary in his verses. Frequently he interrupts the digressive narrative to explain. Thus the six wine jugs at the Wedding of Cana are interpreted to be the pure hearts of the disciples of Jesus. His audience knows the subject. He offers no new thoughts on the content of his subject, but in a workmanlike manner does try to affect greater esthetic innovation for what he perceives to be divine truth. To remain close to the understanding of his audience, Otfrid stayed within Germanic schemes—personal loyalty to the leader as an example of man’s relationship with God. He derives a life-negating view from Biblical circumstances and man’s sinful ways, and therefore accents the positive, redemptive, life-asserting aspects of Christ’s intervention in the world. In accordance with
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the projected and preferable Imperium Christianum, all life on earth is a mere preparation for the life beyond and all striving should be directed toward the heavenly bliss, which is certain. Flee the moment and win salvation. It is not surprising that his contempt for the world is balanced by his pride in the accomplishments of the Christian Franks and their grandiose Christian mission. However, his work does betray an unexpected lyrical tenderness, not previously encountered, for John the Disciple and for Mary Magdalene, for example. Of interest is the preface to which reference has already been made in which he justifies his use of Frankish for this work in which to sing the praises of God. Commensurate with the role of the Franks in the world as heirs of Christian Rome he argues ambivalently that beside Latin, Germanic is equally suited for the rendition of poetic text and proposes to wedge what he deems to be inferior German into correct Christian-Latin forms without regard to substantive linguistic differences, as his literate audience would indeed expect. In doing so he takes two other major steps: he introduces the paired end-rhyme to replace the Germanic alliterative verse, perhaps leaning on the metered verse of Ambrosian hymns, the alternation of four rising and falling syllables. Less accomplished a work than the Heliand, Otfrid’s work is in the forefront as the first extant innovative example of rhyme and a success of his intention of writing poetic text in Frankish, while upgrading it by means of poetic forms conforming to Christian-Latin standards. In retrospect it was to prove a significant and successful literary achievement though of indeterminate effectiveness. It is a major work, which continues to attract considerable attention in the pertinent literature.174 It supported the evolving self-portraits of special literate interest groups. Quite clearly this poetry is poésie engagée, in the service of visionary as well as applied religion, reform, modernization and the Latinizing Christian Caro-
174 Hauk, Vollmann, pp. 72–127, for extensive excerpts of the text. Langosch, p. 46. According to Bertau, pp. 57ff. Otfrid’s Lord’s Prayer is representative of a select view of Christian society. See Murdoch, pp. 75–86. for a description of the manuscript and its arrangements and especially for a discussion of Otfrid’s poetic language. See Bostock, pp. 169–193, for extensive commentary and elaboration of the work and of Otfrid’s method. See also Boesch, pp. 15ff. Also de Boor, pp. 79ff. and Watanabe-O’Kelly, pp. 16ff. for a list of earlier Christian sources. for a sequential discussion of the content and for an assessment of the work. For a most complete analysis of the work and its several manuscripts, see Ehrismann, pp. 178–203. Also Masser, pp. 29–37.
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lingians. The clergy and the laity were to be raised to a higher level of spiritual understanding. The Frankish church sought to replace any pagan vestiges, and that included Germanic alliterative verse, with Christian-Latin forms. Otfrid von Weissenburg served that purpose by providing a synthesis of Germanic language and Latin form. In view of the emphasis on the splendors of the heavenly kingdom and on salvation as the greatest blessing in Christian thinking it is not surprising that anything transitory and worldly should be suppressed and the spiritual and eternally radiant glory of the Word of God, as formulated in Latin, should stand in the foreground of all of these poetic works. The result is a Germanic identity in Latin guise. In the following transition vernacular German was not to maintain its position over universal Christian-Latin. Otfrid’s example was too vast an undertaking. He found only modest imitators.
X. Secular literature The fragmentary remains of a secular literature do not project the Carolingian zeal of a Christian realm on earth. Hence the reference in Einhard (29) that Charlemagne directed that the Germanic narrative poems be written out and preserved refers to a curiosity. Louis the Pious is said to have had them destroyed. These poems were reputedly of an heroic sort, celebrating the warlike deeds of the ancient kings, Valhalla rather than Heaven, so that their destruction may have been part of a policy. Already Tacitus mentions carmina antiqua in his Germania. They were Germanic battle chants, mythological and historical poetry and prose in which history was retained. Byzantine sources refer to the performances of Germanic minstrels singing at the court of Attila. Among the Goths Jordanes mentions the vocal and instrumental celebration of the heroic deeds of their fathers, and especially their primary virtue, loyalty. Cassiodorus reports that Theoderic had a minstrel and harpist celebrate his victory over the Visigoths in 507. Theoderic even sent a harpist to Chlodovech. Gelimer, the last king of the Vandals asked for a harp with which to accompany his song lamenting his fortunes. Franks, Burgundians and Alemans enjoyed this form of entertainment and historical edification. To heap praises on the king was the function of the bards and the great literary figures—Venantius Fortunatus, Sidonius Apollinaris, Fredegar, of the Pre-Carolingian period made their contributions.
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Thanks to Paulus Diaconus the store of tales and legends is most complete among the Lombards.175 Unfortunately other than in such references there is no direct evidence as to their existence. Otfrid von Weissenburg may have included such poetry in his condemnation of the cantus obscenus laicorum, worldly poetry, epic and heroic, as well as love poetry, the winileod, in the form of folksongs, unfortunately only indicated in a few references, as prohibited preoccupations for nuns.176 There is, however, indirect evidence of heroic narratives in the Norse Eddas, preserved in modified 13th century Christianized texts. They tell of the Creation and the final Conflagration. The lays and sagas betray South-German origins during the pre-settlement period. Thus the lays of Wieland, Sigurd, elements of the Thidrekssaga, and the older Lay of Atli, known in Norse as the Atlakvida, the Lay of Atli, or the Atlamal, the Tale of Atli, are of Burgundian provenance, the song of Ermanarich is Gothic. The Lay of Hildebrand, originally Lombardic and the Beowulf reflect similar South-German origins. In all there are five regional divisions into which the body of legends and sagas is traditionally arranged: Ostrogothic with Ermanarich and the Hildebrandslied; Nibelungenlied with the old Atlilied; Visigothic with the Waltharilied; Lombardic and Merovingian. Arguably this poetic material in the oral tradition was as good or even superior to the religious poetry, which has been preserved.177 The encounter with the Huns left a deep scar on the Germanic consciousness, which led to the mytho-poetic, narrative transformation of historical events and personages into epic tales and heroic characters. These passed into lore, were invented, told and forgotten by some, picked up and transformed in retelling by others, retold and finally written down by yet others, until the monastic scribal culture finally documented the various versions many centuries later. In the process locations were shifted, stories were altered and names were changed. Attila himself became an ambivalent figure. If we consider that the name ‘Attila’ in Gothic is the diminutive of ‘Atta’, meaning ‘father’, then the western Christian view of him as ‘the Scourge of God’ needs examination. Understandably, his tribute peo-
175 W. Pohl, ‘Memory, identity and power’, in Y. Hen, M. Innes, The Uses of the Past in the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge 2000), pp. 9–28. 176 Ehrismann, pp. 15ff. 177 Watanabe-O’Kelly, p. 25. Also Innes, ‘Teutons and Trojans?’ in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, pp. 240ff.
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ples saw him with different eyes than did his enemies. Sometimes the narratives served merely as frames for ‘historical fiction’. They were intended as entertainment and were very much a part of the oral culture of the age. This process is a familiar one, well known from the retelling of jokes, spreading rumors or just recounting halfremembered facts. In this fashion events in Burgundian history ended up recorded and transformed in the Scandinavian Old Norse Eddas, while at the same time providing the core of the Nibelungenlied. The Roman magister miletus, master of the armies, Aetius, who in 436 had loosed the Huns in Roman service on the Burgundians and cut down their royal family and their retinues of reportedly twenty thousand men, before resettling them to guard the north-eastern Alpine region, blends with Attila and ends up as Atli in the hypothetical Atlilied, and as Etzel, first leader, and then king of the Huns in the Nibelungenlied of the later Middle Ages. The Ostrogoth Theoderic the Great passes into the Scandinavian Thidrekssaga, where he is the main character and enters the German heroic tales as an unhistorical ‘Dietrich von Bern’. Sigurd will reappear as Siegfried. The material which Charlemagne supposedly wanted to have preserved must have been of this sort. Only a few written fragments have survived in German. More of them have entered and been preserved in the medieval literature of Scandinavia and Iceland. The old Atlilied was most probably of South-German origin and was one of the earliest Germanic poems composed in the oral tradition before written down during the 8th century. The work is no longer extant and cannot be recast in its original form, except from two later Old Norse Scandinavian versions: the Atlakvida, probably a late 9th century Norwegian work, and the Atlamal, a reworked 11th or 12th century version prepared on Greenland and part of the 13th century Poetic Edda.178 The lay provides some of the characters, though with different names, of the later Nibelungenlied and the basic plot of its second part, known as the Nibelungenklage or Der Nibelungen Not, the lament over the dire end of the Burgundians. The assumed Atlilied is the oldest prototypical source of the medieval Nibelungenlied, the Middle High German Epic. The two Norse accounts are later elaborations of a lost, fundamental narrative poem. Despite
178
U. Dronke, (ed.), The poetic Edda, Heroic Poems, vol. I. (Oxford 1969).
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its title, the Atlakvida is actually a glorification of the Burgundians and more of a vilification of Attila. The poem is a fairly detailed, blood-drenched story with cruel details reminiscent of stories in GrecoRoman mythology. In this poem Gudrun’s brothers Gunnarr, based on the historical Gundahar, and Högni are invited to Atli’s court, urged to reveal the location of their treasure, but killed for refusing to divulge the site. Gudrun avenges the death of her brothers, murders Atli’s two sons, then passes a chalice with their hearts and blood to the unsuspecting father, gets him drunk, stabs him to death, burns down the great hall and then kills herself.179 In the much longer, more original, much more literary and dramatic Atlamal 180 both Högni’s and Gunnar’s wife have dream-visions which foreshadow their great misfortune, blood and violent death. However, the envisioned fate must not be an impediment. In a few words, the plot follows a different line. No mention is made of Huns and Burgundians, of hidden treasures or of the open sea. Rather it is a dramatization of self-evident dysfunctional family situations. Gudrun’s relatives arrive at Atli’s court. Gudrun had wanted to warn them of the impending treachery. Her family had been something of an idyll. Her new situation was more traumatic. A terrible battle ensued in which the field was swimming in blood. Atli and Gudrun exchange unpleasantnesses about reciprocal murders of kinsmen, mother, sister and cousin, motivated by greed. Large numbers have been killed on both sides. Atli asked that Högni be put to the knife, his flesh sliced off and his heart cut out; Gunnar was to be tied to the gallows and snakes set on him. Gunnar plays a last song on his harp with his toes, softening the hearts of women, and in the end both men die. Atli taunts Gudrun with the murders. For that Gudrun killed their children by cutting their throats, ‘to cure them of old age’, using their skulls as cups, serving him drink mixed with their blood, roasting their hearts on a spit and serving them to him pretending they were of a calf. There follows an exchange of recriminations as ‘they . . . sent each other murderous thoughts, hurled words of hatred— neither was contented’. Gudrun had her husband Atli stabbed by Högni’s son. On his deathbed Atli laments that he had showered her with wealth, but that she had not overcome her widow’s grief.
179 180
Dronke, pp. 3–12. This is a bilingual version, Norse and English. Dronke, pp. 77–98. This is also a bilingual version, Norse and English.
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She promised to purchase a funeral ship, evidently a vestige of another tradition, and a painted coffin and wrap his corpse in a well waxed shroud and tend to any other needs, almost as if there were no ill feelings, merely the working out of a relentless fate. Upon his death she killed herself, dying a slow death. The original Atlilied must have anticipated the narrative elements echoed in the Atlakvida. Gudrun has married Atli (Attila) following the murder of her husband Siegfried. Atli entices her brothers Gunnar and Högni to come to his court by promising property and wealth, splendid ornaments and exotic gifts. Upon entering the great hall of Atli’s palace Gudrun warns them that they have been betrayed and that they should flee immediately. Gunnar tells her that it is too late to summon his heroic reinforcements, whereupon he is seized and tied up. Meanwhile Högni kills seven Huns and drives off an eighth, but their superior numbers overpower him and he is tied up as well. Then Gunnar is asked to buy his life by handing over the treasure. Gunnar dares the Huns to cut out Högni’s heart and place it in his hand. They bring it to him quivering in a bowl. Since Gunnar is now the only one who knows the distant location of the treasure he too refuses to tell and is killed. Gudrun now informs Atli that his young and innocent sons will never again stand at his knees, distributes her treasures lavishly among her retinue, kills her husband, drenches their bed with blood, and sets fire to the great hall. The historical Attila was murdered during his wedding night by his bride Ildiko. She was to become the Kriemhild of the later epic. The language of the verse saga is characterized by heroic rhetoric, the vocabulary of weapons and battle, boldness and courage and many high flung words to reflect the high feelings of the speakers. Interlinked with the tales around Attila are the 7th century mythopoetic tales around the historical Theoderic the Great, the legendary Dietrich von Bern of the Thidrekssaga.181 Within the approximate historical context fits the fragment of the older Lay of Hildebrand,182 a near 181
F. Erichson, Die Geschichte Thidreks von Bern, Sammlung Thule, Altnordische Dichtung und Prosa, 2nd ed., vol. 22 (Düsseldorf, Cologne 1962). See Schutz, Germanic Realms, pp. 75ff. 182 Hauk, Vollmann, pp. 10–15, for the text. F.C. Gentry, J.K. Walter, German Epic Poetry (New York 1995), pp. 1–8. See also Ehrismann, pp. 121–137, for an analysis of the languages used. See Watanabe-O’Kelly, p. 25f., Boesch, p. 19f., Murdoch, pp. 55–64. Also Bostock, pp. 33–72, who places the lay into the whole context of the Nibelungenlied and of the Thidrekssaga. De Boor, pp. 65–71.
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contemporary of the Atlilied. The lay is not a reliable historical source. In the Nibelungenlied, the old master-at-arms Hildebrand will assume the role of Dietrich’s loyal paladin, his devoted companion-in-arms. The character is an epic fiction. The tradition works with the partly unhistorical premise that Odoakar had forced Theoderic out of Italy and that then Theoderic had sought refuge among the Huns, from where he returned with an army to regain what was his. In all probability the arrival of the Visigoths under Alaric and their departure from Italy at the beginning of the 5th century and the arrival of the Ostrogoths under Theoderic, who had spent years with and under the Huns, at the end of the 5th century flowed together in this mytho-poetic account of events. A fictitious Hildebrand was in Theoderic’s retinue. Probably of 7th century Lombardic origin, the name ending—brand identifies the names as Lombardic, the story quite naturally kindled interest in Bavaria, owing to the historic relationship, where it was rewritten c. 770/790. During the early 9th century (c. 810?) monks at Fulda reworked it as part of their missionary activity in the Low German speaking regions.183 Around 850 two monks at Fulda copied it alternatively on the inside covers of a prayer book. It ends short because the copyist ran out of space. As it is the only example of early Germanic heroic poetry the fragment bears considerable responsibility representing others of the same kind. Beginning and end are framed in objective, descriptive narrative prose. By contrast the core of the poem concentrates the tragic inner action economically through dialogue. Why was just this work preserved in this fashion? What sense of importance did the scribes attach to the poem? Of that version only 68 lines of alliterative verse have survived by the skin of their teeth. They have literary merit in their own right. The opening line of the Hildebrandslied, Ik gihorta dat seggen, ‘I heard it said’, introduces a story of tragic irony, the deadly confrontation of father and son. Champions in front of their respective battle lines Hildebrand, returning after thirty (sixty summers and winters) years from exile and distant wars, and his son Hadubrand, protecting his land will fight to the death, because the son refuses to believe that his father is still alive. In all fairness, Hildebrand never really identified
183 Wallace-Hadrill, p. 379, suggests the recipient to have been a Saxon noble visiting Fulda.
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himself clearly. Following the challenge to the customary preceding single combat the poet describes how each armed himself and mounted his horse and rode out to fight. Hildebrand, being older and more experienced, asks who in the army was Hadubrand’s father, so he might know to which family he belonged, as he knew all men of nobility. He names Hildebrand as his father, who once fled before the anger of Odoakar with Dietrich/Theoderic, leaving behind a young wife and orphaned and dispossessed infant. In Dietrich’s service he proved himself to be his favorite blade, always first in the attack and pleased to fight, known to all brave men. Hadubrand doubted whether his father was still alive. Thereupon Hildebrand removed from his arms bracelets made from imperial gold coins, which the king of the Huns, Attila, had personally given him and offered them to his son as a token of good will and perhaps paternal affection. On the other hand, filled with distrust Hadubrand rejected the possible family tie and replied that one should only receive such gifts on the tip of one’s lance. He continues to suspect treachery and that the other was as cunning as he was old, calls him alter Hun—old Hun, and that his enticing words were a mere ruse so he could hurl his spear at an unsuspecting opponent. Travelers from beyond the sea had told him of the death of his father Hildebrand, son of Herebrand. It is doubly ironic that while Hadubrand is so blinded by the reputation of his presumed dead father, that he cannot accept the encounter with that father, the love for his son does not wipe away the years of absence. Clearly Hadubrand’s mocking tone in the exchange is irritating, especially in front of the drawn up battle lines. One is reminded of the provocative, tragic dialogue of antagonists advancing toward the dramatic crisis in the presence of a chorus. Hildebrand recognized by the other’s arms that he served a generous king, had never suffered exile and that now as God’s judgment, welaga, waltant got, wewurt skihit, (ln. 49, note the alliteration on w) a woeful fate would take its course. He had lived through the battles of sixty summers and winters, thirty years, and now his son’s sword was to end his life, or he would end that of his son. The text allows us to conclude that Hildebrand felt the irreversible designation ‘cunning old Hun’ so keenly insulting to himself and his honor, that reconciliation was no longer possible and the duel inevitable. Only the most cowardly of eastern fighters would now still refuse combat. Proud defiance in view of the two battle lines gives neither of them a choice, but to fight to the death. The
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combat cannot be avoided. If Hadubrand had the inner need and the strength he should try to strip him of his arms. A duel would decide who would have possession of two sets of weapons and armor. They rode against one another with their ashen spears in the Gothic manner of fighting, so that the points stuck in the shields, continued (on foot?) till their shields were broken by their weapons. . . . At this point the manuscript breaks off, short only a few concluding lines. Regardless of the outcome, the price of victory will be high.184 From other, Scandinavian, sources one can conclude that the father slays the son. Complicated circumstances bring on the tragedy. The lay belongs into the context, which reflects the personal ethics of the fighting entourages for which the virtues of reputation, bravery, loyalty and honor are the supreme principles. These the son praises in his father, presumed dead, but now force the father to demonstrate them to his son and end by killing him in combat. The Germanic fatalism, the awareness of human limitations, the belief in a woeful destiny, wewurt, is the operative principle. Fate would have it that among all the possible opposing frontline fighters, the choice would fall on father and son. The fear of death is not an issue. Although an appeal is made to a waltant got, this appeal to the judgment of the Christian God is only a superficial reference. Inner Germanic principles of loyalty and heroism are very much still in place. Merit is shown externally in the possession of rich ornaments, fine weapons and armor. The father’s inner tragic anguish is left to the sensitivity of the audience. The individual is the executor of his own fate. At the mercy of wewurt, his own relentless, disastrous misfortune, he brings it down upon himself through his own actions. He knows full well that resistance to the causal enchainment of the will of fate is beyond human intervention and would not avert what was destined. Without Christian recourse the Germanic hero faces his tragic fate, his wewurt, as God’s law without compromising his loyalty. That gifts should be exchanged cautiously on the tips of lances reflects something of the hostile mercenary spirit of the tribal units, when tribal and family members sought and accepted service with sometimes opposing forces, but where honor, reputation and the oath of loyalty ranked above family ties and would compel family members to fight
184 Innes, State and Society, p. 130f. places the conflict into the context of honor and ritual violence.
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one another to the death. Was there a balance between personal emotions and the adherence to the code of conduct? Facing one’s fate outweighed all other considerations. No doubt such attitudes were at odds with Christian teaching and not welcome. Such was the situation here and in case such conflict was not thought to be possible, in the opening line the poet, not to be accused of hubris— inordinate pride, makes use of a typical introductory epic formula and assumes the role of the objective reporting medium and not of the inventor of the story of the poem. He assures his audience that the story is not a fiction, which he has made up. That this happened is documented for 451 in the battle against Attila, when the tribes, fathers and sons, were probably aligned on opposing sides. In 880 the East Frankish king Ludwig the Younger, son of Ludwig the German, had defeated a force of Vikings at the Battle of Thiméon on the River Sambre, with a death toll of 5000 Vikings. In 881 the West Frankish king, Louis III, son of Louis the Stammerer and grandson of Charles the Bald, defeated a raiding Viking force at the battle of Saucourt, in Picardy. It was a rare victory against Danish Vikings. This event was recorded in the Ludwigslied,185 at a time when Louis III was still alive. Ludwig the Younger died after a long illness in 882. Louis III died in 882 after crashing his horse into a doorframe in pursuit of a young lady. The poem of fifty-nine lines of rhyming verse, is a baladesque song of praise to a young king named Ludwig, both warrior king and servant of God, written in a Rhinefrankish dialect as spoken in the western kingdom. Why it should have been written in German is a puzzle, all the more curious as it is contained in an Old French context, unless it was indeed written for the Rhinefrankish court at Frankfurt, the residence of Ludwig the Younger. This original poem in OHG differs from the other lays in that it focuses on a single, current event, without historical context and not yet veiled in myth. The setting and thought pattern of the narrative, though military, is entirely didactically Christian.
185
Hauk, Vollenbach, pp. 146–149, for the full bilingual text. See WatanabeO’Kelly, p. 22f. Also Boesch, p. 19. See Murdoch, pp. 93–100, for a brief historical discussion. See also Bostok, pp. 201–207. Wallace-Hadrill, p. 387f. Ehrismann, pp. 228–236. de Boor, p. 90f. Also Nelson, ‘The Literacy of the laity’, in McKitterick, The Carolingians, pp. 232ff. who discusses the possible Latin model for this poem and the possibility that the king in question was actually Ludwig the Younger, who in 880 had defeated a force of Vikings at the battle of Thiméon, inflicting 5000 dead on the invaders.
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In keeping with Carolingian ideology, the divine plan is implemented upon the death of the young king’s father and God’s choice to take the king under his tutelage in the role of magaczogo, (ln. 4), his tutor and educator, when he succeeded to the throne at about 16 years of age. The king is away fighting in distant regions. The realm is in confusion. God causes the Vikings to invade. The Viking incursion is a foil to test the virtues of the king and a punishing admonition of the Frankish people for their life of theft and lies and other sins. As God’s instrument, the Vikings are a function. We learn nothing about them. Now Louis is charged by God to act as savior-hero of the Chosen People of God, the Franks. Louis proclaims himself to be God’s messenger so that it can be anticipated that the victory will be his. Following his submission to the will of Christ he invites all who are true to the faith to follow, as he also promises benefices, earthly, feudal, rewards to those who will join his banners. Armed with shield and spear, he rides out and soon finds the intruders and the battle line of the Franks intones a ‘Kyrie eleison. Sang was gisungan, wig was bigunnan; bluot skein in wangon, spilodun ther Vrankon’. ‘After the song was sung, the battle was begun, blood shone on the meadows during the feats of arms of the Franks.’ No other fights as bravely as Ludwig, splitting one and piercing another, serving his foes a bitter wine. We are not told whether the Franks fight on horseback, though we can conclude that Louis will not have dismounted without cause. They praise the power of the Lord and thank all the saints, because Ludwig and the Franks, God’s Chosen Christian People, have remained victorious over the Vikings and paganism. And they extol his prowess and hail the king for the felicity bestowed on him by God. Because he was where and when he was supposed to be there, God should keep him in his grace. Evidently the poem was intended to have propaganda value and was itself proof of the importance of letters in politics.186 A work written in Latin that is both conclusion and new beginning is the Waltharius.187 The arguments concerning its date of creation, 186
Nelson, ‘Literacy’ in McKitterick, The Carolingians, p. 232. Hauk, Vollenbach, pp. 163–259, for the bilingual text, Latin and NHG. See Bostock, pp. 224–234, for a discussion of the plot. Also Watanabe-O’Kelly, p. 27f. See Wallace-Hadrill, p. 388f. See Innes, ‘Teutons or Trojans?’ in Hen and Innes, Uses of the Past, p. 246, who proposes that the Latin version is the one to survive from among Germanic, Old English and Romance versions from southern France, Italy and Spain. 187
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authorship and place of origin are extensive and unresolved. One theory sees it to be a West-Frankish work written during the first half of the 9th century, another places it into the end of the 9th century and a third attributes it to St. Gallen during the early 10th century. The court library at Aachen, the Reichenau and St. Gallen are all mentioned in this context. St. Gallen before 926 appears to be the most probable place of origin.188 The discussion is equally meandering when it comes to the question of the epic’s origins. Because the material is known in an Anglo-Saxon and Old English fragmentary source, the Waldere, some claim for it a lost Germanic oral tradition of heroic lays, a Waltharilied, of interlinked Germanic tribal accounts stressing the familiar themes discussed earlier, about bravery, honor, loyalty, heroic combat, reputation, treasures of gold and so forth. In the accomplished Latinization form and themes appear to have been strongly influenced by Latin Classical authors. Visigothic/Aquitainian, Alemanic and Bavarian sources have also been suggested. The exiled Aquitainian Ermoldus Nigellus has been put forward as the actual author.189 Walthari fragments appear to have found their way into such Norse literature as the Thidrekssaga and the Nibelungenlied. Briefly summarized the plot follows a vague historical framework. Following his conquests of the west, hostages are taken to the court of the Huns: the young Frank Hagano, the Burgundian princess Hiltgund and her fiancé, the Aquitainian Waltharius. At Attila’s court Hagano and Waltharius become blood brothers and rise to military leadership. Upon hearing of the death of the old king of the Franks and the accession to the throne of Guntharius, Hagano flees and soon after Waltharius and Hiltgund follow. Guntharius hears that these two carry a large treasure, which he wants to seize. Hagano advises against the deed but Guntharius can’t be dissuaded and with twelve warriors takes up the pursuit. In a narrow pass in the Vosges Mountains, Guntharius demands the treasure and the bride and when Waltharius refuses to hand them over a fight ensues. The narrow pass allows only single combat and Waltharius kills the Franks, including
188 Hauk, Vollenbach, pp. 1169ff. for a lengthy review of possible origins. Bertau, p. 67f. and Ehrismann, p. 395, support this position. Ehrismann suggests it to be an assignment to demonstrate Latin writing skills. For de Boor it is a 9th century work. See Bostock, pp. 234ff. See also Werner, in Godman and Collins, pp. 102ff. 189 Werner, in Godman and Collins, p. 109f.
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Hagano’s nephew. Hagano has stayed out of the fight despite challenges to his courage. Out of loyalty and the honor of his king Hagano declares his readiness to fight his blood brother Waltharius on the next morning. When Waltharius confronts Hagano with their relationship and their mutual loyalty as friends, Hagano raises the issue of the slain nephew. Hagano’s inner tragic turmoil bears little emphasis and the question about the loyalties and revenge is not clearly developed. The ending turns into a farce: Guntharius loses a leg, Waltharius his right hand, but knocks out Hagano’s eye with his left and injures the latter’s jaw. All three survive and Hiltgund bandages them all up. Over their wine they mock their mutilations. The epic ends with a vos salvat Jesu, ‘May Jesus bless you’. The figures are fictitious. Hagano and Guntharius will reappear in the Nibelungenlied. Since it is not yet the time of the medieval romances, love is not the mainspring of the relationship, but masculine bravery, fighting prowess, true friendship and loyalty in the face of treachery and greed. The inner conflict rests within Hagano, though this too is not fully worked out. The ending of the poem is something of a parody of heroic motifs. Perhaps it intimates a gentle criticism of the misdirected secular interests on the part of the spiritually oriented cloistered groups. Many copies of the Waltharius manuscript exist, suggesting its monastic popularity, far into the Middle Ages. It is a long epic work written in 1456 Latin hexameters by a German speaker and in that sense it interrupts the Carolingian efforts to write in German and reintroduces the use of Latin within the succeeding Ottonian scribal culture. In summation it is possible to say that trace elements of earlier Germanic oral traditions were incorporated into the written versions of the heroic epics, which were not compatible with the ideals of a Heavenly Kingdom on earth. Ostrogothic vestiges dealing with Theoderic the Great are remembered in the Hildebrandslied and the Thidrekssaga. Frankish, Burgundian, Alemanic and Hunnish elements were subsumed in the Nibelungenlied. Frisian materials provided the lost lines of the Gudrun stories. Regrettably nothing of this oral tradition was to exist in its own right. On the periphery of the selection of works described, there is an extensive number of small practical works in the vernacular consisting of such functional texts as baptismal vows, Lord’s Prayers and commentaries, Alemanic translations of Psalms, the narrated dialogue
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of Christ and the Woman of Samaria, lays of St. Peter, St. George, fables and animal epics, and an assortment of blessings, incantations and spells. In the context of the universal Latin scribal culture, works written in German are a significant and noteworthy curiosity. The creation of a written German language was itself a significant feat since it required the adjustment of Germanic orthography and sound system to the system of Latin letters, the invention of words, concepts and a flexible syntax to express the abstract ideas contained in a Greco-Latin Christianity. Special care had to be taken to avoid heretical mistranslations. The idea of writing in German therefore had to be approached with caution and courage, while the linguistic potential of German as a sufficiently applicable tool had to be dared to be discovered. That this was accomplished quite early in the circle around Alcuin is demonstrated by the translation into real rather than Latinized German of Isidore of Seville’s De fide catholica contra Judaeos, translated c. 790/800, deemed to have been the most accomplished of translated prose so early in the period. In his work Isidore (c. 560–636) defends the Christian faith and the Trinity against the objections of the Jews. Nothing tangible appears to have come of Charlemagne’s supposed instructions to formulate a German grammar and to prepare the written collection of Germanic lays and poems. If this truly had been his intention then it may have played a role in contributing to an intellectual climate in which the development not only of a written German language, but perhaps also something of a German ethnic sense could have been advanced. This did, of course, not come into being till the late Ottonian period. During Charlemagne’s reign this supposed promotion of a unifying German vernacular in the realm would have been incompatible with his persuasion to establish the universal Imperium Christianum based on Latin. In retrospect the use of OHG was no more than an experimental excursion of a peripheral nature, a chance survival, too often mere fragments recorded in the margins of other texts. Most of them are no more than markers in the gradual emergence of a literature in German. With Latin as the language of all learning and as the literary language par excellence, the return to Latin was a rejoining of the mainstream of intellectual pursuits consistent with the renovatio romanorum imperii and with the principles of the Carolingian recapitulation, even though, from the viewpoint of an evolving vernacular literature in German, it may appear to have been a regressive step as an entertaining secular alternative to the
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edifying religious literature in the context of the convents and monasteries. It leads into the Latin Middle Ages and away from the use of the vernacular. Within the transition the Waltharius poem is not a stopgap. It is at best a tangent in the continuity of early German literature. A literature in the German vernacular, at this time, could not compete but only begin to develop at best on a short-lived, complementary, parallel course to Latin. We know next to nothing about the OHG literary output following the Carolingian turn to a German vernacular literature. The Ottonian period lacks any significant OHG literary contributions. Nearly two centuries will have to pass, before written German begins to reestablish itself in the secular literature. It will take much longer before it will claim a space in religion.
XI. The cloister arts Very impressive is a flowering of such portable arts as manuscript/book illuminations, ivory carving and the work in metals which established the East Frankish kingdom in a position of leadership in Europe. Examples of Carolingian architecture and of some wall painting are still in evidence today. In our discussion of these art forms this sequence shall be observed. In a general overview the Carolingian intercultural relationships are reflected in common continuing elements in architecture, the arts and crafts, commissioned by the culture-carrying institutions and the various continuing levels of society as the late Roman world and the Celto-Germanic north were each reconfigured by the other. As was demonstrated elsewhere,190 in the east only small, isolated enclaves of Latini, of ‘Roman Christians’ survived in southern Germany, contributing much vocabulary for fruit and vegetables, but next to no Classical influences. Though there were cultural beginnings of an indigenous sort, in the end the Romano-Frankish influences had not penetrated very deeply, the stylistic influence was imported when the Franks gained the hegemony over accessible parts of Central Europe and West-Frankish, Irish and Anglo-Saxon monasteries set up affiliate foundations there under the auspices of the Franks. With the Irish came the Celtic Insular Style, best reflected in the somewhat later Book
190
Schutz, Germanic Realms, p. 289, also Tools, Weapons and Ornaments, p. 74.
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of Kells, an artistic amalgamation of the earlier Celtic and polychrome decorative styles of northern intertwines of abstract, curvilinear, vegetative and animal complexes of surface ornamentation, as applied to the first Lindau Gospel cover and on parts of the Tassilo Chalice and on other religious vessels and in the exquisitely illuminated gospels and sacramentaries. The so-called Carolingian Renaissance was to select an emphasis on representational, message carrying art as part of a Mediterraneanization during the Christianization. The gains of the ‘rebirth’ came at an artistic price, the gradual loss of the northern abstract, non-representative, dismembered, organic, vegetative, ornamental, calligraphic and purely decorative, erratically dynamic designs evident in Northern Bronze Age and Celtic ornamental styles,191 finally best illustrated by the Insular Style, best displayed by the open form intertwines of The Book of Kells, which itself represents the crowning end-phase of the style. In return northern Europe gained functional, representative, static, tectonic, closed forms, of an iconographic and narrative nature.192 Although these objective, positive and opaque stylistic elements had been introduced to the Roman provinces north of the Alps by the Romans, they were not so firmly established when the Romans departed during the 5th century. The few Latini that stayed behind could not exert enough influence to retain these stylistic elements. Instead the Irish and Anglo-Saxon missions introduced for a time the preoccupation with the subjective, negative transparency of things. Rather than reflect the monumental world of solids, the northern artists and craftsmen engaged in the non-monumental, in the perforation of the surface, as though more interested in the suggestive potential of an implied presence of matter than in its stated, visible external forms. The preoccupation with the organic, both vegetative and animal, with transition and movement, dominated some artistic expression, providing one of the two poles, though a weakening one, between which the development of a Carolingian style was to emerge. The other pole was provided by the dominant form of Mediterranean artistic expression, solid, static optical effects of compact form. The two will be fused in the particular innovation
191 H. Schutz, The Prehistory of Germanic Europe (New Haven, London 1983), pp. 125–190, 243–307. See also C. Farr, The Book of Kells, Its Function and Audience (London, Toronto 1997). 192 H. Schutz, The Romans in Central Europe (New Haven, London 1985), pp. 85–137.
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of Carolingian art, the narrative style. Its first manifestations will become evident in the co-existential representation of sequential events. A review of the discussion of continental pre-Christian CeltoGermanic artistic traditions shows a lack of concern for the realistic representation of human beings. It admitted dismembered human body parts, animal forms and occasional masks, but the activities of man were excluded. This avoidance of the human figure had an abstract and transcendental effect on the treatment of animal and ornamental forms, interpreted mainly in curvilinear designs and vegetative traceries. It made no direct use of perceptual information in that it did not consider nature with analytical eyes in order to imitate nature line by line. Observable nature was not its point of departure and realistic representations were not its objective. It was most comfortable by expressing itself in the minor arts adorning portable objects. Classical styles reflect the disciplined study and reproduction of the symmetrical structure of the defined form of harmonious proportions, where the relation of the whole to its parts and of the frame to its contents is carefully contrived and efficiently presented. This art belongs entirely to the human world, appeals to the senses, is rationalistic and intellectual rather than emotional. Its contemplation is guided by the deliberate focus on a specific message. The viewer’s autonomy is placed under restraints to see what he has been equipped to know. By contrast the northern expressions of style, as illustrated in manuscripts and metal engravings, set out from the observation of movement and the intricacies of vegetative forms, become involved, intricate, restless and dynamic, asymmetrical and obscure and full of discord, in a fusion of fantastic hybrid creatures coiled in serpentine intertwines, tangled tendrils, interlaced openwork, skeleton-tracery silhouetted against open space, as though inviting the viewer to focus not on the physical surface of the object, but on some abstract, undefined space seen through a lattice, encouraging a disbelief in the material solidity of objects. The contemplation of these forms is not impeded or channeled by message oriented prescriptions, thereby allowing the viewer unrestrained meditative autonomy, restricted only by the limits of the imagination. However, despite the extraordinary and exulting artistry of combined exquisite sensibility of color, extravagant intricacy of patterning and the exuberant indulgent use of ornament for its own sake, familiar from the Germanic fibulas and buckles, they were too purely esthetic and
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symbolic in their intention and hence deemed too non-communicative for their intended purposes. All things representative were converted into purely linear calligrams of an indefinable, at best symbolic type. Even though the change of taste reflected in the artistic confluence had taken place since the beginning of the 8th century, composed of the humanistic Christianity and the northern abstract styles, the resultant ornamental abstractions were deemed too limited as forms of Christian expression.193 The progressing modifications shown on the illuminated pages of the Book of Kells, in the engraver’s artistry on the Tassilo Chalice and the candle sticks at Kremsmünster, and on the first cover of the Lindau Gospel, to name four, are a testimony to the transition and synthesis. The figural representations of the two dedications contained in Hrabanus Maurus’ Liber de laudibus sanctae crucis, the three figures including Hrabanus and the figure of king Louis the Pious, discussed above, illustrate well the ultimate point of arrival. It has been demonstrated above, and especially in the ‘portrait’ of Louis the Pious as the emperor in Christ, that the historical processes of the late Merovingian and Carolingian periods were intent on establishing an imperial consciousness supported by ideas of a universal Christianity. Enthusiastic abstract meditative autonomy, exploiting the possible levels of meaning and understanding, was not to be entertained and if it was not rationally based and focused on the message of salvation through the Christian dogma, if it could not tell this story clearly, it could have no future in the educational role of Christian art. It proved a distraction from the faith rather than contributing to its appeal and spread. Considering the suspicion with which the consideration of images was treated, it is not surprising that non-representative abstractions would be highly suspect. In the Iconoclasm dispute between East and West,194 Charlemagne condemned the worship of images as heathen but favored the use of paintings in churches as a means of informing the illiterate of the Biblical stories by seeing on walls what they cannot read in books. To him pictures were inferior to books. Others, like Hrabanus Maurus, were convinced of the superiority of
193
Hinks, pp. 72–93. L. Nees, ‘Art and Architecture’, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, pp. 817–822. 194
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books and that pictures seduced the innocent and were snares for the unwary, while Theodulf of Orleans was persuaded that pictures inclined the mind to falseness rather than the truth.195 The discussion was clearly one between one position, which saw in colorful pictorial representation an appeal to the senses and the emotions by means of visual affects, and another, which wanted to direct the individual toward the intellect and the spirit. The narrow view is understandable if one considers that Christianity saw itself as a literate faith in which God’s Word had been revealed in books, the Old Testament and the Gospels. In the end and in keeping with the pronouncement of pope Gregory I wall painting became a public means of bringing the faith to life for the unlettered. The illumination of pages of manuscript became a private means. Each of the two distinct genres, of course, was subject to its own rules and sensibilities. However, what could Hrabanus Maurus have had in mind with his warning? His own Liber de laudibus sanctae crucis, with its dedicational pictures and the many illustrations of the cross, would contradict him, were it not for his synthesis of texts in pictures and the decoration of letters. Any number of examples such as the Drogo Sacramentary, or the Folchard Psalter (Plate 2a) can be arrayed to demonstrate that for the Carolingians the calligraphic display letters in the texts were charged with symbolic energy and meaningful imagery. In view of the existence and use of Irish enhanced illuminated manuscripts in St. Gallen, Fulda and other monasteries, it is unlikely that the opponents of ornamental and pictorial illustrations seriously wanted to promote the unillustrated book.196 Charlemagne’s conquests in Italy had reinforced the direct link with late Classical forms and had motivated a rather sudden impetus in that direction. As has been demonstrated, the Classical heritage in its many Christian Roman and Byzantine representations was given a rolemodel function, though it was not always understood. The Mediterranean outlook and its effect on all the arts, not just the cloister arts, were to be particularly profound and virtually permanent. It must be kept in mind, however, that the dependence 195 McKitterick, ‘Text and Image’ in McKitterick, Uses of Literacy, p. 297f. See Wallace-Hadrill, pp. 217–225. Especially Nees, Mantle, pp. 21ff. for a discussion of Theodulf ’s poetry. 196 McKitterick, ‘Scholarship’, in Frankish Kingdoms, pp. 215ff.
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of the Carolingian artists on Classical models did not take into consideration a chronological sequence of the models. The Classical work to be copied was usually in the hands of the copyist. In the case of the book illustrations an attempt to classify Carolingian works in a sequential stylistic chronology will be frustrated. Though apparently imitative, the works in ivory were entirely innovative. In view of the lack of new ivory, old Roman ivories were split or shaved and reused as raw material for new artistic expression.
XII. Illuminated manuscripts—Evangelists It will be demonstrated that while the available wall paintings provided an insight into the artistic expression available to a wider public, the prestigious illuminated manuscripts were the reserve of a select few. The manuscripts were hidden from light and undue use in monastic libraries or in churches, prepared as liturgical gifts and votive offerings for religious foundations of choice. With the Irish monks and their manuscripts came their highly accomplished manner of illustrating/illuminating books in what is known as the Insular Style. During the early Carolingian period it spread throughout the northern Frankish realm and was of considerable influence in characterizing early manuscripts of the period. It affected lettering in general, but the capital display initials particularly. These were to retain Insular elements even as these became blended with AngloSaxon and Frankish elements. The typical asymmetrical, organic details of this style have been dealt with above, enough to help form working impressions: large, highly calligraphically ornamented initial capital letters, interlaced with nervous zoomorphic and anthropomorphic suggestions, vegetative tendrils, animated intertwines and overlays, dismembered, alien and distorted animal shapes for ornamental purposes, as surprisingly intricate enhancements of words, as decorations in interlaced lines of text or as unexpected, imaginative designs placed in the margins. An unfamiliar, startlingly beautiful ornamentational mentality revealed itself. The influences of this decorative style on early Carolingian works, whether on parchment or on metallic surfaces, were eclectic. Owing to the difficulty in ascertaining the date of a manuscript’s arrival in a library it is appropriate to underemphasize the influential role, which an illuminated manuscript may have played in relation to other manuscripts. Suffice
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it to assign to individual manuscripts a generic rather than a specific function. It shall not be the intention here to present a comprehensive survey of manuscripts, but to provide an overview of some typical examples. As was mentioned above, it will not be realistic to try to present a reliable developmental chronology of the Carolingian Style of manuscript ornamentation, since such a coherent style did not come into being. Too many concurrent factors contributed their formative roles toward that reconfiguration during this Carolingian recapitulation.197 During the last decades of the 8th century this recapitulation was to come into being. At St. Gallen, Codex 51 would fall into this category.198 Dated to c. 750, it is an elaborately ornamented manuscript, which may have been brought there at a later date, for it is not listed among the Libri scottice scripti. Not as lavish in the use of gold, silver and purple, it and others like it are richer than the small books, which reached St. Gallen in the pack of an Irish monk on his peregrination. A description of several pages of this illuminated manuscript will have to represent the whole book. (Plate 2b) Its Irish origin is readily recognizable from its ornamentation. It probably precedes the Book of Kells by a few decades, and its ornamental pages differ from that work, in that the purely ornamental pages of this Codex suggest greater rational organization of the page. For a start the designs placed on the page are contained in a restricted rectangular frame, in as many as five frames separated by dividing lines, rather than occupying an unbounded area on a page. They may resemble the disposition of a carpet. Frames in yellow, brown and light blue advance into the center of page six. In fact the color ‘brown’, actually purple, dominates the designs. Except for the light blue accents, reddish brown and beige are the overall impressions of color throughout the manuscript. The carpet page is then arranged in symmetrical patterns with identical blocked brown and yellow ‘meander’ designs in the four corners, six swastika designs in variation are placed in systematic arrangement across the page, followed by symmetrically placed T designs in the frame, ornamented with
197 R. McKitterick, ‘Royal Patronage of Culture in the Frankish kingdoms under the Carolingians: Motives and Consequences’, in Frankish Kings and Culture, pp. 103ff. for manuscripts and their possible patrons. 198 See Duft and Meyer, Die Irischen Miniaturen der Stiftsbibliothek St. Gallen for a detailed analysis of this Codex with related manuscripts.
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an intricate single strand intertwined braid, the stem reaching into the center, meeting a cross in the center of the page. The surface of the cross is covered with elongated sling band spirals. The four rectangular spaces around the cross are once again framed in light blue against a black background, just as the whole page, but are filled with the kind of zoomorphic interlace familiar from the animal style. Bird like heads with eyes and beaks, snapping jaws, craning necks and elongated reptilian bodies writhe in the available space, only now arranged with space filling logic within each rectangle. What once were unrestrained animal designs of intertwining linearity have been systematized and placed under control in defined areas. The cross dominates the center. Analogous to the famous, large initial page of the Book of Kells, in Codex 51 the initial page of the Gospel of St. Matthew faces the carpet page just described with a page of display lettering. Once again the overall color impression is reddish brown/purple and beige with light blue accents. The large display initials XPI, the Christogram, a short hand for the name of Christ, using the X-shaped Greek letter Chi, P-shaped Rho and I of the Christ-monogram, occupy about two-thirds of the available space. Larger than any design on the facing page these letters are placed along the left and top of the page. While the right frame is composed of the design seen in the corners of the previous frame, the bottom and a small piece of the top bears the same design of intricate single strand intertwined braid mentioned above. The left frame is split diagonally by the descending left leg of the large capital X, forming wedge shaped spandrels of the left frame. This leg extends so far down that it breaks through the frame of the page completing its terminal of spiral designs and beaked heads well outside the frame, a vestige of the earlier Celtic style. The spandrels are ornamented with the familiar elongated whirling sling band spirals and cresting wave patterns. Indeed all of the previous designs reappear in the ornamental spaces on this initial page. New are the interlocking multicolored, cresting wave or paisley designs, which fill the space between the right arms of the letter Chi. Uncolored strips separate the letters from the other ornamentation. Very reminiscent of the designs of the Book of Kells is the feline head, gaping mouth, flicking tongue and clawed paw of the frame fragment at the top of the page. The letter Rho is the elongated neck, canine head and ravenous jaws, overlapping the letter I. Intertwining S-shapes fill the spaces within the curvatures, while
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the letters Rho and I are made up of dot-designs. This design of dots fills the outlines of the Christ-monogram. A wedge-shaped design in reddish brown/purple, beige, blue and black intrudes into the space left between the stems of the letters P and I. The remaining space bears the words autemgeneratio (sic), the beginning of Christ’s genealogy. At the bottom, written in black pen, the beautiful cursive calligraphy of the Book of Kells, sic erat. The next page to be considered is the author-page of the Evangelist St. John. Here the effigy of St. John serves to identify the Gospel. The Evangelists of this codex are not shown against a background and are not actually shown writing. (Plates 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d) In pre-Carolingian context, the Gospel of St. John tended to be seen as the primary Gospel and it will be found that this persisted into the Carolingian period when the St. John representations were placed in the top left hand corner. The reason for this may lie with the opening sentence of his Gospel: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. ( John 1:1). This page echoes the process also in evidence in the Book of Kells, the human effigy being placed into a sacred space at the center of the page with the concomitant marginalization of the calligraphic ornamentation. Using the same colors, the page is divided into three vertical areas. The central space is occupied by the standing Evangelist with his emblem, the eagle, above him. Two strips of single strand intertwining braid provide the frame above and below the effigy. The two flanking areas are subdivided into frames of two sectioned strips of varied ornamentation each, interrupted halfway by two ornamented discs. The sections of the frames generally depict designs in diagonal symmetry. The designs, which fill the sections, are familiar from the previously discussed carpet page. New are two fields of braided steps and two others filled with upright and inverted mushroom cap designs. The discs are also ornamented with the same space filling wave and paisley patterns noticed previously. The Evangelist faces the viewer frontally, a pose still reserved for those of the highest esteem. Except for his skin tones the colors are the familiar purple for his halo and garment and light blue for his symmetrically styled hair and his undershirt. In his hands he holds a book like shape, probably his gospel. The garment is a folded mantle with the front panels thrown over his arms. The author-page representing the Evangelist St. Mark advances the process further. Without emblem, his identity is indicated through
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placement of the illuminated page in the text. The same intertwining single strand braid frames the figure above and below the standing figure. The four corners are anchored by rectangular fields containing the tetramorphs; the eagle of St. John top left, the angel of Matthew top right, the lion of St. Mark bottom left and a vague representation that by virtue of the crossed hoofed legs can only be the calf of St. Luke bottom right. The crossed paws of the lion distinguish that emblem clearly. Only the angel is shown frontally, the others are in profile facing right. Colorations and details of design are selected at random. Two identical angular composites of the familiar decorative motifs complete the frames on both sides. Garments and hairstyle are variations of the dispositions seen on the Evangelist St. John. The non-figurative ornamentation on the earlier pages has been reduced to a minimum. There is something hurried about the completion of the page featuring the crucified Christ. The colors are the same as before. The horizontal frames are a highly simplified meander design, while the vertical sides of the frame are no more that a very unimaginative single band of sliding knots. The corner squares are the same stepped crosses from before. The page is dominated by five anthropomorphic figures, two watching angels flanking the head of Christ, Longinus with the spear to the right and Stephaton with the sponge soaked in vinegar to the left. Except for his arms and legs, Christ is completely wrapped up in a carefully wound purple cloth. Although all faces are basically frontal, each face has features drawn in profile and one ear, depending on whether the face is turned left or right facing Christ. On the same basis Christ faces to his right, but he also has two left feet. The hurried carelessness is particularly noticeable in the incomplete blue coloration of the background. With the exception of two overlooked corners of the areas above the cross, the two large fields below the cross are quite unfinished. The space behind Longinus and below one of his feet has been colored blue, the other areas surrounding him have been left uncolored. The same holds true for most of the spaces around Stephaton. The whole composition was found to be off-center and so an additional strip of blue frame was drawn in on the right to correct the mistake. While the arms of the cross are blue and therefore the arms red, the foot of the cross is red and Christ’s legs are blue. There are a few other inconsistencies. The colorist must have been thinking of something else. No doubt Codex 51 at St. Gallen is a splendid Irish manuscript
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with some spectacular incipit pages. However, it lacks the brilliant virtuosity of the later Book of Kells, when it comes to coloration, ingenuity of design and inventive creativity. This Codex shows less innovation and rather more repetitiveness of design and color. One set of original ideas is reused almost without authenticity, even without variation in the context of the representational pages of the book. This manuscript too, shows the slowing down of the imaginative processes, which animated the carpet pages of the Insular Style without projecting an ideological intention, in favor of a transition to the new focus on the concentration of the central narrative salvational tenets of the Christian faith. This transition is well illustrated on the pages described. The primacy of the ornamental delights of the purely decorative intention of the carpet pages is relegated to the secondary importance of the frame, becomes ever more expendable, until it falls off the page. It is a significant part of the transformational process, which serves the vehicles of the Christian faith and is a clear expression of the progressing Carolingian stylistic development. At the abbey of Kremsmünster in Lower Austria is preserved a manuscript dated to shortly before 800 known as the Codex Millenarius. It was made in the Archdiocese of Salzburg and is associated with monasteries of the region, Mondsee or perhaps even Kremsmünster itself. The manuscript relates to the Cutbercht Codex.199 It reflects scant Irish or rather Anglo-Saxon influences. (Plates 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d) The Bavarian relationship with northern Italy from Ostrogothic times onward and then especially that between the dukes of Bavaria and the kings of the Lombards is more likely to account for southern influences on the manuscript. Late Classical prototypes exist. However, the discussion, to be found below, of the Tassilo Chalice will bring an additional play of influences into sharper focus. In the Codex Millenarius, we shall find that the restrained, centered placement in arcades of the Evangelist on the one hand and of the tetramorphs on the other, both without scenic background, recommends the continuance of a Greco-Roman tradition. This tradition initially placed philosophers and then saints, then emperors, empresses and vice-roys into such arcade settings. These represent the idea of the fastigium, an important symbol of dignity and authority. The arch may also intend to evoque the gateway to the heavenly Jerusalem,
199
Bischoff, p. 41. F. Unterkircher, Buchmalerei, p. 22f. See also Braunfels, p. 89.
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perhaps an abbreviation of the vision of the Temple in Jerusalem, even of the heavenly Jerusalem itself, and as such represents a sacred, ritual space of passage. Among late Roman examples referred to elsewhere are Stilicho and his wife, each in an arcaded setting, the curtained arcade on the ivory of a Byzantine empress or possibly of Theoderic’s daughter Amalasuintha, the placement of curtained arcades with saints in Theoderic’s church San Appollinare Nuovo in Ravenna or San Appollinare in Clase, or of the ivory throne of Maximian in Ravenna.200 The Carolingian ivory carvings will rely on this Roman continuity as will the book illuminations of the Carolingian Gospels of the Ada School. It will also be demonstrated below, how wall paintings of Christ, angels and saints had been placed into arcaded niches and apses at Mals in northern Italy. The connection between Bavaria and Italy was across the Brenner Pass. Arbeo of Freising, in Bavaria, came from Merano. In that sense the Codex Millenarius deserves our attention because with these arcade settings it provides examples of yet another step toward the focus on the isolated, unadorned human effigy, the classicizing seated Evangelist in front of his gospel compacted into an arcade setting, without benefit of elaborate ornamentation. Even their tetramorphic symbols are placed in their own page-sized arcades. These severe arcades bear only a minimum of intertwined single band braid. Like a temple, these arches also function as portals into a ritualistic sphere of knowledge of sublime things, the knowledge of the one God manifest in the eight, which are actually four, which are the One Word, the divine logos. The old Babylonian multiples of four recur in the wind directions, the seasons, the elements, the zodiac, the four corners of heaven, of earth, the four streams of Paradise and the four pillars of the church. The Codex contains only eight full-page miniatures, the four-seated Evangelists and their emblems. Throughout the Middle Ages these will become pictorial axioms. That the Evangelists and the tetramorphs are not actually paired in the same miniature suggests, aside from overcrowding the available space and thereby compromising the singular focus, that the artistic expression of an inherent, logical, theological link had not yet been finalized. There are also four large capital initials, each at the beginning of one of the Gospels. These 200 W.F. Volbach, Elfenbeinarbeiten der Spätantike und des Frühen Mittelalters, dritte völlig neu bearbeitete Auflage (Mainz 1976), p. 93, plates 72–74.
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initials, especially the Q at the beginning of the Gospel according to Luke, betray an approximate link with the Insular Style. What merit this manuscript has, its artistic merits are less significant. That the coloration has been compromised is understandable. Gold and silver edgings on garments and arcades gave the illuminated pages considerable splendor. While the Irish manuscripts tried no more than to represented the human form in a stylized manner, the figures and animals presented in the Codex Millenarius attempt a lifelike representation. The Evangelists of this Codex are cast as author-portraits, though they are not actually writing. To do this successfully, this illuminator was not very accomplished in his craft, not to say awkward. (Plates 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d) Thus St. Matthew’s right arm appears to have two elbows. However, positioning the arm to reach to the chin is unusual for these works. Each Evangelist setting is two-dimensional, without any attempt to indicate depth. Each of the Evangelists is shown holding essentially the same seated pose, the left shoulder turned slightly forward, the face frontal, sitting on a stool, each covered with a variety of fabrics. The garments vary in color and arrangement about the body. The feet are placed on a dais; those of Matthew and John are placed side by side. Mark and Luke have their right feet slightly pulled back. Two pairs of arms and hands are holding additional books, Matthew and Luke are not. The heads and faces are treated individually. Matthew and Mark each have a full head of gray hair flowing about the shoulders and gray beards. Matthew’s beard is full, Luke’s is pointed. Mark and John are tonsured with short brown and blond hair respectively. For some reason the illustrator arranged the four Evangelists in varying associations of two. All four have halos. Above each Evangelist there is a hanging lamp, or perhaps a crown, suggesting that the Evangelists are placed in niches. It is not surprising that the various parts of the bodies are not proportional. A lectern is placed in front of each figure, bearing an opened gospel. While each dais attempts to be in perspective, the other surfaces are flat up and down. The edges of each lectern are flanked with fish—dolphin—representations, as are the stands of the lecterns in front of Matthew and Mark. The stands of both of these are shaped as large contoured fish, their gaping mouths facing downward. The other lectern stands are squared posts. Each arcade has an individual treatment of the single band intertwined figure-eight knots, symmetrically arranged. All of the framing arcades are composed of decorated columns, plinths and decorated
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arches. The artist made no other attempts to create a sense of temple architecture. Each of these figural representations rests on a solid base. By contrast the tetramorphs are hovering without any base as a frame of reference. As emissaries of another dimension, they transmit the Gospels. Most impressive is the compact and forceful depiction of the winged lion emblem of St. Mark. With powerful mane, fixed stare, bared fangs and extended claws, it pounces into the arcade. With the strong tones in gold and brown of its torso and with a bright red tongue, it dominates its space. Like the other symbols it holds in its paws a book with a cover decorated in red and yellow. The other symbols are disappointing. The eagle effects the same colors of its plumage as the lion, but were it not for the almost fierce beak, one could be forgiven for confusing it with some barnyard fowl. The miniaturist must have had a goose for his model. The book in its claws is red and green. The other symbols are quite uninteresting. The origins for this work can be found in the ideas of the Eastern church and their transmission to Italy, from where over Ravenna and sites in Lombardy, their influences spread north. They found a precipitate in the scriptoria of the monastic foundations around Salzburg. Most of the stylistic motifs are of this heritage. A long lost common source may even have existed. The Codex Millenarius appears to be largely Central European with only weak influences of the Insular Style in evidence. The Palace School of Charlemagne at Aachen distinguished itself during his reign with the specialized production of magnificently illuminated manuscripts. In time some of these were presented as gifts to other establishments.201 Between 781 and 783, at Charlemagne’s request, the scribe Godescalc produced a gospel lectionary of exceptional beauty and distinct appearance, which introduces the original work of the scriptorium of the Palace School in Aachen.202 It was to be a forerunner there of other such manuscripts, such as the Dagulf Psalter, in which the entire book becomes an optical experience. Events mentioned in the Godescalc manuscript allow the dating. In 781 Charles had returned from Italy with Alcuin in his train with 201
Braunfels, p. 138. See Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, p. 53. Also Braunfels, p. 367. Wallace-Hadrill, p. 192, suggests it to have been a copy of an original among others brought from Rome in 781. Also Nees, Early Medieval Art, p. 182f. 202
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the assignment to found the Palace School. He may well have returned with books from Ravenna and Lombardy and hence contributed influences upon the literary work of the palace workshops. The Godescalc book of pericopes, the selections read during the service in the order of the liturgical feasts, documents its earliest activity as Godescalc also pays tribute to Charlemagne’s interest in books. Such an evangelistary is used in the liturgy throughout the year. Though without any real perspective, the optical effect is stunning. The text is written in well-attuned and expensive colors of golden and silver (blackened by oxidation) letters on purple parchment. Our interest in this manuscript focuses on the miniatures placed at the beginning of the lectionary: four actual author-portraits of the Evangelists, one of Christ and a representation of the Fountain of Life. What is very noticeable is that the minimalist concentration on the Evangelists and the tetramorphs of the Codex Millenarius contrasts clearly with the elaborate compilation of planes of shapes and colors and decorative details, as if the past horor vacui still dominated current tastes. From this point of view the Godescalc Evangelistary is still quite northern, though virtually without clear reference to any aspects of the Insular Style. (Plates 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d) Carpet pages by other means, they represent a synthesis of styles. The miniatures of Christ, St. Matthew and St. John in this lectionary introduce modest architectural settings behind the seated Evangelists, a feature which will become typical for the Carolingian Gospels. In the Fountain of Life illumination architecture itself provides the focal interest while simultaneously bearing a message.203 Each of the colored pages is larger than the framed miniature itself. The frames of the Evangelist author-portraits have some geometric but mainly vegetative ornaments, resembling palm leaf whisks arranged in a curvilinear manner. Stylized vegetation also appears within the miniatures. The platforms for Mark, Luke and John are faced with spiral tendrils. Each picture is subdivided into four horizontal background zones of differing coloration. Against these fields the tetramorphs, the Evangelists’ names, the Evangelists on their cushions seats and platforms are set in relief. Reminiscent of seated consuls on Roman ivory consular diptyches, the Evangelists maintain the seated pose, as their upright bodies cut across the horizontal
203
Stalley, p. 61.
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strips. Despite the wealth of structural surface detail, the figures dominate the space and attract our attention. Very personable in appearance they invite our participatory relationship. They are well positioned, and convincingly lifelike. All of their faces are very pensive, expressive, with clearly arched brows and large, penetrating eyes. Almost all other things are ancillary. This has the effect that the available space allows the names to appear only as abbreviations. John’s name has leached through from the other side. The shoulders are again more or less turned forward, so that Luke faces us frontally, his head turned slightly to the left, while Mark looks over his right shoulder. Matthew has his legs crossed at the knees, Mark has them placed side by side, Luke set apart, John’s feet are crossed at the ankles. Not all things are in the same plane, so that the toes of Mark’s left foot overlap the lectern stand, even though the stand is much closer to the viewer. The stands supporting tables and every lectern have been lathe-turned. All the faces have a look of meditative anticipation, as each one has a stylus in his right hand, ready to react and put pen to paper. Eye contact is established. Books and inkwells are within easy reach and lecterns stand ready. The Evangelists and their emblems move in axiomatic relation to one another as the Evangelists have their heads cocked in the direction of their respective symbols, which in turn have their heads lowered toward their respective Evangelists. Very natural in their depiction, lion and calf do not have wings. The heads of the symbols as well as of the Evangelists are surrounded by halos and these halos touch, suggesting that the Evangelists are actually listening to hear the words, which they are prepared to write down in metaphysical dictation. Their raised hands and pens suggest that they want to listen and ward off any other distractions. In a sense the tetramorphs are the Evangelists’ symbolic alter egos, so that the ‘prompting’ is more of a listening to an inner voice. The Gospels, which they hold, are the books kept in heaven, God’s Word, of which the one written by the Evangelist is a sacred replica. Hence each Evangelist is presented as a ‘prince’ among scribes. At this point the cushion rolls are something of a short hand for a throne-like chair. Matthew is seated on three such rolls. His miniature is different in still other ways. The halos of Matthew and of his symbol are quite far apart, but what links them are identical gestures with their right hands, held out to the other as if in a greeting or in blessing, very well executed. The angel holds a cross over his left shoulder. A large part of the background is that of a simple
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wall with arches in it, suggesting a metaphysical architecture. Matthew holds his gospel in his well-shaped left hand. Another book with the inkwell on it rests at his right elbow. Most astonishing is the lavishly illustrated miniature of St. John. Of all of the figures, represented in this manuscript, St. John is given a primary role, as the only one seated on a cushion role on a fully backed throne covered with an ornamented fabric. He faces the viewer frontally, a position traditionally reserved for imperial poses. Surrounded by a nimbus, his eyes do not make contact with his symbol, his cropped hair does not hide his left ear, a pointed beard frames the lower half of his face. Dark purple garments drape his body. His left hand rests on a page of an open book lying on a lectern. His bare right arm dips his pen into an inkwell standing on a table at the right of his seat. His heels are placed together. His knees are apart. The riser of the seat has visible outlines and the front of the platform displays the same spiraled tendril ornamentation as the platforms of Mark and Luke. Some space filling vegetation is represented below the table. Unarticulated stonewalls with some architectural detail and battlements across the top provide two distinct lines of background. More than the backdrops of the others, this symbolic architecture suggests an appropriate spiritual cityscape, an idealized composite of familiar images of cities, the heavenly Jerusalem. The Book of Revelation is a fitting reference to the hope for the eternal life projected in the visions of St. John. Uppermost is a plain golden strip showing a starburst below the letters naming St. John. His ‘eagle’ symbol, however, is the least successful of any of the tetramorphs. It resembles at best a strutting, angry chicken hawk rather than an eagle. The frame of this miniature differs from the other three in that it is not only decorated with vegetative scrolls, but mainly with intertwining braided knots, spaced in diagonal symmetry. Two opposite corners have circle motifs, the other two have a ‘floral’ pattern. The best-known miniature from the Godescalc lectionary is the Majestas Domini of the Christ miniature. (Plate 7a) Its frame is virtually identical with the St. John miniature. The uppermost panel surrounds Christ’s halo with a sort of shrubbery blooming with white fleur de lys blossoms. In the panel below the Christ monograms appear in large letters IHS XPs. Christ’s shoulders, beardless head and cruciform halo occupy the center of these two panels. An architecture with battlements, perhaps intended to suggest the heavenly
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Jerusalem, provides the third background panel. Space filling vegetation takes up the remaining spaces around the seat and its platform. By means of subtle contrasts the figure of Christ is separated from a rather busy backdrop. Surprisingly, Christ is not enthroned. Like Matthew, Mark and Luke, he sits on one of the familiar cushion rolls placed on an ornamented seat. A purple toga-like ornamented fabric is wrapped around him over a full-length auburn tunic. His hands and feet are elegantly elongated. The tip of his right foot extends just over the platform, while his left foot is slightly drawn back. Fine lines indicate the sandals on his feet. In his left hand he holds a book. Two fingers of his semi-clenched hand point to his own breast. The hand is not turned outward as in a blessing. This lectionary being a royal commission, it is perhaps plausible why this pose was chosen. The manuscript does not yet contain any depictions of royalty and the St. John miniature may well be intended to suggest such a primary association. In Roman imperial iconography, the halo and the gesture with pointing index and middle fingers were reserved for the divine emperor. Both were adopted by Christians to portray in mosaics the majesty of Christ. Pose and gesture represent the imperial dignity. With imperial significance they saw their first use, c. 600, in a Germanic context on the helmet brow plate glorifying the Lombard king Agilulf. As Pancreator the enthroned Christ is Lord of the Cosmos. Its introduction here may reflect something of Charlemagne’s majestic intentions, discussed earlier. The representation supposes late Classical Christian influences. It is interesting that the St. John miniature upstages the Christ miniature in some ways, thereby pointing to the esteem in which this Evangelist and his Gospel were held. The last page to be discussed here is the one bearing the title INVIGILIA NATALIS, the Fountain of Life.204 Its motivation has been associated with the baptismal font of the Lateran baptistery in Rome used in 781 for the baptism of Charlemagne’s son Pepin by pope Hadrian. Essentially a nature scene without any people, the significance of this representation must go beyond the historical event, because the Fountain is also associated with the Gospels as springs of life and 204 See Braunfels, p. 145. Also Bullough, Renewal, p. 11f. See D. Ganz, ‘“Roman Books” Reconsidered: The Theology of Carolingian Display Script’, in Smith (ed.), Early Medieval Rome, p. 300, points to this image being a particular Roman reference.
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faith. (Plate 7b) In this instance especially, the Fountain page is complemented by the lavishly ornamented facing incipit page of the gospel of St. Matthew which deals with Christ’s birth and its meaning for Christians as the spring of all life in this and the other world. Clearly the two pages are placed in relation to one another. A clue to this effect is hidden in the architecture of the Fountain. Its eight classicizing marble columns are in the same plane and all visible at the same time, which in a symmetrically arranged structure should not be visible, as their placement should be congruent. Such an arrangement is clearly deliberate. This illustrated page goes to some lengths to contrast the four larger columns further forward with those smaller columns further back, thus making an attempt to show spatial perspective and depth. Otherwise the surface of the illumination is flat, without any other attempt to indicate a third dimension. The viewer’s point of view is at right angles to the fountain. The pool of water is thus not visible. The painter is also careful to show each column with its own capital. A pointed roof bearing a cross on top completes this architecture. The animals do not actually have ground under their feet and hence appear to be hovering in some abstract space. In a unique idyllic setting nature and animals interact symbolically as the thirst of all is quenched at the Fountain. According to Psalm 42 the psalmist’s soul, just like the stag, thirsts for God, yet there are no human beings shown at all. The psalm begins with the analogy of a stag thirsting for water and it is shown near the fountain. Identifiable birds and fowl have come in pairs to the fountain and most are seen picking at blossoms. The animals belong to those traditionally seen on late Roman and early Christian ornamentation placed among the vines and acanthus leaves sprouting from one vessel as shown on the ivory throne of Maximian in Ravenna.205 The work of several carvers, the setting is paradisic with Old and New Testament scenes or legendary associations: cranes, herons, storks, pairs of ducks, guinea fowl, pheasants, roosters and most prominently two peacocks. The significance of the latter rests in the legendary belief that the flesh of the peacock was incorruptible, would never decay and by transference became a reference to eternal life and to Paradise. The mosaics in the church of San Vitale in Ravenna depict peacocks as dominant motifs. Whoever drinks
205
L. Nees, Early Medieval Art (Oxford 2002), p. 104.
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from the waters of this Fountain of Life will enjoy everlasting life. The Fountain itself symbolizes the springs, which represent the Gospels, while these in turn indicated the faith in Christ and the cancellation of death. The eight columns are an allegory of the Eight Benedictions,—the number 8 being a symbol of regeneration—206 of which the fourth promises satiation to those who hunger and thirst for justice. The rewards will be theirs in heaven. In this context the architecture of the Fountain yields another stylistic consideration, that of the anastasis/resurrection, represented by the rotundas marking the Holy Grave in the Church of the Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and then Old St. Peter’s in Rome, as well as many others, and later also in the church dedicated to St. Michael in Fulda. Early Christians saw the immersion in the baptismal font and the ascent from it as a death and rebirth into the sojourn among the blessed in another life. There is some evidence that the anastasis was celebrated as a cult in some of the early baptisteries. Its echoes are reflected in the names of churches—church of the Resurrection. By Carolingian times the ideas of a Heavenly Jerusalem, Paradise and the Heavenly kingdom had become equated. Paradise, with the meaning ‘garden’, was a term frequently applied to the portico or atrium of churches and hence associated with a columned structure. Church architecture itself was deemed to suggest a glimpse of the heavenly Jerusalem. A generation after the production of the Godescalc Lectionary, the gospel preserved at the monastery of St. Médard at Soissons indicated some stylistic developments. Perhaps both versions were based on a common original.207 Also a product of the renovatio at the scriptorium at Aachen, Louis the Pious gave it to Soissons in 827, this manuscript contains two representations of the Fountain of Life, representing the tomb of Christ and rebirth through Baptism and Paradise, the one contained in an ellipse over a set of Canon Tables indexing the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, the other as a full page representation related to the Fountain page of the Godescalc Evangelistary. (Plate 8a) Both of these versions have been enriched by elements missing in the Godescalc version, such as a much greater use of vibrant and deep colors and the presentation of human contours. 206 Stalley, p. 61, indicates that the world was created on the eighth day, Christ’s resurrection took place on the eighth day of the Passion, and that according to patristic thinking, the number 8 represented baptism as a spiritual regeneration. 207 Braunfels, p. 145.
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The Fountain representation, which is part of the canon table, twice shows the human form of Matthew as well as of Mark’s lion. The columns of the fountain show more perspective and a tilted water surface within the basin. The scene is set in a garden against a background of trees. By contrast the full-page representation of the Fountain is dominated by an architectural background. Most noteworthy is the massive Romanizing architecture dominated by a deep niche, which provides the largest part of the background, quite unrelated to the familiar arches, portals and arcades. Most of the birds are symmetrically placed on the building and the remaining space has contoured surfaces so that all the animals actually stand on solid ground. Their placement is generally confrontational. This time four deer rather than just one, are placed into the lower section of the picture. The Fountain, with its eight columns as anastasis rotunda, aims for a three-dimensional representation but other than that, its construction generally resembles the Godescalc version, except that with the show of depth and perspective the tilted water surface is visible. The illuminated pages are all whole page illustrations. In addition to twelve Canon Tables and the now familiar inventory of illuminated miniatures of the Evangelists and the Fountain of Life, the gospel from St. Médard features an astonishing and innovative, sixth illuminated page, usually referred to as the ‘Veneration of the Lamb’.208 This illumination precedes St. Jerome’s preamble to the argumentation concerning the authenticity of the Gospels and of the tetramorphs. This page is divided into approximate thirds of which the lower two-thirds are theatrical architecture, while the upper third is divided into two almost equal horizontal strips. (Plate 8b) The architectural background of the lower section represents an articulated wall with protruding and recessed parts of the wall perforated by a symmetrical arrangement of windows. This wall is reminiscent of Hellenistic façades, such as those cut into the rock at Petra, or the Roman theaters at Lepcis and Sabratha in North Africa and in the Roman theater below the Acropolis of Athens and is probably intended to infer the link with Rome, to suggest the ‘Heavenly Jerusalem’. In front of this wall stand four marble columns, red and grayish
208 J. Hubert, J. Porcher, W.F. Volbach, Carolingian Art, translated from the French (London 1970), pp. 84ff. See also Diebold, p. 89.
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green, with elaborate classicizing capitals simulating a Corinthian style. This arrangement is particularly reminiscent of the theater at Sabratha, where just such a screen of columns precedes the background walls. Once again there is only one ambiguous plane and perspective appears to be problematic. Below the center of the architrave a lion’s head holds a red curtain draped to the outside columns and tied in the familiar Classical manner. Above the architrave new architectural detail consisting of bastions and recesses backs four lunettes, each with one of the tetramorphs represented on it—from left to right, the angel of Matthew, the lion of Mark, the bull of Luke and the eagle of John. The two sets of recesses have been inscribed with abbreviated golden lettering representing the acclamation of the symbols: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, which was, and is, and is to come. Above these medallions a narrow strip of numerous fish and other marine creatures, the ‘sea of glass like unto crystal’ closes off the architectural elements. It has four ‘fisher’ men placed in the terminal and central positions. It separates the tetramorphs from the scene showing the vision of the apocalyptic lamb. The lamb occupies a medallion hovering above an apsidal recess, on either side of which are assembled twelve male figures, the ‘four and twenty elders sitting clothed in white raiment; and they had on their heads crowns of gold.’209 The artist has taken great liberties with the text, for they are not assembled about a throne, nor are they sitting or in white raiments. The golden halos may be considered equivalent to the crowns of gold. Radiating lines extend between the lunette containing the lamb and the congregated men, and each of the symbols. With its images and symbols the illumination represents a holistic, allegorical and hierarchical summation of the principles of the faith, of the edifice of the church and of the theological world beyond. This summation is presented in five ascending levels: At the base is placed the architecture and especially the four rising columns linked by means of the cloth representing the religious construct. This level is surmounted by the medallions of the tetramorphs representing the Gospels. The higher zone of the ‘crystal sea of glass’ separates the tetramorphs from the groups actually in adoration of the lamb. That apocalyptic scene represents in two strips a higher eschatological
209
Revelation, 4.4, 4.6.
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knowledge of final things and times as envisioned in the Book of Revelation. Rising above a final blue border and contained in a medallion in the realm, which passes all understanding, is the lamb. The manuscript is also decorated with twelve embellished Canon Tables, concordances of passages in the Gospels arranged vertically to facilitate the search for like and unlike treatments of the same themes and topics in the Gospels. (Plate 8c) It was Eusebius who first thought of this devise during the early 4th century. Initially the vertical gospel entries were separated by simple lines, but the nature of the material soon cried out for more elaborate treatments, especially when a number of gospels came to be itemized within the setting. In the Book of Kells decorated bars with round terminals at the bottom and square terminals at the top acted as dividers between the Gospels. In view of the popular use of columns for the decoration of pages, it is not surprising that the layout of these pages also invited an architectural portal treatment with columns and arches. The effect is that of temple architecture. It has been suggested, that these columns actually represented a screen of columns which, till the 16th century, had stood in front of the confessio of St. Peter’s in Rome, though the artist probably relied on an earlier Roman gospel.210 Depending on the number of Gospels intended to be indexed, the columns within the arch could be incorporated into another arcade of three, four or five columns. The columns can be straight, as well as spiral in shape. The spiraling, helical columns tend to alternate with static straight columns. Either type is resplendent in strong variegated and flowing stone colors such as blue, green, orange or purple painted to resemble the veins of marble or the coloration of porphyry. The multicolored capitals are roughly Corinthian in design, though much more fanciful in execution. The names of the Evangelists appear one to each arcaded arch, with the lists of concordances grouped in fives, separated by a horizontal line. The space between the arcades and the enfolding arch contains the groups of tetramorphs, which represent the Gospels listed. Singly or in groups, an open book is placed among them. The arch itself may be decorated as if studded with gems and with symmetrically placed cameos. Tendrils may crawl up on the outside of the arch. The space left between the arch and the corners of the page could be filled with vegetation
210
Bullough, Renewal, p. 11f.
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or other living things, especially symbolic birds, such as roosters or peacocks. These Carolingian gospels are particularly luxuriant in their use of such luminous colors on fields of actual gold and silver, orange, ochre, bright yellow and burnt amber, interacting with varieties of lavish red, or brilliant blues and azures, complemented by emerald greens, subtle mauves and plum purples, attuned to achieve a most sumptuous, original effect. It was mentioned above just how expensive these colors were. The result is spectacular in its novel splendor. The illuminated facing pages of the gospels are a case in point, where a richly colored full-page representation of an Evangelist on the left is complemented by an equally gloriously designed page of large initial letter and text on the right.211 The lettering in gold is of the ‘trumpet’ type in that the large initial is succeeded by letters of decreasing size The dominant colors are resplendent golds and purples, accented by contrasting greens, turquoise, blues and reds. That the two pages are conceived as an entity is indicated by the congruently identical design of the respective frames, which are each, ornamented with chains of beads and pearls, ovals and astragals. In this instance the Evangelist Mark faces the incipit page of his Gospel, the Second. Together the two pages effect an arcade in which the left arch contains a somewhat stylized representation of the Evangelist in the act of writing, while in the right arch there appears what he writes. (Plates 9a, 9b) Evangelist and text are as a sacred equation made visible. It will be recalled that the placement in arcades was a traditional means to accent the importance of the subject placed into that arcade. The lion holding the open book in its claws in the arch above the Evangelist ‘mirrors’ the textual title of the Gospel: INCIPIT EVANGELIUM SECUNDUM MARCUM, with the opening words, The beginning of the gospel of Jesus Christ the Son of God. The language of significant shapes equates with the language of significant texts. The two illuminations contain too many details to enumerate them all. Of interest are the upper spandrels on both pages, for different reasons. The spandrels of the left page may reflect some obscure meeting in a natural landscape with brown earth, horizon, blue sky and with impressionistic representations of vegetation in which an angelic figure points at a haloed figure on the other side
211 See Ganz, in Smith (ed.), Early Medieval Rome, pp. 297ff. for an extensive discussion of the classical, but Christian derivation of Carolingian lettering.
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of the arch, who in the context of the verses of the Gospel is John the Baptist. The scene illustrates Verse 2 of the Gospel: . . . Behold I send my messenger before thy face, which shall prepare thy way before thee, the very text which St. Mark has opened in the book before him. The green spandrels on the right page refer specifically to Verses 9–13 of the first chapter: in white garments, Christ’s baptism in the River Jordan by John the Baptist and the descent of the Holy Spirit in the shape of the dove, in the left spandrel and the brief textual reference to Christ’s being ministered to by two angels while he was tempted in the desert. The significance of these scenes of figural relationships shown in the spandrels lies in that for the first time in our discussion they illustrate the gradual introduction of narrative techniques in Carolingian art, referred to above. Separated from the arched field containing the lion emblem by a travis rod, a youthful St. Mark is placed against a deep blue background, framed by pulled back, knotted curtains, which, however, by mistake, are not held in position by the columns to which they should be attached. The ornamentation of the two arches differs as the apex of the arch over the Lion emblem is marked by a carved cameo showing several human figures. The other arch displays a red disc. The pairs of columns are not identical. Those flanking the Evangelist have golden capitals, dominated by a flower motif. The dark columns themselves betray an intricate grain in the marble shafts. The columns flanking the text have foliated capitals of (tarnished) silver. The column shafts are of a marvered gold. The pairs of column bases are distinct. His sitting pose is the familiar one, his body slightly angled to the right, head turned back over his right shoulder, leaning forward to hold the book on the lectern with his left hand, his right hand poised elegantly ready to write. However, the link between transmission and reception is no longer explicit as the eye contact between St. Mark and his emblem is no longer made as the earlier association between a writing Evangelist and an inspiring and prompting symbol is no longer obvious. The two have become too independent of one another. The garments, a tunic of gold trimmed pastel green and a toga of deep purple, are draped around his well-contoured body in the familiar fashion. He sits on the customary cushion roll. The fall of the folds indicates a very prominent, disproportionate upper thigh. The feet, especially the right foot, are well drawn, wearing the merest suggestion of sandals. The right foot extends over the edge of the platform. Edges tend to be in different planes. The background below
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the curtain knots is turquoise. The arch containing the text of the Scripture is of a golden background with purple lettering identifying the Gospel. The rectangle below is purple with golden lettering for the first lines of the Gospel. Particularly impressive is the large capital initial letter I, decorated with unidentified human torsos. The top of the letter is diamond-shaped with a haloed, mature, longhaired and bearded torso in the diamond. The bottom is also pointed, but essentially heart-shaped, with another longhaired but youthful and clean-shaven face in it. In the middle of the shaft is a circle with yet another haloed and longhaired young face in it. The shaft of the letter bears an ornamental braid along its entire length. Scroll designs provide finishing details. This initial reflects vestiges of the Insular and Anglo-Saxon styles. A prototypical presentation of a writing figure is kept at the Bibliothèque Royale in Brussels. (Plate 10a) It is variously described, by the library as the portrait of a scribe at work of Roman or Byzantine Provenance of the 6th century, or as the supposedly unfinished portrait of an Evangelist, St. Matthew from the Xanten Gospels, belonging to the Carolingian Ada Group of imperial Coronation Gospels dated to the early 9th century.212 While its unadorned, classical, clean simplicity would place it ideally at the prototypical beginning of the tradition of Evangelists bent over their lecterns writing their Gospels, why would a mere scribe have been so honored, considering the cost of a page of purple parchment. On this page a youthful figure, clad completely in white, is seated on a flat cushion placed on a simple stool. The left hand seems to be holding the opened book on the lectern, while the right hand is extended, writing. The smock-like garment is open at the front falling in easy folds about the knees. Most unconventionally, the man has not even the suggestion of feet. The portrait has modern appeal perhaps because of its unfinished state, but certainly because of its Hellenistic-Roman style, its Classical composure and quiet grandeur (Winckelmann’s stille Größe). The figure is located in an open setting, without indication 212 Bischoff, pp. 65, n. 45; 80f. groups the works. C.R. Dodwell, The Pictorial Arts of the West, 800–1200 (New Haven, London 1993), p. 56 refers to H. Swarzenski, who held that the unfinished page was a Roman work of the 4th century, which served as a model for the Carolingian artists, 60, Fig. 45. See F. Mütherich, ‘Book Illumination at the Court of Louis the Pious’, in Godman and Collins, p. 594f. suggests that it is a single leaf of an older and unfinished Evangelist portrait, subsequently inserted into the Brussels gospel. See also Hubert et al., p. 92.
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of an architectural setting. For its own time it would have been a curiosity. As it is, it provides some insight into the work as process. That this page need not strike one as that alien is demonstrated in the Aachen Gospels by an exceptional illustration which groups miniatures of the four Evangelists united on one single page.213 It suggests either the rediscovery of an antique style or the emergence of a new style. (Plate 10b) Their finished poses and the simplicity of their settings in individual, ideal spaces suggests an affinity with the page from Brussels, especially St. Mark could be a relative of the figure in white. The saints are placed antithetically: Matthew and Mark face left, Luke and John face right. They take no notice of one another. By contrast their tetramorphic symbols emerge from the billowing colors, each placed in a manner contrary to the Evangelists. The axiomatic associations prevail. Originally intended to show an architectural backdrop, each white robed figure is now in its own ‘landscape setting’, contrasted in a painterly manner against the world, a blended, nuanced, deep turquoise—azure, illusionistic cloud-like rockscape. Fissures approximating a cross divide the four regions. Tree-like vegetation along the horizon is silhouetted impressionistically in black against a narrow strip of reddish morning or evening sky. The appearance and the pose of each of the Evangelists show temperamental distinctiveness as they receive their individual inspirations. An elderly hunched Matthew, with gray hair and cropped beard, resembling an ancient philosopher, his head surrounded by a bluish nimbus, is resting his feet on the base of the lectern from which he has lifted his book. He seems to be reading. A youthful Mark holds the open book in his left while he is dipping his pen into an inkwell standing on the flat surface of a stand. His head too is surrounded by a bluish nimbus. Clean-shaven, Luke is the only one to hold the familiar writing pose, leaning over the manuscript lying on the lectern. St. John strikes the most noticeable and individualistic pose. He is presented full upright and frontally, his writing hand held shoulder high, the open book in his left. His chin seems to be touching his chest as his head is tilted downward to read. Like the others, his head too is surrounded by a light blue nimbus. He is flanked by a lectern on his right and an open table on his left. By surrounding the Evangelists with pieces of furniture fit for
213
Hubert, p. 97f.
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an interior, an otherworldly dimension is introduced into the openair composition. Each Evangelist sits on a red cushion roll, his feet placed individually on surfaces such as stools. The tetramorphs have the same light blue halos as the Evangelists. None of the beings has retained the familiar stylized awkwardness and even the eagle is a convincing bird of prey ready to take flight. A simple golden frame with elongated foliage patterns and with simulated gem settings encloses the composition. The credit may have to go to itinerant artists working at the court in a Hellenistic tradition, perhaps from Italy. A different sense of original presentation addresses the viewer. An illuminated set of Gospels, an expression of the standardization of the Bible,214 which was produced at the Palace School of Charlemagne, is known as the Ada Gospels. (Plates 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d) Owing to an attribution on the last page ‘Mater Ada, ancilla dei ’, it was Ada, who was erroneously taken to be a sister of Charlemagne, who commissioned the work. It had originally been housed at St. Maximin, then outside the walls of Trier. The Codex is written completely in gold and consists of the four Gospels and their preambles. Our interest throughout concerns the axiomatic portraits of the Evangelists and their winged symbols, which represent a peak in the artistic activity of the Palace School. The pages represent one merging of the traditions followed at the end of the 8th and beginning of the 9th centuries. A late Gothic front cover has a Roman sardonyx cameo at the center appropriately showing the emperor Constantine and the imperial family. The Evangelists of the Ada Gospels are placed in architectural settings related in motif to the Godescalc and Saint Médard Gospels and hence markedly different from the manuscripts in Brussels, Aachen and Vienna. In each instance the architectural settings provide a sacerdotal background of palatial proportions. The fundamental idea for such a setting probably came from Rome, but could easily have been inspired by the interior of the so called Aula Palatina, the imperial audience hall and throne room of Constantine’s palace complex at Trier, the Roman Augusta Treverorum/Treveris. Originally basilicas were multi-purpose buildings, large public assembly and market halls,215 which derived their name from the seat assumed by the basileus, the king, ruler or magistrate. In this basilica,
214 215
Collins, p. 117f. Stalley, Early Medieval Architecture, p. 21f.
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as in others, the elevated imperial throne and the tribunal stood under the monumental arch. Complete with optical tricks, an immense apse, decorated with resplendent marble and mosaics, helped to convey a sense of remote grandeur behind the throne, required by the elaborate court ceremonial to enhance the majesty of the emperor’s divine dignity.216 This positioning was intended to represent the supreme magnificence of the abstract notion of the dominus, the Divine emperor and to emphasize the transcendental radiance of sublime majesty in an ideal space. Recessed niches and windows articulate the awe-inspiring massiveness of the background. The portrait pages borrowed this setting for the positioning of the Evangelists. The columns supporting the arches are set slightly ahead of the platforms supporting the thrones. Enthroned slightly back of such an arch and against the perforated apse, the Evangelists hold court. Three of the saints face the viewer frontally in the pose reserved for the exclusive imperial personage. The decorated space under the arch is occupied by the tetramorphs, each holding the unrolled scroll representing the Gospels. Other than their coexistence on the same page, there is no link between the Evangelists and their allegorical emblems. The earlier eye contact between the two has been abandoned and the emblems are no longer prompting the writers. The emphasis is on the human effigy, for which the emblem is no more than an identifying badge. Nothing else in the composition does that. As can be observed with others, the identity of the Evangelist would have to be determined by its relative position in the text. An initial impression of general repetition has to yield to the appreciation of differences in these portraits. While the spandrels above the arches are ornamented with imaginary vegetation and various birds, those above St. John display mountain goats. While the arches show basically similar ornamentation, Mark and Luke have medallions and cameos placed on theirs. Matthew and John have perforated apsidal curvatures behind them. Mark is backed against a straight wall, while Luke sits in front of an angular, recessed building. The portal-like arches rest on very similar ornate capitals, but the columns flanking John are distinct from the others. Three throne chairs have very similar draped backs; Mark’s is more of a throne in that his chair has lion head terminals protruding on the sides.
216
Schutz, Romans, pp. 155ff.
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While Luke and John hold their pens at shoulder height, Mark is dipping his in an inkwell, while Matthew is actually poised in a writing position. They all sit on cushion rolls. Mark, Luke and John sit on benches in a squared off plain. That of Matthew is angled into the picture and slightly ascending in the perspective because Matthew is the one saint who is not facing the viewer frontally, but seated obliquely turned toward his lectern, the only one in the set. Each head has a slightly different tilt and all the Evangelists have youthful, beardless faces. They all wear the familiar garb of a tunic beneath an amply fitting toga. Below the draped garments, legs and arms, hands and feet are realistically convincing, despite the frontal poses of the bodies. Though pale and dark pinks are the color for most things, grays, greens and golds provide appropriate accents, however, the dominant color on all four miniatures is a dark blue. None of this is to be mistaken as taking place in this world. Despite the slight impression of perspective, the flat surfaces are a stylistic device to suspend any impression of reality. The arched portals offer entrance into a metaphysical realm. Another tradition follows from the illustrated pages of the gospels from Brussels, Aachen and Vienna. These had portrayed the Evangelists without benefit of architectural setting and without identifying tetramorphic emblems. A work dated to c. 800, made at Aachen, perhaps in the scriptorium headed by Einhard,217 has come to be known as the Imperial Coronation Gospels. (Plates 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d) It is worked in this other, Classical style and may perhaps be the work of a Greek painter.218 Painted on purple parchment, a smaller frame containing the Evangelists, is compacted quite unnecessarily and off-center into much less than the available space. Stylistically there is a relationship between the gospel illustrations from Aachen and the portrait of St. Matthew from these Imperial Coronation Gospels at Vienna. Written in gold and silver on purple parchment the Codex is illustrated with sixteen canon tables and monumental portraits of Evangelists. The Codex was used during the imperial coronations for the oaths of installation. Reputedly found on Charlemagne’s knees,
217 C.R. Dodwell, The Pictorial Arts of the West, 800–1200 (New Haven and London 1993), p. 56. 218 Hubert, p. 92. See Bischoff, p. 62, who speculates that Charlemagne may have returned with books written in this style from his campaign into Lombardy in 781.
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when Otto III opened his tomb in A.D. 1000, the saint is once again placed in an open-air setting without architectural context. The fact that the customary emblems are not also present in the compositions, suggests that these representations of the saints follow an eastern tradition. The itinerant artists were foreign to the ornamental, northern designs, but familiar with Roman motifs of background illustration.219 On purple parchment a smaller frame of gold and ornamented silver contains the portrait. Enveloped in a white toga, St. Matthew is placed in an open-air setting, captured in the formal pose writing his Gospel. His head is surrounded by a golden halo outlined in black. His left hand rests on the edge of the lectern holding an inkhorn. His right, holding a pen, is poised over the open book. He is seated on a large cushion roll placed on a chair, possible a folding chair. His left foot rests on a stack of books at the base of the lectern, his right foot is on the ground with the heel resting on the lowest level of the lectern stand. The clinging folds of the fabric suggest the outline of his legs. A reddish black background rises to shoulder height, contrasting the white garment, the darker head and halo are set off from the light background of the gray tinted sky. That this is a very sober and functional portrait is apparent. There is no world, no nature here, were it not for the acanthus leaves in the frame. The objective of this artist was to concentrate on the human representation and its activity. There is something minimalist about this portrait. No extraneous ornamentation, which might detract from the focus on the role of this saint in the context and message of the scriptures. Only the idea of the inspired Word of God. One of the other frames, that of St. John, is identical with this page of St. Matthew, except that in that instance the stool on which John rests his feet actually breaks out of the frame by having three of its feet placed outside of the frame, a distinguishing and relative rarity. St. Mark is placed in a frame with ‘baroque’ sling band curvilinear designs. Young and clean shaven, he faces us frontally, seated in the open against a gray, rocky landscape with ‘impressionistic’ trees on the horizon. He holds a book scroll up in his left and rolled out over his lap. His right hand is dipping a pen into an inkwell
219 Braunfels, pp. 149, 369, suggests that the artist(s) represented the techniques practiced in Greek Italy.
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standing on the visible remains of a stand. The coloration of the lower half of the picture is quite eroded. Used for the imperial coronation, the emperors elect would place a hand onto the pages and gradually wear off the painted surface. The remains of the seat, cushion roll and platform are more suggested than visible. The toes of his left foot are curved over the edge of the platform. The folds of the toga allow one to conclude where the right foot might have been. Mark creates a somewhat retiring impression. A different artist appears to have painted the portraits of St. Mark. The portrait of St. Luke is not often represented. His pose differs from the others, in that his profile is partly turned to the right. He is enthroned on an orange cushion roll in a niche of very plain masonry. There is no landscape suggested behind him. Very noticeable are his muscular right shoulder and upper arm. He is seated at a lectern, holding a book in his lap. It is a most modest portrait. As the protruding stool suggests, a towering St. John is placed more aggressively forward in a well detailed apsidal setting which could be an integral component of an elaborate throne. In its careful articulation this architecture is not just an abstract approximation, but actually has something convincing about its appearance. Again ‘impressionistic’ trees are silhouetted against the sky. John is also facing the viewer frontally. He is a mature individual with a full head of hair, long mustache and full pointed beard. His physical contours are fully noticeable under the long dark tunic and his white toga, accented by fine black lines. With his left he supports a book on his thigh. His right hand is raised to his shoulder, a pen between his fingers. He is seated on a bright red cushion roll, the left foot somewhat drawn back, the right set at the edge of the stool. As was the case with the portrait of Mark, this one also shows some moderate wear of its surface, though not enough to obscure the details. Unmistakable in these portraits is the centrality of the human effigy and its domination of the space. John especially stands out as a towering personality. The predilection of the other decorated works of the period to present space filling and surface covering pages in which the figure is an integrated element in the designs, is not followed in these Gospels. The large amount of unused purple pages suggests something incomplete about the composition of the framed figures. Figures and background are not in the same plane. The architecture of the St. John portrait even recedes somewhat to the left and right behind the seated saint. The portraits are a clear
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departure from the familiar arcaded settings. The homocentric idea is fundamental to the role assigned to the Evangelists. Were it not for their very large golden, heavily outlined halos, they could be mistaken for some other majestic personage. In contrast to the grandiose princely images of the other gospels, the large dark eyes contribute to the serenity on the faces of these Evangelists. They exude that composed compassion which invites the confidence of the viewer. The traditional explanation for this change in style is sought in the supposition that perhaps more than one artist was working in the Byzantine tradition, perhaps actually Greeks, and that the absence of the tetramorphs in addition to the homocentricity is a clear indication of an antique Classical view of man being introduced which was quite distinct from the style of the Court School. As was suggested earlier, a common Carolingian Style did not emerge during the early Carolingian Period. The rather rapid development and transformation in the manner of human representation is very apparent.
XIII. Illuminated manuscripts—Ruler Portraits It is only a small step from the Evangelists’ portraits of the imperial Coronation Gospels to the portraits of the ruler as rex christianus, especially in the case of Charles the Bald even as rex christianissimus, which appear as dedications in such votive manuscripts as gospels, lectionaries and so forth produced especially at Tours and at St. Denis during the later Carolingian period. As the term suggests, these idealized portraits intended to show the majesty of the monarch in his capacity as the head of the Imperium Christianum and not from his personal side. The glorious image of his function and cosmic relationships rather than his likeness were the artist’s objective point of arrival. Since he was either the work’s patron or its recipient, his ‘portrait’ is appropriate. In reaching for the imperial crown majestic self-representation and idealization were to prove means of superior effectiveness. In the end this was to contribute significantly to the evolution of medieval kingship.220 Once the religious connotation had been weakened in the association between Evangelists and inspiring tetramorphs and the imperial role been rediscovered for the
220
Staubach, p. 344.
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enthroned figure, it was not too long before a sacerdotal figure, responsible for the preservation, consolidation and propagation of the universal Christian domain, could appear in its own right, in theocratic guise, placed into a ritual context, as a fit subject in religious art. The first such depiction, though primitivist and unrelated in appearance, was the frontal ‘portrait’ of Louis the Pious discussed earlier in connection with the work of Hrabanus Maurus, De laudibus sanctae crucis, c. 840. Closely related to such ivories as that of Stilicho and other Roman generals, it showed the emperor as Miles Christianus, Soldier in Christ. Dressed like a Roman general, reminiscent of the Stilicho diptyche, and armed with helmet, shield and cross, the emperor is part of a pictorial pun without any real intention to portray majesty. The purpose was to call Christ’s blessing down upon the ruler. As if two persuasions coexisted without any relationship, the differences in artistic style and ability are astonishing, considering that nearly a half century has gone by between the artistic sophistication of the Coronation Gospels and the poor artistry in this work of Hrabanus Maurus, but then what appears to have mattered here were the words and not the images. Images mattered in the virtually contemporary ruler portraits of the emperor Lothair and especially in such splendid works of Charles the Bald as the one produced at St. Martin at Tours c. 845 and 850. The abbey was destroyed in a Viking attack in 853. A transition can be observed in the Vivian Bible, produced in the scriptorium at Tours, c. 845/46 and as is shown on a presentation miniature, is dedicated to Chares the Bald on the occasion of the granting of the abbey’s immunity.221 The gospel is associated with the former court official and lay abbot Vivian, a Frankish count with connections to the courts of Lothair and Charles the Bald.222 Owing to its political intention, the work is in accordance with the Davidic notion behind the Imperium Christianum as the illuminated page bearing the opening poem has two medallions between the panels of text, showing portraits of David Rex Imperator above one of Karolus Rex Franco,
221 See H.L. Kessler, The Illustrated Bibles from Tours (Princeton 1977), p. 126, for the text of the dedication. Also P.E. Dutton, H.L. Kessler, The Poetry and Paintings of the First Bible of Charles the Bald (Ann Arbor 1997), pp. 1, 89. The poetry accompanying the miniatures makes the case that the Bible become the king’s spiritual food. 222 See Kessler, pp. 96ff. for sources and influences.
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providing a clear political link between the two.223 In the dedicatory inscription of this Bible Charles the Bald is addressed as splendide David 224 and preceding the Book of Psalms, this Vivian Bible contains a dedication miniature showing David surrounded by ten figures of soldiers, musicians and cardinal virtues. (Plate 13) Two lines of text, a couplet, are meant to link the political implication of text and illustration: The psalm maker David shines brilliantly, and the company is Well trained in the art of music to sing his words.225
Consistently poets and artists dwell on the David—Charles equation,226 even extending it to a Christ association with David, provided by the context of the enormous mandorla. Facially David, Charles and Christ resemble one another. Is this an expression of Charles’ hubris? In this frontispiece David stands at the center of a dark blue, mystical vertical oval, the mandorla usually reserved for Christ as Pancreator or the apocalyptic Majestas Domini representations. Nuances of color suggest ‘terraces’ within this otherworldly space and provide the surfaces on which the figures are placed. Identified as king and prophet, a humble David is draped only in a robe, holding and strumming his harp, as if composing his psalms, his head turned over his right shoulder. His pose and the flow of his purple robe suggest movement, a reference to David’s ritualistic leaping and dancing before the Arc of the Covenant on the occasion of its arrival in Jerusalem—And David danced before the Lord with all his might: and David was girded with a linen ephod (a priestly garment).227 On his feet he wears military boots. A fantasy crowns his head. On his terrace stand two soldiers representing his body guard of foreigners, Cerethi on his right, probably Cretans, looking just like the Louis ‘portrait’ with shield and lance, and Phelethi on his 223 Dutton, Kessler, Frontispiece. Also p. 42f. See also H. Maguire, ‘Magic and Money in the Early Middle Ages’, in Nees, Approaches, p. 93. 224 Kessler, p. 129. 225 Dutton, Kessler, p. 115. 226 Dutton, Kessler, p. 8 provide further examples. Also p. 59f., 81. A precise political connotation was working in the equation between Biblical ruler and temporal king. 227 Chronicles I, 15. 16, 19–21. Also Samuel II, 6. 14, 15. Dutton, Kessler argue that David’s selection from among his brothers signals a contemporary message about Charles’ entitlement to rule in the place of his brothers, Lothair especially. See also Diebold, p. 82f.
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left, probably Philistines, similar in appearance without his shield, his lance leaning against his left shoulder, but holding a sword which he is drawing with his right. These three probably represent a hypostasis of the king, David the psalmist, the protector and fighter, as shield and sword represent the royal defensive and aggressive functions. It will be found that this motif will appear in variations for many years to come. The text also mentions shouting and the sound of trumpets. The texts identify all of the musicians of whom some seminude, named seated musicians, analogously placed to the Evangelists, play trumpets and other musical instruments. The corners of the framed page are claimed by four half-length female figures holding palm branches in one hand—fully dressed Prudentia, Justitia, partly clad Temperimentia, Fortitudo—, the other hand extended in a gesture of acclamation. Clearly the page departs from the traditional subject matter and opens references to other narrative detail, which need clarification and identification through the use of language. Evidently the familiar Frankish political theory, which first equated the Israelites with the Merovingian Franks as the new Chosen People, and then the House of David with the Carolingians and in which Charlemagne was called David, plays a role here. In the Vivian Bible, Charles the Bald is compared to David three times.228 Located at the center of this page is the symbolic representation of the Biblical ruler over the various dimensions of an abstract realm of art and virtue, as surrogate of the Carolingian king, the protector and defender. The splendor of the dedicated manuscript provides a visual parallel, which would imply an edifying ritualistic transformation of Charles, the Bald into an idealized David. The Gospels of Lothair, prepared at Tours, c. 850, contains a dedication page, which represents the emperor Lothair I enthroned in an arcaded setting. (Plate 14a) It is the imperial formula of the enthroned ruler flanked by arms bearers, which was first adopted for the early Christian representation of Biblical kings and then by the Carolingians. His crown is identical to the crown which David wears in the previous manuscript. Behind the throne stand two warriors, equipped quite like the warriors flanking David in the Vivian Bible. It is a very compact composition, a bit off-center to the right. The helmeted figure behind his left shoulder is armed with the lance and the shield.
228
Kessler, p. 109. Also Dutton, Kessler, Passim.
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The figure behind his right is crowded, as it has to reach over the back of the throne into the imperial space, holding a sheathed sword in his right hand. Their eyes are turned toward the emperor. These warriors may very well represent the functions of the prince. The scene is a variation on the motifs mentioned above, which themselves find antecedents in Roman examples and also on the helmet plaque associated with king Agilulf of the Lombards, c. 600.229 The emperor is seated in the manner of an Evangelist, his dark eyes directed to something beyond the frame, his right arm holding a scepter staff, his anatomically impossible left arm pointing in the direction followed by his eyes. There, on the next page, is written a poem of dedication. In golden letters on purple parchment the poem praises his rule, indicates that Lothair ordered the gospel at St. Martin’s, (between 849 and 851) and requests the prayers of those who may contemplate the book.230 Since Tours was in the domain of Charles the Bald, for Lothair to place a commission there was perhaps a gesture of reconciliation with his brother Charles, after the wars leading to the Battle of Fontenoy and the Oaths of Strasbourg. Lothair had his own Palace School, located somewhere in the Aachen and Liège region. A psalter produced there contained illustrated pages with portrait miniatures of an enthroned Lothair231 and of a seated king David. (Plate 14b) An inscription supporting his own position in the fraternal conflict links Lothair with David to the effect that Lothair was chosen by God to be ruler over his brothers.232 The Davidic element in Carolingian political theory is well established. He is clothed in a dark blue tunic and wrapped in the natural folds of a toga-like garment of purple and gold, held in place by a large disc fibula at the right shoulder. Black and gold are the dominant accents, which contrast with the prevailing tones of purple and mauve. The light mauve color of the backdrop drapery is continued in three levels of ‘clouds’ behind the lower portion of the throne. It forms the platform on which the shield bearer stands. The significance of this unique dedicationary portrait rests in the circumstance that this figure is shown totally without any obvious Biblical 229
Schutz, Tools, Weapons and Ornaments, pp. 168ff., Fig. 99. F. Mütherich, J.E. Gaede, Karolingische Buchmalerei (Munich 1976), p. 85. Also Bullough, Renewal, pp. 39, 68. See Diebold, p. 134f. for the text of the poem and for a rationale for placing the commission at Tours. 231 Backhouse, p. 20. 232 Dodwell, p. 60. 230
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associations. Though as emperor Lothair is rex et sacerdos, this frontal depiction is entirely that of a man without any other associations. It suggests very strongly a self-reliant statement of independent human integrity, dignity and autonomy. It strongly suggests his princely claim to the imperial crown, entirely in his own right. Unfortunately the artist’s intention is not that clear. He is known to be one of the artists who also worked on the Vivian Bible. The dedication page and poem placed toward the end of the Vivian Bible points in a very different direction. (Plate 15a) Despite the existence of a link between these two manuscripts, the scene showing the presentation of the Vivian Bible to Charles the Bald is a very different composition, placed in a context with definite indications of a political agenda. The presentation page documents an actual occasion, the Bible being offered to Charles on the occasion of his visit to St. Martin’s in 851. The last line actually ends Peace and praise for you without end, good king David. Be well!233
Charles’ exceedingly lavish ruler portraits are typical only for himself and not for his contemporary brothers and kings. Charles seems to have wanted to demonstrate his claim to supremacy and the imperial crown over his brothers,234 for he distinguishes himself from his brothers in that he liked majestic, highly idealized, symbolic representations of his august, royal person. Eight in all have survived.235 In a celestial, architectural setting of arch and supporting columns, the enthroned king is placed at the more remote center of an oval ritual space formed by the curvature of the arch above him and the semi-circular congregation of churchmen facing the king below, the composition suggesting an idealized setting in a mandorla.236 As homo caelestis, he is projected as the perfected ruler to be, the mediator through whom God’s word will be made known to man,237 once the illuminated Bible has fulfilled its textual and pictorial, educational function. That lesson was probably lost on him. To indicate his illustrious role, his figure is somewhat larger than that of all of the subordinate others. On the square corners of the arch two barking dogs
233 234 235 236 237
Dutton, Kessler, p. 119f. text, Fig. 17. See pp. 23ff. for the context. Staubach, p. 14. Kessler, p. 125. Dutton, Kessler, pp. 71ff., propose classical models for the scene. Also p. 91. Staubach, p. 18.
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are placed in confrontational positions. In each of the spandrels below, a female figure emerges out of a cloud extending a crown to the king. By association with other such representations, the figures are virtues. Lamps are suspended from the arch. White drapery is suspended within the arch creating three elliptical sectors. The lamps hang into the two flanking sectors. The central sector introduces a motif, which will be a feature of Christian art far into the Baroque Period; it is the dextra dei, the Right Hand of God, extending from Heaven. Radiating lines extend from its fingers toward the king’s head. Two chalices are placed off to the side of this sector. With an elaborated version of the crowns mentioned above on his head, the king sits on a cushion roll with a purple fabric draped from the back of the throne. Two civilians in noble court dress hold the throne from each side. Perhaps these were royal cousins, or the lay abbots at Tours. These in turn are flanked by the now familiar helmeted military figures, one with lance and shield, the other with sheathed sword. The king at the center wears a purple tunic under a gold trimmed yellow robe, which enfolds him. In the crook of his left arm he holds the scepter staff. His right hand is extended to receive the manuscript. The background to this colorful arrangement of men is a contrasting blue tinged white. Below the warrior with lance and shield, three tonsured figures with covered hands, perhaps the artists themselves, are raising the book toward the king’s outstretched hand. The one in salmon pink has been identified as the poet Audradus.238 Beneath them another three richly clad ecclesiastical figures in contemporary liturgical vestments are advancing downward toward an unidentifiable central figure, with his back to the viewer looking up to face the king. Below the warrior with the sword is placed another noble in court costume, a high ranking court official and perhaps the untonsured lay abbot Vivian himself, and beneath him four elaborately robed men of the church, members of the palace clergy, also turned toward the unknown central figure, at the bottom of the oval. There are no bishops among them.239 All salute the king in a skilful interplay of lively complementary gestures within a court-sponsored 238
Dutton, Kessler, p. 76. J. Beckwith, Early Medieval Art, (London 1985), p. 65, reviews the speculation concerning the identities of the figures. See also Dodwell, p. 74, concerning the identities. Also Kessler, p. 127. Also Wallace-Hadrill, p. 245. Dutton, Kessler p. 77f., make the case that the personages on the two sides are actually a double depiction of the same people, enacting different moments during the event. 239
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splendor. A dark blue background highlights their extravagant garments of mauve, light blue, purple and gold. Multicolored chasubles cover off-white dalmatics, which are worn over pale blue albs.240 Varieties of metallic blue add a sparkling vibrancy to the page. What is the political agenda intimated in this work? It is the Right Hand of God opened over the king’s head. This feature extends to king Charles the select status of being the chosen and protected of God. The accompanying poem spells out the royal virtues to be associated with the king. Charles was born in 823, the belated son of Louis the Pious by queen Judith, and when contrary to the terms of the succession established in Louis’ Ordinatio imperii his share to the realm was deducted from that of his older brothers, his succession was hotly disputed by them in a series of wars concerning the partition of the realm. Considering the questionable nature of his position only recently confirmed, this pictorial representation of his projected status in the eyes of God by the loyal monks of one of his royal abbeys is most timely. Combined with the Davidic associations mentioned above, the Hand of God confirms the idea of a justified claim to divine providence and the divine authorization of his rule and of the Imperium Christianum. It will indeed be recalled that in 871 he was yet to be crowned emperor. While his brother’s image suggests a self-reliant authority, the image of Charles is bolstered by the claim to divine support. The glorious ritualistic setting suggests an early claim to the Divine Right of kings. His challenge was to live up to the projected image. The Palace School of Charles the Bald functioned between 855 and 877241 and was possibly located at St. Denis, although that had no bearing on the work. In about 870 it began a Coronation Sacramentary, which was to remain a fragment.242 It was supposedly intended for the coronation of Charles the Bald as king of Lotharingia in 869. It became associated with Metz. The fragment contained several original celebrated pages, including an unnamed standing Frankish ruler, St. Gregory inspired by the Holy Spirit, Christ in Majesty and several other scenes of heaven. The St. Gregory scene introduces a touch of humor. (Plate 15b) Based on the Vitas of Gregory, this is 240
Kessler, p. 133. Staubach, p. 222. 242 See Dodwell, p. 64, concerning the supposed historical reasons for the uncompleted state of the work. 241
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the first manuscript in which a legendary episode is represented of Gregory shown dictating to two scribes, with extended pauses in the dictation.243 This genre has the scribes separated from the legendary figure by a curtain. This legendary narrative has it that one of the scribes used his stylus to make a peephole in the curtain, to see. Here one of the scribes outside of the sacred realm of the saint lifts the curtain to see what is happening on the other side and to his surprise sees the Holy Spirit, in the shape of a white dove, touching the lips of Gregory with its beak. The saint figures as the transmitter of the divine word. This first illustration of the legendary anecdote will become a popular narrative during later periods. Facing that page is our primary interest here, the illustration of a group of three standing figures. (Plate 15c) All three have halos. The back of each of them has an irregular patch of a darker color which on the bishop to the left is rather squared, which just may be a fragmented indication of a square halo, suggesting that the figures represented were still alive. The garments of the two flanking figures identify them to be bishops, who may have been Hincmar of Reims and Adventius of Metz.244 They are turned slightly inward, toward the central figure. Each bishop carries a book. This central figure is dressed in noble court costume and most probably represents the young king, Charles the Bald. Curly clouds, flowing ribbons, folds and hems, as well as multicolored and elaborately scalloped designs in wave patterns of the splendid frame, animate the composition and lend it a high degree of movement. The Hand of God reaching out of Heaven and placing a bejeweled golden crown on his head is the important, ideological detail of this illustration. It is a claim to select status among his brothers. Supported by high clergy Charles is rex et sacerdos, a pictorial reiteration of his legitimacy. In 876 Charles became lay abbot at St. Denis. Two artists, Liuthard and Berengar, working in the scriptorium at St. Denis produced yet another gospel dedicated to Charles the Bald. It is now identified as the superlatively worked Codex Aureus from St. Emmeram in Regensburg. (Plate 16a) The emperor Arnulf presented it to the monastery. It may originally have been intended for Charles’ foundation dedicated to the Virgin Mary at Compiègne, in reference
243 244
Staubach, p. 226. Staubach, p. 225, for a brief speculation and refutation of other interpretations.
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to the Palace Chapel at Aachen.245 The manuscript is perhaps the most grandiose and most lavishly ornamented gospel dedicated and pertinent to Charles the Bald. Purple, gold and blue, with some red accents, are the dominant colors throughout and suggest a Byzantine affect. The Codex contains the traditional Gospels, prefaces and introductions, dedicatory poems of which the last contains the date and the names of the scribes. Of the many decorated pages with canon tables, Evangelists, an apocalyptic Majestas Domini and many initials, the Coronation and the Veneration of the Lamb are placed on adjoining pages. Their purple and golden splendor is extraordinary.246 Within an elaborate frame the picture of the enthroned king has an upper purple strip with golden letters complemented by a lower purple strip with golden letters twice as wide. This poetic inscription identifies the ruler as Charles the Bald and places him in relation with his biological and Biblical predecessors Charlemagne/David and Louis the Pious/Solomon. It also states that it was Charles who had commissioned the work and had provided the funds. The text also refers to his father Louis the Pious and to his mother Judith. The inscription implies that Charles deserved special status and singular rank. While his other half-brothers were born prior to their father’s coronation, Charles was actually born ‘to the purple’, porphyrogenetos, when his father was already crowned emperor.247 The picture portion is about twice the size of the upper and lower portions combined. Deliberate devises to deny reality cancel out any attempts to create a perspective and consequently the picture is rather two-dimensional. The ritual space in which this coronation is placed is not of this world, but symbolic of an ideal world, something of an intellectually and spiritually projected architecture. The throne architecture, a colonnade of five arches and crossbeams dominates the scene. The golden columns are in the same plane although a correctly drawn red and gold canopy, the fastigium, a symbol of imperial majesty and judicial authority, vaults over the four columns indicating volume and depth. The right terminals of the baldachin appear to reach further into the picture than the left, so that the ballooning canopy stands curiously into the picture, in which the columns, 245 Staubach, pp. 264–278. He lists the poetic references basic to the Codex Aureus, the works of Sedulius, Hucbald and Scotus. 246 Mütherich, Gaede, Figs. 37, 38. See Staubach, p. 261f. for references to contemporary literary sources. 247 Staubach, p. 263.
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however, deny that third dimension. Like a new Solomon the king is seated on a resplendent throne in the central arch, a golden crown with fleurs de lys on his head and drapery behind and above his head. In an ellipse above the king’s head God’s Right Hand reaches down into the vaulted space as if he had only just performed the ritualistic coronation of the king. Angels hover toward the canopy and touch it. Against a mainly blue background the king, larger than all other figures in the picture, wears a dark blue tunic, ornamented elaborately with golden designs, perhaps fleurs de lys, or golden bees, hemmed with an apparently gem encrusted band. A purple toga is draped around him, also with a gem encrusted hem and a large jeweled conched fibula at his shoulder. Red leggings with golden bindings and golden shoes complete his appearance. His mustachioed face, stern, with very dark eyes, is turned to his left. His left hand does not hold a scepter and is hidden in the folds of his lap, his right hand gestures in the same direction as his gaze—at the picture on the facing page of the Veneration of the Lamb. In the two flanking arches, two votive lamps, familiar from Visigothic Spain and the province of Gothia, hang over the familiar, smaller two warriors, the left with shield and spear, the right one holding his sword and coiled belt assembly. Again they represent the royal function to defend the Christian faith. In the flanking space to the left and right, stand two female figures wearing battlement crowns and holding cornucopias with sprouting flowers. Inscriptions in the frame identify them as his provinces Francia on the left and Gothia on the right, the core areas of Charles’ kingdom and subject to his justice. These smaller figures, just as the angels above, stand out against light mauve-beige backdrops. Several of these motifs will see continuity in Ottonian Art: the Hand of God, the angels, the baldachin, the two warriors, the female figures with battlement crowns carrying cornucopias representing provinces. This page is the most sumptuous propagandistic claim and portrayal of the legitimacy of Carolingian royalty within the context of the Christian Empire. In its ritual splendor it asserts the claim to divine installation on earth by virtue of God’s choice and grace as rex terrae. The identification of provinces, however, is an innovation, since during the Early Middle Ages, kings were rulers of peoples and not of territories.248 That Charles is a most Christian 248 P.E. Schramm, Die deutschen Kaiser und Könige in Bildern ihrer Zeit (Munich 1983), p. 54. See also Porcher, in Hubert, et al., pp. 147ff.
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king, a rex christianissimus, is made apparent in his orientation toward the apocalyptic scene of the facing page showing the Veneration of the Lamb by the twenty-four elders. (Plate 16b) In the upper spandrels sun and moon are suggested, while in the lower ones a seated Oceanos leans on his jug, while a seated Terra holds a horn of plenty. The Lamb is Christ, the rex caeli, the King of Heaven. On an equally sumptuous page the golden inscription on purple background indicates that Charles sees the revelation of the Lamb and prays to be united with it in eternity.249 There is an intimation here of an equation of identity. Enthroned under the canopy, instated by God, the picture suggests strongly that the king is indeed God’s dear representative, ‘in whom he is well pleased’. It is fair to assume, that when he commissioned this work Charles expressed a wish as to the depiction of its key ideas. Clearly, the king’s perception of his own entitlement as rex et sacerdos to rule is expressed here with spectacular brilliance. The artistry of the gospel is a lustrous display of the king’s Heil, felicitas, fortuna, the prerequisite distinctions for rulership through the assurance of divine benevolence. It mattered to engage in this glory by association with the Biblical David and Solomon, his select status, his qualifications, his legitimacy and entitled majesty.250 The introduction of sacerdotal concepts and of such symbolic ritual practices as the anointing of the Carolingian imperial head of Charles the Bald was a deliberate attempt to underscore the claimed association with the Old Testament kings, first appreciated by Alcuin and those others around his grandfather Charlemagne, who proposed the Imperium Christianum; the liturgical imperial acclamation formulas echoed Germanic tribal and Roman military practices, while the ever-increasing emphasis on official imperial ‘portraits’, as well as Charles’ the Bald inclination to wear a diadem and veil in the Greek imperial fashion, served to elevate the image, the ideal of the imperial ruler in the tradition of the Roman emperors and reestablish earlier ideas of the sacerdotal essence of the ruler, in the Imitatio sacerdotii. The luxurious settings of the effigy, with their display of monarchical splendor and implied power are the equivalent of acclamations of a king of Biblical stature. There are several other dedicatory representations of Charles the Bald. Considering that in 838 Charles’ ascent to the western throne 249 250
Mütherich, Gaede, p. 108. Schutz, Germanic Realms, passim.
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had been at the expense of Pepin’s son’s right to the succession and that his reign was not actually exceptionally brilliant, we can see that these ‘portraits’ are the work of image makers projecting the artistic aura of the ideal ruler, the idea of the great augustus, an image somewhat at odds with reality. The image may well have been thought of as an instrument with which to advance the not so veiled ambitions of Charles’ imperial future. As a result the representations of Charles succeeded in creating the enduring image of the illustrious Carolingian ruler. In addition there are the ruler portraits imprinted on coins. A very richly ornamented Psalter dedicated to Charles’s brother, Ludwig the German, during the second quarter of the 9th century, does not contain an idealized ruler portrait of that king. The Psalter shows one unidealized representation of a crucifixion group with a prostrate figure, identified as Ludwig, embracing the base of the Cross. (Plate 17a) This pose would be in keeping with Ludwig’s religiosity. Theological questions were a constant preoccupation of this rather learned king.251 Educated in the seven liberal arts, on occasion he seemed more interested in the interpretation of certain Biblical passages by Hincmar of Rheims and complex questions in theology than in political discussions with his brother Charles. Hrabanus Maurus was close to him, so it is not surprising that Ludwig the German elevated him to the archbishopric of Mainz. Though the scriptoria of his realm, Fulda, Reichenau, St. Gallen, Lorsch, Corvey, produced a considerable number of hagiographical and historiographical works, it is unlikely that his court had its own scriptorium. The literary activity during his reign is noteworthy, including numerous splendid manuscripts commissioned by him, presented and dedicated to him by Hrabanus Maurus and Walahfrid Strabo, for instance.252 These attest to the king’s active interest in the intellectual issues of his day. The beautifully illuminated Psalter belongs to a continuing tradition of exquisitely colored, intertwining Insular and Franko-Saxon imaginative ornamentation of golden initials and letters which does not favor the use of miniatures. (Plate 17b) In the German realm the elaborate and luxurious ruler representations will have to await the Ottonian Period.
251 252
Wallace-Hadrill, p. 333. See also Hartmann, pp. 212–222. Hartmann, pp. 218ff.
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XIV. Illuminated manuscripts—Christ in Majesty The enthroned Christ of the Godescalc Gospel has been discussed at length. In principle such a depiction of Christ in Majesty, a Majestas Domini, was a common apocalyptic feature, painted or as a mosaic, in the main apse of churches and a frequent ornamental page in the gospels. Characteristic motifs show Christ contained in an oval precinct, the mandorla—aureole—almond, seated on a globe, surrounded by symmetrically placed tetramorphs. This glorious precinct may also be a lozenge. Among the miniatures of the Vivian Bible such a majestic representation of Christ, placed in a diamond shaped tetragon, combines the major prophets of the Old with the Evangelists of the New Testament. (Plate 17c) A text identifies the illumination: The heavenly king gleams worthily, and the prophets [also shine] Here, and the four evangelical heralds.253
It is a composition, which represents the four corners of heaven and earth in which the prophecies of the Old are realized in the New Testament and fulfilled in Christ. That is the ultimate truth of the Christian message. A simple linear frame of purple, gray and golden lines contains the whole composition. While the Evangelists in their formal writing poses are usually arranged in a clockwise manner, in this Bible the haloed figures are diagonal opposites: top left John, bottom right Luke, top right Matthew, bottom left Mark. Against a deep purple background all but Luke are seated on a wing-backed ‘throne’, two are writing, Mark is thinking while he cranes his head unnaturally to face upward, Luke is dipping his pen into his inkwell. Each one has an opened box of books at his feet. Medallions at the corners of the tetragon contain the busts of the four major prophets: vertically Isaiah and Jeremiah, horizontally Ezekiel and Daniel. Isaiah and Daniel hold opened Old Testament scrolls. Ezekiel and Jeremiah hold closed Old Testament books. Just inside the corners of the lozenge are the tetramorphs holding the pertinent Gospels. The symbols are arranged clockwise from the top: the Eagle of John, the Angel of Matthew, the Ox of Luke and the Lion of Mark. The wings of each are spread to help fill the triangle. The Eagle and the Lion hold books. All enclosures are composed of the same three
253
See Dutton, Kessler, p. 117, Fig. 10.
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colors: purple, gray and gold. The intended meaning is the close cohesion and interrelationship of all figures, united in Christ. Christ is seated on a globe at the very center of the page, within the mandorla of two intersecting purple circles in the shape of the figure eight. Under the cyclonic folds of an enveloping golden toga he wears a light blue tunic. On his raised left thigh he rests his hand on an upright book, his open right hand holds up the oblate, as symbol of his Body, between raised right index finger and thumb to face the viewer. His youthful face with large sympathetic eyes is framed by a forked beard and long brown hair, which falls onto his shoulders. The head is encircled by a crossed halo. All figures are somewhat elongated. Two golden stars flank the medallion of Isaiah, while windblown golden vegetation fills the animated blue spaces above the medallions. Purple and light blue are the background colors for the miniatures. The colors, lozenge and the medallions suggest the shape of the cross. In addition to the ruler portrait and four miniatures of the Evangelists, the Gospel of Lothair also contains a picture of a Christ in Majesty. Much simplified in intention, it features the tetramorphs in the four corners, beginning with the Eagle of John at the top left, the Angel top right and Lion and Ox from right to left. The latter are quite contorted as their heads are turned upward to the enthroned Christ. Within a large mandorla, Christ sits on a globe in virtually the identical pose as is given to him in the Vivian Bible. Charles’ Coronation Sacramentary from Metz contains a Christ in Majesty composition, which introduces several new elements. (Plate 18a) A very similarly positioned Christ holding book and host as the others, is seated in the large aureole. Seraphim, angels with six purple folded wings flank the mandorla. Beneath them are placed personifications of the Roman pagan figures Oceanos on the left, and Terra/Gaia on the right. Oceanos is a semi-nude reclining water and river god, resting his right arm on a jug from which water flows. His legs are robed in a swath of purple material. A large fish head protrudes from the other side of his legs. Terra is a reclining semi-nude earth and fertility goddess, clad in white, with two children at her breasts. Two frames enclose this composition: an outside frame with simulated gem settings, an inner one decorated in sections, mainly with green leaf motifs, but also purple marble imitations. The motifs of Oceanos and Terra/Gaia will undergo some modifications till Oceanos is identified with Jordanes Fluvius and Terra/Gaia holds a snake to her
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breast and a cornucopia in the crook of her arm. The Sacramentary also contains a highly decorated initial page of the letter T on which Christ is crucified. Above the arms of the cross appear gold and silver discs, with Sol, the sun god on the golden disc and a weeping Luna, the moon goddess on the other. (Plate 18b) It is interesting to note how these pagan, Classical motifs were revived, to be integrated into Christian art, thereby demonstrating their continuity. The Gospels of Otfrid von Weissenburg, c. 868, contain another such crucifixion scene with Mary and John, and a sun and moon representation above the cross.254 (Plate 18c) The pagan sun and moon motifs will find representation in art and architecture well into the 16th century. The Sacramentary contains yet another Majestas Domini page. (Plate 18d) Using the familiar colors for the background, the figures in the foreground and the designs of the frame, this is a densely populated and turbulent scene. The disciplined arrangement of the frame contains and restrains the enthusiasm. Christ in his mandorla is surrounded by choirs of angels, all animated and agitated, in euphoric transport over the vision of the Lord. Christ is seated on a globe against a blue background outlined in green, contained in the golden enclosure of the almond. The pose and the colors are virtually identical with the previous poses and colors. Over a blue tunic Christ is enveloped in a golden toga. Only the outer garment is less cyclonic in the way it falls about the body. The left hand holds the book supported on the left thigh, the foot slightly propped up. Christ holds the host in his right hand. A beardless, invitingly friendly face with penetrating eyes is surrounded by a halo. Once again the apocalyptic tetramorphs support the mandorla from outside, beginning with the Eagle of John top left, Matthew’s Angel top right, and contorted Ox and Lion of Luke and Mark twisting their heads upwards to look at the enthroned Christ. Beneath the mandorla, four very similar subdued looking male torsos direct their furtive eyes upward. Without wings, they probably represent the overawed Evangelists. They are divided into two groups by two of the purple wings of the six-winged seraphim standing on the lowest level. Instead of perspective and depth the surface is arranged twodimensionally into superimposed layers of ascending plateaus. These
254 A. Goldschmidt, German Illumination. Vol. I. The Carolingian Period (Florence 1928, New York 1970), Fig. 62.
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serve as the surfaces on which eight angels stand to fill efficiently any remaining spaces. All figures have halos. All figures are robed in the identical garments and colors as Christ. All eyes are turned in veneration to face Christ. The figures display a range of emotions from ecstatic adoration to cowed timidity. This revelation of heaven projects the participation in the celestial divine service of the heavenly host, intimating the worship and glorification of the divine majesty in heaven as on earth.255 The scene invites the enthused participant to share this elated vision of this euphoric knowledge of final things, as suggested in the Scriptures. These motifs also appear carved on the ivory gospel covers and other ivories, as well as embossed on the covers of sheet gold.
XV. Illuminated manuscripts—Narrative style Among the illuminated gospel manuscripts several models of narration stand out. Derived from late Roman and early Christian reliefs, many miniatures assemble figures related to specific events. Reference to the anecdote telling the story of St. Gregory and one of his scribes depicted in the Coronation Sacramentary of Charles the Bald has already been made. The Drogo Sacramentary (c. 844–855), written in gold on the finest parchment, colored in pale pastels, elaborates forty-one capital initials with Biblical scenes depicting specific events relating to the Life of Christ.256 (Plates 19a, 19b, 19c, 19d) This in itself is new and not without problems. While textual narrative makes itself clear to the listener, pictorial narrative depends on a degree of initiation into the story to be told. Otherwise the depiction of an event misses its narrative intention. Without this initiation a monumental letter C, ornamented with golden acanthus vines with red edging would be quite obscure, were it not placed into the text of the Christmas story, despite its domination of the page, and despite the fact that within the letter, a historiated initial, individual scenes of the nativity are placed into the intertwine—the Virgin Mary’s bed, Joseph as an uninvolved observer, ox and ass at the crèche, the bath of the infant Jesus. To accommodate the shepherds, an elaborate 255
Staubach, p. 227. See Braunfels, pp. 208ff. See Porcher, in Hubert, et al., pp. 158ff. Also Diebold, pp. 45ff. 256
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ornamentation extends into the inner space of the capital letter. Only the prior initiation into the story can make the language of pictures clearly meaningful. Similarly there is the highly ornamented initial D eus which shows the reeling guards, and the dramatic meeting of the Three Maries with the angel at the empty tomb and being told, He is not here: for he is risen. This scene was soon to give rise to the Easter Plays. In all instances the tectonic forms of the capital letters are subverted into writhing and enclosing organic, perforated intertwines, a fine, original recapitulation of Mediterranean and northern traditional stylistic characteristics. Within the letter D itself small scenes depicting events in Christ’s interactions with the Maries are intertwined within the ornamental acanthus vines. The vines enfold the letters like living ivy. One of the Maries is at his feet, probably the scene when Christ identified himself to her as the Messiah. The main scene, however, shows the Three Maries before an elaborate tomb structure, being greeted by the angel, with the guards reeling, off to the side. Like this capital letter, the inventive initials are extremely carefully thought out. Thus for the Ascension of Christ, the whole inner space of a foliated capital C is filled with Christ taking the Hand of God, reaching out of Heaven, as he ascends a rock formation, flanked by two angels and with Mary and the apostles witnessing from below. Here the human figures are reminiscent of those appearing in the Utrecht Psalter.257 Many initials are provided with special compartments in which figures can be accommodated among the tendrils and foliage to offer support by means of pictorial commentary for the textual message. Eventually these organic intertwines with humans, animals and vines will characterize the ornamental friezes of the Romanesque style. Old Testament scenes are selected for their prophetic character, New Testament scenes for the extent to which they show the prophecies fulfilled in Christ’s passion. The Vivian Bible contains scenes from the life of St. Jerome,258 while the Grandval Bible from Tours, contains two pages of co-existent narrative registers intended to be read sequentially, one page telling
257
See Chazelle, Crucified God, p. 254. B.M. Kaczynski, ‘Edition, Translation and Exegesis. The Carolingians and the Bible.’ in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, p. 176, for a discussion of the page. See as well Diebold, pp. 71ff. 258
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the story of Genesis from the creation of Adam, by a youthful looking God,259 to the expulsion from the Garden of Eden, and Eve giving birth in sorrow and Adam working the soil with bitter effort, (Plate 20a) the other showing Moses on Mt. Sinai receiving the Code and preaching to the people of Israel. These are condensed extracts from richer pictorial cycles. The mid-ninth century Bamberg Bible retells the same Genesis sequence, by arranging on four tiers silhouetted figures separated by vegetation.260 (Fig. 9) Despite the similarities of these representations, there exist sufficient variations to indicate the possibility of a lost common source. The miniaturists of the Carolingian Period, some known by name,261 also found a focus for their narrative skills and creative phantasy in the illumination of psalters, traditional collections of the psalms, hymns and prayers, originally intended for liturgical use and communal prayer, singing and recitation. The psalters served educational purposes for the young as well, in that they were also used as basic texts for reading and memorization. The clergy had to know the psalters by heart, a task of several years.262 By means of an inexhaustible use of parables, metaphors and similes they succeed at making textual abstractions of the Christian message pictorially visible, perhaps as aids to memory. Three illustrated manuscripts are especially worthy of note: the Psalters from Stuttgart, Utrecht and St. Gallen. Each reflects a somewhat different intention pertaining to pictorial narrative, in that illustrated scenes are inserted directly between the lines into the appropriate places in the commentaries of the psalms. This represents a Carolingian innovation. The miniatures are not given an independent illustrative page. The Psalterium Aureum, from St. Gallen, is a variant. The Stuttgart Psalter is a vibrantly illustrated manuscript with some 259 Braunfels, p. 390. See Dutton, Kessler, p. 112 for the poetic texts and Figs. 5, 6 for the illustrations. 260 Kessler, pp. 13ff., and Figs. 1–4, for a detailed analysis. See O. Pächt, Buchmalerei des Mittelalters (Munich 1985), p. 29. See Maguire, ‘Magic and Money’, in Nees, Approaches, p. 94, who indicates that once fourteen circular ornaments showing heads had surrounded the page, but that at a later point nine had been cut out, perhaps to be used as amulets. 261 Alexander, p. 6f. 262 Van der Horst, The Utrecht Psalter in Medieval Art, p. 36f., 81. Also Contreni, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 729. See also Contreni, ‘Pursuit of Knowledge’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, p. 116.
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colored and capital initials and three hundred and sixteen vividly colored narrative scenes. In this Psalter vivid colors are set off against one another: reds, gold, purples, skin tones and greens provide enlivening accents and contrast. (Plate 20b) The Psalter was produced at Saint-Germain-des-Prés, c. 820–30. Three groups of pictorial commentaries illustrate the psalms: illustrations of psalms making reference to the Old Testament, scenes with textual relevance to specific psalms such as the elaborated reference to Psalm 42:2 (Vulgate 41:2), showing the familiar stag allegory of the soul seeking water, and events from the New Testament anticipated in the psalms. King David, the psalmist, anticipates Christ. The pictorials then are an attempt to cross-reference Old and New Testaments, to interlink textual and visual references into a coherent context. Old and New Testaments function as type and anti-type, as prediction and realization, as promise and fulfillment. The texts of the psalmists represent the Old Testament. The pictorial projection represents the New Testament. The two together point to the knowledge of the final things, which matter. Among these, five can serve as sample pictorial illustrations for selected texts from the Psalms: 72:6, 10–11, 69:21, 9:4–6, 91:13, of the King James Version. Psalm 72:6 (Vulgate 71:6) states He shall come down like rain upon mown grass; as showers that water the earth. This text is illustrated with the angelic Annunciation to the Virgin Mary. (Plate 20c) Against a purple background the angel approaches an enthroned Mary from the right. A dove descends toward her. Verses 10–11, tell of kings bearing gifts, Yea, all kings shall fall down before him; all nations shall serve him. (Plate 20d) The vignette used to illuminate this passage sets the Three Kings following the star, bringing gifts to an enthroned Virgin Mary and Jesus, seated in an arch. The composition mirrors the mosaics in San Appollinare Nuovo in Ravenna. The background to this composition is green. Psalm 69:21 (Vulgate 68:22) reads They also gave me gall for my meat; and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink. These lines recommend the circumstances of the Crucifixion when Christ remarked that he was thirsty and a sponge soaked in water and vinegar was passed up to him. (Plate 21a) In this scene a soldier carrying a large pail extends the sponge to a very stylized and unproportional crucified Christ. John and Mary approach from the left. Again the background is green. Psalm 9:4–6 deals with the rejection of the unworthy: For thou hast maintained my right and my cause;
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thou satest in the throne judging right. Thou hast rebuked the heathen, thou hast destroyed the wicked, thou hast put out their name for ever and ever . . . their memorial is perished with them. The illustrator chose to show Christ in Judgment. (Plate 21b) Against a green background Christ sits on a globe holding a scale, with the angel Michael holding a list. Doleful looking individuals approach the judge. A purple configuration represents the ground. Psalm 91:13 (Vulgate 90:13) introduces a motif which was to prove popular. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and the adder; the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet. The Latin text speaks of asps and basiliscs and it is a combination of these, which we will see again in the ivory carvings. In the Stuttgart Psalter a rather martial Christ is shown with his red cape flying behind him, armed with helmet, chain mail shirt, military boots and thrusting lance in his right. (Plate 21c) This Christ is the effigy of the victorious Roman general. He represents the Church Triumphant. In his extended left hand he holds an open book. Against a green background Christ stands with his left leg on the head of a lion, with his right on a coiled and rearing snake, thrusting the spear point into the forked tongues. An angel approaches from his right. The approving Right Hand of God reaches out of Heaven into this realm. Despite the exclusionary directives of the Libri Carolini, primary texts with significant relevance for the Christian faith are complemented with significant narrative illustrations to bring the texts alive, including the literal understanding of figures of speech. The numerous integrated pictorial representations use the human effigy in contexts, which are quotations by other means. The pictures are textual paraphrases. In that sense they are not just mere ornamentation, though they do have ornamental value. A ‘bilingualism’ of texts and images speaks to us from these pages. As was mentioned above the quotations from the Psalms are given prophetic power, that things were indeed foretold so that they could happen. The complete original, of course, had no such intention. The artist selected specific excerpts, which would exemplify the foreshadowing and serve as allegorical references to make the link between the psalms and the New Testament. Clearly a deliberate link is created here between king David, the psalmist, and Christ, to demonstrate the oneness of Old and New Testaments. The Utrecht Psalter, is an innovative and exemplary key work made between 816 and 823, or c. 835 at the monastery of St. Peters at Hautvillers under the auspices of Reims, perhaps even for the empress
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Judith.263 Godescalc may have been involved in its creation.264 Augmented by the Lord’s Prayer and the Apostolic Creed, it is kept at the University Library at Utrecht. Hence the name. Indications are that this psalter did not have a liturgical function, but was used as a prayer book, a reading text, one to be studied.265 An ornamental affinity links the vignettes of this psalter with those of the Ebo Gospel made at the same scriptorium at the same time. A textual affinity connects this psalter with the one kept at Stuttgart and it is held, though without demonstrable proof, that older, even Byzantine sources were held in common by the artists as they prepared their commenting visualizations. It differs significantly from the rather static Stuttgart Psalter in that it is quite original and consists entirely of dynamic, sketchy line drawings in a sepia colored ink on parchment. With one hundred and sixty-six monochrome pictures, composed of several scenes, it is the most extensively decorated psalter manuscript. All but forty have subsequently been retraced,266 sometimes a detracting emphasis. As if intended to feign antiquity these illuminated texts are arranged in three columns per page. Often the vignettes are understandable, pictorial commentaries and literal illustrations of specific words and phrases and events mentioned in the verses of the psalms. In some of the animated vignettes poetic license makes the translated pictorial syntax quite obscure and seemingly unmotivated, without identifiable connection to the text of the psalm, let alone the New Testament. The style is characterized by frenzied hastiness, dynamic movement, nervous excitement, agitated gesticulation, frenetic volatility and sketchy shorthand and caricature, as if a turbulent wind were blowing through the landscapes. Closer examination betrays a superficial homogeneity of style. The illustrations may be the work of three artists. Such indications as the different size of heads, the slenderness of bodies, poor compositions, vacant spaces, point to distinct artists.267 Most unclassical is the lack of any 263 Van der Horst, Utrecht Psalter, p. 82. See also Braunfels, pp. 158–179, 376f. See also C.M. Chazelle, ‘Archbishops Ebo and Hincmar of Reims and the Utrecht Psalter’, in Nees, Approaches, pp. 97–119. Chazelle, p. 99, proposes a date as late as the 840s/50s for the Psalter. Also Chazelle, Crucified God, p. 241. See also Nees, Early Medieval Art, p. 200f. 264 J.H.A. Engelbregt, Het Utrecht Psalterium (Utrecht 1963), p. 139f. Summarizes the history of the manuscript. See also van der Horst, Utrecht Psalter, pp. 12, 23ff. 265 Van der Horst, Utrecht Psalter, p. 37. 266 Van der Horst, Utrecht Psalter, p. 45f. 267 Van der Horst, Utrecht Psalter, pp. 47–54.
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rational arrangement of the available space. Instead, a surprisingly new and enthusiastic vitality explodes on these pages. As if the result of stream of consciousness realizations, quite unrelated, but perhaps sequential scenes may appear in a coexistent manner and give a sense of perspective to the seemingly freely roaming thoughts, placed at random into planes of independent and unrelated narrative and non-narrative episodes, definitely an artistic challenge. Sometimes the illustrations appear to be aligned with the columns of text as if they were to be considered a specific part of the column only to become incorporated into a wider panel, such as a landscape, populated with a crowd of civilians, or a military force. To us the representations of humans, with their flowing garments and expressive eyes, have something of the caricature about them. It has been suggested that upon closer examination these figures represent only a few types capable only of a limited number of gestures.268 However, they are supple, agile, contorted, capable of assuming any pose or position, seated, prone, standing, bending or leaning, any gesture, tilt of the head, as individuals or as groups of three or four, or as a large, crescent shaped crowd. However, without benefit of the textual references, the sketches are quite meaningless.269 Occasionally the illustrations indicate that the artists knew the commentaries pertaining to the psalms and sketched allusions contained there among those dealing specifically with the psalms.270 The figural inventory is repetitive and may function like a Leitmotif in several instances. The formulaic illustrations include an enthroned Christ in the mandorla, evangelists, hosts of angels, such pagan personifications as Oceanos, Terra, Sol, Luna/Selena and stars, walled cities, gates and towers, temples and canopies, priests making sacrifice, battle scenes and sieges perhaps reflecting Carolingian realities, such as the illustration to Psalm 44, barbarians attacking the City of God, 268
J. Porcher in Hubert et al., p. 103. However, see Chazelle, ‘The Utrecht Psalter’, in Nees, Approaches, pp. 100ff., interprets fol. 90v. showing the circular group of seated figures around three central figures to be the selection and elevation of an archbishop and the fastening of the pallium about his shoulders and that it records an actual event, either Athanasius or someone like him appearing before a council, or establishing the links of the Carolingian church with an ancient tradition, such as the central role of councils in church government. The scene may concern the profession of his orthodox faith by Ebo, thereby dating the Psalter to 816–35, or by his successor Hincmar of Reims in 845. 270 Van der Horst, Utrecht Psalter, p. 71f. 269
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sailing ships and boats, groups of soldiers frequently representing the ungodly, mounted troops, infantry, standing, advancing, in combat and falling, attacking and defending, field workers plowing with oxen or cows, viticulture, also lions ravaging cattle and humans, snakes, browsing deer and stags, goats, birds, varieties of vegetation, people at table, eating and drinking, servants, masters and representations of kings, Saul and David in palace settings. At least twice, Psalms 38 and 77, Frankish monarchs assume Davidic identity. (Figs. 10, 11) Several crucifixions of Christ and one of St. Peter anticipate a New Testament event and one pertaining to the lives of the apostles. Artistic ingenuity is evident everywhere even if frequently the illustrations are quite obscure, as even a close reading of the psalms does not help with the identification of the scenes. Such abstract concepts as justice, truth and mercy are represented metaphorically as female figures. In a psalm of seventy-two verses the imaginative pictorial representation of the text can be a challenge. The scenes or part of scenes may be represented as if following a general matrix and not necessarily following a close reading of the text. At most times the illustrations require the textual basis to be comprehensible. A stretch of the imagination is always required.271 Thus the text of the First Psalm speaks of the godly man who delights in the law and in his law doth he meditate day and night. (Fig. 12) Under a canopy with six columns, a fastigium, sits a man in the meditative writing pose of an Evangelist with an angel behind him. Sun, moon and stars shine above to illustrate his activity ‘day and night’. Enthroned on the seat of the scornful across from him sits the ungodly man. Backed by soldiers, these ungodly shall not stand in the judgment, hence they are shown cast into the pit of hell, . . . but the way of the ungodly shall perish. The godly man shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water. . . . The Utrecht version is somewhat smudged, though the copy in the British Museum shows clearly a reclining man, poised like a river god, resting his arm on a tilted jug from which pours a river and a tree grows beside it. Evidently not all the illustrations follow the texts, nor do the texts lend themselves to easy pictorial demonstration.272 The sequence of narrative details of the 23. Psalm can easily be identified among the pictorial detail. (Fig. 13) Its six verses
271 272
Beckwith, p. 45. See Nees, Early Christian Art, p. 201.
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can all be ‘read’. Identified with the Vulgate273 number XXII, the identified David, the psalmist, rests by flowing waters, holding a staff, which an angel also supports from behind with his right, and pouring oil from a horn with his left hand. The valley of death resembles a cave from which ‘enemies’ are shooting arrows. A set table is prepared before him and a cup like vessel in his left is tipped and overflows. A temple with altar represents the ‘House of the Lord’. Flocks of sheep, cattle and rock climbing goats complete the scene around the bottom left. Here, as well as in the other illustrations, the artists have elected to simplify their images. In the 43. Psalm the text dealing with the misfortunes of Israel is not treated in as literal a manner, but in a figurative analogy of a besieged city. (Fig. 14) To us the cartoonist seems even capable of humor, as when he shows Christ stepping off his globe and out of the mandorla, handing his lance to an angel, to echo the Lord’s saying, now will I arise (Psalm 12:5). For the Carolingian miniaturist this was not funny, for his literal understanding demanded this scene to be taken as a seriously sincere literal meaning of the word. (Fig. 15) Frequently the New Testament figure of the enthroned Christ is used to represent the presence of the Old Testament God. Both God and Christ are equated with the divine logos. The illustrations assume a preparedness to see promise and fulfillment in the allegorical links between Old and New Testament references in order to facilitate a Christian reading of the Old Testament. A comparison of the illustrations of the two Psalters reveals similarities and obvious differences. In both Psalters the subject is man and his activities. Both aim to illustrate passages of text by means of ‘visual quotations and commentaries’, and both try to draw connections between the psalms and any references, which might prefigure events of the New Testament. In that respect the Stuttgart Psalter is more obvious in that it is more contained, episodic and focused on a specific event. It appears to be more stylized, less accomplished in its artistry and it is ‘expressionistic’ in the explicit use of its vivid polychrome. The Utrecht Psalter is monochrome, more implicitly ‘impressionistic’, much less circumscribed, expansively panoramic and most often a pot-pourri of a multitude of narrative elements on one page,
273 Kaczynski, ‘Edition’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, pp. 177ff. concerning St. Jerome’s preoccupation with the Psalter. See Diebold, pp. 107ff.
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though not necessarily with any immediately apparent relationship. Nor is there any relationship between the relative importance of the reference in the psalm and the relative space given to the illustration. Even duplications are possible. It is the proximity into which the artist placed them, that associations between unrelated illustrations come into being. A good comparison is offered by the analogous interpretation of Psalm 72 (71, King James version) in which the psalmist speaks about having been saved and the Hand of God having taken him out of his mother’s womb. In the Stuttgart Psalter the analogy shows the enthroned psalmist with God’s Hand clasping his wrist, while he gestures to a mare and her foal. It is a stylized and minimalist scene. The miniatures of the Utrecht Psalter are clearly more richly imagined and more artistic in appearance. Here the mare and foal seem purely incidental and almost disappear in the panoramic context of the illustrated page which includes a walled city, groups seated around a table, victorious warriors standing over fallen dead, a fiery pit filled with people below two deceased in coffins, a group standing on a promontory overhead and sun and moon and angels in the heavens. Below the walled city are placed the mare and suckling foal and above that scene the Hand of God clasps the hand of the psalmist as if the raise him. On the same level a small group is clustered while a standing figure with a banner in his left and is hurling a trident in the direction of the coffins and the fiery pit. Another example would be the pictorial commentary to Psalm 140:5, they have spread a net by the way side. The Stuttgart Psalter shows two men hauling in a net of ropes. The Utrecht Psalter shows the hauling in of the net in conjunction with several other scenes. These scenes are bleached and some lettering has leached through from the other side. Sheep and bovines are grouped on the right and a farm hand is guiding cattle with a prod. On the left, above the Vulgate number CXL identifying the psalm, is a human head with gaping mouth, falling figures tumble toward the mouth, a small crowd is assembled in front of a temple or palace with a lance bearing crowned figure pointing toward the building. A triumphant Christ is pictured above the structure. Except for the large net, the groupings of figures are only barely visible. The text of the psalm, let them (the wicked) be cast into the fire; into deep pits, that they rise not up again, appears to refer to the scene of the bodies falling head first toward the head. Other scenes are paraphrases and puzzles and not directly relatable to the psalm which they are expected
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to illustrate. This may be owing to the circumstance that the artist had additional commentaries available as sources and that the illustrations are derived from these commentaries, rather than from the text of a specific psalm. Once one scene fuses with the next into a whirling narrative congregation of figural detail, its textual location can be most difficult to establish, especially if in response to his own stream of consciousness he gives expression to the association of ideas developed from an idea in a text. It then happens that sophisticated ideas coexist on the page with naively interpreted references and passages from the text. The artistic work points to a synthesis in which artistic freedom combines with the freedom of textual interpretation and application to establish a creative realm of theological learnedness. The softly contoured, curvilinear, cloudlike geographical features are contrasted with the angular, linear demarcation lines of temples, walls and cities. The result is an exceptional work in which the miniaturist knew very well how to make maximum use of the available space, of pliability and movement. Resolving the ensuing puzzles in terms of the specific text is a trying activity. However, even for the less engaged visitor of the psalter, the illustrations have an enticing attraction. The horror vacui, however, does not seem to have been overcome and may indeed play a significant role in the fascination with it. Though copied several times, regrettably, the Utrecht Psalter did not establish a traditional style from which a livelier form of animated illustration would develop. A stiff formalism will prevail for a long time. St. Gallen, one of the chief monasteries of the eastern realm, has been discussed at length for its scriptorium, which, owing to its Insular heritage, turned out some very fine manuscripts and psalters, such as the Folchard Psalter, with innumerable spectacular ornamented initial capitals that clearly reveal the link with the Irish tradition. That the royal monastery of St. Gallen had a very firm allegiance to the Carolingians and their Davidic principles of a Christian Empire is extensively demonstrated by the Golden Psalter of St. Gallen, the Psalterium Aureum. Composed during the peak period of the last half of the 9th century, this very fine psalter is written completely in gold, as its name indicates. In addition to elaborate initials, the psalter contains among others, thirteen illustrations focused on the life and reign of king David.274 One shows David being anointed by Samuel. 274
Braunfels, p. 390.
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(Plate 22a) The setting is an arch lavishly embellished with floral vines sprouting from it and enveloping it. The columns are covered with green leaves against a red background. Blooming vegetation covers the ground. A large ornamental plant fills the space between the two figures. A larger prophet Samuel pours oil from a horn upon the head of David. Inscriptions identify the two figures. A whole page illustration shows an enthroned David under an archway, seated frontally, pointing his right hand to his chest in the manner of Christ. It is an awkward representation in the style of the official gospels. He is holding his instrument while he is composing the psalms, flanked by two musicians and two dancers below him. In the spandrels above the arch the Hand of God reaches in, top right, while an angel gesturing his blessing, floats in at top left. None of these figures is particularly graceful as it moves across the page. Against a purple background the figures are pink or green, outlined in gold. The columns and arch are green or purple, ornamented with gold. This color scheme is maintained throughout. Best known are realistic military scenes identified with Joab, David’s general. On facing pages the innovative artist shows light and heavy cavalry on the march, on the other the siege of a city and the surrender of such a city. (Plates 22b, 22c) Different from the Utrecht Psalter, here the illustrations refer to the title heading of the psalms, that when Joab returned, and smote of Edom in the valley of salt twelve thousand. The scene consists of three elements—a mounted standard bearer out front, followed by three staggered, helmeted, chain mail wearing hastati, dragoons, carrying lances. One carries a round shield. Over their heads, the artist placed a group of five cavalrymen without armor, mounted on three pacing horses. One of their horses is galloping. It is the most skillfully represented horse. There is something unfinished about this page, as there is a shortage of horses and horses’ legs as they overlap one another. The running horse and its rider have not been colored. Similarly the tail of the standard bearer’s horse has not been colored either. Beneath the horses the billowing purple ground supports sparse green vegetation. Of interest is the standard carried by a bearer. It is a long, tapering, pennant-like dragon banner, scaly and serpent-like, spewing fire. Late Roman and Byzantine vacillas had assumed that motif. It may surprise to see green horses. The others are pale, or a reddish brown. Some latter-day wag felt the pictures needed an extra touch and in strong black added a mustache to one of the light cavalrymen and made the front horse into
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a virile stallion. The forces are advancing from left to right. The ponies themselves appear to be of a small breed, judging by the length of the riders’ legs but while the horsemen’s right legs are visible beneath the belly of the horse, their left legs are not. On the facing page heavy cavalry and heavy infantry are shown attacking a fortified town. Just as the hastati on the preceding page, all soldiers are wearing hauberks of chain mail to protect the body to the elbows and to the knees. All are helmeted, fighting with spears and bows and arrows. The fallen lie outside the walls. The figural proportions vary. This time the banner is more of a flag, with three pointed flys with tassels attached. Ground and groundcover resemble that of the previous page. Four infantrymen have only four legs. The horsemen again sit on too few, legless horses. Two are green. Here too the color scheme is the same. The lower part of the page shows the towers and the gate in flames and the civilians on the point of surrender. The defenders appear to be the fallen dead outside of the walls. It is worth noting that the compositions indicate a relatively high degree of observed animation. Only at first glance do the horses appear to be posed in a repetitive manner. They do suggest movement. The horsemen sit their horses well. Hands, arms and legs, bodies and heads are convincingly poised. Even the fallen rest in acceptable positions. The artist appears to have chosen the moment before the impending event, such as the surrender of the city, when the degree of anticipation is highest, thereby introducing a moment of tension into the action on the page. It would seem that these unique pictures reflect some aspects of reality. While the walled towns resemble those drawn in the Utrecht Psalter, the walls are painted in alternating color patterns in red, gold and green. This coloring is reminiscent of the color designs on the outside of the Lorsch arches, to be dealt with below. The artist makes no attempt here to show the Biblical figures in authentic dress. The horse trappings, complete with stirrups, the armaments of the soldiers are reliably consistent with other contemporary depictions of the Frankish inventories of arms. Only one sword is visible, raised.
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XVI. Engraved crystals Vaguely related stylistically to the drawings of the Utrecht Psalter (c. 830) are several rock crystals incised with intricate, miniature scenes. Twenty are extant, six others are attested. Generally shaped like magnifying glasses, relics may once have been enclosed behind the stones.275 The best known is the superb, large circular Lothair Crystal (c. 860) named after king Lothair II, king of Lotharingia (855–869) who according to an inscription around the center of the crystal had commissioned it. Perhaps made at Aachen, documented in 944 at the abbey of Vausort on the River Meuse, it is now in the British Museum.276 In eight episodes, isolated, but only seemingly randomly arranged miniature groups are gathered around the center.277 The narrative depicted on the disc deals with the Biblical story of virtuous Susannah from the Book of Daniel. (Fig. 16) She is shown located within a hortus conclusus, resisting the seduction by the two false Elders while in her bath, then being charged with adultery. Susannah’s persecution, the prophet Daniel’s intervention and her final triumph have been seen as an allegory of the early church.278 The story is too close an analogy with Lothair’s II own attempts to obtain a divorce from his barren wife Theutberga in his own enforced marriage, in order to marry his concubine Waldrada, thereby legitimizing their son and ensuring the succession and the continuity of his realm, and proceeding against her with the false testimony of two bishops, until the pope himself intervened to prevent the divorce (865).279
275 G. Kornbluth, Engraved Gems of the Carolingian Empire (University Park, Pennsylvania 1995), pp. 1, 19 and pp. 25ff. for a grouping of these gems. See also Nees, Early Medieval Art, p. 202f. 276 P. Lasko, The Pelican History of Art: Ars Sacra, 800–1200 (Harmondsworth 1972), p. 48f. Also van der Horst, Utrecht Psalter, p. 212f. 277 Kornbluth, pp. 31–48, analyses the scenes specifically and the details pertaining to this gem. See Nees, ‘Art and Politics’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, p. 212f. 278 Beckwith, p. 68. See Brunner, p. 138, for historical details. See. Braunfels, p. 388, for details of the inscriptions. See especially Kornbluth, pp. 38ff., for a discussion of the Susanna/Ecclesia associations. 279 Fried, in McKitterick, New Cambridge Medieval History, p. 150, indicates that pope Hadrian II removed the bishops of Cologne and of Trier from their sees for supporting the king’s divorce. See also Hartmann, pp. 56ff. See Kornbluth, p. 37f. Also Nees, Early Medieval Art, pp. 239ff.
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The crystal was clearly a token of reconciliation, suggesting that proper social and religious form triumphs over personal inclination and perceived political necessity. However, Lothair II did not renounce, nor resign himself to the pope’s intervention. The stylistic similarity with the Psalter rests with the many animated miniature scenes, which populate the narrative. The seemingly hovering, vibrant figures have that same dynamic, nervous gesticulation about them that has been noticed in the decorations of the Utrecht Psalter. The isolated groupings vary from the Psalter in that brief inscriptions identify the represented scenes, i.e. a Latin reading knowledge is clearly an asset to the beholder when deciphering the scenes. Ground out from behind in reverse, the stark white of the engravings contrast brilliantly when placed against a dark background. The sophisticated precision of the gem cutter’s skills in executing the great detail on such small surfaces is astonishing considering the limited space available and technology involved.280 Although the 4th century Roman diatretari had carved the cage cups around Cologne and passed their glass making skills using water driven drills and grinding wheels on to their Frankish successors, these crystals are worked with new techniques. The techniques involved in the incising of the rock crystals, quartz, were newly invented in the west. Their scenic subject matter is entirely and independently Christian, without even oblique allusions to the Carolingian Imperium Christianum.281 Considering the brittle and fragile nature of quartz, which permitted no mistakes, the polished clarity of the work is spectacular. Using a diamond- or flint-tipped scriber, the artist would first sketch the scene before setting to grinding it into the stone. The sketch and the engraving were usually not totally congruent. It has been shown elsewhere that in Germanic personal ornamentation rare semi-precious, opaque stones were used in the protective magic of amulets because they were thought to be imbued with particular allegorical powers. A splendid large crystal as this one would have been of truly elitist value. The crystals are intaglios, i.e. the scenes are carved below the surface into the reverse, to be viewed through the stone.282 Though it has not been determined where the actual production centers of this genre were located, probably in Lotharingia, 280 281 282
Kornbluth, pp. 5–16, for a discussion of materials and methods. Kornbluth, pp. 4, 13f. Kornbluth, p. 5f.
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the style used suggests great familiarity with the work of the studios and scriptoria of Lotharingia, especially around Aachen, Metz and Reims. We see that same approach to the sporadic organization of the pictorial surface. The primary interest in the narrative content and its ethical importance had precedence over any calculated sense of presentational form. Of interest is the use of Biblical narrative for personal reasons in an entirely secular context. Does this piece already signal a non-religious intrusion into the otherwise religion dominated artistic art forms? Unfortunately this large crystal, 10.5 cm in diameter, broke across the middle. Because of their smaller format and their protective settings, the others have generally survived intact. The later, Ottonian, so-called Cross of Lothair in the Cathedral Treasury at Aachen, has inserted in its lower portion a rock-crystal incised with a portrait and identifying inscription of the same Lothair II, (855–869) who also gave his name, Lotharingia, to the region. This crystal was originally cut as a seal, probably at Aachen. A Roman gem or coin may have served as a model. It is one of several still extant. It is stylistically related to the Susanna group.283 Another rock crystal, now in the British Museum, is a large, flawed oval Crucifixion from St. Denis.284 It may have originated in the Palace School of Charles the Bald (846–869). (Fig. 17) This theme, carved on crystal, presents a convincing symbiosis as the disintegrating and corruptible flesh is depicted in the icy durability of the rock crystal.285 Indicating the same technique, it shows a carved Crucifixion, with medallions of pagan Apollo and Selena representing a personified Sun and Moon above the Cross, justified by the eclipse at Christ’s death, symmetrically balancing Mary and St. John turned toward the Cross on either side. Both raise a piece of cloth to their faces. None of the bodies is anatomically correct. While the Cross, Sun and Moon received only superficial treatment, the workmanship of the other figures is that of the Lothair Crystal. Dispositions of the bodies, details of heads, arms and legs and especially of the many folds of the garments, move this work into the very vicinity of the Lothair Crystal. The female figures especially show considerable affinity. A dead snake is coiled around the base of the cross, 283
Kornbluth, pp. 58–63, for a detailed discussion of the gem. Kornbluth, pp. 100–106, details the characteristics of this gem. 285 Kornbluth, p. 17f., refers to the tradition of this idea extending from the Old Testament, to St. Paul, Gregory the great, and Hrabanus Maurus. 284
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which conquers and overcomes death. These figures are part of a conventional Carolingian iconography. A superior work, also Lotharingian, from Trier (883–915), are the miniatures carved on the Crucifixion Crystal now in the Augustiner Museum in Freiburg.286 This gem has been damaged on both sides. (Fig. 18) Again the figures, movements, gestures, garment folds are related to those of the other crystal engravings, but show a higher degree of articulation than the Crucifixion Crystal from St. Denis. Sun and Moon, each holding a triple flamed torch, as if to light the darkness of the eclipse, accompanied by starbursts, are treated more elaborately. The superscription above Christ’s head is legible. Three rivulets of blood stream from the wounds in Christ’s hands. This time four figures flank the cross with upturned faces. Each has a base on which to stand. On the left Mary stands higher than the soldier Longinus with the lance poised to pierce Christ’s side. On the right John, holding a book, stands on higher ground than the soldier Stephaton offering Christ the sponge soaked in vinegar. Again a serpent is coiled at the base of the cross.287 Heavenly bodies and those on earth bear witness to the events. The iconographic composition will reappear on ivory carvings. What impresses immediately about these Crucifixion Crystals is the cold clarity and confident homocentricity of the art. There is no distracting ornamentation. The concentration rests entirely on the narrative presented by the stark expressiveness of the clearly cut figures and their activities involved in the representation of the episodes. No extraneous decorative detail to soften the scene. No vegetation and no residual stylistic elements of the centrifugal organic ornamental forms of the Insular Style. Only human figures, cut as if in ice. The Crucifixion Crystals in particular focus exclusively on the Christian message of the Crucifixion as distinct illustrative image. The restless decorative imagination of pre-Christian art has disappeared from this genre. These northern artists have restricted their technical skills to imparting a sense of symmetry and composure through the extreme precision and sharp definition to the incised figures important for the clear statements of the sequence of the narrative. In this sense the scenes do not resemble the rather rambling, asymmetrical, conversational forms of the Utrecht Psalter. Here the 286 287
Kornbluth, pp. 63–67. for details concerning the Freiburg Crucifixion. Kornbluth, p. 67, for an interpretation of the serpent.
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homocentric principles of Mediterranean art have triumphed. The Lothair Crystal illustrates an even more tectonic principle of composition in that its episodic scenes are arranged centripetally around the scene in the center in which the innocence of Susanna is established. More than the illuminations and the ivories, the carvings silhouetted on crystal impart a heightened abstract transparency to the scenes, as the incised skeletal tracery is contrasted against a seeming void, within which one could find an access to the infinity beyond the Christian image. Stylistic elements suggest that the three crystals discussed here originated in the same artistic province. Their style will reappear in the iconography of some ivories.
XVII. Ivories The ancient Greeks had discovered that if ivory was soaked in vinegar it could be peeled in layers and cut into panels. Already they had produced polychrome panels and there are still pieces on which the coloration is evident. That today the panels tend to be white creates a misleading impression of clarity and purity. Bone and ivory carvings and engravings are well represented in the Germanic inventories of Pre-Carolingian times. However, the Carolingian ivory carvings find their inspiration in the late Classical heritage of the Roman Empire and Early Christianity. The ivory diptychs, of the consuls, for instance, already served as models for the formal poses of the Evangelists, discussed above. Similarly the arcade settings of the generally Classical tradition, exemplified in the 6th century Throne of St. Maximian, in Ravenna, (Fig. 19) already referred to when dealing with the Evangelist illustrations of the gospel manuscripts, find an apparent continuity with the Carolingian carvers. But, already the arcaded figures of the Evangelists and of John the Baptist on the ivory throne show, upon closer observation, that the architectural elements are very shallow and that the figures are not in the same plane, probably an indication of its eastern origin. Sometimes this is very obvious, as when the feet seem to step out of the arcade and even break out of the frame. Owing to the lack of depth, they are both in and out of their niches as when shoulders and arms overlap the columns, while their feet are set between the column bases, or placed over several steps at once without being placed on one of them. By studying the ivory and the carvings of
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the past, the Carolingian carvers rediscovered the art form. The active trade in ivory had come to a halt during the sixth century whereupon the artists no longer had the materials on which to perform. By shaving the secular Roman panels, the Carolingians obtained new surfaces on which to display their artistry. Their Roman association with imperial representatives was hereby transferred to the aims of the new Imperium Christianum. The Landesmuseum in Darmstadt displays an ivory panel, an 11th century copy,288 distantly associated with the Group of Ada Gospels made at the Palace School of Charlemagne. It may have been an independent panel or part of a book cover. It has a whole drilled through the middle, suggesting that at some time it had been fastened to another surface. The panel has a clear similarity with one of the panels of the back cover of the Lorsch Gospels. It shows an angel placed in front of an arcade. (Fig. 20) Its two wings and body fill the available space completely, leaving visible only the elaborate capitals and the arch, decorated entirely with acanthus leaves. Two rosettes are placed into the spandrels left in the upper corners. The angel, one of the cherubim, holds up a scroll in his right hand and a ceremonial staff in his left. It seems to be walking barefoot over a pebble-strewn ground. Its curly head but expressionless face is framed in a scalloped halo. The garments are draped over the body indicating clearly its contours. The facial features differ from the face of the angel of the Lorsch Gospels, suggesting strongly that more than one ivory carver was at work. The carvings must, however, have stood in some relation to one another or been based on a common model, for the individual details are too similar to be coincidental. The physiological details are equally well articulated. The relief is less deep. Ornamental detail preoccupied the artists more than perspective. Clearly the architecture is designed to represent an ideal and abstract background against which the figures are hovering above the ground. When compared with the fragments of arms and hands still visible in the arcade of the palatium setting in the church of San Appollinare Nuovo in Ravenna, and the 6th century ivory of the enthroned empress Ariadne or Gothic queen Amalasuintha, realistically only the hands and arms reach out of the architectural frame. This
288 Th. Jülich, in correspondence indicates that C14 analysis dates the ivory to the 11th century.
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other, two-dimensional tradition suggests something otherworldly about these ivories. These carved ivories are primarily book covers of religious texts, many of them made at the same sites as the manuscripts with which they were bound. It is therefore not surprising that pages and covers would share stylistic denominators.289 Two types of carved covers exist—surfaces carved in deep or shallow relief and perforated surfaces. The available raw material would naturally restrict the ultimate size and shape of these carvings. Rectangular panels about 20 centimeters long are most common. Larger surfaces are assemblies of several pieces. Among the earlier covers carved in the manner of the ivory throne of Maximian are the two covers of the Lorsch Gospels, made in Aachen c. 810.290 Though the covers are now separated—the back cover is at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the front cover, in 1555 documented in Heidelberg, was shipped from there to Rome during the Thirty Years War as part of the Palatine Library at Heidelberg, now at the Museo Sacro Vaticano—the two have to be discussed together. (Figs. 21, 22) Each diptych is assembled of five separate panels, two placed horizontally at the top and bottom and three panels placed vertically. On the back cover a rope-like molding covers the cracks between the panels and around the frame, giving the diptych a finished look. The front cover may have the molding missing so that the assemblage with all its marks of prior use is readily apparent. The ten pieces were probably used and damaged in a previous Late Roman context and repaired by Carolingians and fitted for this purpose.291 The front cover of the book shows a youthful triumphant Christ treading on the Beasts, flanked by two angels; the back cover shows the Virgin and Child, flanked by Zacharias and John the Baptist. The front bottom panel shows on the left the Three Kings in Phrygian dress before Herod and on the right the Three Kings before an enthroned Virgin and Child, with the Star of Bethlehem above them. Architectural detail frames and divides the scenes on the panel. The bottom panel on the back shows, from the
289
Braunfels, p. 152. Volbach, p. 132f., plates 223, 224, suggests Byzantine originals, c. 500, possibly made at Lorsch. See also Braunfels, p. 384. Also L. Nees, ‘Art and Politics’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, pp. 195ff. 291 Lasko, p. 19f. 290
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left, Joseph and Mary, the infant in a manger in a stable with ox and ass, and the angel announcing the news to the shepherds tending their flocks. Similar architectural detail provides some background to the scene. These panels have the clear didactic narrative function of announcing the good fortune of Christ’s birth for all mankind.292 The top panels are a variation on the same Roman theme—two flying victories holding a medallion between them. Here, of course, the victories have been metamorphosed into angels. On the front cover a radiant cross, crux gemmata, fills the medallion, while on the back the medallion is occupied by a bust of Christ with his hand raised in a Greek blessing. Two artists seem to have worked on these panels indicated by the nuanced differences in the articulation and modulation of the contours of the angels, variations in the physiological details, such as their arms and hands, the flowing robes and tassels and the depth of the relief. On the vertical panels the youthful Christ and the left angel, as well as the angels holding the crux gemmata are less contoured and not as deeply carved. The right angel on the front cover, the Virgin Mary and Christ Child, the two flanking prophets and the angels holding the medallion with the bust of Christ are carved more deeply, more expressively with a greater emphasis on the linear fall of the robes. The scenes showing the Nativity and the Three Kings are comparable in technique, equally undercut. The triple arcades of the vertical panels forming the diptych of the front cover are very similar to one another. Roof-like wedges are fitted over the outside panels. The arches themselves are fully decorated with acanthus leaf designs and rest on classicizing ‘Corinthian’ capitals. In the outside arches are placed two flanking angels turned inward toward Christ, very similar in conception and execution to one another and to the Darmstadt panel. Again the angels have stepped in front of the arches as their wings cover almost all of the columns. The moving body contours are carefully modeled and visible beneath the rich and finely articulated folds of the garments. The head of each angel is framed by a scalloped halo. Each angel holds a ceremonial staff in the left hand and a scroll in the right.
292
Nees, ‘Art and Politics’, in Sullivan, Gentle Voices, p. 198f., argues that the figures in these scenes are copies from other, 5th century Christian panels.
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Barefooted, the angels stand on a brick-like foundation or a marble floor. The central niche is broader and varies from the others. While the others have rosettes in the spandrel between the frame and the arch, on this panel brush like foliage fills the space. Here the fluted columns are visible almost in their entirety. The surmounting capitals are most ornate, but individualistic in execution. The young and smiling, triumphant Christ has curly hair which falls about his shoulders, with a cruciform halo behind his head. His garment is draped in pleats and folds over his body allowing the contours of his erect body to be visible. His right hand, with pointing index and middle fingers, is folded across his chest. In his left hand he holds a book and in accordance with Psalm 91:14 of the King James version, animals are at his feet—a snake along his right side, a miniature feline by his left shin, and a lion and a basilisk under his feet. Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt though trample under feet. As mentioned previously, the scene of the triumphant Christ trampling the lion and the basilisk was to become an oftenrepeated motif. The triple arches of the vertical panels of the back cover are basically similar to those of the front, with some deviations. The reliefs are shallower. Here too wedge-shaped roofs over the arcades of the outside panels. While the acanthus leaf design figures on the side arches, the broader central arch is carved like a tympanum, with recessed curves retreating into the interior. The spandrels of the outside panels are ornamented with modest vegetative intertwine. Those of the center show space filling floral chalices with sprouting blossoms. The fluted columns of the niches on the front cover are mainly visible, the hands and arms of the figures overlapping only occasionally. John the Baptist, left, and Zacharias, right, are shown as mature men with beards and flowing hair, with John holding an open scroll in his left and pointing to the Virgin and Child with his right hand, while Zacharias, dressed as a priest, holds up a domed incense container in his left and a censer on chains in his right hand. Wearing sandals both men stand stiffly on a brick or marble floor. The fall of the folds on John’s right thigh is identical with the folds on the thigh of Christ of the other diptych. Set between clearly visible fluted columns, sectioned into both straight verticals and diagonals, the capitals repeating the floral chalice motif, the central panel shows an enthroned Virgin and Child. The scene is familiar from
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the illuminated Evangelist miniatures. The curtain backdrop over a travis rod, the cushion roll, the platform, the full, obscuring fall of the robes, the body contours and the frontal pose give this scene something monumental. Characteristic for all of the figures is the unemotional appearance of the faces. Mary’s mask-like face with staring eyes is surrounded by a scalloped halo and a headdress bearing a cross above the forehead. The Christ child seated on her hip wears that cruciform halo and a rather mature expression on his face. Enveloped by the same obscuring drapery, he holds a book in his left hand to which he points with his right. Virgin and Child are actually inside the niche. Owing to the wedge-shaped ‘roofs’ the outside panels are trapezoid with the shorter sides placed against the inner panel, creating a sense of depth, an impression reinforced by the sloping molding covering the seams between the ivory panels. On the front cover this deepening effect is less pronounced as the bases of the panels are rectangular. The rather severe structure of the arcade settings gives the compositions a tectonic appearance. The overall effect is static as architecture and figures complement one another. Were it not for the flying victories there would be no suggestion of any movement at all. Even among the figures of the narrative bottom panels, there is at best a minimum dynamics, as the Three Kings all hold the same pose. The array of Old and New Testament topics, secular themes and decorative designs intended for book covers is exhausting. Personal ornamental objects such as magnificent carved, perforated and inlaid ceremonial and liturgical combs as well as pierced panels of intertwining designs and animals, plaques, caskets and game pieces extend the imaginative range of the carvers even more. These are amply represented in Europe’s museums. In our discussion only a few of these motifs can be considered, such as a triple tiered diptych still presented in the Treasury of the Cathedral at Aachen, an Ascension, c. 810, both from the Palace School of Charlemagne at Aachen, now at Darmstadt, as well as a ‘Christ in Majesty’ from the Ada group now also in Darmstadt; the Crucifixion Ivory, c. 820/30, if to be associated with Louis the Pious, or 840–870, if to be associated with Charles the Bald, and now in Munich; a Temptation of Christ surrounded by scenes of a Nativity cycle, c. 840/50 from Metz now in Frankfurt; the liturgical comb from St. Heribert, after 850, also from Metz, now in Cologne, and the Tuotilo ivory book covers from St. Gallen, c. 900.
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The worn Aachen diptych293 displays scenes from the life of Christ following his Resurrection, according to John 20:24–26 and Luke, 24: 13–43, arranged on three tiers to a panel, each surrounded by acanthus leaves. (Fig. 23) The scenes show Thomas placing his finger into the wound in Christ’s side, the disciples meeting him and embracing his feet, the meal of meat with the disciples, though the ivory shows fishes and bread, his appearance to the two disciples on the way to Emmaus, his interpretation of the prophets, his blessing and charge to the disciples to preach in all the world. There is one scene in which the central figure does not have the cruciform halo, contrary to the other five scenes. Five of the scenes are backed by architectural miniatures. When looking at the very dramatic Ascension from Darmstadt,294 one is struck by the euphoric mass of restless bodies, compacted effectively into an ecstatic crowd scene depicted on that reused panel, now cropped at the top and broken off at the sides. (Fig. 24) Flat and in very low relief, eleven Apostles and the Virgin Mary are fitted into the confined space in such a fashion that only Mary, St. Peter and one other disciple are fully shown on the panel. The presence of all of the others is indicated through the depiction of body fragments and gestures. The overall effect is upwardly linear, one of dismembered body parts—arms, hands and fingers, many feet and toes, faces, eyes, contorted heads, hair, beards, fragments of scalloped halos, body contours disguised by pleats, folds and garment drapery, all striving upward. St. Peter can be recognized by the sword he wields over his head. In this suffocating, panic-stricken crush of frenzied bodies, there is no room for any other details. The scene captures the moment after the Ascension has taken place, so that the emotions suggested on the faces and in the body language are surprise, consternation, alarm, helpless anxiety and the confused fear of being left behind. Some eyes are turned upward, some forward. The Virgin has her eyes and hands lifted upward as if wanting to follow Christ’s ascent. The scene strikes one as an excerpt from a much larger multitude attending the event. This group seems fused by the common wish to follow their master, buoyed upward by the spiritual force of his miraculous experience. Christ is no longer
293 294
Volbach, p. 134, pl. 226. Also Braunfels, p. 384. Volbach, p. 134, pl. 227.
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in this scene. His former presence, now missing from this cut and broken panel, is sought by the throng. The Majestas panel from the end of ninth century Lorraine is contained in a rectangular frame of acanthus leaves. (Fig. 25) The spandrels are occupied by the tetramorphs beginning once again top left with the Eagle of St. John, the Angel of St. Matthew, the Ox of St. Luke and the Lion of St. Mark. The Angel holds an unfurled scroll in his hands representing his gospel, the others hold books in their claws or hooves. The wings are shaped to fill the available spaces. Christ as Pancreator is contained in a figure-eight wreath and pointed mandorla combination. This is a very static composition. The pose is familiar from the illuminated pages. A cruciform halo surrounds Christ’s head, his right hand is raised in blessing, his left hand rests on a book supported on his thigh. The body is extensively enfolded in fully draped garments, showing the body contours only very generally. Two seraphim, wrapped in six wings each, flank his shoulders. Representations of sun and moon are placed waist high in the mandorla. Two rosettes are added to the space near his feet, within the wreath. Very well known is the splendid Crucifixion Ivory, now on the cover of the Book of Pericopes of the emperor Henry II, early 11th century, now in Munich. (Fig. 26) Without the ivory, the cover may originally have been the detached back cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram. Placed into a precious gem encrusted frame decorated with Byzantine enamels and the tetramorphs in the corners, the Crucifixion Ivory is the central panel, about 28 cm × 12.5 cm in size. A panel framed in acanthus leaves was widened with two additional flanges also ornamented with acanthus leaves. The panel, like several others, is deeply cut high relief, even undercut and pierced, with figures related to those of the Utrecht Psalter. Stylistically it may point to Rheims or Metz.295 The narrative is an assemblage of stock pagan and recent Christian motifs and represents an original composition. In the upper corners of the inner panel two medallions show Apollo, the sun and his horse-drawn chariot, a quadriga, on the left, and Selena, the moon, in a chariot drawn by cows, a biga, on the right. Between these the Hand of God reaches into the realm 295 See Chazelle, Crucified God, p. 239f. for the theological complexity of this composition. pp. 246ff. for the pictorial association with Psalm 115 of the Utrecht Psalter. Especially pp. 266ff.
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of angels, again Classical victories in conception, hovering above the Crucifixion. To the left, stand a group of figures witnessing the Crucifixion, a soldier, Longinus, pierces Christ’s side with a lance, while Ecclesia, carrying the victory pennant of the triumphant church catches in a chalice the blood which flows from Christ’s side. This was to prove a productive Carolingian motif. To the right, stand the soldier, Stephaton, holding up the sponge soaked in vinegar, a large jug for the sour wine, another bystander and a triumphant Ecclesia. She is again holding up the victory pennant as she lays claim to the succession to the world-disc held in the hands of Synagoga, sitting in front of the stylized Temple of Jerusalem. Sequential narrative is presented here in a coexistent manner. It may be a suggestion of the Carolingian claim to the Davidic Jerusalem and hence legitimize the Imperium Christianum. The scene may also reflect contemporary hostile views296 and anticipate even more sinister consequences. At the foot of the cross the vanquished serpent is coiled about the base. It is doubtful if the Carolingian viewer had any reminiscences associated with the world serpent of Germanic mythology. In the next lower panel the Resurrection is suggested by the angel receiving the Three Maries in front of the empty, but multi-storied Sepulcher, while the guards cower in the acanthus bushes behind the building. Beneath this strip is shown the opening of the graves and the raising of the dead, with the lids flying off the coffins and the awakened literally jumping from their graves on Judgment Day. On the bottom level we are again dealing with familiar pagan personifications: on the left, the divine Oceanos, a cornucopia in his left arm and reclining on an urn from which water flows, in the middle, striking an imperial pose, an enthroned divine Roma,297 on the right a crouching Gaia, the Earth Goddess, with a snake at her breast and like Oceanos with a cornucopia in her left arm. Clearly, this ivory panel tells the fundamental didactic narrative of the Christian message: the causality of Christ’s Crucifixion and 296
Lasko, p. 30. See Chazelle, Crucified God, p. 269, for a different interpretation of this figure— the Temple, and thus the transition from the old law to the new. This is a mistaken interpretation, for the Temple and Synagoga seated in front of it, are challenged by Ecclesia for the disc of the world. But see pp. 281f., 285f., concerning this significant group. Chazelle, pp. 286f., 292, considers a moralizing warning to be implied in this transition of power, directed as an admonition at Charles the Bald and his imprudent display of ostentation, earthly glorification, hubris, belligerence, ambition and sin, rather than such virtues as piety, humility, justice and peace. 297
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Resurrection and the resultant rising from the dead of all who believe. The acquisition of divine authority by Ecclesia, the church Triumphant, through Christ’s legitimizing blood justifies the displacement of Synagoga from the Temple and from its primary position. It bolsters the claim through the use of Classical allegories of the Catholic power of Rome, of water and earth, of fertility, of sky, sun and moon and cyclical nature derived from a mythological mindset. In conjunction with the promising spirituality of a belief in a sacrificial death and rebirth, all under the approving Hand of God and the Heavenly Host, the panel presents the legitimization of the Imperium Christianum as a metaphysical amalgam of a new Pagano-Christian cosmos for the new Chosen People of God, the Franks. The blend of such animals as horses, cows and snakes, plants, humans, mythological, ideological and religious elements results in a new narrative full of dynamic detail, movement, action and interaction and the need for much inference, reference and consideration on several intellectual levels. The panel records an awareness of social and cultural currents. The carver presents himself to have been a calm observer and narrator, certain of his faith. At mid-century the carving studios at Metz were a decided center of the art. Triple tiered pierced narrative panels, familiar from the illustrated manuscripts pages, surrounded by modest carved organic frames are frequent. These in turn are aggrandized by splendid perforated frames of astonishing space filling openwork design and are works of art in their own right. A different approach was offered by the ivory cover of the Drogo Sacramentary, on which the cover is arranged in a set of nine panels. Another book cover reveals striking similarities with the cover of the Drogo Sacramentary. This cover is entitled after its central, dramatic scene, Satan’s challenge to Christ to tempt him to transform rocks into loaves of bread. (Fig. 27) Contained in a frame of acanthus leaves, this is an accomplished independent composition of two very well proportioned and realistically executed men, carved in high relief, separated from one another by a very convincing tree with large acanthus leaves. Men and tree rise away from a plain black background into an independent plane. Thereby the artist eliminated from this minimalist scene all extraneous distractions. The two confrontational figures are carved as independent individuals, Satan standing on a stone, his bare toes curled around the edge of the rock, Christ standing on the acanthus frame, his sandaled feet actually breaking out of the frame.
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Though separated, they are clearly linked in the dialogue of their respective body languages. They are two well-shaped figures, their contours visibly molded under the pleats and folds of their garments. While Christ stands firmly on his left standing leg, his right placed slightly forward, Satan’s position is less comfortable, since both his legs are clearly bent at the knees. In his left arm he holds a staff. With his right he points down to the rocks. Partly turned away, Christ, the protagonist, holds a small scroll in his left while with his right he wards off the challenge. For the two actors in this character drama the body language is a substitute for the missing verbal exchange. Satan’s pointing gesture ‘pronounces’ the dare, Christ’s right hand formulates the rejection. In this little dramatization Satan is the antagonist. This highly skilled artist had a sense of the theatrical as he drew the optical focus entirely onto the conflict in which the question has been raised and the answer given. This artistic intention is new. The assembled frieze-like strips, which surround this central scene, are not its artistic equals. Clearly a different artist was responsible for these carvings. More like episodic scenes in comic strips in appearance, the squat, solid and compacted figures tell the story of the nativity. Architectural elements are present in almost all of the segments. These stylistic elements imply a link of this cover to that of the Drogo Sacramentary. Awkwardly shaped, thick-set, compacted and facially quite unattractive, with soup-bowl type hairstyles on top of mask-like faces, they do not stand comparison with the accomplished figures of the central panel. The Three Kings are shown riding horses. These are the most convincing, as is the head of the ass. A midwife appears to be assisting with the birth. The narrative scenes are not entirely self-evident, nor is the sequence of the events represented. In the end the cover was not the most fortunate assembly. The cover points to distinct styles and skills coexisting in contemporary workshops. The liturgical comb from Metz, formerly in the monastery of St. Heribert in Cologne, belongs into the middle of the 9th century. (Fig. 28) The pierced comb belongs to a northern tradition of perforating surfaces first seen in early Celtic art when perforated designs in gold bands created the optical ambivalence which encourages that elusive play between design and background.298 The dark background 298
Schutz, Prehistory, pp. 280ff.
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as negative space may itself be quite meaningless except that it serves as a means to silhouette the lighter positive design of the foreground. The perforated intervals emphasize the detail to be highlighted. Clearly, the taste for perforation had survived the centuries. The pierced book covers mentioned above, illustrate this profiling of the narrative friezes most adeptly. This comb is a synthesis of the older perforating technique with the Carolingian representative techniques. Both sides of the comb are framed by an acanthus leaf design, which runs up the outside to culminate in splendid organic openwork acanthus ‘trees’. On the reverse of the comb a ‘Tree of Jesse’ is represented symbolically with a spread of foliage. Unfortunately the one on the right has broken off. Two angels are fitted into the leaf designs, their wings pointing up, while they are bent over, reaching down into two perforated rose windows. The teeth are cut to form a hemicircular frame on which the Crucifixion group stands between the two rose windows. While the perforated friezes are nearly miniature sculptures in the round, the figures on the comb are carved in relief of moderate depth. Flanking the plaque at the top of the cross are represented medallions with the heads of Apollo with a radiant crown and Selena with the moon sickle, an allusion to the eclipse at the time of Christ’s death, very reminiscent of the images carved into the crystal Crucifixion at Freiburg, discussed above. Christ is bearded, with a moustache and long flowing hair. His head is turned toward his mother. The draped cloth around his waist is pulled up to the thigh on his left and knotted at the waist, hence triangular in appearance. His feet are placed side-by-side, meaning that four nails were needed for the Crucifixion. Owing to the restricted space at the foot of the cross, according to the tradition, a kneeling Longinus with the spear and the standing Virgin Mary are placed at the left of the cross, while a kneeling Stephaton and St. John are crowded into the space at the left. All of the figures are of the compacted, thickset type, found on the other Metz carvings. We find here then the combination of the Classical tradition of carved relief with the non-Classical technique of perforation. In northern art abstracted ornamentation for its own sake had once been a primary artistic function. It had survived in the calligraphic ornamentation of the capital initials. On this ivory the essential representative portion showing the contained and closed narrative human figures in static relief, placed on a firm and plain background, has become an equal partner with the dynamic ornamental portion consisting of forceful and
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convincing openwork design. The angels provide the fusing transition. Two equally distinguishing decorative techniques are joined in the use of surface ornamentation and perforated silhouettes, as older northern ornamental techniques reasserted themselves. Essentially frameless, the composition is very reminiscent of the unframed decorative pages of the illuminated manuscripts. On this comb the distinct alternatives between Mediterranean homocentricity and northern ornamentation have reached an accord. Embellishment and narration have become equal and integral parts of this ornate object. The last ivories to be considered are referred to as the Tuotilo Ivories, from St. Gallen, dated to the end of the 9th century, named after the monk who carved them. Front and back covers of a gospel, the ivories were perhaps a diptych before they were set into a silver embossed and gem encrusted frame.299 The gems are in cabochon settings, in which metal flanges are raised to clasp the stones. The embossing shows distinct foliage on the two covers. The back cover seems to date to the 9th century, the front to the 12th. The ivory on the front is particularly overwhelmed with detail, both figural and ornamental, to the degree that the many figures in turn create an almost decorative impression. The didactic narrative is nearly lost in the overcrowding. Tuotilo sacrificed the rational and pedagogical clarity of thematic composition for an exaggerated accumulation of the related detail. The central panel deals with a Majestas representation at the center, surrounded by all the motifs associated with the apocalyptic Christ in Majesty motif. (Fig. 29) The central portion of this ivory is completed above and below by elaborate sections of pierced and undercut, tightly controlled curvilinear acanthus designs. The two sections combined cover only a little less surface than does the central panel. The back cover is more equally divided into three tiers. At the top is a larger, similarly perforated and undercut acanthus design containing a hunting scene in which a dog is shown flying at the neck of a stag. The central section shows the Virgin Mary flanked by two pairs of angels identified as an Ascension, an early treatment of the topic. (Fig. 30) The bottom section is almost secular in that it retells one of the stories associated with St. Gallus, in which the Saint bids a bear to gather wood for a fire and rewards him with a loaf of bread.
299
Lasko, pp. 63ff. Also Braunfels, p. 391. Also Nees, Early Medieval Art, p. 222f.
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The Majestas panel on the front cover has some details, which depart from the usual representations. Here Christ is shown enthroned in the mandorla, seated on a cushion roll, his feet placed on a platform actually located outside of the oval. His hands are help up, with a book in his right, rather than his left hand resting on the book supported on his left thigh. Flanking his head are the Greek letters A and V, signifying the apocalyptic Beginning and End. The tetramorphs, holding their gospels, surround the mandorla immediately, beginning with the Eagle top left, the Angel top right, the Ox bottom right, and the Lion bottom left. Immediately above the Eagle and the Angel are placed Apollo with the radiant crown and Selena with the moon sickle, both holding cornucopias. Filling the top corners of the panel are the enthroned Evangelists in human form, sitting in front of a building, writing on their unfurled book rolls. Below them, and flanking the mandorla are two seraphim with the six enfolding wings, with the last two Evangelists crowded into the corners. Between them and right across the bottom we find a reclining Oceanos resting his right elbow on the jug from which water flows. His legs extend into the center. From behind his feet, and quite unexpectedly, the gaping jaws of a wolf ’s head rise upward. On the right, Gaia leans against Luke, holding a cornucopia in her left arm and an infant at her breast. A mushroom-capped tree grows from behind her feet. A blend of amassed traditional and novel message bearing detail characterizes this panel. As mentioned, above and below this panel of figures, the decorative spaces are perforated and undercut, symmetrically configured acanthus ‘figure-eight’ designs. The spaces are rationally arranged and very clearly articulated. Not of the erratically linear type of northern intertwine, these mirror images are clearly ‘Classical’ in appearance. The appeal is to an antique esthetic sense of proportion, balance and harmony. The nearly equal equilibrium between figure-space and ornamental space restores to the ornamentation its earlier importance, while the optical effect of the overcrowding reduces the figures to having a rather ornamental quality. Figures and ornament are spatially equated. The back cover is arranged in three equal tiers, but has only one such ornamental area. Perforated and undercut, it is larger than the others and arranged in only six dynamic circular space filling acanthus slings. The top strip shows a lioness tear at the throat of a cow in the middle circle. The vegetation and the hunt combine to give
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the panel a dynamic quality. The middle tier, the Virgin Mary flanked by two pairs of angels, is rather static in the simplicity of its composition, focusing entirely on the central figure. However, were it not for the inscription above the tier—ASCENSIO SCE MARIE—, neither the group nor the action could be identified more clearly. A minimum of vegetation is barely scratched along the ground, implying that the Ascension is about to take place. When compared with the Ascension scene from the Darmstadt panel, this scene does not have a similar dynamic crush of people. The bottom tier is more clearly inventive in its narrative intention. A cross on a staff divides the panel in two: on the left Gallus deals with the upright bear carrying a log, on the right he shares a loaf of bread with it, while another companion sleeps. According to the legend, Gallus and two companions were camping in the woods for the night. While the companions slept, Gallus prayed. A bear came from the mountains and licked up the morsels of food that had fallen on the ground. In return Gallus asked the bear to gather wood for the fire, which the bear did, whereupon Gallus shared a loaf of bread from his pouch commanding the bear to hurt neither man nor beast. The bear heeded the request. The didactic intention is clear in this narrative strip of figures.300 The viewer, however, must first know of the ‘miracle’ for the frieze to have meaning. The story, of course, belongs to a wide range of medieval, folkloristic stories in which animals understand and obey the words of saints. On the left side of the carving stylized trees and bushes, related to the vegetation on the front cover, represent the forest. The saint, a crook in his left hand, raises his hand in blessing toward the bear, rearing on its hind legs, which is carrying a large log. On the other side of the cross, a monk is asleep on the ground, while Gallus is shown placing the bread into the paws of the bear. Here too the visible body language lets the viewer deduce the dramatic dialogue. Inscriptions over the two lower panels direct the viewer to their correct understanding. There are of course purely ornamental ivory panels of great beauty, such as the book cover from Würzburg Cathedral, (Fig. 31) with splendid vegetative designs very reminiscent in appearance of those on the liturgical comb from St. Heribert or on the ornamental portions on the panels carved in the Alemanic area of central Europe
300
Nees, Early Medieval Art, p. 224.
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such as those carved by Tuotilo at St. Gallen. The Würzburg panels have in common that animals are placed prominently into the space filling vegetation, most clearly a medallion with the Apocalyptic Lamb, but also a bear, a boar, a pair of lions and birds picking at foliage or grapes, or actually at the floral ornamentation of the panels. They are distinct from one another in that on the left panel eight of the animals are centered in eight of the lunettes created by the foliage, while on the right panel only three such lunettes are occupied with one large bird in each. The ivory panels are undercut and cover a gold base. Ivory panels and personal ornamental objects were not the only examples to which the carvers paid attention. Containers, both cylinders and reliquary caskets were also made of ivory. Cylindrical pyxes, to keep the consecrated wafer of the Eucharist, cross sections of tusks, were carved with religious scenes in fairly shallow relief, quite worn in appearance. Only very few have survived, such as the pyx in Vienna, (Fig. 32) carved with the nativity scene, including such curious figures as a Salome.301 The reliquary caskets, which, as their name indicates, contained saintly relics, are more common. Two caskets now in the museum at Braunschweig can serve as typical illustrations. The first, is of Anglo-Saxon origin, probably made at Ely, and identified with the convent at Gandersheim, dated to the late 8th century, is perfectly carved from walrus ivory and is trimmed with brass fittings.302 (Fig. 33) Its lid is roof-shaped. The surfaces are sectioned into animated squares, whirligigs, filled with variations of northern open intertwine and overlay with each strand terminating in an animal, such as a salamander, bird-like creatures and winged beasts of fantasy. The metal trim is partly engraved and partly cellular with cloisonné inlay—powdered glass melted in cells made of golden ridges soldered onto a surface, harking back to the older Celto-Germanic styles of surface ornamentation. The other casket, also possibly to be associated with Gandersheim, was made over one hundred years later. Like other pieces it was made in Lorraine, perhaps at Metz, and consists of wood, covered with panels of carved ivory. (Figs. 34, 35) It has been repaired with pieces of ivory and more recent decorative formerly gilt bronze
301 302
Volbach, p. 120, pl. 97. Braunfels, p. 373.
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fittings. These also serve a functional purpose. It reflects very well the thematic transition, which has taken place in the intervening years. The abstract curvilinear intertwines have been replaced by Christian narrative. The casket is again house-shaped in design. The sides tell episodes from the life of Christ. The end panels show the Annunciation and the Nativity respectively. The front and rear panels represent his Baptism and the Crucifixion, styled in a manner resembling the engraved gems. Clearly the Crucifixion figures centrally in Carolingian art. Close inspection shows that some of the panels depict novel details not found in the traditional narrative formulas. The left end panel depicts the Annunciation, showing an angel approaching a seated Virgin Mary, placed in an arcade. The right end panel shows the Nativity in an arcaded setting framed in acanthus leaves. A handmaiden is included in the composition, standing behind Mary. Joseph is seated on a stool, his face resting in his right hand. In the gabled lid an angel is descending onto the scene below. Perhaps an indication of the casket’s primary function as a container for baptismal vials of ointments, the front panel emphasizes a prominently placed Baptism showing Christ standing in the River Jordan, a clumsy attempt to show flowing water, pouring out of a large jug held upside down by a large river god, the former Oceanos. An undressed Christ, surrounded by the mandorla, is visible in the water. A clothed John the Baptist is in the water with him and places his right hand on Christ’s head. Two angels are approaching from opposite sides, their hand veiled as if carrying clothing. On the lid panel above, a large dove, carrying vials, comes down over the head of Christ, while several descending angels bearing baptismal objects, fill the remaining space. Two angels occupy the corners. A frame of acanthus leaves surrounds the composition. The back of the casket shows a Crucifixion across the whole surface. Over the acanthus design on the bottom a modulated groundcover provides an uneven base on which all figures stand. To allow Christ’s feet to stand on the snake, the upright of the cross is shorter. The crucified Christ is somewhat larger than all of the other figures. The assembly of figures differs from the norm. A group of women approaches from the left, actually intruding on the acanthus frame. Longinus, resting on his spear, faces them and points his index finger at them as if engaged in conversation with them. It is a moment after he has pierced Christ’s side. Ecclesia with the victory pennant in her left holds up a chalice in which she catches the blood spurting
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from Christ’s side. Christ’s arms are unproportionally long. His halo is of the familiar cruciform type. Under his left arm stands Stephaton supporting his right arm on the staff to which the sponge is attached. The jug of sour wine is at his feet. He extends his left arm toward a male figure on his left, the converted centurion, who points his right index finger in the direction of Christ. His left holds a large staff. Their body language suggests a discussion. To his left another tall robed figure, perhaps St. John, stands against the acanthus frame. The changes in the formulaic composition leave it unclear whom these figures are supposed to represent. The Virgin Mary is not otherwise identifiable on this panel. Mary and John have been removed from their immediate association with the Crucifixion. Sun and moon are not shown on this panel either, but rather on the lid. There on the left a medallion shows Apollo/Sol in an ascending chariot drawn by two horses, balanced by a medallion showing the moon goddess Selena/Luna in a descending wagon drawn by two cows. A hand holding a wreath reaches into this space, while two flanking angels descend as if in a dive. The unidentifiable figures and missing personifications, the curious positions assumed by Longinus and Stephaton, the gestures of the bystanders, all indicate a departure from the familiar representations. In order to accommodate Christ’s head and the cross bar of the cross, the acanthus frame had to be mutilated. Stylistically these figures differ from those on the other sides of the casket but resemble those engraved on the rock crystals. They are more delicate and seem to be the work of a different artist. Ecclesia and her pennant of victory, as well as the representations of Sun and Moon, closely resemble the figures on the Crucifixion Ivory. As is the case with the other panels, an outside frame of simple punched and geometric design frames everything. What stylistic developments might be reflected in these ivories? In view of the brief and limited selection of examples it may not be proper to suggest a generalization. A different selection might allow different conclusions. However, a transition seems to be clearly indicated in the preparation of ivory panels during the 9th century. Some were first carved as diptyches before finding use as book covers, so that cover and text are not necessarily contemporary and stylistically at variance. Some may indeed be re-used antique panels, or Carolingian panels closely based on lost antique models. Though earlier Christian ivory panels carved in the Carolingian manner are generally not known, they strongly suggest imitative begin-
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nings derived from the Classical heritage. This tradition is reflected in the choice of acanthus leaves for the vegetative designs and the placement of compact figures in static, arcaded settings. The emphasis on tectonic, architectural detail then yielded to the gradual introduction of movement, dynamics in crowd scenes, the arrangement of drapery and its pleats and folds, and with it an emotionalism in the groupings of figures. These are less overtly dependent on Classical models and begin to make visible didactic narrative programs, as the attempt is made to bring the events of the faith alive in pictures, to make the abstract scriptural texts more tangible through the involvement of the emotions and the perception of the senses. In the East Frankish kingdom perhaps more than elsewhere, gradually the earlier ornamental abstractions of curvilinear intertwines reassert themselves with rather Classical interpretations to claim nearly equal space with the narrative scenes on the decorated surfaces. Though ivory panels were to be carved in future, the work in precious metals combined with gem and pearl encrustations was to gain increasing popularity.
XVIII. Gems, precious metals and bronzes—Liturgical Art One can almost envisage the competitive spirit making itself felt as the goldsmiths working in their studios of the monastic establishments or of the respective Palace Schools tried to have more of their work accepted for the preparation of the precious manuscripts. It is evident that manuscript production was the primary activity during the Carolingian period. However, it has also been amply demonstrated elsewhere303 that the Germanic goldsmiths had all the necessary sophistication of skills in their synthesis of ornamental techniques of chip carving, engraving, embossing, and working with sheets of gold foil, gold wire, granules, filigree, cloisonné, enamel and cabochon techniques, associated with the traditional portable objects and regal and ceremonial garb of the Germanic arts and crafts. Very many of these skills continued to be practiced as the cloister arts and it is not surprising that northern traditions of abstract ornamentation should parallel Classical traditions of representative narrative
303
Schutz, Tools, Weapons and Ornaments.
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and of surface ornamentation. The extant evidence strongly suggests that profane works were either not commissioned very often or have not survived. It is known that precious metals were not abundantly available and since much gold was taken out of circulation, the gilding of baser metals was a common practice. In view of the nearly infinite demand for cultic vessels and objects, liturgical art had a priority to which other wishes were subordinated. No doubt much was refashioned to conform to the taste of later periods, such as the cover of the Book of Pericopes of Henry II. New now is that most of the metal work of the goldsmiths will deal with flat surfaces to be embossed in conjunction with accomplished, raised gem encrustations. The results are the spectacular examples of liturgical art. The most important embossed object is the golden altar of St. Ambrogio in Milan. One in St. Peter’s in Rome had a surface plate weighing more than 200 pounds.304 The products of these skilled artisans will represent such a high degree of artistry, great material as well as high esthetic value, that the work will be esteemed as spiritual work rather than as craftsmanship, the artist being willing to see in his work something miraculous, achieved with divine help and defer the accomplishment to the Virgin Mary instead of seeking credit for himself.305 Rather than being relegated to the ‘crafts’, this work should be identified as ‘decorative arts’. The lustrous beauty and gleaming splendor of precious metals, ivories, pearls and colorful gems, of ornamental contours, textures and sparkling material opulence will have achieved a dazzling effect. Their considerable material weight and great value was certainly recorded. Yet their real estimation lay in the grandeur of their uplifting spirituality, amplified by the mysterious, magical properties attributed to gold and to gems. Their assembly on a silver altar, or in association with silver or even golden antependia, hung with precious fabrics, will have contributed to the edifying ritualistic illusions of the liturgical and sacramental procedures of the office. The southern bronze smiths and casters brought north also make their contributions to the specialized crafts in the manufacture of large door panels, grillwork and large castings in the round.306 The embossing of contours and of sculptures in the round is then an expression of the introduction by foreign craftsmen, of humanistic, 304 305 306
V.H. Elbern, Goldschmiedekunst im frühen Mittelalter (Darmstadt 1988), p. 77. Elbern, p. 10. See Braunfels, pp. 135ff.
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Mediterranean concepts and part of the Carolingian rediscovery. This goes so far as the renaming of the imported bronze casting of a bear sow (c. 200) into the Roman she-wolf, just to emphasize the continuity with Rome. During the Bronze Age it was possible to determine the provenance of decorated bronze objects by the characteristics of the ornamentation. Engraved designs on metals were of northern and embossed of southern origin. Today spectroscopy allows a more accurate geographic location of the origins of the component metals. The best bronzes would consist of 9 parts copper combined with 1 part tin. When highly polished, the effect would be golden. The tendency to gild the bronze objects indicates how one wanted to appreciate these bronzes. During the many intervening centuries this simplification was affected by stylistic changes, though fundamentally this distinction still seems to apply during the transitions of the Carolingian period. The northern pagan approach is represented by the metal work of the Insular Style, as for instance in the intertwining ornamentation on the silver beaker from Pettstadt, now in Nürnberg. (Fig. 36) Once gilt, interlaced animal and vegetative motifs around the rim and down the sides created large empty surfaces, perhaps meant to be filled with other plaques. The intertwines seem to have been the exclusive ornamental purpose. However, the southern Christian and humanistic approach triumphs by the middle of the 9th century. The Irish monks who were active in the Germanic realms during the Merovingian Period brought with them the cult of relics. These were kept in miniature ‘graves’, reliquary caskets and burse-reliquaries made of a covered wooden core, in the shape of a pilgrim’s pouch, provided with arrangements to facilitate hanging, on walls for instance. The fact that such relics were portable, meant that their metaphysical properties were transferable from location to location, thereby either adding to the sanctity of an established site or bestowing a new sanctity where there previously had not been any. From the reign of Pepin III to that of Louis the Pious this practice had the effect of creating extensive networks between places of origin and the final resting places and serving as a continuing, cohesive social bond extending over centuries.307 The northern styles of surface decoration 307 Smith, ‘Roman Relics’ in Smith (ed.), Early Medieval Rome, pp. 317ff. See Geary, Living with the Dead, pp. 78, 179f., who argues that the policies of these kings were a consistent attempt to exploit popular devotion as a means of control.
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were still being practiced and it is quite evident that the Irish reliquaries and the styles of ornamentation for portable objects came to be complementary. The number of examples is extensive and they are well represented in the museums of Europe. The techniques mentioned above can all be found on these reliquaries. One fine example is the Enger Reliquary.308 It will have to serve as a representative sample for the many others. (Plate 23a) Dated to c. 700, according to legend Charlemagne gave it to his Saxon adversary Widukind on the occasion of his baptism, when Charlemagne himself raised him out of the waters, and his acceptance of Frankish suzerainty and of Christianity in 785. If this was so, then Widukind bequeathed it to his Saxon monastery at Enger, where it may actually have been made, perhaps on the occasion of this death in 807. The ridge across the top of this burse-reliquary consists of five golden lions sculpted in the round. A message pertinent to the baptism can be read into these lions. According to Christian legend, frequently represented in stained glass windows, lion cubs are stillborn and stay so until the father lion breathes on them and then on the third day they come to life. The pagan Widukind was dead until he was baptized and then he gained life as a Christian. This allusion is most probably coincidental, since it is unlikely that the reliquary was made for just this occasion. The lions may also be a motif inherited from the Romans who had set up lions as guardians against evil spirits over graves and sacred monuments.309 In this case they guard the saint’s reliquary. Here the reliquary can function as the miniature grave of the saint. It is of Merovingian stylistic provenance, precious enough to be a reconciling gift following the many years of conflict between the Frankish king and the Saxon duke. The obverse of this reliquary betrays the increasing rationalization of surface ornamentation through the symmetrical placement of thirteen cabochon gems and cameos, which anchor connecting lines of spatial demarcation. The symbolism of the number four, here expanded to twelve, lends a multi-leveled cosmic significance to the surface. Three horizontal rows of three gems each mark the top, middle and bottom of the burse. In the top row, two are carved cameos. The five gems placed vertically and horizontally form a cross, terminating in deep red
308 309
Braunfels, p. 370. Schutz, Romans, p. 93.
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stones, garnets. The central stone, a dull dark blue, forms the center of another group of five light, somewhat translucent stones. That stone at the center of the cross is circled with white pearls, most probably symbolic of Christ. Radiating lines of red cloisonné link all of these stones aligned either at right angles or diagonally. They form a square, a rhombus and a cross. The zones thus created by the outlines of red cloisonné are then filled with constrained cloisonné animals, such as snakes, fish and birds. Some of the latter clearly are birds of prey. Others are doves. These beings represent a new animated creation under the sign of the cross.310 The rationalization of anchor points and spatial organization not withstanding, at first and second glance the overall surface is a confusing assembly of forms and colors, arranged in seemingly random and indistinguishable array, quite in keeping with the Germanic techniques. In many instances the flux or inlay has fallen out of the cells, revealing clearly the manufacturing technique which sees the cells created by soldering vertical ridges of gold onto a golden surface and then filling the cells created with contrasting matter. In many locations on the surface the cells have also fallen off, making this surface well suited for the study of this decorating technique. The animals of the upper part of the surface are two birds and two fish; of the lower half four snakes in figure-eight design and two birds. The overall impression is kaleidoscopic. A border of mainly red cloisonné surrounds the entire surface. While the ends are also in cloisonné, the reverse of the reliquary belongs to the newer humanistic tradition of representing figures in arcade settings on embossed sheet gold. (Fig.) Rather rudimentary in execution, six half figures are arranged in two tiers of three figures each. The central bottom arcade shelters the Virgin Mary and the Child. The niche above shows Christ with the cruciform halo, flanked by two angels. The other two figures flanking the Virgin and Child represent Peter with the keys, on their right, and Paul. Whatever the actual date of its manufacture, this burse-reliquary is characterized by the transition of decorative styles. Perhaps the poor state of preservation allows the conclusion that the colorful, ‘pagan’ side was relegated to the wall and that the golden side was actually preferred and that the change in taste had already taken place.
310
Elbern, p. 27.
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Another spectacular reliquary (33×21×7.5 cm) is the one associated with St. Stephen, originally kept in Aachen, now in Vienna. (Plate 23b) Though extremely valuable for its total surface covering, cabochon settings of row upon row of closely spaced multicolored gems, set in indentations, its artistic value is much compromised. A cross of larger gems is barely discernible. The face of the burse is the work of a craftsman without artistic aspirations. Its sides are decorated with hunting and fishing scenes, reminiscent of the nervous style of the Ebo Gospel.311 The burse is supposed to have contained the blood-soaked earth of the executed St. Stephen, the first martyr. Was the material value of the reliquary meant to reflect the spiritual value of its content?312 The reverse is of much later manufacture. The ridge is Gothic. Two brilliant examples represent the Insular Style during the Carolingian period: the Tassilo Chalice, still in the monastery at Kremsmünster in Upper Austria and the First Cover of the Lindau Gospel, now in the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York.313 The objects tell of a confluence of insular and continental techniques, perhaps in the area surrounding Salzburg. While the ornamentation on the ‘slender’ chalice is rather ‘Celtic’ in appearance, stylistically it is not related to the Irish chalices, which are broader than they are tall,314 that of the book cover has greater resemblance with the Anglo-Saxon buckle from Sutton Hoo. Lombardic elements contribute a third element. The chalice is a historical document, which survived into our time by virtue of it being of copper. (Plate 25a) Had it been of gold, as its inside cup actually was, it would have been melted down during the Austrian Secularization at the end of the 18th century. Being a unique survivor the chalice bears a tremendous burden of responsibility. It is singled out and treated with a respect that may actually be misplaced, if it were known what other examples have been lost over time. Providentially the Chalice is a marvelous work of art. The chalice is an historical monument in that it records the marriage of Duke Tassilo III of Bavaria with 311
Braunfels, p. 387. See Geary, Living with the Dead, pp. 200ff. for a discussion of the evaluation of relics and their worth. 313 Braunfels, p. 89, suggests that when particularly valuable pieces of liturgical art were needed one turned to Anglo-Saxons or those trained by them. 314 M. Ryan, ‘The Derrynaflan Hoard and Early Irish Art’, in L. Nees, (ed.), Approaches to Early Medieval Art (Cambridge, Mass. 1998), p. 55. 312
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Liutpirc, the daughter of Desiderius, king of the Lombards, c. 768/69. It may have been donated to the monastery of Kremsmünster on the occasion of its foundation, c. 770.315 The cultural details of this event are recorded on the vessel itself. The history of this situation has already been discussed above. The chalice is also something of a challenge directed against the Carolingians. With similar intent, the foundations of the cathedral built by bishop Virgil in Salzburg were deliberately much larger than those of the Carolingian church of St. Denis. Tassilo’s mother was the sister of Pepin, so that Charles and Carloman were Tassilo’s cousins. Tassilo’s link with the established older kingdom of the Lombards, made him at least of equal status with the usurping Carolingians, if not their better. The text and the abbreviations on the hollow conical base of the chalice formulate the position and infer the claim. A circular text reads +TASSILO DUX FORTIS + LIUTPIRC VIRGA REGALIS+, meaning ‘Tassilo the brave Duke and Liutpirc the royal Sprout’. The dignified tone of this inscription indicates the formality of this commission. In the terminology he associates himself with military strength, she with a budding twig. The crosses separate the text into male and female sections. Above the Tassilo section two male figures in silver medallions contain a torso with youthful and beardless face pressing the fingers of his right hand to his chest. His head is flanked by the letters T, M, interpreted to refer to the soldier Martyr Theodor, a first name much favored for the sons of the Agilolfingian dukes of Bavaria. To his left, an older bearded face but with the same gesture is flanked by the letter I, B, Johannes Baptista, the patron saint of the Agilolfingian dukes, as well as of the Lombardic royal line. Above the Liutpirc section a female portrait, with her right hand holding a scepter pressed to her breast, has the letters P and T placed beside her head. These initials have been identified to mean Panhagia Theodelinda, Highly respected Theodelinda. Theodelinda was the Bavarian princess who in 589 had become the great queen of the Lombards. Beside her a charming female torso with the flanking letters M, T, interpreted to mean Maria Theotokos, Mary, Mother (bearer) of God.316 Quite clearly the august assembly of secular and religious
315
Volbach in Hubert, et al., p. 210. P. Stollenmayer, E. Widder, Der Kelch des Herzogs Tassilo (Rosenheim 1976), pp. 13ff. 316
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personages infers a glory by association for this royal couple establishing a princely claim of the highest order. What did the Carolingians have to match this? The political implication was to have serious consequences. The unhappy outcome of this rivalry for Tassilo has already been discussed. The conical base is linked to the cup by means of an ornamented nodule, above which is placed a rotating ring of gilt beads. When held in the priest’s left hand during the Eucharist, while his right is fitted into the hollow base, the ring acted as a ‘ball bearing’, allowing the priest to rotate the cup without changing the position of his left hand on the chalice. The large cup, able to hold 1.75 liters of wine, depicts in five silver medallions portraits of Christ and of the four Evangelists and their emblems. The Christ effigy is aligned vertically with the name Tassilo and the medallions of the two male saints on the base. Here again a message waits to be deduced. The Tassilo Chalice is more than an historical document. It is an icon, which incorporates the essential sacramental mystical elements of the faith. The chalice, 25.5 cm tall, is also a work of art, of exceptional beauty in itself. It is the only one of its kind. The fact that the historical themes represented on the chalice reflect the Bavarian and Lombard situation so closely makes it unlikely that the chalice was imported from far away. The craftsmen must have been at home in the Bavarian duchy. They themselves, however, may have been of or very closely associated with the Hiberno-Celtic traditions of ornamentation, for the dominant ornamentation effects the carpet pages of the Insular Style, though a close inspection of the chip carving reveals itself to be of the Animal Style found on Germanic fibulas. (Plates 25b, 25c, 25d) Into these fields of writhing intertwines, medallions bearing effigies have been inserted. Clearly the decorative elements have captured a moment of tension in the transition from northern pagan ornamentation to didactic Christian representation. The confounding ornamental interlace, formerly the primary selfsatisfied ornamental intention, has been relegated to the secondary role as frame of the message carrying effigies representing the Christian faith. The techniques of ornamentation include chip carving, engraving, niello—a mixture of silver, copper, lead and sulfur—, and ample use of silver and gold. The ornamentation leaves no empty spaces anywhere on the chalice. The medallions are silvery in appearance with golden accents. Most of the carpet ornamentation is gilt. Each of the medallions is encircled with a golden linear Germanic braid
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design of figure-eight overlays and intertwines, the sort, which would unravel if pulled at one end. The ovals are linked as if with golden = signs. All the spaces between the ovals are decorated with chip carved designs of the pagan northern Animal Style, characterized by disjointed linear assemblies, reminiscent of the reconfigured bracteats found in Saxony. The lip of the cup is encircled by a frieze of intertwines separated by semicircles of silver, linked with roofs. All of these configurations are filled with the chip carved serpentine intertwines and dismembered body parts characteristic for the style. The same holds true for the triangular spandrels, which fill all spaces around the medallions. As was mentioned, the silver medallions on the cup contain the effigies of Christ and of the Evangelists with their tetramorphic emblems. The details of the figures are outlined sharply in contrasting black niello. Owing to an impact, probably a fall, the Christ medallion had separated from its copper base. During the repairs, the silver plate was riveted to the cup, leaving six rivet marks on the surface without relevance to the composition. The Christ effigy is a half-figured Majestas Domini representation. His youthful bearded and mustachioed face is framed by a full head of flowing hair. It is surrounded by a doubly grooved golden halo. Horizontal golden grooves above shoulder height represent a band on which appear in dark niello the Greek letters A and V, Beginning and End, signifying the Apocalypse from Revelation. Vertical and forked golden grooves intimate the back of the throne. His garments are edged in gold. The right hand is raised in an elegant gesture of the Greek blessing. His left is rather unproportional and understated. The medallion now also bears the additional letters I and S, meaning Jesus Salvator, Jesus the Savior, on both sides of the head. Being Latin words rather than Greek, it is held that these were added during the repairs. Their intention is clear: to stress the quiet solace and sublime composure represented by the majesty of the Savior. The four medallions showing the Evangelists are less clearly defined because of the more turbulent ensemble created by crowding each Evangelist and emblematic being into the limited space of the medallion. Outlines in niello and lines of emphasis in gold create a chaotic effect for each medallion. These figures are not so well drawn as the Christ effigy, and are more erratic in execution and actually rather expressionistic in effect. Of interest is the nodule, more than just a physical link between
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cup and base. In among the intertwine are fastened nine diamond shaped designs, composed of some 200 independent petals, forming rosettes. These are attached separately, riveted to the base and delineated in niello. Only one of these petals has been damaged and lost. The number nine totals the number of medallions: four on the base and five on the cup, figuratively transforming the chalice into a cosmological entity. Despite the space filling decorative technique, which covers all possible surfaces, these surfaces are arranged into well-organized zones, each delineated by thin silver strips reinforced by niello lines. With the component parts linked, the cup displays a hieratic continuum of a lower order of individuals related or associated with the given historical and political situation on the base and the higher spiritual and theological order of the faith. Christ and the Evangelists are the Gospels and in the Transubstantiation of the Eucharist, the wine is Christ’s blood. By means of the chalice and the wine, the select celebrant in the Eucharist participates in the mystical union with the divinity. The chalice suggests, that Tassilo saw himself to have been so chosen. Originating during the very early Carolingian period the Tassilo Chalice projects a stimulating work, which demonstrates very well the melding of two stylistic and cultural realities represented by the pagan northern Insular and Animal Styles with the Christian humanism and the homocentric intentions of the Mediterranean cultures. It is noteworthy that the combination of pagan and Christian elements has been noted before, as on the Crucifixion Ivory, where the pagan elements were of a humanistic, Classical origin. Here the pagan elements are vestiges of the northern tradition of organic surface ornamentation. Though the non-iconographic designs of braid and complicated interlace will continue in the elaborate decoration of incipit capitals in illuminated manuscripts, as ‘carpet pages’ this is something of their last Hurrah. Once relegated to their secondary, non-narrative role as ornamental frames, they will soon be pushed off the surfaces altogether, to clear the space for geometric borders and message oriented, homocentric narrative, dependent on anthropomorphic representations. Known as the First Cover of the Lindau Gospel, it is actually its back cover, probably added at a later time.317 (Plate 26a) It is held 317
Volbach, in Hubert et al., p. 213.
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to be a nearly contemporary work of the chalice, though dated as early as c. 770 or as late as c. 830. This cover is also a melding of pagan and Christian elements, with the aspects of the pagan northern Animal Style retaining the dominant role on the cover. The Christian element is represented in small, arcaded Christ effigies on the arms of the cross, stylistically related to Lombardic work,318 and in very advanced and sophisticatedly articulated miniatures, embossed scenes of the Evangelists assuming their formal writing poses, accompanied by their emblems. The original Christian elements have been modified.319 On this cover the cross, in definite ‘Maltese’ outline, has been given the focal position with the later addition of the letters symbolizing Christ, such a XPS DMS, Christus Dominus, at the very center, and although the stylized busts of Christ with cruciform halos are very apparent, the arms of the cross are ornamented with fantastic animals and interlaced salamander-like creatures extending out into the blue frieze of the frame, while other ‘baroque’ motifs from the arms of the cross are continued into the golden frieze on the right and on the bottom. The space between the arms of the cross is filled entirely with creatures representing the animated universe under the cross in the form of a maze of pincer jawed, tail biting, intertwining snakes, salamanders, birdlike and serpentine canine creatures. It cannot be missed that here too the filling patterns are endlessly repeated motifs, as if excerpted from some infinite scheme. Accurate symmetry does not appear to have been the objective in the space filling designs of these sections. Each of these fields is finished with chasing along the edges. Beaded gold wire surrounds many of the surface areas. At the center of each of these spaces a precious gem—amethysts, emeralds—occupies a cabochon setting. The cross received particular attention. Pearls and gems accent the cross symmetrically, with pearls being placed at all the tips of the cross and around the juncture of the arms and on the vertical arms of the cross, 16 pearls in all. The Christ effigies and the other contorted fantasy birds are covered with champ-levé enamel, while other delineations are done in red cloisonné. Above the Christ effigies on the vertical arms of the cross and contained in a red cloisonné lunette, are two anthropomorphic or zoomorphic figures of dismembered,
318 319
Elbern, p. 24. Braunfels, p. 366.
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randomly reassembled bodies with too many hands clasping dislocated parts. While on three of the effigies the lapels of the mantle are arranged in two arches down the front of the body, on one of them the lapels form a definite X, perhaps intended to suggest the Greek letter Chi, one of the symbolic Greek letters abbreviating the Christogram. Abstract designs or mask-like faces fill the spandrels left between the diverging tips of the terminals of the cross. On one long and one short side the frame is composed of very decorative fish and bird motifs done in multicolored cloisonné, interspersed by subdivided circular and square red cloisonné patterns. One short side is decorated with LaTène looking Celtic appliqués, also to be found filling spaces on the cross. Gems in cabochon settings are regularly spaced around three sides of the frame. The cover is completed on the long sides by strips of geometrics, except for a short section of interlacing pattern. To ‘modernize’ the cover, sectors were later provided (c. 870) in the four corners to accommodate the Evangelists. In view of the established Germanic expertise, the sophistication of these embossed settings, and perhaps also the champ levé enamels on the effigies, do not necessarily suggest a later rather than an earlier date of completion of this cover. Despite the perhaps chaotic impression left by the description of this cover, the optical effect of this surface is entirely satisfying and amazing. The arrangement of the surface decorations is sufficiently rational and symmetrical in organization, with just enough humanistic detail, to indicate that both the northern pagan and southern humanistic traditions are in contention of the surface, but that the latter is gaining on the former. The Tassilo Chalice made that even more evident. The Front or Second Cover of the Lindau Gospel, c. 870, produced at the Palace School of Charles the Bald, clearly indicates that the transition from the dynamic northern designs to static has been accomplished. (Plate 26b) It is a totally rationally designed, symmetrically planned, equally proportioned spatial arrangement of the surface. Though the display of precious gems, pearls and gold is priceless, the border is almost uninteresting with its considered layout of cabochon setting of gems and pearls encrusted in acanthus leaves. An animated creativity has been fettered by the orderly intellect, to produce a rather unimaginative surface. The frame consists of an outside setting of pearls alternating with small multicolored precious stones, containing an inner setting of large precious stones, green, blue, red, containing another inside row of alternating pearls
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and precious stones. The arrangement may be seen as a sequence of crosses. The space within that frame is divided into four equal rectangles of gold onto which are set clusters of nine gems and pearls arranged in the shape of crosses centering on a light blue stone, such as an aquamarine. In the two upper fields, above and below the clusters, embossed and contorted angels are fitted into each to fill as much of the space as is possible. The two lower fields have embossed and contorted humans fitted to fill as much of the space as possible. Nothing about them suggests that they figured among the traditional personages shown attending the Crucifixion. All figures, whether angelic or human, float in an ideal golden, otherworldly space. The cross too is that space, itself outlined by gem and pearl encrustations. On the upper part of the cross, embossed medallion shaped Moon and Sun are placed above the plaque with the embossed inscription HIC EST REX JUDEORM (sic). The longhaired head of Christ is surrounded with a filigreed and cruciform emerald halo. Blood is shown flowing from Christ’s hands and from his right side, pointing to the mystical understanding of the scene. A skirt-like loincloth is knotted below his waist and his feet are placed side by side, in the Romanesque fashion. The cross has lost its pre-eminence and a very prominently contoured figure of Christ now dominates the cover. The human effigy as proclaimer of the Christian message remains triumphant. A self-satisfied approach to artistic representation for art’s own sake, ‘l’art pour l’art’, has become ‘art engagé’, art in the sanctified service of the faith and the church. The Carolingian climax of gem encrusted, embossed, golden gospel covers is the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram. (Plates 27a, 27b) Made for Charles the Bald, c. 870, and stylistically related to the Second Cover of the Lindau Gospel, the emperor Arnulf bestowed it to the monastery of St. Emmeram in Regensburg. The art of its manuscript has been discussed above. In brief an imposing frame of gems, pearls and filigree borders on four L-shaped areas of embossed human situations, which in turn are the frame for another frame of encrusted gems.320 These form a cross, dividing the embossed surfaces, with an encrusted ridge creating a rectangle where the arms of the cross would join, in which a Majestas Domini is enthroned. A mass of alternating sapphires and emeralds, interspersed with pearls, all set in 320 Diebold, p. 56, suggests that the elevated gem encrustations protected the embossing of the thin sheet gold cover when the codex was opened.
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sophisticated gold cabochon acanthus claws, provide the color context of this magnificent border. Only a few pearls are missing. Because the gems are raised on miniature platforms, the gems suggest a threedimensional contextual ‘architecture’, perhaps an early idea of a Christian universe, of the heavenly Jerusalem. Intricate filigree provides complementary ornamental artistry, which fills any spaces left between the gems. The highly accomplished, embossed figures of the surrounding inner fields consist of two narrative groups, the very familiar Evangelists with their inspiring emblems, and those which figure in scenes from the life of Christ. The gold foil will have been molded over a softer, carved or impressed model, such as leather. The Evangelists, seated on elaborate thrones, face inward from rectangles on the outside corners of the central rectangle. Counterclockwise from the top left they are Matthew, Mark, Luke and John with books or unrolled scrolls, an irregular sequence. The emblems have become minor details and are awkwardly forced into the corners. The scenes from Christ’s life complete the L-shaped space: clockwise from top left the scenes show Christ and the adulteress, Christ driving the money changers from the temple in Jerusalem, Christ healing the blind, and the leper. One may wonder why just these four scenes were selected. With the exception of the last embossed scene, all show some stylized architecture in the background. The scene with the leper shows an abundance of vegetation. All details, especially the figures, are finely embossed, speaking an elegant body language. They are contoured in a somewhat static, elongated manner, reminiscent of the figures of the Utrecht Psalter. The central rectangle shows the majestic Christ in the mandorla, enthroned on the world disc, his feet resting on a smaller embossed disc. His head is surrounded by the cruciform halo, his hair flows over his shoulders, on his left thigh stands a book supporting his left hand. His right hand is held at the height of his chest, in the Greek gesture of blessing. His robes are folded about the body to accent the contours of his body. Four sunbursts are placed in the corners. As a synthesis of Carolingian stylistic and thematic models and intentions this cover represents an extraordinary phase of surface treatment. The usual representation of this cover obscures a feature, which makes this cover an astonishing, symbolic work. An oblique view shows that the gems are elevated on arcaded structures of varying height and design, creating a veritable cityscape of classical temples and other
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such structures. The colonnades which surround the central gold plaque, with Christ in the mandorla, resemble a sacred precinct around which the other structures are assembled. The idea of a spectacular Imperium Christianum made visible, of a Heavenly Jerusalem as described in Revelation (21:16–18) recommends itself. The ensemble creates the impression of a sacred shrine. The ornamentation has become a static, tectonic arrangement of encrusted material display, entirely subordinated to the humanistic narrative message of the Christian faith. The two dimensional representations of the spiritual components and the three dimensional elements of the material composition form a persuasive holistic ensemble. As such it is an original work at the pinnacle of the goldsmith’s art. Clearly books in general and such manuscripts and their covers especially are the outstanding examples of the representative elements of the liturgical arts. No doubt there existed a latent conflict between this sumptuous ostentation and the idea of Christian humility and poverty. No doubt, however, that the use of jewels and gold in the liturgical context was also the only conceivable, tangible manner in which man could express his awe and respect for the ‘golden’ Word of God, as illustrated in the manuscripts by the use of golden lettering on purple parchment. The optical pagan fascination with the radiance of gems and gold is a meditational transposition performed by the Christians into the abstract manifestation of the invisible God. During the next century the Ottonian tradition, already referred to when dealing with the setting of the Crucifixion Ivory on the Book of Pericopes of Henry II, will continue with this manner of surface treatment. Only the Codex Aureus of Echternach will feature engraved figures on panels of gold. A last example of the use of gem encrusted gold foil is the Arnulf Ciborium, c. 870, the only original Carolingian portable altar. (Plate 28) It was donated to St. Emmeram by king Arnulf of Carinthia (887–899), and emperor after 896. Some of the ideas applied to the ciborium may have originated in the same workshop of the Palace School of Charles the Bald, as did the cover of the Codex Aureus of Emmeram. Arnulf may have commissioned the ciborium after his ascent to the throne. About one hundred years later both pieces were restored, at which time the inscription naming Arnulf as God loving donor may possibly have been inscribed. It is now in the Treasury of the Residence in Munich. The ciborium, 59×31×24 cm,
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is a portable architectural superstructure, to be placed on the altar, with a wooden core of oak, covered in embossed gold foil. A slab of green porphyry, which forms the altar stone, is set into the raised base of this portable altar structure. A canopy, raised on four columns and arches, supports a second level, which contains a deep rectangular recess, to accommodate the host during mass. Short columns carry a four-gabled roof. Except for the altar stone, all surfaces are covered with embossed, decorative scrolls or narrative figures related to the New Testament. These figures move in a more animated manner, just as their garments appear to be more windblown. The rooflines are set with precious and semi-precious stones in rich filigree, the gables are outlined with gems, as are all edges. The triangular spaces formed by the gables show the Trinity by such figures as the Hand of God, the Lamb and the Dove. An archangel with a globe is represented on the reverse. The surfaces on the roof show such New Testament scenes as the Raising of the youth of Nain and of Lazarus, Call of St. Peter—PETRE AMAS ME, the Allegory of the Birds in the Sky, or the Lilies in the Field. (Fig. 37) The spandrels display seraphim. The altar stone is faced with cloisonné enamel designs in the petal shape of a St. Andrew’s Cross. Significant sections of these ornamental details are now missing. The earliest such portable altar, c. 800, was preserved at Adelhausen/Freiburg. Red porphyry was used in this instance. (Fig. 38) For centuries to come the esthetic values determining the style of decorative surface treatment has been fundamentally established. The primary interest has been focused on the humanistic image surrounded by an ornamental context of objects of great material value. While the earlier styles, both Insular and Animal, had used human forms, these were applied in a dismembered manner of decorative elements, the new esthetics demanded to use the identified figure in a known context to demonstrate and reinforce as narrative the didactic message of the Christian faith. For the viewer the visible representation of forms and fabulous wealth is intended to serve as a ‘catalyst’ which, through meditation, will stimulate a spiritual realization and an intellectual understanding, in terms of the faith, of the invisible. Recognition of the familiar is to lead to the cognition of the great abstractions. Perhaps the best-known bronze casting of the Carolingian Period is the unique miniature equestrian statue of an idealized Carolingian emperor, (Figs. 39a, 39b) originally part of the cathedral treasure at
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Metz and now in the Louvre.321 It was once gilt. Often identified as a representation of Charlemagne, the statuette may actually represent Charles the Bald, perhaps made on the occasion of his coronation at Metz, 869, following his seizure of the lands of Lothair II322 or an idealized ruler. The statue is modeled on Roman equestrian statues, such as the one of Marcus Aurelius, or is it Constantine I, in Rome. It is also known that Charles had such a statue, perhaps wrongly attributed to Theoderic the Great, and possibly of the Byzantine emperor Zeno, removed from Ravenna to Aachen, there to be set up in the palace complex. Walahfrid Strabo made reference to it in his Versus in Aquisgrani palatio editi anno Hludovici imperatoris XVI. De imagine Tetrici. Porphyry columns and Classical capitals were part of that transport. There is no account of the disappearance of this equestrian statue. The columns, the statue and then this statuette could serve as a working illustration of Charles’ attraction to things Roman and his insistence on the derivative nature of his rule from that of Rome and of the Carolingian Renovatio linking antiquity with the new political reality in Europe. Artistic expression and political intention were complementary aspects of the same supreme will. We shall see that Charles’ preoccupation with Ravenna went even further when he modeled his Palace Chapel, a projection of the Heavenly Jerusalem, on the Byzantine church of San Vitale in Ravenna and referred to Aachen as the Roma nova and his palace as the Lateran.323 Roman originals and replicas were used to impress on all the continuity of the Roman past as a Frankish present in Aachen. Though the head of the statuette resembles the head on coins issued by Charlemagne, this head is actually removable, as are the rider and the saddle blanket, the horse’s tail and its hoofs.324 There are no other extant portraits of Charlemagne. Any that portrayed his heroic deeds on the documented palatial murals have not survived the ruin of the buildings. The simplistic stone statue of Charlemagne standing in the church in Müstair may belong to the 9th century though it bears an inscription, which dates it to a later period. By contrast, there are several representations of Charles the
321
Volbach, in Hubert, et al., p. 224. Wallace-Hadrill, p. 251, cites Hunert, et al., p. 225. 323 H. Fillitz, Das Mittelalter I, Propyläen Kunstgeschichte in 18 Bänden (Berlin 1969), p. 18. Also I. Wood, ‘Culture’, in McKitterick, Early Middle Ages, p. 190. 324 Braunfels, p. 373. 322
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Bald, who went to considerable lengths to stabilize the perception of the imperial personage, especially that of his own person. In view of his contentious succession to his father’s and hence his grandfather’s throne, it would be consistent with his interest to emphasize his royal relationship between emperors of Christian antiquity and with himself. The resemblance of the rider of such a statuette with himself could very well have been intended to demonstrate the continuity and legitimacy of his claim to the imperial throne in 869. It is quite unknown where and when this unique statuette was made. It was first registered at Metz and may actually have been made there, or in the itinerant palace workshops of Charles the Bald, wherever they were located. The Palace School at Aachen has also been suggested, because the manes of the cast lion heads on the door panels leading into the cathedral, and even the casting technique of the lion and horse heads, show a stylistic similarity with the mane of this horse.325 The statuette was cast in individual parts and stands about 24cm tall when assembled. The rider is proportionally larger than the horse, unless it was intended to represent a pony. It is now accepted that the bronze used for the two pieces is the same and that horse and rider were cast at the same time. The horseman is an imperial effigy with enough detail of physiognomy to suggest at least an idealized portrait. Einhard’s description of Charlemagne is such that it could fit the appearance of the statuette. The garments on the statuette could resemble the Frankish garb of which Einhard speaks in his Vita Karoli, but then it does not really differ from all the garments depicted in the manuscripts either. Charlemagne may have frowned on seeing himself singled out thus, not at all in keeping with his sense of subordination to the king of Heaven. A clue that the horseman might be Charles the Bald derives from the representation of Charles the Bald flanked by two bishops in his Coronation Sacramentary. There he is shown wearing ‘garters’ just below the knees. This feature is present on this equestrian miniature as well. Perhaps the two objects were made at the same time. Several of the horsemen shown in the Golden Psalter of St Gallen wear garters below the knees. The haircuts, leaving ears visible, are equally similar. The laced shoes on the statuette resemble the shoes worn by his ruler portrait in the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram. His
325
Lasko, p. 13.
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mustache here recurs on the statuette. These coincidences suggest that the statuette originated in the same workshops as did the manuscript and was also meant to represent Charles the Bald. These works could all be contemporary, c. 870, were it not for the circumstance that the Palace School of Charles the Bald had no studios working in bronze, while the Palace School of Charlemagne did.326 However, a stylistic link has been shown with the ivory carvings from Metz.327 The crown does not resemble the ones depicted on the ruler portraits. It is a metal band with four equally spaced protruding palmettes and designs on the band. The effigy carries an orb in his left hand and an ornamented sword sheath protrudes from below his cloak. When seen from the right, the figure holds its right hand, possibly a later addition, as if it had held something vertical, like a scepter. A fibula fastens his mantle on his right shoulder. From that angle the rider appears rather stiffly ‘wooden’. While the horse has its head angled to the left, the ‘emperor’ looks quietly composed, rigidly forward, awkwardly dignified. A saddlecloth is visible, but no stirrups. It is curious that all of the harness strapping disappears under the saddlecloth. Even the reins end at its edge and not in the hands of the rider. Thus an actual link between the rider and the horse is not evident. In all details, this equestrian composition is quite different from the horsemen represented in the Golden Psalter of St. Gallen. There the riders hold the reins, their legs are longer and their feet rest in stirrups. The horse appears to be an alert and more spirited mount than those belonging to the troop of cavalry of the manuscript from St. Gallen. Here too the proportions are a bit off, in that the horse’s head is smaller than the larger and muscular neck would require. Other details demonstrate quite accurate observation and realistic execution. Depending on the viewer’s angle, it appears to be tossing its head against the taut reins. Proudly prancing it is a compact sculpture, left front leg raised, right hind leg moved forward, walking. The anatomical detail is only generally articulated and not too accurate in places, as in the modeling of the horse’s raised left knee, for instance.
326
Lasko, p. 13. E.G. Grimme, Bronzebildwerke des frühen Mittelalters (Darmstadt 1985), p. 15, who summarizes the studies concerning this sculpture. 327
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This equestrian statuette is noteworthy because it bears considerable responsibility, being the only (surviving?) statuette of its or any other kind. Were there no other miniature equestrian statuettes? If not, then why only this one? It is difficult to imagine that the skilled bronze casters were assembled in order to reserve their casting expertise for only this one mounted figure, without it being part of a specialist tradition? The links to any tradition are missing. Was Alcuin’s legacy a factor? Horse and rider were made using the ancient ‘lost wax’ method, whereby clay figurines were coated in wax, carved precisely and then surrounded by a mantle of clay. When the clay was fired, the wax would run out from the drain holes at the bottom and the hollow space thus created would be filled with the hot metal. After cooling, the clay mantle would then be broken and the metal form submitted to secondary, precision finishing, including gilding. Most probably these metal workers had been among the many artisans, which Charlemagne had brought north expressly to perform specific tasks, as the various documents indicate. Had they then returned south? Since bronze is a relatively rare commodity, it is also most probable that many more bronzes have been lost than have been preserved. Recycling for the manufacture of cannons during later wars, but also for later artistic needs will have played a role in removing other bronzes from view. Several other examples of the bronze-casters’ expertise are still in evidence in the Palace Chapel in Aachen, which in its details makes visible the Carolingian idea of the state: of the original five pairs, four pairs of door panels have survived in their original locations in the capella palatina, the Palace Chapel, the largest pair, hung in the late 18th century portico of the main entrance placed into the large flat-arched niche of the Carolingian westwork, all cast in one piece each, 4 meters high, each panel weighing 34 hundredweight;328 three pairs, 2.4 meters high, are used for the doorways to three interior chapels; a large hollow-cast pine cone and an elaborate grillwork balustrade which surrounds the upper level of the octagon interior. The originality of the door panels is to be found in their having been cast entirely in bronze. By contrast Roman and Byzantine doors consisted of wooden planks covered with sheets of bronze.
328
Grimme, pp. 8, 11. Braunfels, p. 136f.
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The doors are something of a technological wonder in the North during this early period. The remains of molds have been found, indicating that the doors were made at Aachen. The fact that their reserved design is entirely Classical in appearance underscores the likelihood that the craftsmen were from the south. (Figs. 40a, 40b, 40c) The extensive experience of northern metal workers, casting small portable ornaments, would probably not have qualified them to assume such a challenging task. At first glance the door panels persuade one that the sense of style, which entered the work, is rational, organized and entirely tectonic. Each panel is divided into eight equal, rectangular, inset coffers. The chapel doors are divided into six panels, the central ones being large rectangles with large lions’ heads, offset in the middle, while the upper and lower coffers are square. Pellets interrupt the acanthus leaf designs, which form the moldings constituting the frames of these chapel doors. On all doors deep channeling separates the coffers. On the main doors each coffer is framed by a beveled triple border—an equidistant astragalus design on the outside, followed by a frame of gouged indentations separated by ridges, and another frame of smaller pellets. Raised lines separate the patterns. A molding of larger beads surrounds each door panel of the main entrance. Each panel creates an optical effect of severe discipline. Bronze lions’ heads are centered on the second of the bottom inside coffers. Large bronze rings were placed in the mouths of the lions’ heads leading into the chapels. It is the manes of engraved curling strands of hair of these lions’ heads, which resemble the mane, and tail of the equestrian statuette mentioned above. Constant touching lets the bronze of the heads gleam through, lending a faint echo of the original gilding of all of the doors. Each head is placed on a larger disc, a wreath of 24 acanthus/palmette designs. The doors are unique in their representation of a merging of motifs found in other artwork.329 In the passage way just inside of these doors there is a crouching Roman she-wolf, which Charlemagne brought to Aachen, hence these doors are referred to as the ‘wolf ’s doors’. (Fig. 41) Across from the she-wolf stands a massive, rather crude bronze casting of a pinecone, 91 cm high. (Fig. 42) The pinecone may perhaps not go back to Roman times, but was once intended to be the
329
Lasko, p. 11.
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centerpiece of a fountain placed in the Carolingian atrium in front of the Palace Chapel. Each one of the cone’s scaly protrusions has a tiny hole to allow the water to trickle out, or to spurt out in a fine spray. Four figurines were intended for the square base of the cone, but the cast was damaged during the manufacturing process and only three figurines are visible today. They are interpreted to represent the four rivers of Paradise. The casting was never repaired nor actually finished, suggesting that the fountain was never built. It has been suggested,330 that the pine cone is a copy of a 1st century fountain erected in the atrium of St. Peter’s in Rome during the 4th century and that Charlemagne transferred the idea to his atrium in Aachen. Aachen sources indicate that the pinecone there dates to c. 400. Whichever the case may be, evidently the idea behind the bronze casting is intended to provide another of several ideological links showing the Carolingian Renovatio and its continuity with ancient pagan and early Christian Rome. Much better evidence of the bronze casters’ skills are the technically superb railings, which close the space between the eight pillars of the upper level of the octagon.331 (Figs. 43a, 43b, 43c, 43d) The throne was placed on that level for the coronation of Otto I, with its back toward the west work, so that the altar would be visible from there. Five multiple sections of balustrade are placed waist high in front of the throne into the space between the pillars, while only four multiple sections extend over the space between the other pillars. Pairs of columns are placed inside the railings. Double sets of alternating design make up the four sections of each section of balustrade. The designs are not easily classified since each section of the railing is a play of variations with the variations of other sections. Their variety clearly points to the ‘geometric’ imagination of the craftsmen. Not any of the designs are Celto-Germanic, though they suggest a ‘northern’ intention. The bronze smiths worked in the rational and organized space filling styles of the southern Classical architectural traditions. Thin and narrow fluted pilasters, topped with Corinthian capitals divide some of the spaces into which the emphatic bars of secondary frames may be suspended, linked by stays to the larger frame. At top and bottom these sections may have simple
330 331
Lasko, p. 11. Braunfels, p. 379f.
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staggered moldings, or a continuing pattern of arabesques, convoluted vegetative motifs, such as ornate acanthus leaves. The perforated patterning of geometric grillwork filling the secondary frame is complemented by the pattern of stays to form a persuasive space filling design. The perforated design of the adjoining section may be a variation of that motif. (Figs. 44a, 44b, 44c) As was mentioned above, the sections are arranged in alternating placements. Instead of pilasters a repetitive perforated motif, such as a row of fleurs de lys, or open floral chalices may provide the dividing framework, the inner space to be filled with translucent rectangular or diagonal variations of cross formations everywhere. Rosettes and other circular designs may gather the intersecting lines of these crosses. As was mentioned, the balustrade in front of the throne is divided in five sections. The central one is hinged for opening. It consists entirely of vertically placed rectangles. The other four sections are based on a vertical cross pattern, with diagonal cross bars linking the intersecting points of each cross, so that upended square patterns are placed within squares. The sections with the pilasters have been termed ‘Roman’ and ‘Classicist’, the others are ‘Frankish’.332 Originally gilt, the balustrade no longer gleams golden. The Carolingians were experts at seeking out and transforming Classical inspirations into accomplished works of art. The Carolingians were so skillfully adept at imitation, that Classical models cannot easily be distinguished from Carolingian imitations and originals. Their intention was to establish a continuity between their own developing esthetic sense and that of the Roman past. So far the discussion of the cloister arts, of manuscript illuminations, of secular literature, of the treatment of ivories, crystals, gem encrustations, precious metals, of styles and techniques and the artistry of the Aachen bronzes has accented Charlemagne’s ideas. The extensive Carolingian revitalization of the Classical heritage in terms of the many aspects of a Renovatio, the deliberate link with the Davidic elements of the Old Testament in religion and politics led to the confirmation of Aachen as the new and better Athens, the Roma nova, in Christian
332 See Braunfels, p. 135f. Grimme, p. 9f., Figs. 2, 3. Grimme mentions that these railings had been removed and along with the antique columns were intended to be sent to Paris in 1794, during the wars of the French Revolution. When this did not happen, they were restored in 1843.
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guise as the New Jerusalem. Two centuries later the emperor Otto III revitalized the idea of Aachen as caput mundi when he surrounded it with a periphery of churches. Architecture was suited most ideally to offer the context in which almost all of these developments experienced a visible synthesis.
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PART C
PALACES AND BASILICAS
XIX. Architecture—Palaces The archeological evidence indicates that in addition to religious architecture, there once existed an abundance of secular building. Most of that is no longer visible, having been razed to the foundations and any occasional vestiges are now only apparent from the air by means of outline shadows. Many have been incorporated into subsequent buildings. This is complicated by the fact that secular building in stone, such as castles, was not to be introduced till the following centuries. Stone was not the obvious building material for secular purposes. Useable foundations and fortifications were incorporated into new construction. Only in the case of the Carolingian palaces has archeology made a serious attempt to recover the foundations and, recently, attempted scientific reconstructions. A small number of examples of Carolingian church architecture has remained to this day. However, plotted on a modern map, these sites suggest a mystical, in depth ‘defensive’ system of religious establishments directed toward the east. The metaphysical power of their relics radiated a transcendental line of protection. Fortifications were in use certainly since the Bronze Age. These made use of natural locations, which could be reinforced by ditches, earthworks and palisades and by c. 100 B.C., late Celtic times, as the Altburg near Budenbach, Otzenhausen, ‘Runde Berg’ at Urach, Manching with immense rock wall perimeters on natural table-rock formations.1 The Romans did not generally make use of these Celtic oppida, but the Alemans, Franks and other Germanic tribal groups did occupy some of them. The archeological investigations of these hill forts have revealed sequences of occupation of these defensive sites by Merovingians and their subjects and allies and by Carolingians and their successors. In the lowlands, where natural stone was
1
Schutz, Prehistory, p. 253f.
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scarce, by the 9th century, fortifications were erected by raising a conical mound of earth in a strategic location, such as promontories, a fork in a river, or on an island, or by making an island. The earth dug up to raise the mound could create a wider body of water to act as a moat. Several palisades would reinforce defensive perimeters. Originating in France, this lowland type of fortification, bearing a French designation, is the motte. Almost any convenient hill could then be topped with a defendable and inhabitable tower, a keep, or donjon, in French. Several baileys could support the keep. Eventually they would be the focal point of a defendable precinct, possibly consisting of more than one motte. Wood-earth constructions prevailed for centuries and not till the 11th and 12th centuries did stone structures become the fortifications of choice. In 864 Charles the Bald issued an edict that the raising of fortifications was under the jurisdiction of the king,2 though during periods of royal weakness, this edict could not be universally enforced. At the same time it is a question here of fortified or moated manors rather than ‘castles’. In general one tried to locate these sites where natural features of the terrain could be exploited to a maximum. Their size varied with the political importance of their lords. Erosion, neglect, destruction, relocation, integration into later buildings, territorial redistributions and changes in strategic importance affected the fortunes of most of these sites. The terminology applied to the princely residences was adopted from Roman usage. As was demonstrated elsewhere,3 such terms as villa, castellum, castrum, praetorium, aula and palatium were in use throughout the former Roman provinces. In Ravenna, the mosaic in Theoderic’s San Appollinare Nuovo clearly identifies the residence as Palatium. Eventually the Constantinian basilica in Trier, the former Augusta Treverorum, will be named Aula Palatina, reviving the tradition. The royal palaces come to be termed palatium regium. The annals will use this term for the royal sites at which the king-emperors actually presided over governmental affairs, along with curtis regia and villa regia, the word curtis meaning ‘court’. Eventually the term palatium is applied exclusively for Carolingian foundations. From the 9th century
2 3
G.P. Fehring, Einführung in die Archäologie des Mittelalters (Darmstadt 1987), p. 121. Schutz, Romans.
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onward any such fortified sites were also called castrum, castellum.4 The administrative needs of the Frankish kingdoms were such that a form of government had to be favored which made the rulers into itinerant kings. Their capital was where the court was. The king and his large entourage had to be treated to a higher standard of accommodation wherever the king’s personal attention was most needed, especially during the winter months. A prepared, fully equipped and provisioned palatium would serve as royal residence as needed. It follows that these sites were most often located in the royal domains, where the power of the crown was concentrated, though this probably did not exclude surprise visits on unsuspecting nobles.5 It made the ruler more immediately present and allowed his people to participate in the splendor and luster of the monarch and of his court. Not every palatium could be expected to host the lengthy meetings of the royal and imperial diets, conferences attended by the mighty of church and state and their own courts, in permanent quarters. The royal records make a point to identify the sites to which the kings retired, for Easter or to hunt for example, especially for Christmas and the winter. After 794 Charlemagne and subsequently Louis the Pious favored Aachen. After 806 Charlemagne hardly ever left it. He had declared it the sedes regni, the royal seat. In 799 Charles had received the sorely abused pope Leo III in Paderborn. Worms was cited sixteen times. Louis the Pious liked to celebrate Easter at Frankfurt. The empress Judith gave birth there to Charles, the Bald. Diets were frequently held at Ingelheim, including the one that condemned Tassilo to death. His residence in Regensburg became a possession of the crown. Following the partition of the realm other centers were identified as royal seats and those most favored enjoyed the royal-imperial patronage in the form of donations and gifts. That is how the Codex Aureus arrived in St. Emmeram, when Arnulf of Carinthia built his imperial palace in Regensburg. The German word Pfalz will be used as the preferred term. The archeological evidence from several sites suggests that a Pfalz consisted of a large hall for the receptions, derived in design from the Roman basilicas, the living quarters, a chapel, the courtyards for 4 G. Binding, Deutsche Königspfalzen von Karl dem Großen bis Friedrich II (765–1240), pp. 21–26. 5 Reuter, Germany, p. 87f.
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the management of the farms and domestic estates, and the fortifications. Most of these buildings were of stone and some of the rooms were even heated. Wood construction was scattered about, used for the quarters of occasional guests, staff and servants, the shops stables and barns, usually nearby if not actually included in the precinct. Primary responsibility lay with these farming establishments—the Pfalz had to be provisioned by stables, dovecotes, henhouses, kitchens, bakeries, abattoirs, breweries, workshops for spinning and weaving, pottery, wood and leather work, barns, granaries, such storage facilities as cellars and the like and fishponds. As we have seen elsewhere, vegetable and herb gardens needed particular attention. Such a site would have to be sufficiently productive to support all of the needed staff and yield sufficient surplus to receive any visiting large entourages of even the most important lords. Initially earthworks, moats and brush fences with wooden gates were deemed adequately protective obstacles. With the invasions of the Vikings more defendable structures, of wattle and daub for instance, had to be erected. The core buildings of a Pfalz then were the great hall, the princely quarters and the chapel. With the major exception of Aachen, very little of the evidence has survived. The remains of the Pfalz at Ingelheim were destroyed as recently as 1689 during the wars of Louis XIV. It is reasonable to conclude that the great nobles, notables and court functionaries and administrators of the realm will have had their own houses in the vicinity of the major and frequently visited palaces. The housing complex at Aachen was extensive. Some land grants are still extant. While very little is known of the personal princely quarters of such a Pfalz, the great halls are better documented in literary sources. However the murals of great rulers decorating the great hall in Ingelheim were the product of Ermoldus Nigellus and his poetic imagination, which relied on descriptions by Classical authors as Virgil, and Ovid describing sites of Classical narrative. There the well dressed walls of the palace were supposedly decorated with secular themes taken from ancient and more recent history. The great halls will have had painted walls but with undeterminable detail.6 Just a small number of these palaces can be discussed here: Paderborn, Frankfurt, Ingelheim and Aachen.
6
See Binding, p. 103. However, see Bullough, Renewal, pp. 66, 95, n. 122.
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Excavations between 1964 and 1983 have brought clarity to the particulars of the Pfalz at Paderborn. (Fig. 45) The name of the site, the source of the River Pader, retains its animistic mystery—water springing out of the earth. It was mentioned above that Paderborn had been founded as an aggressive and defensive fortified site during Charles’ wars with the Saxons sometime before 777. In 777 a synod was convened there. Several attempts to erect a church and a palace met with destruction but by 799 the land must have been stabilized and pacified, for Charles received pope Leo III there. At this occasion a large church was consecrated. Leo had come with a very large entourage. The site rose to great strategic and commercial significance during the 9th century, thanks in part to the display of valuable relics. An area of about 800 square meters was surrounded by drywall about 1.5 meters thick. The palace church also served as a mission and parish church and bordered on a cemetery with many women and children burials. In 799 this church was replaced with the much larger three-aisled basilica mentioned above. Towards the NW the aula regia, the great royal hall, 10.3 × 30.9 meters, was located. Stylistically it was related to the Germanic royal halls.7 A passage connected it with the church. Structural modifications ultimately enlarged the building. At the beginning of the 11th century the Pfalz was torn down and replaced by a larger hall. This hall burned down during the later 12th century and was used as a quarry during the early 13th century, to provide the raw material for the new cathedral. Fragments of capitals, (Fig. 46) pottery, glass and colorful plaster from murals have been recovered, (Fig. 47) allowing the conclusion that in view of the frequent royal visits, this Pfalz will have offered comparable comforts to its royal and imperial inhabitants and guests. The structural foundation outlines indicate much architectural activity in the space between the church and the palace. With the Christianization of the Saxons and the subsequent ascent of the Saxon line of the Ottonians to the throne, this Pfalz soon lost its military function. Paderborn had been integrated into a network of bishoprics. In 794 Charles founded a Pfalz on the northern terminal of a ford over the River Main to be called Franconofurd, hence Frankfurt. The ford had been used for many centuries and especially by the Romans
7
Fehring, p. 135.
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to cross the Main when marching from the two-legion castrum at Mogontiacum/Mainz to the fortifications along the limes. An elevation there, still called the Römerberg, had been fortified by the Roman legio XIV. The Romans abandoned the site during the 3rd century A.D. and during the intervening Merovingian centuries the need for cut stones had led the remains of the buildings to be ‘quarried’, first for simple houses and then for the northern defensive perimeter of the Pfalz. A continuity of occupation can be assumed in what must have been a substantial settlement already then. Already in 794 Charlemagne had presided over a synod in the aula sacri palatii, suggesting the existence of a great hall, but quite probably the church, for Charles, having celebrated Christmas at Würzburg, celebrated Easter there that year and stayed in Frankfurt for eight months. Three key agenda items were Adoptionism, the reintroduction of the veneration of icons by the eastern church and the renewed confession of Tassilo. His third wife Fastrada died there. However, it was not till the reign of Louis the Pious that Frankfurt appears regularly in the documents. Repeatedly he stayed there and his son Charles, to be called the Bald, was born there in 823. Following the partition of the realm in 843 Ludwig the German made Frankfurt his preferred residence, staying there on 30 occasions, sometimes for months on end. In 852 Hrabanus Maurus came from Mainz to consecrate a new palace chapel. Ludwig was to die there in 876. Regensburg had become his other center.8 Originally located on a peninsula, the Pfalz was protected by the river and swampy terrain to the east and north. The Carolingian buildings are strictly oriented. The core buildings extended over 117 meters. A long passage connected the great hall, the aula regia, with the palace chapel. Additional construction of three large rooms and a small corridor extended the great hall toward the west. The foundations of the western building were of basalt, neatly complemented by Roman fragments and red sandstone. The uniform use of white mortar indicates an uninterrupted period of construction. The thickness of the foundations suggests these buildings to have been twoor multi-storied. The great hall measured 26.5 × 12.2 meters. Additional construction may also have extended the great hall toward the east from where the passage led to the chapel, a hall church datable to
8
Fehring, p. 117f.
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790 and related in type to the church, which had been consecrated in 777 in Paderborn with Charles in attendance. A smaller Merovingian church had been located there before. In 852, during the reign of Ludwig the German an aisle was added on the south side, balancing the northern extension of the connecting passage into the church. Recently several Merovingian (?) graves, including a rich burial of a little girl, were found beneath the palace complex.9 A transept with apse at the eastern end completed this church.10 By then Einhard had provided the design of such a church nearby, at Steinbach and at Seligenstadt. The Pfalz in Frankfurt does not seem to have survived the 13th century. Its reputation was sustained when for centuries to come Frankfurt was chosen for the imperial coronations of the Holy Roman Empire. The Carolingian Pfalz at Ingelheim was not finally destroyed till the wars of Louis XIV, 1689, when he tried to claim the inheritance of his sister-in-law, Liselotte of the Palatine. Around 1400 its terrain had been declared open to general settlement, its condition having deteriorated to a point beyond repair. Much earlier already the cities had become preferred locations for royal and imperial visits. Ingelheim was a royal domain some 15 kilometers west of Mainz, already occupied during the 7th century according to the pottery fragments found there. For the Frankish kings the site was strategically and politically important because of its location on the River Rhine and its proximity to the seat of the powerful archbishop of Mainz. Jurisdiction of the churches of the area rested with the distant bishop of Würzburg. Charles is documented there for 774. From there he sent troops against the Saxons. From there Tassilo was overthrown in 787. There Charles spent Christmas 787 and Easter 788, and during that June, the diet sentenced Tassilo to death for treason. Evidently the needs for such a long stay and for such large crowds had to be met, perhaps not too well, for Charles never again spent the winter months there, preferring to stay at Worms, Frankfurt, Würzburg, Regensburg and after 794 at Aachen. On several occasions he was at Ingelheim during the spring and summer. For Louis the Pious Ingelheim was a favorite point of departure for his hunts, as well as the location to meet the great imperial embassies from 9 Innes, State and Society, p. 35. See Schutz, Germanic Realms, and Tools, Weapons and Ornaments, for examples of other church burials. 10 Fehring, pp. 118ff.
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Byzantium and of other kings. (Fig. 48) Thus Ermoldus Nigellus records the occasion of the baptism of the Danish king, Harald, and of his entourage there in 826. The record is a lengthy biography in verse dedicated to Louis the Pious, In honorem Hludovici, asking for his reinstatement into the emperor’s grace. Ermoldus prepared a lavishly detailed and poetic record of the event.11 The imperial diets met there repeatedly during his reign. Louis died there in 840, on an island in the Rhine. Following the partition of the realm of 843 the Pfalz came under the jurisdiction of Ludwig the German and Worms became the site of the royal assemblies and Ingelheim was visited briefly only on two more occasions. Arnulf came in 893 and 897. Ludwig IV, the Child, was the last Carolingian to visit in 904 and 909. Ottonians and Salians used the Pfalz with great frequency. This Pfalz was conceived as a rationally organized plan, consisting of a rectangle, 99.5 × 91.5 meters, and a semicircle with a base diameter of 87 meters. The axis of the complex runs E–W, the rectangular structure on the left, west, the semicircle on the right, east. The southwestern corner of the complex was probably the aula regia, the royal hall, 33 × 14.5 meters in size, with an estimated height of 13.4 meters and with a large apse, 8 meters high. Four windows perforated the apse. The proportions of the hall suggest that it was probably modeled on the Constantinian hall in Trier. This aula is larger than the one at Paderborn, though smaller than the one at Aachen. Multicolored plaster was still attached to the walls and among the debris. The northwestern corner could not be determined. To the east, a large courtyard may have formed an atrium framed by colonnades to the north and south. Another colonnade or wall separated this rectangular structure from the semicircular courtyard and colonnaded building. This structure had an exterior radius of 45 meters. Doors connected the inner rooms with the colonnade. At midpoint of the arc was inserted a 10 meters wide entrance hall. Where the semicircle joined the rectangle, the later Ottonian, cruciform palace chapel was placed. Directly across from there a large hall was set at right angles. Seven equidistant towers were placed two meters in front of the circling perimeter. All of the masonry is identical allowing the conclusion that all construction was simultaneous. The foundations of this exedra are 2.5 meters deep and
11
Ward, in Godman and Collins, p. 216f. See also Bullough, Renewal, p. 241f.
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1 meter thick. A drainage channel was placed beneath the southeast towers and fresh water was brought in from eight kilometers away.12 During the later Carolingian period, perhaps under Louis the Pious, a large bath was installed. Compared to the other palaces, the design of this Pfalz was significantly different, without obvious antecedent nearby. One fragment indicates that the columns of the colonnade had Corinthian capitals. (Fig. 49) Another decorative fragment shows a vine, leaves and grapes surrounding an inner panel of mythical horses. (Fig. 50) There is not much more to indicate ornamentation and splendor of these palaces. One can only draw inferences from what materials were used in the Palace Chapel at Aachen and wonder if such materials were used at all to embellish these palatial structures with wall paintings, white and gray marble, and walls and floors, red and blue porphyry for floor designs and columns, lustrous metals, precious draperies and the interplay of light and color, all of it animated by the movement of people within these spaces. (Fig. 51) The continuing accessibility of the octagonal Palace Chapel at Aachen has focused most attention on this Pfalz.13 This aspect, however, has made the site the most important of all. That the area formerly occupied by the palace complex has been built over contributes to this emphasis on the chapel even more. That the residential complex was drawn out on a slope has today separated the former great hall from the chapel. During the 14th century this former aula regia, not actually documented by that name, was restored in the Gothic style and refunctioned as the city hall of Aachen. Its association with Charlemagne was reemphasized when in 1851 the artist Alfred Rethel revived the art of fresco painting with eight paintings retelling events from the life of Charlemagne. The Roman site on which the palace was located was a square measuring 1500 feet to each side. (Fig. 52) The baths, large enough to accommodate hundreds, occupied the SE section. The Pfalz then is anchored by the great hall, 17.2 × 44 meters, just outside of the square in the north and the octagonal chapel in the south, connected by a passage, 120 meters long, and interrupted at right angles by a rectangular building of unspecified use, c. 15 × 30 meters. Poets speak of a game park stocked for hunting with a stream running through it, with fish, in which the king 12 13
Fehring, pp. 105–116. Braunfels, pp. 125ff. See also R.E. Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, pp. 40, 56ff.
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could pursue his pleasures of the hunt. Archeological investigations, suppositions and conclusions have tried to reconstruct the original physical appearance of these buildings from among the maze of foundations of subsequent modifications and additions.14 As elsewhere, in time ancillary prestigious residences for the magnates of the realm and the princes of the church and all of their entourages, as well as accommodations for the suppliers of the court and their need for storage would complement the buildings of the palace. Their precise location can no longer be identified, but only a reliable, sophisticated, complete and resident infrastructure assuring the supply of necessities of the crown and of the individual courtiers could make such a court possible. In pre-Roman, Celtic times the god Grannus was associated with hot springs venerated for their healing powers, his presence being indicated by the name of the site. Roman syncretism in terms of the interpretatio romana adjusted and assimilated all cults and allowed the continuation of non-Roman gods sometimes in Roman guise.15 Modern Aachen was called Aquae Granni in Roman times and the baths were frequented by them, the Merovingians and early Carolingians because of the hot springs. The thermal springs provided the initial focus for the site and according to Einhard’s Vita Karoli 16 account for the aging Charlemagne’s preference for Aachen. A confluence of circumstances contributed to the choice of the royal seat being located at Aachen. The need for a permanent admistrative center of the realm was indicated. With increasing age Charles became less itinerant. The site lay in the ancestral lands of the Carolingians and as early as 766 the waters attracted Pepin III, the Younger, to spend Christmas and Easter at Aquis villa/Aquisgrani. From 768 onward the references to Charles’ stay there increase in frequency and after 794 to his death, unless on campaign or in Rome, 800, he resided there permanently. Structural improvements had added enough features to make a comfortable stay possible regardless of seasons. (Figs. 53a, 53b) The dendrochronological dating of timbers indicates that this became possible during the 770s
14
Fehring, pp. 80–97. See Braunfels, pp. 129–134. Also Sullivan, Aix, p. 56f. Schutz, Romans, pp. 57ff. 16 Thorpe, p. 77. Chapter 22 provides insight into Charlemagne’s private life, including his predilection for steam baths and his habit to bathe with his courtiers and retainers, even bodyguards. He suffered fevers and was lame. 15
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and 780s as during that time the Pfalz also became sufficiently representative to receive the highest diplomatic missions there, from the Byzantine emperor, for instance. Those around him may have recommended that he build a capital, like his rolemodels the Biblical David and the emperor Constantine. The counsel may have coincided with his intention to create a Roma nova with a palatium to be called the Lateran was being realized. Eventually the idea of a New Jerusalem on earth was melded into this vision. There are no records extant which specify the dates of the building program of the palace complex, nor of the Palace Chapel, other than that in July 798 columns were being erected and that in the winter of 804/805, according to later sources, pope Leo III consecrated the church.17 (Fig. 54) Construction continued into the reign of Louis the Pious. The addition of exterior chapels and the addition of the Gothic choir during the 14th and 15th centuries, as well as the heightening of the roof over the dome of the octagon following several fires as late as the 17th century, have modified the internal and external appearance of the Palace Chapel.
XX. Architecture—Wall painting A small number of clearly identifiable Carolingian religious buildings or parts of buildings have been preserved, not all of them by any concern for preserving the past, but some more by accident, indifference or even because of a lack of funds. Of the former, detailed reference will be made below to the churches at Müstair, Mals and Naturns when discussing murals. Located along the River Adige, they were way stations. At best these buildings represent the fragments of an activity without any claim to continuity. Murals are a relatively contained subject for discussion. One only knows of some from unreliable literary records, in which authors claimed to describe them. In Central Europe a very few examples have survived. New construction has absorbed older foundation masonry, the effects of climate have caused deterioration of any wall painting and changing tastes have contributed to their removal or at best to being covered. In some instances a dilemma frustrates the
17
Binding, p. 76f. reviews the literature concerning this point.
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restorers when later murals of artistic significance cover earlier artwork. Where the buildings have survived, the murals generally have not. A very few examples are extant because they had been painted over, but even there only few incomplete examples remain. Thus the church of St. Emmeram in Regensburg, still the largest Carolingian structure in Germany, contains Roman spoils and remnants of an 8th century early Carolingian colonnade, still outlined in yellow and red. The upper room of the arched hall at Lorsch has lower ‘wainscoting’ of colorful squares above which a painted colonnade divides the surfaces of the walls, lending to the hall a modest grandeur. The best preserved examples were either overlooked or whitewashed and are to be found in such remote parish and monastery churches as in the Swiss canton of Graubünden, the convent church of St. Johann at Müstair and east of the Ofen-Pass and south of the Reschen-Pass following the road into the valley of the Adige in the South Tirol, in northern Italy, in the small chapels of St. Benedikt at Mals and of St. Prokulus at Naturns.18 It appears reasonable that the parish churches and monastic establishments along the way through the Alpine passes would attract pilgrims and itinerant painters going S–N or E–W. It will be demonstrated, that though in regional proximity and contemporary, the stylistic differences in sophistication, composition and dramatization of the events are marked, as western Carolingian monastic, Lombardic, Byzantine and even Syrian influences can be identified. It is interesting to note, that there is no compelling link between the painting of murals and the illumination of books. Libraries and scriptoria did not necessarily stimulate wall painting, though at St. Gallen, they appear to have complemented one another. St. Johann in Müstair, reputedly founded by Charlemagne himself as a royal monastery, was originally a Benedictine monastic foundation, probably datable to 780/90. (Plate 29) Here then the term ‘Carolingian’ does not only refer to the historical period. Reference to it first appears in a prayer-fraternity recorded between 800 and 826 at Reichenau. The Carolingian foundation was badly damaged by fire after 1079. Shortly after 1087 it was converted into a convent. As part of the imperial domain, it can be assumed that the artistic style represented on the murals of this most important Carolingian church, represents the official Carolingian style.19 All the walls 18 19
See Hubert et al., Carolingian Art, pp. 19ff. Braunfels, pp. 94, 367.
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of the Carolingian hall church and its three apses, an eastern innovation that had come west through Lombardy (there are also two additional niches), had been covered with murals, probably during the 9th century, perhaps at the same time, before 881, as those at Mals. The ceiling may also have been painted. The effect of moisture caused the colors to degenerate. Forty-nine framed areas on the walls and two large pictures of the Last Judgment, supposedly the earliest treatment of the subject in western art, and of Christ’s Ascension are still visible. Some have been removed to the Landesmuseum in Zürich. (Plate 29a) The walls to the north, south and west are decorated with Davidic themes, quite in keeping with the ideas of the Old Testament and universal ideas of the Carolingian empire discussed earlier, which saw in David a prefiguration of Charlemagne. Only some of the motifs can be mentioned here. Thus the north wall also shows scenes from the life of Christ, (Plate 29b) such as Christ with children, with angels, with the adulteress and of Christ in purgatory. Other panels deal with the martyrdom of the apostles. On the south wall a two-paneled crucifixion has been preserved, but only a few other panels. The crucified Christ is flanked above the arms by a destroyed Sun God/Apollo/Sol and a preserved Moon Goddess/Selena/Luna and at the sides by Ecclesia and Synagoga. This composition will reappear in other genres of the Carolingian period. Flanking this group are the Virgin Mary and St. John, who is using his pallium to wipe his tears. Next are two crucified criminals. The panel to the left shows the removal from the cross and the Three Maries at the grave. Unfortunately the figures are generally in a very poor state of preservation. Since there is no evidence of any articulation of the walls, one can assume that it was the intention of the local artist from the start to cover the walls with murals. Fresco, painting on wet plaster, and secco techniques were used equally. Of the murals it can generally be said that the stories of Old and New Testament events are narrated with sober and restrained composure.20 The figures are well and realistically executed. In the eastern section, the apses, the Carolingian murals had been covered by later Romanesque wall painting. Some have been removed and relocated, others are still in place and in vivid color. The 20 L. Wüthrich, Wandgemälde, Von Müstair bis Hodler (Zürich 1980), pp. 17–20. See also B. Brenk, Die Romanische Wandmalerei in der Schweiz (Winterthur 1963), pp. 28–58.
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Carolingian painting in the central apse, immediately above the window, shows the Pantokrator, Christ in Majesty seated in a double mandorla, decorated with a lozenge motif, the head surrounded by a cross and nimbus. (Plate 29c) Outside the mandorla are located the tetramorphs, the evangelical symbols, of which, however, only the winged male figure representing St. Matthew is clearly identifiable. The three others are too pale and too corrupted to name. The Heavenly Host surrounds the mandorla. In the northern apse a generally well preserved mural is focused on an enthroned male figure, set in front of two pillars, outlined in white, pointing at two well articulated haloed, toga-clad men, with a group of five figures obliquely behind his right shoulder. (Plate 29d) The two figures represent Peter, in front of Paul, at the court of the emperor Nero before whom they dispute the validity of Christianity with Simon Magus, whose fall is depicted in the neighboring panel. The southern apse deals entirely with the Romanesque depiction of the martyrdom of St. Stephen. The painter who executed these highly sophisticated frescoes, in what must conform to the Imperial Style, was a craftsman very familiar with Roman art. He was skilled in the Italian techniques of fresco painting, with a good sense for selecting fertile moments and with good narrative skills, and good powers of observation. He was accomplished in depicting the fall of robes, the placing of feet, the dramatic gestures of hands and the positioning of bodies. Where the Ofen Pass from the west, meets the Reschen Pass from the north, not far from Müstair, Mals occupies a strategic position, which in Carolingian times was under the jurisdiction of a Frankish territorial count. (Plates 30a, 30b, 30c, 30d) In Roman times a castellum had guarded this point along the via Claudia Augusta, the Roman road connecting northern Italy with Augusta Vindelicum, in Raetia, modern Augsburg. In the small church of St. Benedict there are some very well preserved murals along the north and east walls,21 among which this count has left his image as founder. Reconstruction of the south and west walls during the 17th century destroyed the murals along those sides. The remaining walls of the oratorium, 10m × 6.40m, bear damaged meander friezes and fragmented populated architectural scenes. Originally there were two strips of five
21
Braunfels, p. 94.
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panels in each. While the lower one has been lost, the preserved portions of the upper one, tell of Biblical events and episodes in the lives of saints, for instance of St. Gregory as a writing cleric in the company of three white doves, one resting on his shoulder whispering in his ear, another sitting on the book, touching his lips with his beak, and a third flying into the room. To the left three religious figures placed against a background of a colonnade of three arches appear in discussion with the one in the middle holding a book, perhaps a dispute over the writings of St. Gregory. A scene showing naked bodies being stretched and beaten with rods, has been interpreted as showing king David having the Philistines flogged. These frescoes reflect a middling sophistication of taste. The eastern, altar wall contains three early, recessed horseshoe apses, but not conches, still framed in a frieze of continuous single strand, figure eight, braid patterning. In the corner of the northern and eastern wall a perforated, braided, figure eight, intertwining stucco ornamentation is preserved of the kind, of which six had once framed the arches as stuccoed pilasters with capitals. During the Secularization, c. 1785, the church had been converted into a carpenter’s shop and these recesses had been walled in, hence the state of preservation. The central arch is higher than the other two. Above the window openings are represented, almost completely and frontally, on the left a named representation of St. Gregory the Great in papal garb holding a codex, at the center Christ, in religious dress with a cruciform nimbus and long flowing hair, holding a codex supported by two cherubim with halos holding an orb (l.) and a scepter (r.) and in the recess to the left, according to an inscription, St. Stephen holding a codex. Above these recesses and along the ceiling the decayed remains of a painted colonnade had contained the busts, probably of saints or, less likely, of angels. Below these figures the spaces are blank, as if paintings had been lost. (Plates 31a, 31b, 31c, 31d) Of particular interest are two important, unique patron figures placed between the niches, turned slightly inward toward the figure of Christ, placed in square frames, their heads placed in white squares, indicating that both were still alive when the walls of the church were painted. The one donor on the right shows an expressively executed tonsured man of the church holding a model of a church up to Christ as in offering. It resembles the actual church building. This donor is probably the count’s resident priest. The other picture on the left must be the count himself, who immortalized himself as
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the actual donor and founder of the church. He is shown as a man of the world, holding his sword in both hands in front of him. This sword identifies him as the wielder of political and judicial authority. A comes, count Hunfried is documented for the years 807–824.22 This compact figure may indeed be he, most probably dressed in the customary courtly garb of the day, as worn by the warrior elites: a tunic in a light color and leggings, tied with straps up to the knees. A blue cape appears tied at the right shoulder and is worn loosely over everything. A belt is not shown and the feet are missing. His facial features are clear and strong and his hair is cut at an even length around the head. The sword belt and strap ends appear wrapped around the sheath of the sword, quite in keeping with Germanic tradition. These founders are set apart form the other pictures by their style of representation and probably the work of a different master painter. While the figures in the recesses are characterized by a delicately colored, elongated and static elegance, all of the other paintings have a forceful and blunt robustness about them. The compact ‘founder figures’ are of the best, which the 9th century produced beyond the court, especially surprising in their physiological clarity, as they exude an effective air of dynamic vitality. They seem to reflect a difference in taste, perhaps a synthesis with influences from the recently integrated Lombardy. The depiction of the secular figure suggests very strongly that St. Benedict was an Eigenkirche, the noble’s own proprietary foundation, priest and structure supported with his own funds for the use of himself and his family. Forty kilometers downriver from Mals (Malles), in the town of Naturns (Naturno), located on the pilgrimage route, the small church of St. Prokulus contains a variety of remnants of wall paintings from several periods. (Plates 32a, 32b) The uppermost and best preserved strip of frescoes dates to the Renaissance. Below that a swastika meander circles most of the oratorium. An angular braid pattern provides the frieze on the eastern wall. A large arch separates the altar area of the chapel from the oratorium. Over the centuries a layer of soot had darkened the murals. Each of the top corners of the eastern wall created by the arch is filled with the triangular line drawing of an angel with spread wings, holding a long staved cross,
22
M. Frei, St. Benedikt in Mals (Bozen 1987), p. 7. Also Braunfels, p. 374.
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drawn in the Irish tradition and probably datable to the 8th century.23 (Fig. 55) The faces of these angels reappear as busts within the curvature of the arch. The walls and ceiling of the altar space is painted with murals of a somewhat later period. The strip of frescoes probably dating to the early Carolingian period occupies parts of the central portion of the walls. It differs significantly stylistically from the wall paintings at Müstair or Mals. There are no representations of Christ visible here. Perhaps there never were. A simple, charming and amusing naivety characterizes the mural fragments from the Carolingian period, documenting some local practices. On the left wall several saints and angels are only visible in fragments. Theirs is a serious treatment. However, on the west wall, behind the right wing of the entrance door appears a curious, comic strip type of caricature of a herd of cattle. Fragments of these cattle also appear on the left side of the door, along with very well executed remnants of human figures in rich garments. The most complete one is however headless. In the far corner of the right wall there is preserved a humorous narrative episode—St. Paul being helped to escape from Damascus by being lowered over a wall, while townsfolk look on in astonished anxiety. St. Paul appears to be sitting precariously on a swing, clinging on with undignified apprehension. He does not strike a graceful pose, balancing precariously on his perch. The picture may be an analogy with the escape of the abused bishop Proculus from Verona. Hence the name of the church. The work must have been carried out by a local painter who had difficulties showing a sitting body from the front. To us the dramatic nature of the event assumes something of the comical. The scene may not have been intended to have this effect and may not have seemed comical to contemporaries. No doubt it appealed to the worshippers on several levels. A strip of sophisticated meander closes these compositions off toward the bottom. These frescoes provide an example of what the simplest narrative style made available to an unsophisticated public. As was mentioned above, literary records provide supposedly detailed descriptions of very extensive palatial wall paintings, in the Carolingian palace church, probably St. Remigius, a short distance from the palace, at Ingelheim, for instance. Though references to it are often made in the literature, the account by Ermoldus Nigellus
23
Braunfels, pp. 93, 367.
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appears to be fictitious, since there is no evidence that this Pfalz actually contained a palace church. It describes the left wall of the church having panels depicting Old Testament events, especially those focusing on David and Solomon, quite in keeping with the Carolingian Davidic ideas discussed above. New Testament themes were illustrated on the right wall. Similarly the walls of the Ingelheim palace were purported to have been decorated with secular themes taken from ancient and more recent history—Cyrus, Hannibal, Alexander the Great, to name some of the ancients; among the more contemporary events were the foundation of Constantinople, the deeds of Theoderic, Charles Martel, Pepin, Charlemagne’s conquest of the Saxons, but not his coronation. In documenting this décor Ermoldus Nigellus in his In honorem Hludowici, his song of praise of Louis the Pious, with which he hoped to regain the king’s favor, appears to have relied on poetic traditions and descriptions used previously by Classical authors, such as Virgil and Ovid, and not on his own observations.24 The selection of the broad topics was guided by the history of Orosius. At St. Gallen monks from Reichenau (841–872) applied the representations from the Old and New Testaments. These are reputed to have been arranged in confrontational order, so that the stories of the two testaments could serve as type and antitype, complemented as promise and fulfillment.25 Thus the Loss of Paradise and the Fall of Man and the Flood—the type, would be complemented and cancelled by the antitype, here by the Annunciation and the Nativity. Though all of these have been lost, the preserved wall paintings in the Alps give us an idea of these other murals. Only in Rome and southern Italy are there some others.
XXI. Architecture—Basilicas Within the inherent continuity of religious buildings the survival of architectural elements is more assured, even when the church has been subjected to subsequent modifications.26 Church archeology has revealed many foundations of churches, which are no longer visible, 24 G. Binding, Deutsche Königspfalzen von Karl dem Großen bis Friedrich II (765–1240), p. 102f. 25 Hinks, pp. 95–102. 26 I. Wood, ‘Culture’ in McKitterick, Early Middle Ages, p. 190.
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because they have been incorporated in more recent buildings and are no longer visible.27 The examples to be dealt with here are the anastasis rotunda in the funerary church of St. Michael’s in Fulda, 820–822, the former Einhard Basilica, 827, at Steinbach, the interior of the Einhard Basilica in Seligenstadt, c. 832; the Carolingian nave and the classicizing capitals in the Carolingian basilica of St. Justinus (c. 834) in Frankfurt-Höchst preserved as a decorative accent. The only authentic Carolingian westworks front the abbey church at Corvey, begun 873, and, of course, the Palace Chapel in Aachen, after 780. Among the examples which survived, despite chance and indifference, two examples stand out—the gated hall in the former monastery at Lorsch, after 764 and the Steinbach Basilica. With the reign of Louis the Pious the accent was placed on the movement supporting religious reform inspired by the Rule of St. Benedict. The churches built during Louis’ reign reflect these reforms.28 Among these reform churches the Einhard Basilicas serve as good examples. Compact buildings consisting of a long nave, connecting altar and choir sections with one or more apses in the east with a multipurpose area in the west, without unnecessary details, are characteristic. Steinbach is an example of such a church. When Einhard anticipated his retirement from imperial service, Louis the Pious granted him estates in 815, at Steinbach in the Odenwald and in Seligenstadt on the River Main, which Einhard had requested. This gift was made expressly for services rendered, including his urging in 813 to have Charlemagne proclaim his son Louis his imperial successor. In preparation for his withdrawal he had erected at Steinbach a complex three-aisled, flat roof basilica, which was consecrated in 827. In 815 a wooden church had already existed there and in 821 a larger stone church had been consecrated. Like other basilicas, one entered through a portal in the west to face the altar in its apse in the east. (Fig. 56) The new basilica was provided with three altars, three choirs and three apses, and also a barrel-vaulted, cross-shaped crypt, something of a Carolingian innovation, with three altar areas. (Fig. 57) Niches in the passage in the crypt extended below the nave were intended as the last resting place 27 W. Jacobsen, ‘Allgemeine Tendenzen im Kirchenbau unter Ludwig dem Frommen’, in Godman and Collins, pp. 641–654, discusses some of these vestiges. Also Stalley, p. 23, for a summary of the basilica style. 28 Jacobsen, in Godson and Collins, pp. 642ff.
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for Einhard and his wife Imma (Charlemagne’s daughter, or glory by legendary association?), but not used. Einhard had acquired the relics of Sts. Peter and Marcellinus from an itinerant entrepreneur and (wholesale) relic merchant based in Rome under dubious circumstances (theft)29 and under adventurous conditions the relics had arrived in Steinbach. This merchant sold whole bodies as bags of dust and a few bones. As though the church was to serve as a shrine, below the apse space was provided to allow the installation and visitation of these relics. Miracles indicated that they did not want to stay there. All walls are still of original height. Made of brick, they consisted of brick six-pillar arcades, with clerestory windows above to allow the light to fall in. Though the arcades were walled in when the church was turned over to profane use after 1535, the interior spatial divisions show the typical Carolingian work of flat bricks throughout. (Fig. 58) In accordance with the reforms greater liturgical emphasis was placed on the eastern end of the church where larger arches led into the apsed altar bays, which, however, could not be reached from the side aisles. In addition, and also in accordance with the reforms, an altar screen, as high as the arcades, had been installed as a barrier to the common people and once separated the nave from the altars and the apses and hence, the laymen from the priests and monks. To gain access to the crypt, the laity had to enter from the side aisles.30 The nave was 2.5 times as wide as the side aisles and twice as high as their walls. The bays create the impression that the basilica was laid out with a transept, but the church did not have a crossing where nave and transept would have intersected, but only a pseudo-transept. A single arch rose over the western edge of the altar apse. It functioned as the fastigium, the sacred space symbolizing religious dignity. The exclusive space beyond the altar screen was barred to the lay worshippers, while their space, the nave, was neglected. Some Carolingian wall painting in red, ochre, white and orange can be made out in the apse and in broad bands below the roof beams above the clerestory windows. An optimal wall treatment might have displayed wall paintings resembling those in the later Ottonian church dedicated to St. George on the 29 Geary, Furta Sacra, pp. 52ff., and Geary, Living with the Dead, pp. 173f., 188ff. for the questionable acquisition of relics by Einhard. Also Smith, ‘Roman Relics’ in Smith (ed.), Early Medieval Rome, p. 323. 30 Jacobsen, in Godman and Collins, p. 648f.
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island of Reichenau. Faint Gothic wall painting is still detectable on the walls of the nave. From outside these bays were higher than the side aisles, which were stepped down with sloping roofs. These aisles have now been restored. (Fig. 59) Though a near ruin today, this church is significant for several reasons. Its substance has survived as a monument to Einhard. The monastic precinct was contained within a wall. It was conceived as an oriented, compacted, flat roof naved basilica with side aisles, which, however, were segregated from the altar area following the principles of the Anianian/Benedictine reforms. These stressed extensive male monasticism focused on the liturgy of the mass.31 Previously the Carolingian trend was to build hall churches in which large numbers could assemble. With columns not available, it used Roman brick pillars rather than columns, angled clerestory windows large enough to allow ample illumination and anticipated the design of later Romanesque church structures. Considering Einhard’s contribution to the sophisticated Palace Chapel at Aachen, one can wonder about the splendid finished appearance of this church, once upon a time. If one can deduce from the illuminated manuscript pages, then walls and columns must have had curtains and drapes worked with gold thread between them, and also such lustrous metals as candelabras and standing and suspended lights. How much of the available ornamental inventory of lamps, crowns, vessels and reliquaries may have dazzled the worshipper then, will never be known. Screens, curtains and colonnades will have drawn lines of demarcation, segregating the participants in the service.32 On the other hand, the splendor of these interiors may have been quite restrained. Located in an intractable valley more suited for a hermitage, Einhard left the site to the monastery at Lorsch, after which it was subject to varying fortunes, as a convent and as a hospital. The monastic space in the region had become crowded and the number of wealthy donors few, so that the economic limits of the region had been reached. The relocation of the relics from Rome to Steinbach had compromised their effectiveness and contrary to expectations, the saints had not proved themselves and had not provided the singular attraction and protection, nor brought the required donations in gifts and land, 31
Innes, State and Society, p. 26. Geary, Living with the Dead, pp. 177ff. deals extensively with the many aspects of popular piety. 32
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and not being a major foundation, Steinbach did not command its own viable, lasting economic support. During the Romanesque period the building was extended westward and flanked by two towers. After 1600 the other monastic buildings were demolished and the basilica became a barn. Then the western additions and the towers were also dismantled in order to allow the in and out of farm vehicles. Relics of saints originating in Rome had become particularly desirable to have during the Romanizing reform of the Carolingian liturgy for two reasons—though the saints were abstract, unattainable rolemodels they projected their fundamental support of the equally abstract Imperium Christianum; because of their attraction of pilgrims and of resources they provided an essential economic basis for the maintenance of the foundation. Einhard had ordered the transfer of the relics of the Roman martyrs, Sts. Peter and Marcellinus, decapitated in 304, to this largest of still extant Carolingian basilicas in transalpine Europe. Apparently it was in a dream and through signs, that the saints themselves induced him to take the relics from Steinbach to Seligenstadt on the River Main for burial, 828, and to enshrine them in a basilica erected there over their graves. There they immediately regained their mysterious powers and began to attract the faithful, devout tourists, and revenues in the form of their donations.33 Political considerations will also have motivated the relocation to the more promising site. To deal with the new needs of ministering to the relics, already in 830 accommodation had to be provided for those involved in the cult and hence he founded a Benedictine abbey. The support of the emperor and several bishops granted fiefs to provide the material means to realize and sustain this project. It will be recalled that under Louis the Pious the idea of the unified realm began to be transformed and in the context of the troubles Einhard asked to be relieved of his administrative duties on behalf of the realm and to be permitted to retire to be with his saints. The preservation of the unified Imperium Christianum was to be the role of saints and the archangels. Einhard placed particular faith in the archangel Gabriel. In that sense their service was at the same
33 Innes, State and Society, p. 44. Also Smith, ‘Roman Relics’ in Smith (ed.), Early Medieval Rome, p. 320f. for the variation in papal policies affecting the translation of relics from Rome. Some popes used them to obtain political and military support. Some rulers made the availability of saintly relics a condition of their support of the papacy.
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time service on behalf of the welfare of the realm. Already lay abbot of several monasteries, by 836 he had also become lay abbot of Seligenstadt. It was here that he wrote the Vita Karoli Magni as his contribution to the preservation of learning. After 833 Ludwig the German supported this foundation, now under his jurisdiction. Documented since 847, Seligenstadt means ‘site of saints’, or Ad Sanctos, the two saints in question. The basilica and ring crypt at Seligenstadt, part of the Roman reform features which restricted the laymen’s access to the saints, were completed in 840. (Figs. 60a, 60b) By then the reform had ended. Modified during the following centuries, the interior has been restored to indicate its original stretched nave of Carolingian brick pillar arcades of c. 832. In the length of its nave it reverted to the type modeled after that of St. Peter’s in Rome and hence differed from the compacted nave of the reform church of Steinbach. Its crypt was accessible from the altar area. It was mentioned above that columns were unavailable. Nine arcades open the nave to the side aisles. These are again half as high and wide as the nave. The height of the nave is that of the transept. Left blank and white today, one would have to animate the clerestory walls with murals of the Reichenau type in one’s imagination. Much light falls down from the clerestory windows. Stepped down, oblique roofs over the side aisles visible along the exterior and unplastered sections of the pillars of the interior, allow a good impression of the original appearance of this Carolingian foundation. The interior of this church clarifies the appearance of the interior of the Steinbach basilica. It too will have had a single arch in the altar area. The graves and relics of the martyrs in the altars gave the Carolingian core of the abbey the attraction of a funerary and pilgrimage church, which assured its continuing interest and prosperity into modern times. Behind its precinct wall, the monastery offered sanctuary and order in a chaotic and threatening world. Einhard will have provided a personal link with Fulda and Aachen. The attraction of Seligenstadt was such that already Ludwig the German had held an assembly here and that during the later periods the Salian and Hohenstaufen king/emperors had held court here, which under the Hohenstaufens led to the construction of a Pfalz.34 The insertion of early Gothic
34
Binding, pp. 389ff.
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forms introduced a crossing during the 13th century. During the Baroque period the patronage of the prince-bishop Franz von Schönborn brought to the abbey the restoration, renovation and modification in the Baroque style.35 Einhard’s decision to move the relics of the saints there accounts for the differing fate of his two monastic foundations. The parish church of St. Justinus in Höchst hides a Carolingian three-aisled basilica with three apses within a Gothic exterior. The arcaded nave is entirely Carolingian with high clerestory windows. (Fig. 61) It distinguishes itself from the two previous basilicas in that it has colonnades with classicizing capitals rather than pillared arcades, but like them on the interior, the transept is not apparent as a separate structural component. It can be considered to be an extension of the basilica in Steinbach.36 Located north of the Main, in the bishopric of Mainz, the bishop had the church built c. 834, as a triple aisled basilica with transepts and three apses. The open colonnades are a less dividing element than the piers would have been and as a result the light falling in from the clerestory above creates a very bright interior. As is the case with all clerestory windows the association of the Word of God with the serene Heavenly Light falling into the sanctuary from above, its moving rays accenting differing features through the changing illumination, was a fertile idea. Light falling in from the apse and thereby backlighting what was on the altar, would effect a sublime diffused radiance of the cross on the altar. The clearly chiseled, chip carved and singularly configured capitals, with their fluted trapezoid dosserets, dated to c. 825, reflect their modified Corinthian inspiration and indicate clearly the attempt to derive more modest original forms from their antique models. (Fig. 62) Close examination of the foliage reveals that they represent an identifiable classicizing Carolingian type of Composite capital, partly Corinthian, partly Ionian, very similar to the capitals in the octagon of the Palace Chapel in Aachen, (Fig. 63) those of the reconstructed colonnade of the palace complex there, the column capitals in the interior of the westwork of Corvey and very similar to the capitals on the outside of the portaled chapel at Lorsch, and these in turn are akin to some of the capitals in the anastasis rotunda of St. Michael’s in Fulda. An original sense of ele35 36
O. Müller, Die Einhard-Abtei Seligenstadt am Main (Königstein i.T. 1973). A. Kottmann, Das Geheimnis romanischer Bauten (Stuttgart 1971), p. 42.
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gance and esthetic refinement is becoming manifest. Individually articulated leaves rise one above the other, while antithetical scrollwork provides the basis for the abutments supporting the arcades. Subsequent stylistic modifications have obscured earlier architectural features. Beyond the Rhine valley, at the western slope of the Odenwald, c. 20km east of Worms, and nearly halfway between Worms and Steinbach, is located the former Benedictine monastery of Lorsch.37 It was founded in 764 by Chrodegang, archbishop of Metz and primate of the realm under Pepin III, as a jumping off point for the eastern penetration of the Odenwald, still a mountainous and forested region. Monks from the Benedictine abbey at Gorze (also founded by Chrodegang in 745/749) near Metz were sent to Laurissa, a noble estate, to consolidate the foundation. This is an interesting example of the manner in which networks of monastic establishments came into being as representatives of the various aspects of culture, by means of which the regions of the realm were opened to settlement, agriculture, commerce and educational influences. It was a landscape in which numerous 8th and 9th century family monasteries, convents, Eigenklöster, and Eigenkirchen, proprietary churches as well as small basilicas were established.38 As has already been noted, Steinbach was founded some sixty years later, perhaps too late, for it had to be ceded to Lorsch already in 819 at Einhard’s behest, to take effect upon his death (840). The lack of donations made it less viable economically. Additional donations enlarged the economic and political base for the expansion of the abbey at Lorsch to engage in a vigorous building program appropriate for a royal Benedictine foundation. In 772 it was ceded to king Charles, thereby becoming a royal abbey. Following his conquest of the Lombards, builders and stonemasons returned with him to Lorsch. (Fig. 64) Already in 774 a three-aisled basilica could be consecrated and dedicated to the Sts. Peter and Paul and the martyr St. Nazarius, whose relics were provided by the pope already in 765. The consecration was attended by Charles and the royal court, and bishops from Metz, Trier, Utrecht, Constance, Würzburg and distant Passau. It was performed 37 Innes, State and Society, pp. 14–18f., p. 101. See pp. 51ff. for a summary of the family of the founders of Lorsch and the relationship between kinship and land, and its passage into the possession of the monastery. 38 Innes, State and Society, p. 25.
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by Lullus, the successor of St. Boniface as archbishop of Mainz. Clearly this was a momentous event and a noteworthy beginning of a foundation within a community of interests,39 which, as we have already seen, gained such extensive influence and contributed so greatly to the literary culture of the Carolingians. On that day in 772 the abbey was already royal property, a royal monastery and abbey of the realm, for all holdings, former donations, had already become part of the royal domain in return for the king’s personal protection, lands, immunity and the freedom to select its own abbot. The change in status did not diminish the number of donations. The new status also made Lorsch a Pfalz, and consequently subject to the kings’ demands for resources and manpower. (Fig. 65) Of all the original structures almost nothing is left visible. Much was set aflame, 1621, during the Thirty Years War (1618–1648), if it had not already decayed during the intervening centuries. Its great library was transported to Rome by Tilly, the general of the Catholic League. Thanks to archeology the foundations could be traced. Only one building has survived, the arched passage way, and even that escaped just barely. (Plate 32c) Briefly, during the later 9th century the abbey enjoyed the patronage of Ludwig the German and his son Ludwig the Younger, which attracted prosperity and importance to the region. However, in 1232 the abbey had passed into the jurisdiction of the archbishop of Mainz who had the Benedictines expelled by force of arms. The Cistercians could not maintain themselves, whereupon it was occupied by Premonstratensians till they too were driven out in 1555. The property became embroiled in the political struggles and changed hands repeatedly until it came into the possession of the same prince-bishop, Franz von Schönborn, who was patron in Seligenstadt. The buildings of the abbey became a convenient quarry. In 1797, during the turmoil of the French Revolution, the only historically valuable building, the Carolingian gate-hall, had been sold at auction, but the wrecker had gone bankrupt before the demolition could proceed. At some point the arches had been filled in to maximize on the inner space. The early 19th century began to appreciate the losses and started to reverse the process of forgetting. One hundred years later even the arches were laid bare again. Excavations within the precinct toward the southeast suggest the for-
39
Innes, p. 54f.
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mer existence of another such gated hall. Perhaps there was a third.40 Four gates provided access through the irregular precinct perimeter. (Fig. 66) Within the extensive architectural complex the archway (c. 790? or after 850?) suggests something about the buildings that have been lost. Access to the basilica was through a westerly gate of the precinct wall and through the rectangular atrium in which the freestanding gate-hall had been placed at about ¼ away from that western entrance through the wall. It will have had chiefly a retarding, ceremonial, processional function by means of which greater anticipation, gravity and dignity was imposed on the entourage about to enter the basilica, ‘Jerusalem’, perhaps in imitation of the effect of Roman triumphal arches. This arched structure, ‘an explicit homage to Rome’41 dedicated to the Virgin Mary, or St. Michael, is another unique and memorable example of Carolingian architecture. Hidden within the design of the structure are repeated and overlapping isosceles triangles. Similar to the style of Roman arches, this ‘triumphal arch’ presents itself with very articulated polychrome western and eastern facades, perforated by three dark red archways of equal size, flanked by half-columns on the lower level; perforated by three windows on the west side, but only two on the east side, and accented by ten fluted pilasters and gables on the upper level. Until the restorations of 1935, the arches had been walled in, so that the present view was not there to be appreciated. The gate is a rectangular two-storied structure, 25 cubits, almost 11 meters long and 16 ⅔ cubits, just over 7 meters wide.42 On either side turrets shelter winding stairs leading to the upper level and a chapel, its walls still with traces of Carolingian murals. The original roof was not so steep as the Gothic one added during the 14th century. Great care was devoted to the external appearance of this structure. The four half-columns are dark red, capped with a variation of the classicizing Carolingian Composite capitals, part Corinthian palm leaf and part Ionian volute, of gray limestone, with elaborate superimposed standing leaves, topped off with plume like scrolls, volutes, to be met again in Fulda. On these capitals rests a carved limestone frieze with a curvilinear design like no other. Carved in deep relief, the continuous design resembles the 40 41 42
A. Corboz, Frühes Mittelalter (Friburg 1971), p. 51. See also Braunfels, p. 374. Stalley, p. 39. Kottmann, pp. 20ff.
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open chalice of a flower. Above the three arches, a progression of nine areas is framed by ten dark red fluted pilasters, capped with Ionian type capitals of gray limestone, and dark red pointed gables of fluted pilasters. The capitals suggest an Ionian heritage by means of the typical inward spirals at the top. Two rows of five circles each fill the space between and below the spirals. A beaded line terminates the base of the capital. Centered above the arches of the western view are three arched windows. As mentioned, on the eastern side there are only two such windows. The overall polychrome effect is achieved by means of three varieties of patterning in red and white. Dark red serves as the accent color. Red sandstone is the indigenous rock of the Rhine valley and used everywhere. Through the use of contrasting white the variety of the design is highlighted. Around the three arches a regularly alternating pattern of squarely placed red and white sandstone tiles creates a regular design. The red tiles, twelve for each arch, are complete while the white tiles have been cut to fit the curvatures. A red horizontal line creates a rectangular area with the higher entablature of gray limestone, carved in low relief with an abstract foliage pattern. Within that space the alternating red and white square tiles are set on one corner, two tiles high. Again only the white tiles have been trimmed to fill the space regularly. The entablature divides the whole façade in half. Above the entablature and between the pilasters, the entire surface is animated by hexagon red tiles complemented by white triangles, so that each hexagon is created by the intersecting lines at the center of a subtle six-pointed star design, the Star of David. The overall impression is of an unclassical, erratic display of forms and reticulated colors. The building has something experimental about it and quite clearly invites a dialogue with the meditative observer. (Fig. 67) The intentions behind that Davidic design have been dealt with at length above. Equally significant is the approximate link with ancient Rome, illustrated by the triple ‘triumphal’ arches, the half columns and the orders of the capitals, and even through some reused sandstone blocks, and with Christian Rome in that the Lorsch gate-hall also resembles the gateway to the atrium to Old St. Peter’s in Rome. In an understated fashion the building may represent yet another rhetorical attempt at linking a confluence of cultural styles and religious, political and ideological intentions on the way to developing an individualistic and authentic style.
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As was the case with other stylistic examples, their uniqueness suggests a responsibility for them, which is perhaps too much of a burden for their fragmentary nature. They were not selected for their excellence or unique esthetic value in their own time, nor on their link with Classical models and more often than not survived by chance, because of a wrecker’s bankruptcy, by ‘the skin of their teeth’, rather than because of anyone’s appreciation, no matter how forcefully expressed. Had this gateway not survived we would surely be the poorer for it, yet what can it tell us about Carolingian triumphal arches in general? Were communications such that new ideas were recognized as such and emulated? What idea lay at the basis of this building? What does the varied assembly of incomplete elements tell us about the character of the original building, which presents itself today in modified form? We can conclude that the varieties of church architecture were a rhetorical response to a perceived psychological and emotional need. Despite the inconclusiveness of the examples cited, the attempt to represent something of a picture will be made to relate the architectural vestiges to their time, without attempting to demonstrate that the isolated examples represent any inherent continuity whatever. By themselves each example points to an exchange of new associations and connections. The practice of erecting sacred precincts can be found within the cultural traditions of Central Europe, certainly since the Hallstatt period. That the speakers of the Indo-European languages shared with other cultures the veneration of such natural phenomena as unexpected springs and rocky outcrops, rocks and trees is generally accepted. One came upon them accidentally and deemed them to offer access to the spirit world. They fulfilled a mysterious function, which imbued the Celtic oppida as well. It is of interest in this connection that the Synod of Litinae of 743 chastised the recently Christianized western Saxons for engaging in superstitious practices, among them the worship of sacred groves, called nimidae. The word was most probably a transfer from Celtic in which vocabulary the word nemeton exists for ‘grove’, and was used for the creation of many place names.43 Latin knows nemus, and Greek nemos, suggesting that an ancient name and context were continued in the concept of the consecrated precinct. As was illustrated above, Aachen, Paderborn, Steinbach and many more contained the idea of water in their very 43
Schutz, Prehistory, p. 304.
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names—water, spring, brook—as they were founded near water, in forests, on hilltops or elevations. The people saw themselves living in a demonic spirit world in which they had no protection from forces and supernatural beings over which they had no control. Christianity knew to occupy old pagan cultic sites when it discovered them and to ensure that the old sacredness continued in this new form. It would not have been prudent to allow the old cultic site to continue as a religious site in competition with the new religion. When, according to the story, St. Boniface felled Donar’s oak at Geismar, he was sure to saw the tree into boards for use in the construction of the new church. However, as weapons, discord, fear, danger and chaos were excluded from the nemeton, peace, sanctity law and order reigned within the precincts of the sacred groves. The concept of the nemeton was transferred to the Christian sites and sanctuaries in the otherwise terrorizing wilderness. The new enclosures gave these sites new meaning and feeling. The ritual of consecration created a mystic space, purged of the demonic and diabolical, and purified it for a new edifying existence in the Word of God. The relatively low walls of the enclosures were not intended to function as military defensive perimeters, but as demarcations setting off the consecrated ground from a chaotic wilderness. Moses’ encounter with the burning bush, during which the Voice tells him to remove his shoes, for he was standing on holy ground, may have contributed its Biblical significance to the ritualistic approach to the sanctuary. As elsewhere, at Lorsch a ritual procession probably consecrated the outside of the wall, preceding the reverend passage from a world of dangers through the symbolic gate in the precinct wall into the safety of the consecrated realm, making a stately, rich and colorful entrance into the atrium. Carrying gem encrusted Bibles and sacramentaries, as well as resplendent crosses, shining vessels and sacred implements, the ceremonial procession passed through the arches, aware of the sanctity of the dedication to the archangel Michael, the representation of the militant church, the priests singing and praying, waving incense, sprinkling holy water, as they advanced through the colonnade. These were all intended to emphasize the aura of the dignified entrance into this Holiest of Holies. The distance between the gate in the wall and the church, probably lined with symbolic way stations, built up excitement, tension and apprehension in the participants in the religious exercise, to be relieved in the catharsis of the office and of its message.
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Once the worshipper had entered the church he found the interior divided into sections of sanctity. Not all areas of the interior were equally accessible to all. The basilica, as the large assembly hall, derives from the pre-Christian meeting place for the purposes of conducting markets and public affairs in antiquity. Its conversion into a Christian place of worship evolved almost logically. The relative proximity of the Constantinian basilica in Treveris/Trier would have provided a tangible example for the large hall churches coming into being. Now called the Aula Palatina the large hall is characterized by a deep apse into which the altar came to be placed very much in the same place where the emperor’s throne would once have been located. A monumental arch passes overhead of the throne. At Steinbach, the arch and the altar screen created a special area, once a site of great splendor of material, fabric and theatrical, cultic ceremony. Separated from the nave by altar screens, this space obtained a sacred connotation, especially once the relics were introduced into the altar area. (Figs. 68a, 68b, 68c, 68d) In the oriented church interiors these elements provided the most powerful protective magic against any threats from the east. With the Virgin Mary or the archangel Michael protecting the western approaches, the intervening space was indeed consecrated ground. The churches strove to project themselves as abstractions. Arches, altar screens and dedications to martyrs and saints were to remain a feature associated with churches. In 816 Benedictine monks from Corbie in northern France founded the monastery of Corbeia nova with the task to promote the missionary work in the recently Christianized lands of the Saxons toward the east and north. Its German name of Corvey derives directly from the Latin. The empress Judith and her sister queen Hemma may be associated with the endowment of the abbey, located in the homeland of their mother.44 The emperor Louis the Pious granted permission to relocate in 822 and bestowed on the foundation extensive estates and such liberties as the free choice of abbot, an independent judiciary, and dispensation from military contributions in men and materiel. As early as 833 the community is granted the right the hold markets and to mint coins. These were a sufficient basis to promote the economic, cultural and religious preeminence of the
44
Ward, in Godman and Collins, p. 215. See also Braunfels, p. 191f.
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monastery. Owing to the traditional hostilities of the region which only about two decades earlier had ended with the Christianization and pacification of the Saxons, the monastery in their midst assumed a more defensive character. The rectangular perimeter consisted of an encircling moat and a strong wall, which extended to the River Weser. Towers fortified the four corners and gate towers secured the entrance into the monastery precinct. The site was originally the location of a Roman castellum. A village evolved outside the precinct. Work on the three-aisled basilica will have begun soon after 822. In 836 the relics of St. Vitus were transferred from St. Denis and when consecrated in 844, the church was dedicated to the martyr St. Stephen.45 A simple entrance hall was removed when the unique westwork was raised from 873 to 885, the only 9th century westwork still extant. It rose as three towers (Fig. 69) before being modified to its current Romanesque appearance in the middle of the 12th century. The basilica was rebuilt during the 18th century. On the westwork the modifications can be read quite easily materially and stylistically. Flat stonework characterizes the original Carolingian structure. With its astonishing verticality and its compact massiveness it easily convinces the viewer that God is a mighty fortress, for, even without the Romanesque modifications, this westwork rises like a solid wall, with only a few narrow slits to perforate the masonry. (Figs. 70a, 70b) The monastery’s advanced and exposed location so deep in recently hostile Saxon lands, could account for the defensive appearance of the westwork. When associated with the triumphal triple entrance arches, which allow access to an entrance portico, the idea of a synthesis of the triumphant temporal power with the Christian church acquires visible form. Two additional doors or converted Romanesque windows are at the center of the two towers. Two sets of three windows are inserted above the triple entrance. Above the central entrance there is a narrow projection, opened by two windows and a niche at the top. Below the upper of these windows a Carolingian consecrating inscription places the site into the care of God and the protection of his angels. Originally a square tower rose above the core of the westwork, set back the width of the two flanking towers, but of the same height. The triple arches, 45 According to Corboz, p. 176, with the fall of Jerusalem to the Arabs in 637, the source of relics shifted to Rome and from there to the monasteries of Gaul from where they were transferred to new sites further east. See Braunfels, p. 387.
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combined with the triple towers will have recommended the triune nature of the faith. During the middle of the 12th century that tower was sacrificed to the Romanesque alterations. But a plan of this impressive, monumental westwork shows how the sections are superimposed precisely one upon the other. The massive weight of this westwork descends on the visitor once he or she enters the westwork. The floor of stone slabs is original. Designated as crypt because of the grave finds, the badly lit structure is a square with corridors along the north and south sides and with a slightly wider eastern corridor separating the westwork from the nave of the church. Evidently the idea of installing a subterranean crypt had not yet become a permanent fixture. Repeatedly, and consistent with the First Book of Kings and with Revelation, the number 12 and the duodecimal system figure prominently on many occasions in manuscript scenes and buildings. The entire structure rests on a set of twelve outer supports, four pillars as part of the wall, eight pillars around the outside and four columns grouped at the center of the vaulted lower storey. The pillars are made of stacked layers of alternating gray and reddish stone. The column shafts are monolithic, cut from one piece of solid stone each, surmounted with those distinct, compact Carolingian Composite capitals. The upper storey is designed as an independent extension of the lower storey. (Fig. 71) Twelve pillars are placed exactly above the pillars one storey lower, but there are no columns, as this space reaches up into the two-storeys high vault of the former tower. The walls appear as monumental arcades with additional perforating arches set higher up in the white walls, allowing the light to flood in from outside the encircling ambulatory. (Figs. 72a, 72b, 72c) Dedicated to St. John, it may have been intended to create yet another abstract space, yet remains of Carolingian wall paintings have been uncovered indicating extensive ornamental strips with vines and all manner of foliage, but also marine creatures and epic action scenes with figures with Classical mythological intent. The overall effect can only be imagined, here at the edge of the eastern frontier. This vast, bright hall has been termed the imperial oratory or court chapel, in which the itinerant emperor could hear mass, or from which the emperor and the court could look down to witness the office in front of the altars in the nave of the basilica. This notion may be an inference from the later, similar placement of Otto’s throne on the upper level in Aachen. It may not have been a Carolingian practice at all, and it soon became
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obsolete.46 Today that eastward view of the nave is obstructed by the large baroque organ, which now occupies the entire front of the structure. Indeed the whole interior of the nave is a richly ornamented baroque church, which replaced the badly damaged building following its destruction during the Thirty Years War. The astonishing simplicity of the Carolingian entrance to the westwork and the opulent Baroque church interior are an incompatible contrast. Other than tapered abutments, nothing graces any of the functionality of the massive pillars. By contrast the columns, ornamented with elaborate classicizing capitals, played a more decorative and ceremonial role. (Figs. 73a, 73b) As was mentioned previously, the capitals of the four columns in the crypt are noteworthy for their forceful design. They are very reminiscent of the classicizing capitals at Höchst, but while those were more elaborately and completely finished, the workmanship on these pseudo-Corinthian capitals is less sophisticated and seems to have been left unfinished above the capital. On the occasional capital the ornamentation on the foliage has not been completed. What would have motivated the construction of this imposing westwork with its very impressive structural details? A general answer can be found in the attention paid to architecture in the service of renovatio, the outward attempt to restore the images of the Roman Empire, especially vis-à-vis Byzantium. As triumphal architecture the westwork proclaims the earthly power of the Carolingians derived from an association with the authorization by God. Frequent reference to the Carolingian liturgical reforms has been made above. Though it insisted on the centrality of only one altar, with the expanding reverence of evangelists, apostles, archangels, and the veneration of the relics of martyrs and other saints, the need for additional altars was felt strongly.47 It was also mentioned that the cult of angels was gaining in importance. While the eastern area of the church had been secured through the cultic centrality of the altar precincts, the militant archangel Michael as protector of the gateway and Peter and Paul and the relics of the martyr St. Nazarius at Lorsch and now the superimposition of two sanctified chambers with the inscription on the outside of the westwork at Corvey, and
46 47
Stalley, p. 49, proposes a Carolingian liturgical function for this vast space. Fillitz, p. 171.
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the traditionally preferred choice and dedication of its independent upper storey to St. John, placing the protection of the church and its walls into the Hands of God, the saints and the angels, are indications of the perceived need to protect the accesses from the west. The fact that abbots were buried under the floor of the lower level of the westwork indicates that an occidentation of the churches was under way. In later periods churches would quite regularly be oriented and occidented. In later variations the archangel Michael will be shown wielding a flaming sword. Usually conceived as the guardian archangel at the entrance to Paradise, he was placed in this role at the entrances to the porticos of churches, often called ‘Paradise’. Reference to this was already made above during the discussion of the manuscript illuminations, in the context of the anastasis/resurrection rotundas marking the Holy Grave in the Church of the Sepulcher in Jerusalem. Entrance into the church in the form of baptism was understood as the ascent from a living death and rebirth into the sojourn among the blessed in another life. The anastasis was celebrated as a cult with the cross as central symbol of the predicted Resurrection. For the Carolingians the ideas of a Heavenly Jerusalem, Paradise and the Heavenly kingdom had become equated. Paradise, with the meaning ‘garden’, was a term frequently applied to the portico or atrium of churches and hence associated with a columned structure, such as the westwork interior at Corvey. Its triple towers suggest ‘the mighty fortress of God’, which with the inscription symbolized the Heavenly Jerusalem. With this system of protections assured, it would appear that the Easter mystery of the Resurrection of Christ was becoming the focus of the liturgical year and that Easter, celebrating the passion of Christ, began to mark the stations of the cross within the interior of the building which the faithful could retrace, along with the increasing dramatization of the Easter mass, with its tropes and sequences, the former to be associated with Tuotilo and the latter with Notker Balbulus, both of St. Gallen. The Easter Plays will evolve from this and ultimately demand space in the whole church interior. The Christmas Plays were never to gain a similar significance. In Central Europe the anastasis/resurrection rotunda par excellence is to be found, though in partly restored form, in the funerary church at Fulda. (Plate 32d) It had been located in the monastic cemetery to the north of the cathedral, (Figs. 74a, 74b, 74c) at the time the largest church north of the Alps, and dedicated to the
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archangel Michael, whose cult was promoted by St. Boniface. The monastery had been founded in 744 by Sturmius, one of St. Boniface’s followers, perhaps in a ceded fortified royal residence, on the banks of the River Fulda. In 751 Fulda received its papal privilege.48 Originally built in 820–822, on the Michaelsberg overlooking the cathedral square, the church was rebuilt during the late 11th century, retaining significant elements of the original Carolingian plan and structure. (Figs. 75a, 75b) St. Michael’s central rotunda, largely Ottonian, is a conscious replica of the Constantinian Church of the Sepulcher in Jerusalem, subsequently, and in keeping with the growing significance of the cross, fitted into a cruciform structure. In that it is not unique. Entirely original Carolingian is the crypt, in which a single squat column supports a circular stone, 13 meters in diameter. The perimeter of that stone supports a colonnade of eight columns, each of which is visible from any of the arms of the cross of the church. (Fig. 76) The Ionian-inspired capitals of these columns are mainly original and some relate to those at Lorsch, as was mentioned above. At the center is the altar with the shrine for relics, originally occupied by a replica of the Holy Grave, a reminder of its original in Jerusalem. An ambulatory surrounds the columns of the rotunda. Explanations have been advanced to account for these features. The single column in the crypt has been interpreted to symbolize the organic entity of the world and been seen to represent Christ bearing the world, the round stone as an analogy of infinity and the eight columns as the eight Benedictions. (Figs. 77a, 77b) The Sepulcher in Jerusalem was equated with the center of the world since in it was the base of the cross, hence the worldly as well as the Heavenly Jerusalem. On the world disc envisaged by Isidore of Seville, the base was that of the T, which represented the oceans separating the surface of the Earth.49 On such a ‘map’, this base was the metaphysical point, which was represented by every such point. Hence every abstract base of every cross represented that spot on Golgotha, since that spot could not be fixed but required movement. As was mentioned, the cross was gaining significance by displacing its function as an object of torment and death and acquiring a meaning as 48 Innes, State and Society, pp. 21f., 29f. concerning the attraction of economic support of the monastic foundation at Fulda. See McKitterick, Books, Scribes and Learning, pp. IV, 303f. 49 Corboz, p. 174.
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symbol of resurrection and rebirth—anastasis. An expression of this preoccupation with the cross is of course to be found in Hrabanus Maurus’ Liber de laudibus sanctae crucis, In Praise of the Holy Cross, discussed above. It will be recalled from our discussion of the Fountain of Life manuscript illuminations in the Godescalc Gospel and the Gospel of St. Médard at Soissons, both from Aachen, that the architecture of the Fountain with its eight marble columns in the same plane and all visible at the same time, which in a symmetrically arranged structure should not be visible, is clearly deliberate. In Fulda too, the viewer’s point of view is at right angles to the columns. Whoever ‘drinks’ from the altar, this Fountain of Life, will enjoy everlasting life. The altar/shrine/fountain itself symbolizes the springs, which represent the Gospels, while these in turn indicated the faith in Christ and the cancellation of death. The eight columns are perhaps an allegory of the Eight Benedictions, of which the fourth promises satiation to those who hunger and thirst for justice. (Figs. 78a, 78b, 78c, 78d) The rewards will be theirs in heaven. In this context the architecture of the altar and the columns yield another stylistic consideration, that of the anastasis/resurrection rotundas marking the Holy Grave in the Church of the Sepulcher in Jerusalem, and then Old St. Peter’s in Rome, as well as many others, and here in the church dedicated to St. Michael in Fulda. The St. Médard manuscript from Soissons, contains two representations of the Fountain of Life, representing the tomb of Christ and rebirth through Baptism and Paradise, the one contained in an ellipse over a set of Canon Tables indexing the Gospels of Matthew and Mark, the other as a full page representation related to the Fountain page of the Godescalc Evangelistary. References to the Palace Chapel at Aachen have already been made when discussing the Pfalz and the artistry of the metal workers represented in the chapel such as the large cast doors, the pinecone and the grillwork of the upper level of the octagon. In passing, reference has also been made to some of the architectural detail concerning the core buildings of the Pfalz such as the great hall, the princely quarters and the chapel.50 While the Palatium contained the offices of concrete power through which all administrative threads ran, the Capella represented the abstract peak of the endeavors of
50
Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, pp. 33–63.
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the palace school and its work shops in terms of the concentration of ideas, education, learning, knowledge and scholarship as espoused by the Liberal Arts, religion, art and architecture impressed the point that Aachen was also the cultural center. It is this chapel to which we shall return our attention, for it is both beginning and culmination of the thought processes, which animated the age. Distinct from the other elongated horizontal basilicas built at the time, the octagonal Palace Chapel was a vertical statement, which has to be seen as an act of faith, and as such is an optical summation of the faith. (Figs. 79a, 79b) It was a splendid proclamation that the church triumphant established a new unified community set to combat the forces of disorder and a demonstration that it was the king/emperor who had been entrusted by God, not by men, with the task of changing confusion, disorder and chaos into order, as acts in accordance with divine commands and a realization of the Imperium Christianum. An early perception of the Divine Right of Kings, the king’s absolutism was derived from the responsibility inherent in the guardianship of the Christian realm. The king was the major domo of God. It was demonstrated how the extensive Carolingian revitalization of the Classical heritage included the deliberate link with Constantinian Imperial Rome and with the Davidic elements of the Old Testament in religion and politics. Combined with literary and artistic intentions, such as the integral nature of the bejeweled and illuminated manuscripts, the esthetic synthesis contributed to the confirmation of Aachen as the Roma nova, in Christian guise as the New Jerusalem. Architecture and its ornamentation was suited most ideally to offer the increasingly sophisticated basis from which almost all of these developments of ideas and emotions underwent a visible synthesis of Celtic, Germanic and prominent Mediterranean aspects of style. Beyond knowing that Odo of Metz designed the Palace Chapel, there are no records extant which specify the dates of the building program of the palace complex, nor of the Palace Chapel, other than that in July 798 columns were being erected and that in the winter of 804/805, according to later sources, pope Leo III consecrated the church and dedicated it to the Virgin Mary.51 Construction was to continue into the reign of Louis the Pious and thus reflected the influences and contributions of two generations of scholarship
51
Binding, p. 76f. reviews the literature concerning this point.
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and ideology. Charlemagne’s intention to create a real and ideal Roma nova with a palatium to be called the Lateran was being realized. It has been pointed out, how in many sectors the Carolingians relied on a cross-section of skilled populations, artists and craftsmen from within the distant reaches of the empire and from beyond, and how in the instance of the Palace Chapel, an interior of great beauty, decorated with gold and silver, materials and ideas were imported from Italy, because, as Einhard put it, Charles was unable to find marble columns for his construction anywhere else, and so had them brought from Rome and Ravenna.52 This is a statement easily made, but one must try to envisage what this meant logistically. To transport such a heavy, yet fragile cargo through the Alps and over the poor roads of the day, over such a great distance, is an astonishing feat and not easily entertained. Expense was no obstacle when one considers that the vast Avar treasure had passed into Carolingian hands. It is less-well known that the whole region was scoured for Roman building materials, such as the fortifications of Verdun, to erect this building. The Roman continuity could also be demonstrated with local materials.53 It certainly reflects a powerful will, supported by great wealth, intent on demonstrating both continuity of imperial succession and legitimacy of the traditional context. This context is both Ostrogothic and Byzantine, of which one is derivative of the other. Theoderic the Ostrogoth and Byzantine vice-roy was understood to be represented on the equestrian statue, which Charles had transported to Aachen, clearly a deliberate association. It would not have bothered Charles if the statue actually were one of the emperor Zeno rather than Theoderic, the understanding had merit either way. That Walahfrid Strabo did not see Theoderic in a favorable light, indicates a shift in perception by a later generation. While Theoderic was still alive, the construction of the church of San Vitale was begun, supposedly funded by a banker, but certainly also with Byzantine funds, sponsored by the emperor Justinian, after all, it had been the last capital of the Western Empire. For Charles the glory by association could not be more welcome when he had his builders use San Vitale as a model for his Palace Chapel in Aachen. Frequently this association between San Vitale and the Chapel in Aachen has 52
Thorpe, p. 79. Braunfels, p. 131f. See C. Hahn, ‘Seeing and Believing: The Construction of Sanctity in Early Medieval Saints’ Shrines’, in Nees, Approaches, p. 124. 53
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been seen as too close a relationship, by identifying the Chapel as an attempted copy of San Vitale.54 (Figs. 80a, 80b, 80c) It is true that there are some basic similarities, such as the octagonal structure inside of both but not outside, the inner arcades combined with superimposed and integrated colonnades reaching into the upper, third level, and the use of sheets of grained marble to dress all surfaces. The visitor to both churches would, however, notice significant differences, beginning with the observation that while the exterior of San Vitale has eight, the Aachen exterior has sixteen corners. The mausoleum of Theoderic in Ravenna has ten sides. The inner octagon in San Vitale is a petalled arrangement of seven arcaded, two-storeyed niches with an eighth extended to form a choir, the one with the carpet mosaics of the emperor Justinian and the empress Theodora, and the brilliant apocalyptic mosaic in the vault. Each of the arcaded niches is supported by two superimposed columns at both levels. Aachen enfolds the visitor in the harmony of its structural and ornamental details. A modest apse was subsequently superceded by the Gothic choir. In Aachen there is no emphasis on the altar within the octagon. The lower level is formed by angled pillars without benefit of additional columns, abutments supporting striped arches. The pillars are now clad in patterned sheets of marble veneer. Originally the surfaces were probably painted. Although the inner space plays with the vertical upward sweep, a heavy horizontal molding interrupts this optical upward sweep, invited by the upper arcade, which rises to include the third storey. (Plate 33a) However, at midpoint abutments interfere with the rapid glance upward. As on the first level, angled pillars are superimposed on the pillars below. Beginning at the gallery of the second level, the clerestory and above it the triforium are attainable by means of stairs in the two flanking towers, and continuing onto the third level, the arcaded sections are subdivided by pairs of monolithic columns of bluish marble or green porphyry brought from Ravenna. (Fig. 81) These columns are set back from the edge and the grillwork, flush with the molding. At the height of the abutments on the pillars, the columns are capped with classicizing Composite capitals—Corinthian combined with Ionian volutes—and bare dosserets surmounted by abutments. The abutments support ornamented triple arcades. Unknown in
54
See Nees, Early Medieval Art, p. 102f. See Stalley, pp. 67ff.
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Ravenna, these features combine to retard the temptation to let the eyes sweep upward and induce a contemplative halt, to delight in the astonishing wealth of textures, contrasts, designs, straight lines and curvatures, shapes, forms and colors all around the second level of the octagon. The visitor is invited to be awed by the space before letting his eyes rise to the next level of arches, columns and capitals and before being stopped by the striped arches of the upper arcade which frame the ascent of columns. Eight times the viewer is called upon to react to the integral compositions of the arcades of the octagon. He will not become aware that the height of the dome equals the diameter of the octagon. Windows cut into the walls above the arches allow the beams of light to fall in and by its changing nature animate the impressions created by the mysterious interior. Windows at the second and third levels illuminate that space. At the second level a network of buttressing striped arches reaches from the pillars of the inner octagon to the outer walls, creating an inner skeleton of supports, bridging a sixteen-sided ambulatory about the octagon. This ambulatory is covered with intersecting, though renewed, highly mosaic-decorated cross-vaulting.55 These serve to stabilize the structure, which is surmounted by a dome, 31 meters high, the highest vaulted space north of the Alps. Not only is the dome not based on Classical models, but much of the chapel interior is original and both solicited great admiration from contemporaries. (Fig. 82) Originally covered with golden mosaics, renewed in 1881, this golden dome was the culmination of the golden tesserae used in the ornamentation throughout the chapel. The original mosaics have been lost.56 Today the restored mosaic of the octagon dome shows Christ in majesty surrounded by the winged tetramorphs toward the center, with a procession of the twenty-four elders in reverence of the enthroned Christ around the base of the dome. The dome is divided into eight triangular areas converging at the top. Just below the dome mosaic figures of apostles flank the windows. Unfortunately changes over time have obscured the original opulent decoration and the renovations and modifications between 1900 and 1913 under the patronage of the emperor William II, preoccupied with concerns, 55
Sullivan, Aix-la-Chapelle, p. 44f. Diebold, p. 89f. argues that the original resembled the Adoration of the Lamb in the Codex Aureus of Emmeram. 56
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here and elsewhere, of his own continuity, have created some false impressions about the ornamentation of the space, as marble slabs on walls and pillars, and mosaics in the vaults have refined the previously more robust interior. As it happened, Aachen was incorporated into the France of the Revolution and then into the Napoleonic empire, when some columns and grillwork were broken out to be taken to Paris. Napoleon too wanted to stress his legitimacy and continuity through objects. Some columns were not replaced.57 An element of impermanence and flux thus affected approaches to the preservation of the octagon during the 19th century. What is not obscured by added chapels and still visible of the southern exterior is rather modest. The walls of coarse, undressed stone are perforated by a few windows and quite undecorated, were it not for eight pairs of pilasters and ‘Corinthian’ pilaster capitals placed to reinforce the corners of the upper portion just below the roofline, intended to counteract the down and outward pressure of the dome. The distinct, though modest, appearance of the exterior dome over the octagon is more recent workmanship. The contrast between the plain, even crude exterior and the resplendent interior could not be more marked. Even the entrance, despite its suggestion of a Roman arch of triumph, does not betray what awaits the visitor upon entering the octagon. Of any painted walls—floral and geometric designs—not enough remains even to speculate. As was mentioned, today there is much added golden mosaic throughout the interior, which the intruding light and candlelight sets aglitter in a mysterious manner. (Plate 33b) Other colors complement the golden designs. Contrasting marble plaques are set into the walls and used to emphasize delineations of designs, and all of these are visible through the grillwork. The view through the intervals between pillars, columns and arches creates an optical maze as the several planes of galleries on opposite sides of the octagon fuse into one single visual plane of echoing forms and colors overwhelming the worshipper with the impression of a complex, but ordered cosmic entity. When not set with chairs, the center of the octagon reveals a 19th century floor design consisting of elaborate mosaic patterns of circles, triangles and lozenges of inset stones, creating an intricate carpet design covering the entire floor. Fundamentally, it resembles intri-
57
Diebold, p. 68f.
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cate Roman mosaic, consisting of two ornamented squares placed to show eight interlinked corners, touching an octagon outline at the midpoint of each side. Triangles and lozenges fill in the remaining spaces. Concentric circles of imaginatively ornamental intertwines complete the frame. Heavily centered circles surround the outside of the composition. A carpet like border defines the edge of the floor mosaic. It is held that the emperor’s seat was at the center of this octagon. The designs on the original stone floor can only be imagined, most probably consisting of tiles set in geometric designs. This and other similar interiors presented forms of art and architecture to a relatively restricted audience. In that regard it was ‘public’ art, subject to changing tastes and constant dangers. Not visible to the ‘public’ was the art of the precious books: the illuminated manuscripts, precious ivories and gem encrusted book covers, reserved for special occasions and accessible only to the few. Today these are scattered across Europe, in cathedral treasuries and libraries. What is the significance of an environment of octagons and of an enthronement at the center among them? Mystic number symbolism involving multiples, especially of the number four, evidently plays an important role in determining the cosmic order reflected by the octagonal spaces. This symbolism contributes to the originality of the building. The symbolism placed into the numbers 3, 4, 5, 7, 8, 12 in their many variations and multiples has shaped much projected cosmic understanding of the created world, divine inattainability, harmony, completion and fulfillment, to mention just a few. Beginning in the octagonal dome, only the fundamental apocalyptic idea has been retained. Originally the twentyfour elders rose from their thrones and with the tetramorphs venerated the Apocalyptic Lamb, the Agnus Dei, at the center and the enthroned Christ.58 This mosaic had to be reconfigured in the 12th century when the suspension of the emperor Barbarossa’s chandelier had to be accommodated. The Lamb was removed and the enthroned Christ perhaps inserted at this time.59 The dome mosaic 58 Revelation 4:6–10. Braunfels, p. 135, supposes the mosaicist to have been brought in from Italy, perhaps Rome. 59 E. Stephany in E.G. Grimme, Der Aachener Domschatz (Düsseldorf 1973), pp. XX, 63. See Braunfels, pp. 135, 379, who indicates that the mosaic was destroyed during the 19th century, redrawn between 1873 and 1881 on the basis of a 17th century sketch and other descriptions, whereupon the mosaic was installed by a Venetian, Antonio Salvati.
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today, based on recreated sketches, shows the enthroned Christ receiving the adulation of the twenty-four elders, who offer him their leafcrowns as the tetramorphs surround him in the dome. The Lamb is no longer featured in the composition. The number 4 has many symbolic applications, beginning with the understanding that it represents the earthly universe, the four corners of Earth and the four corners of Heaven. The apocalyptic tetramorphs represent the four Evangelists and their gospels, which are associated with the four rivers of Paradise, and the four rivers, which irrigate the four realms of the earth. The complementary nature of these figures is reflected in their summation in the Majestas figure of the enthroned Christ, who rules over all things. According to Revelation the cube also represents the Heavenly Jerusalem of the Apocalypse. The number 24 is the product of several multiples, including the number 12, which is in turn associated with the hours of the day, of the night, of the months and with the zodiac, that is to say, a reference to the cosmic order and especially to the Heavenly Jerusalem in Revelation 21: 10–17, 21, and to the many references in Revelation 7:4–8 to the many multiples of 12. Thus the octagon is 12 × 12 = 144 Frankish feet in diameter (medieval foot was longer than a modern foot). Each of the 8 sides is 18 feet long for another total of 144 feet, just as the walls of the Heavenly Jerusalem were 144 cubits long.60 All other external dimensions are divisible by 12. The number 8 is the number of the New Testament. It announces the Blessedness of future eons. Already the Baptistery of the Arians in Ravenna contained an octagonal baptismal basin, because it was associated with the eighth day of Creation, because of Christ’s Resurrection eight days after Palm Sunday and the beginning of a new life through the baptism. The somewhat later church of San Vitale continues this theme. Eight then is the number of the rebirth through the Resurrection to Eternal Life. The octagon therefore is related to the anastasis rotunda, such as we saw at Fulda. For Pythagoreans and Neo-Platonists multiples of the number 8 referred to heavenly wisdom and to the firstborn of Creation. The number 8 also represents fulfillment, harmony and eternity. Several centuries later the emperor Barbarossa and his wife Beatrix still had a vivid understanding of the significance of these numbers when they had a chandelier suspended from the dome as
60
Braunfels, p. 131.
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a representation of the Heavenly Jerusalem over the spot where Charlemagne was supposedly buried. This chandelier consisted of a ‘wall’ of 8 circular sections, reinforced by 16 bastions—8 towers and 8 turrets. They understood it as a demonstration of harmony in unity in conformity with the octagonal dimensions of the inner building and the sixteen corners of the exterior. Notions of a ‘Golden Rome’, a ‘Heavenly Jerusalem’, the Imperium Christianum, played into this structure from the beginning. An inscription suggests as much.61 It seems that the attempt was made here to capture the cosmic entity of divine, abstract space in more than a square or rectangle and to translate transcendental intuitive, intelligible knowledge into identifiable shapes. Behind these multiples lies the number 2, represented by the pairs of columns, which is at the basis of all polarities and dualities. In this context the polarity, which attracts us, is the death and rebirth, apocalypse and anastasis confrontations. Charlemagne may have intended the Chapel to be his funerary site. The octagon implies its function as a baptistery. This apparent duality, however, is a harmonious reduction of all symbolism into unity in which all polarities are resolved in Christ. To what extent was Charlemagne motivated by this mystical symbolism? Was he moved by his esthetic appreciation of Classical forms when he asked that the building materials be dismantled in Italy and moved to Aachen, or did he see in them mainly the implied expressions of power and the will to substantiate his legitimacy and proclaim the continuity to his right to rulership? Was the Palace Chapel intended to express in an idealized form the wish of a merging of Heaven and Earth in a spiritual dimension that he knew would not be realized on Earth? Only one year after the consecration of the chapel by pope Leo III, with the Divisio regnorum, Charlemagne reverted to the traditional Frankish division of the royal inheritance between his three sons in 806, motivated by the fear that upon his death discord might arise in the realm. A more basic human nature was to take precedence over the immediate high ideal, though the idea of this ideal has survived in various guises over time.
61 Stalley, p. 71, n. 7. The inscription reads translated from the Latin: ‘When the living stones are assembled harmoniously, and the numbers coincide in an equal manner, then rises resplendently the work of the Lord who has constructed the entire hall.’
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Not until the coronation of Otto I, was the throne set up in the first gallery.62 (Plate 33c) Till then it stood, most probably, at the center of the octagon. It is conceivable that the floor of the octagon had a floor mosaic akin to the one in place now. That the overlapping and interlacing squares could include what has been said about octagons and the number 8, suggests that the placement of the throne allows the claim to the sacerdotal stature to which Charlemagne aspired. He did think in eschatological terms, of Aachen as a New Jerusalem and a Second Rome and of himself as a mystic incarnation of David, Salomon and Constantine, under whom a unified universal Christian Empire on Earth reflected the unity of Heaven. Though Charlemagne recognized the pope’s spiritual authority, yet the protection, which the emperor extended over the papacy, was tantamount to domination. As sacerdos, he saw himself as God’s representative on earth and placed himself between Heaven and Earth, between the celestial sphere and terrestrial realm, between dome and floor, and in that he played the interpretative link for all mankind as guide toward the realization of the universal Christian kingdom. It will be recalled that Charles had accepted the principles outlined in St. Augustine’s De civitate dei, on the felicity of Christian emperors. Augustine had stressed that the earthly kingdom was merely a reflection of the eternal kingdom of God. While God’s kingdom was eternal, the earthly kingdom was subject to God’s purpose. Since the spiritually and intellectually projected ideal celestial order could not readily parallel the real terrestrial order, the emperor sought the function to bring this about. The later ruler portraits bear this out. It is perhaps surprising then, that the octagon, to the extent that it is a summation of ideological, artistic and architectural elements, contains no direct personal representation of Charlemagne. As has been demonstrated throughout, this is consistent with the contemporary manuscripts, in which Charles sought no personal representations, in marked contrast to his successors. It is as though the edifice was to enshrine his name.
62
Binding, Königspfalzen, p. 79.
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CONCLUSION
The attempt has been made to trace the skilful policies by which the Austrasian Carolingians acquired control over the monarchy and assured their own supremacy by means of a careful rearrangement of the power structure of the Frankish realm. By virtue of the consolidation of their family’s power, the joint military and monastic policies of expansion, supported by the allegiance of the papacy, brief setbacks could not prevent the final rise of the Carolingians. Assured of their own felicitas, their Heil, they consolidated their position through the military intervention on behalf of the papacy, beset by the Lombards, and with papal cooperation used the support of the church to turn away from the Roman Empire as preserved in Constantinople. It was Charles, to be known as Charlemagne, who was charged to reinforce the notion that the Franks were God’s chosen people and he God’s chosen ruler and representative to guide the Christian Empire as Christ’s first servant. He wanted to be emperor of such an empire, not of a continuation of imperial Rome. Had he not returned from his wars against the Saxons and the Avars as the majestic conquering hero? Was he not now in position to wield both temporal as well as religious authority over a theocracy, which he ruled like a new David, leading his chosen people. The pope appealed to him as a new Constantine and the papacy participated in his elevation to such an exalted position from which it was his charge to combat the enemies of Christ in the visible kingdom of which Christ was the invisible Lord. In the visible kingdom God had armed the king with the Two Swords of the Two Authorities of royal power and priestly authority, so that as rex-sacerdos he could protect the church from all falsehood and all attack. The proclamation of Charles as imperator et augustus during his coronation in Rome on Christmas Day 800, apparently not entirely to his liking, finalized the process which made Charles the equal of the Byzantine emperor. The break with Constantinople came in 803. Hereafter Charles dropped the designation Romanum imperium and replaced it with the idealistic Renovatio Romani imperium as a new Imperium Christianum. For our use, the term Renovatio indicated a kaleidoscopic, recapitulating preference over the term Renaissance.
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Charlemagne deviated from the principle of single succession when he attempted to regulate the succession by continuing the administrative power-sharing practices of the past. These had not been totally successful when his other sons died and by default Louis, the Pious, his only surviving son, saw his sole succession as a divine judgment, but nevertheless felt the need for several papal coronations to confirm this selection. He must have known that he was the father’s reluctant choice. That his father had crowned him was not deemed sufficient to him. With the succession of the three sons of Louis the Pious, the intended administrative territorial assignments turned into Merovingian-style fratricidal animosity and tripartite division, as administrative flaws and centrifugal forces, already apparent during Charlemagne’s last years, already erupted during Louis’ reign. In addition Louis’ favor of the papacy contributed to its ascendancy. The universalist state of combined secular and spiritual power was giving way to regional particularism and gradual dismemberment of the realm. In the context of the Imperium Christianum God’s grace empowered the emperor to protect and guide the church and to rule his people, not by any right of inheritance but by virtue of the exalted divine judgment. Proper guidance was provided him by his close princely associates in the church, which contributed to the determining intrication of the influence of the church in the affairs of the state in the pursuit of establishing God’s kingdom on earth. Louis’ disposition to see himself a sinner on the throne was detrimental for the realm as with repeated confessions and abasements he allowed others to exploit their advantages. The church especially was chafing under the Two Authorities first insisting that the freedom of the church remain inviolate and then demanding a sole determining role over its own affairs. Louis’ repartition of the realm among his sons to accommodate his late son Charles caused friction and open revolt among them. In the end Charles, the Bald, acquired the west and Ludwig, the German, the east, flanking Lothair, the eldest, who maintained the title and the middle kingdom within the empire. Earlier Louis had once again confessed his sins, declared himself unworthy to rule and a penitent. When the power struggle returned in Louis’ favor, he renewed his coronation. Even though Louis had sent royal regalia to Lothair, declaring him his successor, Lothair did not have the support of his brothers. They defeated him in a most significant battle at Fontenoy in 841 and then swore a non-aggression pact against him in the Oaths of Strasburg of 842.
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Linguistic divisions were appearing, while the stability of the realm was challenged externally by the recurring invasions of Northmen. These sailed far up the rivers into the interior, reportedly bringing turmoil and destruction wherever they appeared, highlighting the inherent weaknesses of the overextended centralized political structures and any military defenses. The Treaty of Verdun of 843 partitioned the realm in three, until the Treaty of Meersen of 870 eliminated the dividing section between the East and West Frankish kingdoms, which had been entrusted to Lothair. Reasons of defense demanded a territorial pragmatism, which forced the reappraisal of the practicality of the idealistic universality of the Christian Empire. Subsequently the implementation of this illusory abstraction became the responsibility of the papacy, a role it was only too eager to assume. As long as he was alive, Charles the Bald saw himself and was shown as the blessed ruler of such a lofty realm and did more than his brothers to establish the independence of the rex christianum. Towards the end of his reign he did obtain an imperial coronation on the same day as his grandfather had and delighted to be referred to propagandistically as the ‘splendid David’, even though this exultation lacked any real merit. After Charles the Bald was crowned emperor by the pope at Christmas 875, he tried to move the imperial center from Aachen into his own realm, and by removing much treasure and art. The principle was confirmed that only a papal coronation in Rome had any validity, while at the same time the papacy had compromised its significance by becoming a toy of local interests and factions. Ludwig, the German had been named sub-king in the territories to the east of the Rhine and with varying fortunes he tried to consolidate a realm out of the eastern components. Despite a lacking administrative and social infrastructure, Ludwig inadvertently prepared the basis of an independent political entity yet to develop. Owing to the lack of comparable institutions, this Eastern Frankish kingdom was to reflect fundamental structural differences from the western part. The king was less constrained by Gallo-Roman and Romano-Frankish checks and balances. As de facto king of Bavaria the northern regions had only peripheral relations with his southern kingdom. Towards the southeast he could score some fluctuating successes. Upon his death partitioning of the kingdom among his sons followed the Frankish pattern. Ludwig’s grandson, to be know as Charles the Fat, once again
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ruled a nominally united eastern kingdom and in 881 was crowned emperor in Rome by the pope, in the hope that he was the only one qualified to reunite the entire kingdom. It was to be the last time because the two kingdoms had reached such a state of independence that the implementation of any principles community of interests and of unity was futile. On the one hand the Carolingians had promoted tribal identities; on the other hand, the idea of an idealized Christian realm united by a common faith, and based on an imposed centralized administration, held together by personal loyalties between the rulers and their subjects founded on oaths of fealty, had weakened. In the face of growing particularistic interests, spurious claims, many fratricidal wars and threatening territorial necessities, centrifugal forces affected the cohesion of the parts. There was no Carolingian left to communicate the cohesive idea of the vast, nearly ungovernable realm. Charles’ weakening mental faculties, perhaps epilepsy, and growing general incompetence caused the eastern nobles to revolt against him and to elect Arnulf of Carinthia in 887 and when Charles died in 888, Arnulf successfully took on the Vikings and refused the pope’s invitation to come to Rome. Not till 894 did he campaign in Italy and in 896 he was crowned emperor but suffered a serious stroke soon after. He secured the succession for his four-year old son, Ludwig, the Child. Arnulf stands out by virtue of his reliance on his aristocrats rather than on the church. It was this high nobility, increasingly more hereditary and independent, around which the regional duchies of Saxony, Lotharingia, Franconia, Swabia and Bavaria began to coalesce, their self-reliance, wealth, military power and regional infrastructures ultimately outbalancing the fading power of the central royal authority. In the last decade of the 9th century and into the 10th, Slavs and especially Hungarians posed a very serious threat to the eastern kingdom from beyond the eastern frontiers. In view of the immaturity of the central authority, the coordinated defense against these attacks fell to the eastern duchies. With the death of Ludwig, the Child, in 911, the eastern magnates of the council of regents resorted to an election which placed the Franconian duke Konrad onto the royal throne. For a very short while the direct Carolingian link was maintained. The Carolingian renovatio flourished with the idea of the universal empire, the Imperium Christianum, as long as religion provided the motivation for secular activities within the realm. It declined with
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the collapse of the myth of a unified realm, the departure from the ideal state and the increasing secularization of the political life towards the end of the 9th century. Although the conventional 19th century term Carolingian Renaissance is still current, the process described by it was not uniformly represented throughout the empire and really more of a recapitulation of the various tendencies in the cultural contributions of the regions than a ‘rebirth’. One is increasingly inclined to reassign the proportions of indebtedness for the burst of cultural activity during the Carolingian period. Both Charlemagne and Louis the Pious used the word renovatio on their seals, a renovation, and transformation, restoration and renewal, even rebirth were productive Carolingian concepts, which in their secular and religious guise pertained to varying degrees to an extensive range of cultural activities. It bears emphasizing that until recently the indebtedness to the past was focused completely on all aspects of the Roman heritage per se and that the Carolingian Renaissance was no more than a rejuvenation of most things Roman and within which anything of merit was Roman, or at best a clear copy, indistinguishable from its original model. Not considered to be more than imported oddities difficult to explain were the astonishing authentic works based on Celtic and Germanic styles and the fact that the Germanic north had authentic contributions to make to this cultural recapitulation. More recently a nuanced appreciation of the debt to the Classical past has been established. The link with the Roman past has been differentiated to pertain to the late Classical, Christian Roman past, to the times of the emperors Constantine and Justinian and the early Christian Empire, rather than to the Rome of the pagan Caesars. The Carolingians were intent on drawing a clear demarcation between Ancient Rome and themselves and, as was demonstrated, resisted the pope’s implied association with Rome’s pagan rulers. Continuing reassessment of the Early Middle Ages indicates that these ages were not so dark and that the preceding Merovingian period was not characterized by complete ignorance. A need for literary competence had been present among the senatorial GalloRoman elites surviving in the administration of the state institutions and in the offices of the church. Admittedly the enthusiasm of the early Christian faith did much to displace the pagan authors and their works for fear of their interference with the new faith, if the works did not provide references to practical use. While the former
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was only apparently neglected and rejected because of its content, the latter gained increasing emphasis for its required educational skills to satisfy functional needs for literacy within the Carolingian scribal and administrative culture. It was the copyists of this period who preserved and distributed the works of the ancient authors. Not all developments were equally applicable to all parts of the Carolingian empire. While the older West Frankish church, Merovingian and Carolingian, could rely on the relative independent basis of its identity, this was not to become the case east of the Rhine. There the more recent Anglo-Saxon consolidation of Christianity under St. Boniface was accomplished under the auspices of the papacy, with the result that for centuries to come the structure of the ‘German’ church was to remain much more closely bonded to Rome and hence come much more under all manner of Roman influence. The Bavarians, also heirs of older, more independent, more Hiberno-Scottish church institutions, had developed a system of mutual support between themselves, the Lombards and Rome and used it to reinforce their own political position toward the Franks until under Carolingian pressure the pope unexpectedly turned on them. The First Cover of the Lindau Gospel and the Tassilo Chalice are testimonies to this nonconformity. The reduction of Bavarian individuality was the result, leading to a cohesive integration within the East Frankish church. The Second Cover of the Lindau Gospel was proof of the new conformity. A long-term northern openness to Rome was given. It was to prove a long-term handicap. Owing to the extensive socio-cultural continuity from Roman times onward the renewal in Gaul, Lombardy and Italy took on a different guise from that of the eastern, more recently conquered Central European parts of the Frankish realms. Large sections did not even come totally under Frankish hegemony, let alone under any Classical cultural influence until the end of the 8th century. Only little of the western frame of reference, intellectual tradition and cultural infrastructure extended into the east-rhenish regions of the Frankish kingdom. Gradually the cultural leadership of the courts passed to the monastic centers. Without territorial links to a ‘Classical’ past, developments in the east were all the more noteworthy. The Alemanic, Bavarian and Frankish monasteries of the Carolingian east initiated a new beginning based on only few precedents, so that the term ‘renaissance’ is not appropriate there. What did burst on the scene was a brief period of activity in secular literature written in Old
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High German. The effort, however, was to be short-lived and to be eclipsed by a large volume of religious literature written in Latin as the link with Christian writing fully evolved. Literacy meant Latinity. At the same time the abstract decorative styles associated with Celtic and Germanic surface treatments were replaced by Mediterranean, representative, narrative and message-oriented forms of Christian expression. Astonishing was the flowering production in the portable arts such as illuminated manuscripts, ivory carvings and metal work and even architecture, which projected the eastern centers into a prominent position. The Carolingian intention to idealize the Christian kingdom on earth, the Imperium Christianum, into a replica of the Heavenly Kingdom gave to religious education a primary role and necessitated the multiplication of the available religious books. Roman models derived from Roman state symbolism were represented in Carolingian architecture; Roman Law incorporated into the tribal law codes; Roman acclamation formulas appeared in liturgical guise; the Vitae of saints, missionaries and kings followed Roman examples; the ivory book covers derived from Roman consular diptyches; Christian motifs followed late Roman examples, the most important being the Majestas derivations from the Roman Cosmocrator representations paralleling the growing emphasis on ruler portraits in the Roman manner in the context of sacerdotal concepts. Novel were the Old Testament references to a chosen King David and the attempt to establish the foundations for a Davidic kingdom on earth populated by a new chosen people, in synthesis with the ideas of continuity with a postConstantinian Christian Empire, a new Rome, a new Jerusalem. To make this vision a reality the resources and talents at Charlemagne’s disposal were mobilized. Scholars, theologians, grammarians, artists, craftsmen and architects were attracted to the Carolingian court ‘schools’ with the creative freedoms to develop their respective masteries in the service of a grandiose design. A practical primary expectation of the schools was teaching a fundamental functional literacy for admistrative purposes at various levels of competence in the various jurisdictions of state and church, which required the documentation of all manner of transactions. The curriculum taught the trivium and the quadrivium, i.e. the Christianized Seven Liberal Arts as an aid to unlocking the mysteries of Revelation and of God’s Will. The trivium, the study of Grammar, Logic and Rhetoric, was taken to satisfy the functional needs. It fell upon the scriptoria of the great
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monasteries to provide copies of the mundane primary teaching texts as well as of the rare copies of ancient and early Christian books and of resplendent scriptures and ornamented liturgical texts. St. Gallen, Reichenau, Lorsch, Würzburg, Fulda were the monastic foundations, which developed extensive library deposits for local use and for circulation and distribution in the effort to expand Christian learning and use literature to persuade people to participate in the pursuit of the realization of the ideal. Extensive networks of interdependent monasteries existed within and beyond their episcopal and archiepiscopal jurisdictions, which shared in this persuasion. Of particular interest are the complex and costly infrastructural requirements in raw materials in skins, dyes, inks, gems and precious metals, and skilled human resources necessary before book production could be entertained. In the context of religious literature, the dreams and vision of visionaries figure prominently. Since these were taken to be inspired by God, the warnings, which they usually contained, were directed at the potentates to warn them against immanent threats and dangers, which might jeopardize the Heavenly Kingdom on Earth. Contributors to the pursuits of Alcuin were Einhard, Hrabanus Maurus and Walahfrid Strabo. Alcuin and Einhard were joined in formulating and promoting the Carolingian political and theological intention of transforming the Franks and Charlemagne into a new chosen people of Israel and a new David, and projecting a universal kingdom of heaven and earth. Hrabanus Maurus provided the framework in which the empire was ecclesia. He was a highly intellectual compiler and commentator, who practiced an accumulative, encyclopedic type of religious scholarship entirely subordinated to Scriptures, intended to safeguard an inventory of the imperiled core of all knowledge and a scholarly tradition without which the anticipated state could not be attained. Conditions on earth had to be elevated to be a fit match for the envisioned heavenly order. He was the rolemodel for a new generation such as the poet Walahfrid Strabo, the philologist Lupus de Ferrières and the theologian Otfrid von Weissenburg, not because of his methodology, but for providing them with the gigantic shoulders on which they could develop their literary originality. In his poetry Walahfrid could command a medicinal, ‘scientific’ pragmatism based on practical experience and empirical observation, without seeking Christian validation. Nevertheless, he rose to high positions in the church. Otfrid von Weissenburg is of significance
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because of his attempt to raise a form of Old High German to literary stature in his Book of Gospels. It is of interest that for a brief period a short-lived attempt was made to write secular texts in German rather than Latin. Initially German was used in a pagan, cultic context, but then also in the law codes and religious texts. An early Latin-German dictionary deserves particular attention. It contained an OHG version of the Lord’s Prayer. Fragments of heroic narrative, of accounts of the Creation, of the end of the world, of the Harmony of the Gospels, of the Life of Christ were composed in epic form using OHG successfully, with the express intention to address the people in their vernacular. A laudable attempt, it was an inconclusive achievement. German was not to gain a long-term foothold in the universal Christian use of Latin. The German vernacular and its worldly poetic, heroic and fatalistic themes could probably not be reconciled with the ideas basic to the Imperium Christianum. Einhard reports that Charlemagne ordered the preservation of Germanic heroic poetry and although the ancient sources refer to such a tradition among the Germanic peoples, there is no direct evidence to their existence. Indirect evidence comes from the Norse Eddas, which betray South-German origins for the heroic lays, legends and sagas of high poetic quality. In a mytho-poetic process historical events and personages passed into narrative epic tales and heroic characters. In the transformation of an oral tradition people, places and events were fictionalized as entertainment within the oral culture of the age. Only later did the monastic scribal culture give them a more stable format as recorded written German text. Attila, Theoderic the Great, Alboin and their women were joined by fictitious paladins, placed into patricidal or fratricidal situations dominated by pagan fate or God’s will and Christian judgment. Some characters reappear in several epics. The edifying value lay in the presentation of Germanic fatalism, the awareness of human limitations, a belief in a woeful destiny, the negation of a fear of death, the proclamation of duty, loyalty and heroism. The praise of feminine beauty, constancy and faithfulness, the description of rich garments and ornaments, of splendid weapons and armor, exotic places and meals, were at the core of the entertaining narratives. Generally this OHG material has been transmitted in Christianized form, yet not compatible with the intentions of the ideal. Many of these narrative elements will find a synthesis in the later Nibelungenlied. In the context
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of the renovatio, the secular German component was restricted to popular culture from where it quickly receded as a literary language. Advanced by the convents and monasteries, Latin continued to assert itself as the language of the Christian realm, of all intellectual pursuits for centuries to come, far into the Latin Middle Ages. Astonishing are the high levels of artistry achieved in the eastern regions in the workshops of the cloister arts in such areas as manuscript illumination, ivory carving and metal work. The areas of the arts and crafts show most clearly the dimensions, which the blending recapitulation assumed. The Christianization by Irish and AngloSaxon missions supported and reinforced abstract but original native, northern styles characterized by random curvilinear designs and organic traceries, evident in the astonishing display initials. Too noncommunicative, they proved not useful and were fairly quickly overlayered by representative Roman Christian forms of disciplined expression, harmonious symmetry, human and animal forms, narrative content and message oriented art of Mediterranean Christianity. Several spectacular works, such as the Tassilo Chalice and the first cover of the Lindau Gospel mark this transition. The intention to establish an imperial consciousness in the name of a universal Imperium Christianum required the educational, pre-eminent representation of the human effigy. The realistic representation of the human form of the Evangelists prepared the way for the idealized ruler portraits of the 9th century. Already the Insular Style supported the depiction of human forms among the ornamented display initials and symbolic carpet pages. Placed centrally on the pages, the growing emphasis on these effigies of Christ, the Evangelists and their symbolic emblems contributed to the marginalization and elimination of the calligraphic ornamentation until the imaginative nonfigurative designs themselves found an ornamental role on the large display capitals on text pages, until they finally also disappeared. It was replaced by the repetitive use of the same original idea, without any significant variation. Two innovations establish themselves: the emblems of the Evangelists, the tetramorphs, become eminent representations, and the placing of the Evangelists and their emblems in decorated arcades and colonnades, and subsequently more elaborate architectural locations become formulaic. These motifs are the legacy of Classical artistic traditions, which will become pictorial axioms in medieval art.
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In the last decades of the 8th century the workshops of the Palace School at Aachen produced splendid illuminated liturgical texts, such as the Godescalc Gospel. Of exceptional beauty and effectiveness, Christ and the Evangelists are represented in highly individualistic fashion. Placed in the midst of surface covering detail, each page is a carpet page by other means. Yet the figures dominate the wealth of structural surface detail within their spaces. Each Evangelist has his emblem hovering above him clearly indicating its inspirational role, as if prompting the author of his Gospel with the text to be written. Now the background architecture suggests itself to be a cityscape, the Heavenly Jerusalem. A novelty is the representation of a Fountain of Life. This is a symmetrical structure deliberately composed of eight columns set in a paradisic landscape surrounded by animals, which come to drink at the fountain. The fountain symbolizes the Gospels, the faith in Christ and the cancellation of death. It points to the anastasis, the Resurrection. A generation later the motif reappears in another gospel also from Aachen, preserved in Soissons. In addition to twelve richly ornamented Canon Tables, this gospel also features a ‘Veneration of the Lamb’, an apocalyptic scene in which the Twenty-four Elders adore the Sacrificial Lamb. Columns set against an impressive theatrical architecture, surmounted by the tetramorphs, the page summarizes the principles of the faith, the edifice of the church and the teleological and eschatological knowledge of final things and times as foretold in Revelation. Impressive about these Carolingian gospels is the ample use of vegetation, birds and animals and especially the lavish use of such luxurious, luminous colors as gold, amber, orange, ochre, yellow interacting with crimson red, a wide range of brilliant deep blues, azure, turquoise and emerald greens, deep purples and mauves. The composition of these pages begins to allow the introduction of a narrative, marginal commentary to be inserted into non-essential spaces and it is interesting to note here that while the key representation of the Evangelist in his formal writing pose is symbolically stylized, the narrative commentaries are much more realistic in appearance. Greater realism characterizes the so-called Ada group of Imperial Coronation Gospels from the Palace School at Aachen. Here the Evangelists, with superimposed tetramorphs are placed in architectural settings suggesting a sacerdotal backdrop of palatial dimensions. It is possible that it was the intention to compare the
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sublime magnificence of the imperial abstraction with their transcendental majesty in an ideal entrance to a metaphysical realm. Unmistakable in these portraits of the Evangelists is the centrality of the human figure. There is no space filling and surface covering ornamentation or ancillary detail here. Except for very large golden halos, these figures are powerful, majestic images. Seen together, these figures are contemporary representations, without any indication of stylistic development. They do not speak of an evolving, coherent Carolingian Style, but rather of several individualistic approaches, as if each represented an independent tradition. It seems as if the Evangelist representations had to be fully developed, before the artists could entertain the preparation of idealized ruler portraits. The first of these was the dedication portrait by Hrabanus Maurus, c. 840, which showed an idealized effigy of the emperor Louis the Pious as the Soldier in Christ. It was not a portrait by any means, but it was soon followed by depictions of enthroned sacerdotal figures. The dedication miniature of Charles the Bald in the Vivian Bible of c. 845, associates the king textually with the Biblical David, enclosed in a large mandorla, a sacred space normally reserved for the Christ effigy. Pictorially Charles, David and Christ resemble one another facially. Clearly Carolingian kingship is linked here with the idea of the Davidic Christian Empire, the Franks as the New Israel and Charles as the new David. At about the same times, c. 850, the Gospels of Lothair portray the emperor enthroned in an imperial, arcaded setting, seated in the manner of an Evangelist. An inscription links Lothair with David and his princely claims to be the chosen of God over his brother Charles, in their fraternal conflict. The occasion documented in the Vivian Bible, in which the book is presented to Charles the Bald, indicates a political agenda. It is a claim to legitimacy, reinforced through the Hand of God opened over his head, extending to Charles his select status as the chosen and protected of the Lord. Charles’ position was questionable. The Davidic association, the blessing Hand of God, confirm the divine authorization of his reign. His Coronation Sacramentary reinforces this claim even more as on yet another ruler portrait the Hand of God actually holds the crown over his head. The Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram represents a lavish coronation of Charles in an ideal space. Charles wears the crown, with God’s open Hand just above his head, as if the coronation had just been completed. The scene is placed on a most splendidly decorated page, asserting the claim to conti-
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nuity, legitimacy and divine installation by virtue of God’s choice and grace. Clearly, the optical, artistic effect of the royal image had the function to express to all the sanctity and consecration of the sacerdos. The scene leaves little doubt that Charles the Bald wanted to proclaim his entitlement to reign by acclamation. His disputed accession to the throne made it necessary to activate a propagandistic image of the ideal ruler. By contrast, his brother Ludwig’s depiction is very humble. From early on Charles may well have aimed for the imperial crown. In religious art, whether on murals, in manuscripts or on ivory book covers, a common depiction is the Majestas Domini motif showing the apocalyptic Christ in Majesty. It usually shows Christ seated in an oval precinct, or a lozenge shaped tetragon, the mandorla, usually surrounded by the Evangelists and/or the tetramorphs, indicating the fulfillment of the New Testament in Christ. To accommodate the figures in their restricted spaces, they are frequently forced to assume very awkward and constrained poses. Sometimes angels figure in these compositions. The Coronation Sacramentary of Charles the Bald introduces secular motifs below the mandorla, taken from Classical iconography. It shows the reclining figure of Oceanos resting on a jug from which water flows. It also shows the figure of an earth goddess, Gaia/Terra, with children at her breasts. Both of these motifs will return on other works in association with pagan sun and moon representations as Apollo, the sun god, and as Selena/Luna, the moon goddess. These two motifs will show themselves to be particularly tenacious for the next five hundred years. Consistently these scenes invite the participation in the euphoric visions of final things. References to abbreviated examples of narrative detail have been made when they appeared in the spandrels on the illuminated pages of the liturgical texts. While the key themes maintained their positions of emphasis, peripheral elements began to fill out the story with miniature, figural, rather than textual, detail. Outstanding in this regard is the Drogo Sacramentary. It is related to a gospel in which ornamented capital initials represent the tetramorphs individually in letterform according to the first letter of each of the gospels.1 In the Sacramentary, splendidly introduced by two elaborate ivory book covers with six scenes related to the birth, betrayal and death of Christ,
1
Braunfels, p. 388.
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the artist selects forty-one vignettes from the New Testament and intricates them into the calligraphic, intertwining, vegetative ornamentation of the historiated capital initials. The pictorial content of these initials thereby imbues the letters with a magical and mystical quality. The artist’s inventiveness is ingenious in the manner in which he sends the viewer on little ventures of discovery for the cleverly integrated scenes. In other gospels Old and New Testament scenes are paired for the demonstration of promise and fulfillment. These representations have something of a digest nature about them, artistic shorthand, condensed abstracts, and extracts. Special categories of illustrated liturgical texts are the Psalters, collections of psalms. They were a rich inventory of references to events, which could be illustrated. Among many, three Psalters stand out: the Stuttgart Psalter, the Utrecht Psalter and the Golden Psalter from St. Gallen. The Stuttgart and Utrecht Psalter have the illustrations interspersed directly between the lines of the text. The Psalterium aureum from St. Gallen displays a different technique. While the Stuttgart Psalter contains three-hundred and sixteen vividly colored scenes from the psalms, interlinking foreshadowing Old Testament references with New Testament interpretations, equating king David with Christ, the Utrecht Psalter consists of one-hundred and sixty-six sepia colored, monochrome ink sketches on parchment. These vignettes demand a search for location and meaning in the texts to which the artist makes reference. Some references are quite oblique and obscure. The scenes and figures are characterized by a frenzied nervousness, always vividly dynamic and occasionally even humorous. Because many scenes and figures appear on the same page it is not always clear when one scenic reference ends and the other begins, and where sequential ideas appear in coexistent fashion. The Golden Psalter from St. Gallen contains a concentration of thirteen illuminations illustrating the life and reign of King David. Best known are the three military scenes depicting troops on the march and engaged in the siege of walled cities, perhaps the most customary aspect of Carolingian warfare. Inadvertently they shed light on the arms and armor of the Frankish forces of the day. Accurate attention to detail is consistently evident. Each of these Psalters was completed with a high degree of realistic animation and movement, with a good sense of anticipation in capturing the events. Narrative also found itself engraved on crystals. While traditional scenes of the Crucifixion, complete with sun and moon representa-
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tions, are not unexpected, there are some examples carved in glass dealing with peripheral events from scriptures, such as the sequence of episodes dealing with the Biblical scandal involving the virtuous Susannah in her bath and the two Elders, voyeurs, who accused her of adultery.2 The use of this story may have been as an analogy in an actual case in which Lothair II wanted to dispose of his wife, by having two bishops give false witness as to the queen’s faithfulness. The crystal may have been a token of reconciliation. Stylistically the miniature figures ground into the crystal resemble the miniatures of the Utrecht Psalter. They share some of the same charicaturistic angularity and agitated gesticulation. There are no extraneous details, neither vegetation nor calligraphy, to distract our focus from the activities of the clearly cut human figures. The precise definition of the incised tracery leaves a clear contrasting transparency. The Classical and early Christian traditions of ivory carving continued into the Carolingian period as a significant element of the renovatio as many stylistic devices were rediscovered by Carolingian artists. This art form was used primarily in the ornamentation of book covers, lidded boxes and pyxes. The Roman sources provided certain motifs. A shortage of ivory made the recovery of pre-used ivory necessary, by shaving the relief off the panels or by splitting them. Initially the positioning of statuary figures in such architectural settings as arcades, already familiar from Ravenna and then from the manuscripts, was intended to suggest an ideal space in which the formally placed, static figures seemed not actually to be touching the ground. Quite early, however, narrative elements expressing a popular temperament were introduced in an ancillary fashion, as on the covers of the Lorsch Gospels, when the story of the Three Magi and of the Nativity are told in moderately dynamic images along the bottom of each panel of the diptych. However, it was not long before the moderate dynamics opened the way to dramatically placed groups of ecstatic bodies, telling of the upward surge in a euphoric attempt to ascend Christ-like into Heaven. Though some other similar panels, Majestas settings in ivory, were to be the more typical. The most completely narrative ivory panel is preserved on the cover of the Book of Pericopes of the emperor Henry II. A coexistent representation of pagan ancillary motifs frames the Christian story of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection in richly detailed narrative sequences. While the artistry of the ivory focuses the dramatic message in the narrative, the scenes also contain a propagandistic
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element in the church’s claim to Christianity’s legitimate succession to primacy as the new chosen people over Judaism by virtue of the blood of Christ and of Rome’s primacy through the association of Roman pagan and Christian elements, all under the benevolent Hand of God. Another ivory shows a greater focus along Greek dramatic lines in the confrontation between Christ and Satan in the desert, when Satan tries to tempt Christ. By means of body language the artist reconstructed the crucial dialogue between them. This scene on the inner panel is encircled with a frame of dramatic, narrative moments from the life of Christ. Undercutting of some of the figures and some other details was a common technique, highlighting of the figures and ornamentation through perforation of the panels was another. The latter was a return to the interplay of positive and negative space by means of which light foregrounds were silhouetted against contrasting backgrounds. The figures have become miniature sculptures in the round. Such portable objects as liturgical combs were favored for this technique. A stylistic and thematic set of syntheses is reflected in the Tuotillo Ivories, book covers set in decorated and bejeweled frames, on which highly ornate and perforated scrollwork is combined with the almost traditional Christian and Roman stock images of Majestas, tetramorphs, Evangelists, angels, sun and moon bearing cornucopias, Oceanos and Gaia with inscriptions above and below the scenes on one panel, and a perforated scroll with an intertwined hunting scene in the other, a relief panel with the Virgin Mary and four angels at the center, and a legend depicted in relief at the bottom telling the story of St. Gallus and a bear. This element is nearly secular in intent. In addition to book covers the ivory carvers also prepared ivory caskets perhaps decorated with northern designs, or with scenes illustrating key scenes from the life of Christ. It may be concluded that the earlier, Classical, static and architectural designs gradually yielded to movement, as colonnades were replaced by moving folds and curtains. Assuming a degree of initiation, pictorial narrative techniques were intended to bring the scenes of the faith to life. The Germanic metal smiths had given proof of their originality, their skills and techniques, their authentic sense of color to meet the expectations of the renovatio. The shortage of gold combined with the need for liturgical vessels and objects needed for the Christian service, as well as of gold for gem encrusted reliquaries and book covers, demanded great expertise in preparing the show of gold despite
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its scarcity. Their artistry turned the object into an act of faith. Early examples are the reliquary caskets and burse-reliquaries of gem encrusted gold foil. Northern styles of surface decoration utilized intertwining designs of birds, fish, snakes and salamanders to animate the polychrome cloisonné surfaces on the obverse side. Strategically placed gems created designs, which ordered the surface by means of number symbolism into mystic spaces. Representations of saints were beginning to populate the reverse sides with analogous intent. Sometimes the display of material wealth in the form of an overabundance of gems on the surface disguised a lack of artistry. Two brilliant examples display the Insular Style of surface ornamentation on metal best, the Tassilo Chalice and the First Cover of the Lindau Gospel. Again, being unique, both pieces bear immense responsibility. Besides being an impressive work of art, the chalice was intended to be a commemorative of an historical marriage between Bavarians and Lombards and as such a political document, a challenge to the Carolingians. Artistically it documents the insertion and growing assertion of the primacy of the human effigy among the increasingly secondary ornamental detail. More or less contemporary is the cover of the Lindau Gospel, a very overt melding of northern pagan Animal Style and some Christian elements such as the dominating cross, the effigies and monograms of Christ and the Evangelists and their emblems in the corners of the cover. An amazing melding of details, the cover is an entirely satisfying surface treatment. Unfortunately the style was to have no future and the cover no extant parallels or derivatives. The Animal Style was in full retreat. This became evident on the Second Cover of the Lindau Gospel. The pagan dynamic intertwines of the first cover were replaced by the static and rational Christian designs of the second cover. The orderly intellect had triumphed over an animated imagination. Embossing and symmetrical gem encrustation had replaced the complexities of the Insular Style. The new direction is famously illustrated on the architectural cover treatment of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, on which a carefully planned arrangement of gems and pearls has been raised on arcaded platforms to suggest a cityscape of temples and palaces. The suggestion that it is the Heavenly Jerusalem as described in Revelation, which is represented, recommends itself very strongly. Evidently intertwining animal designs could not suggest this Christian objective. For future centuries the style of surface decoration was determined by a humanistic esthetic sense, which focused primarily on representations
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of man in a rich material context. Identifiable figures had to appear in recognizable scenes. The Christian message had to be clear in the narrative. Contemplation of the identifiable images in art was to lead to the cognition of the sacred abstract truths. Very impressive was the work of the bronze smiths, who were able to cast objects in the round, as well as large objects and surfaces, along with more delicate grillwork. Most easily recognized is the unique miniature equestrian statue of a Carolingian imperial effigy. Modeled on Roman examples, it may have been made in the same workshops, which produced the huge bronze doors and the sophisticated railings. The statue shows some accurate and realistic observation of detail, though the execution of the horse points to some inaccuracies in the representation of the anatomy. A large bronze pinecone, originally used in a fountain, also attests to the mastery of the smiths. Technologically impressive are the several pairs of large, solid bronze door panels of the Palace Chapel, all cast in a single piece. Their size is managed optically through the rational organization and sober articulation of the surface treatment. Channeling, beveling, astragalus, bead, pellet and acanthus designs, as well as large lions’ heads are arranged in a very disciplined manner, lending to the doors a very tectonic quality. Surprisingly individualistic are the many cast bronze balustrades at the upper level of the Palace Chapel. Geometric in design and sectioned in pairs, each pair is a variation of the design of another pair of railings. The same holds true for the surface treatment of these railings, decorated with arabesques, organic movement, floral motifs and a variety of space filling geometric designs of the grillwork itself. Variations of the cross are worked into the grillwork. In their work with bronze, as with the work in the others medias, the Carolingian craftsmen and artists were so accomplished that it is tempting to see in their work demonstrations of the continuity of the Classical past, that Roman originals and Carolingian originals cannot easily be distinguished. Central European Carolingian secular architecture has generally disappeared, except in foundations and archeological outlines. Stone was not the logical building material of choice, except in construction intended for imperial representation, such as the Pfalzen, the palaces scattered over the realm. Other fortifications were made of earthworks, wooden palisades and moats. These mottes have either not survived or been integrated into later, more permanent, medieval
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fortifications of stone. More lasting were the royal seats, the palati, self-sufficient establishments capable of accommodating and supplying large entourages of courtiers and retainers. Large audience halls, chapels and royal apartments will have constituted the core buildings. Important personages of the court probably had their own establishment in the vicinity. The occasions on which the kings summoned the mighty of church and state to assemble for the diets at these palati, and the length of time required for these occasions, made organization, accommodation, provisions, sanitation and so forth, jurisdictions requiring great attention to detail. The availability of comforts, luxurious appearance, furniture and décor remains a matter of conjecture, while descriptions tend to be unreliable, since the authors seemed more intent on creating works of literature than documentaries. Because parts of the palatium at Aachen are better preserved, hesitant inferences can perhaps be drawn and a layout reconstructed. The Carolingian audience hall continuous in the form of the modified town hall of Aachen. The Palace Chapel allows some conclusions about the possible appearance of interior spaces in the use of marble, mosaic and painting on floors and walls. In view of the fictitious account of the supposed wall paintings of the audience hall at Ingelheim, there really is no reliable information about that type of wall ornamentation in secular buildings. Even elsewhere the information is sparse, as only a few examples have survived. New construction, climate and changing tastes have not treated wall paintings kindly at all. However, a concentration of these has been preserved in mainly fragmentary form in the valley of the Adige and the pilgrimage route through the Alps. The most complete program of murals is located in the convent church of St. Johann in Müstair in the Swiss canton of Graubünden. The murals, executed in fresco and secco techniques, reflect the confluence of several stylistic influences in the treatment of Old and New Testament themes. The Majestas of the apse is in accordance with the general apocalyptic treatment of that theme. Davidic topics support the ideas of the universal Carolingian empire in the conception of an Imperium Christianum and the Carolingian calculation that King David prefigured Charlemagne. Scenes from the life of Christ include a Crucifixion complete with sun and moon, Ecclesia and Synagoga, familiar from the other mediums. Soberly executed, the figures are presented with realistic restraint. Later changes in taste cause some sections to be painted over reflecting a new stylistic sense. Some distance to the
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east along that road, the chapel of St. Benedict in Mals shows damaged murals, depicting some Biblical events, a writing St. Gregory, Christ and St. Stephen and most interestingly, portraits of the founding patrons of the small church, one a churchman and the other a warrior, probably the local Frankish count. His secular appearance allows conclusions about typical garb and armaments. Still further east, at Naturns, the small church of St. Prokulus complements the impressions concerning religious murals. An amusing simplicity and charicaturistic naivety marks the wall paintings of this interior. Cattle, people and, perhaps unintentionally, an amusing scene showing St. Paul being lowered over the walls of Damascus, make up the simplest Carolingian narrative ornamentation of the space. Again, the very limited number of murals bears considerable responsibility representing Carolingian mural art. Were these at all typical? Religious architecture is still visible in several examples. Some more has survived, integrated as fragments in later churches. Among the extant buildings figure the Einhard basilicas at Steinbach and in Seligenstadt, the first a ruin, the other a functioning church. Stripped of its veneer, Steinbach makes visible the aisled, arcaded flat roof basilica and its subsequent history. Seligenstadt, in its restored appearance, presents an original Carolingian, unadorned, white brick pillar arcade. It gives a good impression of the lighting available through the clerestory windows and generally acts as an elaboration of its predecessor at Steinbach. By contrast the parish church at Höchst is a colonnaded interior with columns, adorned with carved classicizing capitals. These demonstrate their derivation from Classical models in an attempt to strive for original forms. Their derivatives will contribute to a Carolingian type of capital, found in other locations. The arches at Lorsch provide a complementary idea of the variety of designs and forms available to the Carolingian architects and builders. It offers a particularly informative insight into the entrances and approaches prepared for the celebrant prior to entering this sanctified space of the former abbey church. It can be assumed that the access to the abstractions of the rituals of the faith would require a rite of passage for purposes of purification. Though unique today, it may not have been in its own time. The actual arched entrances giving access to the inner structure of the sanctified church may have fulfilled a similar purpose, as at Corvey, where the entrance hall served as a crypt and the whole structure below and above was ordered numerically with the symbolic numbers 4, 8, and
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12 and the massive composition of the westwork bore down like the weight of the whole universe, or at least the world. This idea is carried into the crypt of St. Michael’s at Fulda, where the whole anastasis rotunda rests on one supporting pillar in the crypt. With its Resurrection and ‘Fountain of Life’ symbolism, the anastasis rotunda brings into one focus the Death and Tomb of Christ and the rebirth through Baptism into Paradise. In the case of the Palace Chapel in Aachen it was again the octagonal rotunda, which proclaimed the church triumphant to have overcome the forces of disorder, and demonstrated an optical summation of the faith in architecture. Hailed as a new David and Solomon, a new Constantine, the sacerdotal Carolingian emperors heard themselves proclaimed as their incarnations, ruling a unified, universal empire on earth as a reflection of Heaven. As God’s representative on earth the emperor saw his function guiding all humanity to achieve that universal Imperium Christianum in which the real is congruent in all things with the ideal. Through its mystical symbolism of numbers, objects and shapes, the octagon of the Palace Chapel demonstrates the intention to project spiritually and intellectually the abstract harmony of the material world into a Second Rome, a New Jerusalem, within the unity of the Christian faith. An underlying intention of this book was the examination of the coexistence of the ‘languages’ of significant primary texts and of significant objects in the historical context of Carolingian Central Europe. Of the greatest importance for this cultural period was the centrality of the word and especially the Word. The Word found expression by highlighting common elements in the cloister arts and crafts of portable objects such as illuminated manuscripts, engraved crystals, ivories and gem-encrusted precious metals. The contradictory continuity of certain themes through several centuries and across various styles and materials, could demonstrate that the changes in the interest of the renovatio imperii proceeded apace. These wordless texts spoke in agreement with the written texts of the age and underscored the political and theological persuasions, intentions and visions of the magnates of church and state. Even in the absence of written texts, the characteristics of the material evidence surveyed would, upon consideration, have led to conclusions pointing to the Theo-political program advanced by the culture carrying elites. Architecture and its surviving interiors and exteriors allowed conclusions concerning the interaction between the spaces and their users. The Palace Chapel
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in Aachen was a most brilliant attempt to make a personal experience of the grandiose objective. In their historical, religious and artistic contexts the whole complex range of evolving objects allowed several glimpses into a surprisingly coherent world, its kaleidoscopic changes taking place simultaneously. In a manner of speaking, the facets representing the material world were quite dynamic, driven by their own inherent need for transformation and adjustment. Consequently the objects and the techniques, which they reflected, could be more advanced than the intellectual and spiritual content which they were intended to convey. Humanity can cling to the familiar with nostalgia and conviction, while the drive inherent within the design of things can be considerably more disinterestedly progressive. Eventually that design can obtain meaning within the concurrent context of the whole culture. Changes in style make these processes most recognizable.
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INDEX
Aachen, 10, 36–68, 52, 61, 68, 70, 74, 76, 78–80, 86, 88, 90, 95, 101, 105, 107, 113, 116, 121, 125, 127, 146, 174, 176–78, 189, 191, 213, 229, 235, 242–43, 245, 252, 279, 283, 286–87, 315–16, 318–21, 325–26, 329–33, 341, 343, 345–46, 351, 355, 359–61, 371, 379, 387, 389 Abodrites, 59, 87, 104, 123 acclamation, 9, 72, 78, 146, 237, 251, 259, 375, 381 Ada School, 227 administration, 26, 30, 57, 88–89, 118, 143, 147, 373 Aetius, 205 Agilolfingians, 43, 45, 305 Odilo, 32, 43–45 Tassilo III, 43–48, 50, 60, 114, 157, 304–306, 308, 325, 329 Agilulf, 233, 252 Agnus Dei. See Lamb Aix la Chapelle. See Aachen Alaric, 208 Alboin, 377 Alcuin, 65, 68, 73, 90, 151, 162, 169, 174, 176, 178–80, 184–85, 195, 199, 215, 229, 318, 376 Alemania, 30, 32, 49, 98, 122, 124, 158 Alemans, 25, 32, 42, 50, 95, 108, 158, 161, 185, 195, 203, 213–14, 295, 323, 374 Alsace, 23, 49, 98–99, 158, 200 anastasis. See Resurrection Anglo-Saxons, 24, 27–30, 33, 52, 56, 59, 90, 157, 161, 174, 195–97, 201, 213, 216–17, 221, 226, 241, 304, 378 Ansgar, 123 Apollo, 187, 279, 288, 292, 294, 298, 335, 381 Aquae Granni. See Aachen Aquileia, 62, 176 Aquitaine, 26, 30, 32, 49–51, 62, 76, 78, 81, 84, 86, 89, 93, 97, 103, 107–108, 110, 120, 132, 173
archangels Gabriel, 344 Michael, 353, 356, 358 architecture, 2, 5, 8, 14–15, 140, 142, 145, 197, 216, 229–30, 232, 234, 236–38, 247, 263, 282, 286, 312, 323, 349, 351, 356, 359–60, 375, 379, 386, 388 altar screens, 353 apses, 71, 244, 261, 329–30, 335–37, 341–42, 346, 353, 387 arcades, 93, 226–29, 238–39, 281–82, 284, 286, 303 arches, 71, 98, 226–27, 229, 232, 236, 238–41, 244, 253–54, 257–58, 267, 275, 282, 284–85, 310, 337–39, 342, 345–46, 348–50, 353–55, 362–64, 383, 388 basilicas, 341, 388 capitals, 337, 388 clerestories, 342–43, 345–46, 388 colonnades, 257, 313, 330–31, 334, 337, 346, 352, 358, 388 columns, 13, 53, 146, 228, 234–38, 240, 270, 281, 315, 320, 346, 355, 358, 362, 364, 388 crypts, 341, 345, 355–56, 358, 388–89 dosserets, 346, 362 mosaics, 233–34, 244, 267, 362–64 murals, 2, 145, 216, 220, 315, 326–27, 333–36, 338–40, 342–43, 345, 349, 381, 387–88 number symbolism, 188, 365, 385 pilasters, 320–21, 337, 349–50, 364 pillars, 227, 320, 336, 343, 345, 355–56, 362–64 rotundas, 236, 341, 346, 357–58, 366, 389 theatrical, 236 transepts, 329, 342, 345–46 wall painting. See murals westworks, 198, 318, 341, 346, 354–57, 389 Arnulfingians, 21, 84
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art Arnulf Ciborium, 313 Ascension ivory panel, 287 Crucifixion ivory panel, 288, 298, 308, 313 crystals, 277, 279–80, 382 glass, 13, 15, 142 ivories, 9, 13, 15, 142, 145, 158, 169, 216, 221, 227, 230, 234, 264, 268, 281–83, 286–89, 292–93, 295–96, 298–99, 317, 375, 378, 381, 383–84 ivories caskets, 286, 296, 384–85 ivories liturgical comb, 286, 291 Majestas ivory panel, 288 reliquary caskets, 301–302 Tassilo Chalice, 157, 217, 219, 226, 304, 306, 308, 310, 378, 385 Astronomus, 80, 82, 86, 93, 95, 99, 101–102, 107–10 Attigny, 95 Attila, 203–204, 377 Augsburg, 47, 132, 336 Austrasia, 21, 23, 25–26, 30, 49, 52, 113, 157 Austrasians, 19–21, 25, 141, 369 Austria, 62, 226, 304 Avars, 12, 47, 51, 55, 57, 60–62, 84, 122, 369 basileus, 85 battles Amblève, 26 Andernach, 125 Cannstadt, 32–33, 42 Fontenoy, 110, 113, 121, 252, 370 Saucourt, 211 Soissons, 26 Tertry, 23 Thiméon, 211 Vincy, 26 Bavaria, 23, 30, 32, 43–44, 46, 48, 60, 62, 76, 81, 93, 100, 108, 113, 119, 121, 124, 126, 131–32, 195–96, 208, 226–27, 304, 371–72 Bavarians, 25, 47, 50, 132, 213, 385 Bede Venerable, 141, 153, 161, 163, 199 Benedict of Aniane, 90–91, 93, 95, 161 Benedictine Rule, 90, 92, 150, 161, 341 Benedictines, 23, 137, 186, 196, 348 Boethius, 153, 163
book covers, 13, 283, 286, 292, 298, 375, 381, 383–84 Crucifixion ivory panel, 286 Darmstadt Ascension ivory panel, 286, 295 Darmstadt Majestas ivory panel, 286 Lindau Gospel, 157, 217, 219, 304, 308, 310–11, 378, 385 Lorsch Gospels, 282–83 Temptation of Christ ivory panel, 286, 290 Tuotilo ivory panels, 286, 293 Bremen, 59, 123, 168 Brittany, 87, 102 Brussels, 241–43, 245 Bulgars, 106, 119 Burgundians, 26, 50, 203, 205–206 Burgundy, 25–26, 30, 49, 76, 98, 102, 105, 107, 113, 116, 129–30 Byzantium, 8–11, 17, 39–41, 50–51, 67, 70, 72, 74–75, 83, 85–86, 122, 124, 146, 160, 189, 203, 220, 227, 241, 248, 269, 275, 288, 315, 330, 334, 356, 361, 369 canon tables, 235–36, 238, 257, 359, 379 capitals Composite, 346, 349, 355, 362 Corinthian, 237–38, 284, 320, 331, 346, 349, 356, 362, 364 Ionian, 346, 349–50, 362 Carinthia, 48, 124, 129, 313, 325, 372 Carolingian Minuscule, 135 Carolingians, 9, 14–15, 17, 19–21, 23, 26, 29, 32, 35–39, 43–45, 50, 60, 81, 92, 109, 129, 131, 140, 145–46, 151, 155–56, 162, 165, 172, 219–20, 251, 274, 283, 305, 321, 323, 327, 332, 356, 361, 369, 372, 385 Arnulf of Carinthia, 21, 129–32, 256, 311, 313, 325, 330, 372 Arnulf of Metz, 21 Bernard (It.), 80, 93–95 Carloman, 50, 83, 305 Carloman (son of Ludwig), 124, 126 Charlemagne, 9–10, 30, 39–40, 45–47, 49–57, 60–75, 79–80, 82–86, 89, 91–93, 95, 107, 112, 114, 118, 135–36, 140, 142–43, 146–47, 149, 153, 156, 159–60, 165, 170–72, 174–76, 189–93, 203, 205, 215, 219–20, 229–30, 233, 243, 245, 251, 259, 282,
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286, 302, 305, 315–16, 318–21, 325, 327–29, 331–32, 334, 340–41, 347, 361, 367–70, 373, 376–77, 380, 387 Charles III, the Fat, 118–19, 125–27, 129–31, 173, 371–72 Charles Martel, 18, 26–30, 32, 39, 52, 84, 158, 340 Charles the Bald, 9–10, 96, 98–99, 101, 103, 106–13, 116, 120, 123–27, 141, 159, 170, 173, 185, 189–90, 211, 249, 251–53, 255–60, 264, 310–11, 313, 315–17, 324–25, 370–71, 380–81 Charles the Simple, 129, 132–33 Charles the Younger, 85 Drogo, 80, 109, 264, 290, 381 Grifo, 30, 33 Karlmann, 30, 32–33, 40, 42, 45–46, 49, 52 Lothair, 81, 83, 85, 93–94, 96, 98–103, 107–108, 110–11, 113, 116, 120, 122–23, 181, 186, 249, 251–53, 262, 277, 370–71, 380 Lothair II, 277–79, 281, 315, 383 Louis II, 116, 124 Louis III, 211 Louis the Pious, 27, 50–51, 76, 78–91, 93–104, 106–10, 114, 118, 120, 136, 156, 159–60, 173, 176, 178, 180–82, 184–86, 189–90, 198, 203, 219, 235, 249–50, 255, 286, 325, 328–29, 331, 333, 340–41, 344, 353, 360, 370, 373, 380 Louis the Stammerer, 126, 129, 173, 211 Ludwig the Child, 131–33, 330, 372 Ludwig the German, 10, 62, 81, 85, 90, 93, 98, 100–103, 107–11, 113–14, 116, 118–26, 129, 159, 165, 173–74, 179, 186, 190, 197–98, 200, 211, 260, 328–30, 345, 370–71 Ludwig the Younger, 122, 124–27, 130, 211 Pepin (It.), 50–51, 61, 76, 83, 85 Pepin I, 21 Pepin II, 23, 25 Pepin III, 19, 30, 32–33, 36–45, 49, 52, 63, 73, 90, 94, 136, 146, 305, 332, 340, 347 Pepin the Hunchback, 83–84 Cassiodorus, 162, 169, 203
399
Châlons, 76, 102, 109, 168 Chosen People, 64, 212, 251, 290 Christmas Day, 72, 75 Church Fathers, 140–41, 149, 153–55, 160, 163, 166, 178, 200 Church Triumphant, 268, 290 Cicero, 139, 153, 156 Cistercians, 348 Classical authors, 156, 160–61, 172, 199–200 Colmar, 99 Cologne, 59, 105, 127, 132, 166, 168, 278, 286, 291 Constance, 158 Constantine, 18, 64, 71, 83, 136, 172, 179, 243, 315, 368–69, 373, 389 Constantinople, 9, 50, 72, 74, 87, 94, 100, 132, 146, 159, 179, 333, 340, 369 Constitutum Constantini, 74 Donation of Constantine, 41, 94 continuity, 2, 8–10, 15, 17, 37, 39, 83, 134, 138, 143, 145–46, 151, 177, 189, 227, 258, 263, 277, 281, 301, 315–16, 320–21, 328, 333, 340, 351, 361, 367, 374–75, 381, 386, 389 coronation, 41, 44, 63, 73, 78, 80, 86, 94, 101, 103, 112, 124, 126, 247, 255, 257, 320, 340, 368–71, 380 Coronation Gospels, 241, 245, 248–49, 379 Cosmocrator, 9, 46, 375 Crucifixions, 225, 263, 267, 271, 279–80, 288–89, 292, 298, 311, 335, 382–83, 387 curriculum, 140, 148, 151, 166, 177, 375 Darmstadt, 282, 287, 295 David, 38, 63, 67, 71–73, 75–76, 79, 92, 136, 146, 162, 172, 176, 200, 250–52, 255, 257, 267–68, 271, 274–75, 321, 335, 337, 340, 350, 360, 368–69, 375–76, 380, 382, 387, 389 Desiderius, 43, 46, 49–50, 305 Dhuoda, 141 Diets, 46–47, 76–78, 80, 84, 95, 108, 129, 186, 329 documents Annals, 33, 36–37, 43, 45, 49, 51–52, 54–55, 57, 60, 62, 67, 70–72, 78, 85, 93, 95, 97, 173
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Divisio regnorum, 75, 81, 93, 114, 367 Liber pontificalis, 94 Nithard’s Histories, 110, 113 Ordinatio imperii, 80, 93, 98–99, 108–10, 114, 255 The History of the Franks, 138 Dokkum. See Boniface Dorestad, 104 Easter Plays, 357 Ebo, 90, 99, 102 Ecclesia, 289–90, 297, 335, 387 Edict of Milan, 41 education, 97, 137, 143, 145, 149, 161, 166, 175, 185, 360, 375 grammar, 141, 152, 155, 375 Liberal Arts, 149, 151, 155, 360, 375 literacy, 138, 140–41, 147–48, 154, 162, 166, 175, 191, 374–75 quadrivium, 152, 154–55, 375 rhetoric, 138, 175, 207 trivium, 152, 154–55, 375 effigies, 9, 146, 306–307, 309, 378, 385 Eigenkirche, 338 Einhard, 33–34, 49, 53–55, 61, 66, 68, 70–72, 78–79, 82, 86–87, 90, 135, 147, 154, 156, 160, 169, 173–74, 176, 178, 185, 190, 192, 203, 245, 316, 329, 332, 341, 343–45, 347, 361, 376–77, 388 Empire, 41, 49, 68, 70–72, 75–76, 78, 81, 87–88, 91, 93, 96, 99–100, 105, 112–14, 116, 125, 129, 135, 142, 146, 148, 151, 154, 179, 201, 335, 361, 368–70, 372, 375, 380, 387, 389 Enger, 57, 302 Ermoldus Nigellus, 95, 213, 326, 330, 339–40 Eternal Empire, 17, 69 Eternal Victory, 17, 69 Eusebius, 162, 238 Evangelists, 221, 227, 230–31, 236, 238, 241–45, 248, 251, 257, 261–63, 281, 294, 306–10, 312, 366, 378–79, 381, 384–85 St. John, 163, 224–25, 228, 230–33, 237, 242, 244–47, 261–63, 288, 312, 355, 357 St. Luke, 225, 228, 230–33, 237,
242, 244–45, 247, 261, 263, 288, 294, 312 St. Mark, 224–25, 228–33, 235–37, 239–40, 242, 244–47, 261, 263, 288, 312, 359 St. Matthew, 223, 225, 228, 230–37, 242, 244–46, 261, 263, 288, 312, 336, 359 tetramorphs, 184, 225–27, 229–32, 236–38, 243–44, 248, 261–63, 288, 294, 307, 336, 363, 365–66, 378–79, 381, 384 fastigium, 226, 257, 271, 342 felicitas, 35. See Heil fortifications, 323 mottes, 14, 324, 386 Fountain of Life, 230, 233, 235–36, 359, 379, 389 France, 14, 17, 114, 168, 324, 353, 364 Francia, 100, 120, 258 Franconia, 124, 126, 131, 133, 372 Frankfurt, 48, 54, 67, 108–109, 121, 211, 286, 325–27, 329, 341 Franks, 17–18, 26, 35–36, 38–39, 42, 45, 50–52, 54, 56, 59–60, 64, 74, 78, 87, 93, 106, 108, 121–22, 138, 154, 158, 160, 165, 193, 195, 202–203, 212–13, 216, 251, 290, 323, 376, 380 Fredegar, 141, 169, 203 Freising, 45, 195, 227 Frisia, 28, 42, 104, 107, 121, 123, 129 Frisians, 25, 27, 42, 56, 61, 106, 129, 214 Fritzlar, 352 Gaia, 262, 289, 294, 381, 384 Galen, 140 Gallo-Romans, 9, 15, 35, 118, 138, 143, 147, 371 Gallus, 158, 161, 164, 293, 295, 384 Gascony, 87 Gaul, 26, 42, 54, 137, 141, 144, 168, 374 gems, 13, 15, 157–58, 169, 243, 258, 262, 278, 288, 293, 299–300, 309, 311, 313, 321, 352, 384–85 Germany, 14, 28, 32, 53, 59, 114, 119, 124, 132, 164, 168, 216 glass, 157, 278, 296, 302, 383
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Godescalc, 379 Gospels, 6, 156–58, 162, 184, 188, 192, 198–200, 217, 220, 223–24, 227, 229–31, 233, 235–39, 241–43, 245, 247–48, 251–52, 257, 259, 261, 263, 282, 308, 359, 377, 379–80, 383 Ada Group, 241, 243, 282 Gothia, 258 Grannus, 332 Greenland, 205 Gregory of Tours, 137, 139, 172 Gregory the Great, 28 Haithabu, 59 Hamburg, 59, 104, 123, 168 Heil, 35, 259, 369 Helisachar, 89, 98 Hesse, 27, 52 Hildesheim, 90, 168 Hilduin, 89, 98 Hincmar of Reims, 173, 260 Höchst, 341, 346, 356, 388 Holy Roman Empire, 74 Horace, 156, 186 Hrabanus Maurus, 101–102, 140, 159, 174, 178–85, 190, 192–93, 198–200, 219–20, 249, 260, 328, 359, 376, 380 Hungarians, 12, 123, 131–33, 164, 372 Huns, 131, 204, 206–209, 213 Imitatio sacerdotii, 9, 146, 259 Imperium Christianum, 4–5, 9–12, 17, 21, 35, 41, 48, 63, 67–68, 73, 79, 88, 91–92, 97, 116, 135, 140, 142, 144–46, 148, 151, 154, 177, 181, 198, 202, 215, 248–49, 255, 259, 278, 282, 289–90, 313, 344, 360, 367 Imperium Romanum, 11, 17 Ingelheim, 47, 52, 325–26, 329, 339, 387 investiture, 74 Irish, 28, 44, 157–58, 160–61, 163–64, 216, 220–22, 225–26, 228, 274, 301, 378 Irminsul, 53 Isidore of Seville, 35, 153, 175, 185, 190, 195, 215, 358 Islam, 12, 39 Israel, 151, 380
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Italy, 14, 33, 39, 46, 49–51, 60, 62, 64, 76, 80, 94, 99, 103, 107–108, 113, 116, 124, 126, 129, 131–32, 160, 208, 220, 226–27, 229, 243, 334, 336, 340, 361, 367, 372, 374 Jerusalem, 71–72, 184, 227, 232–33, 235–36, 250, 289, 312–13, 322, 357–58, 360, 366, 368, 379, 385, 389 John the Baptist, 240, 283, 285, 305 Jonas of Orléans, 90–91, 97 Jordanes, 141, 203, 262 Joseph, 264, 284 Justinian, 136, 361–62 Jutland, 59 Juvencus, 200 kingdoms, 88, 92, 145, 235, 299, 357, 370, 375 Koblenz, 105, 116 Konrad I, 134 Lamb apocalyptic, 184, 237, 259, 296, 314, 365–66, 379 Veneration of, 236, 257–58, 379 Latini, 144, 216 Latinity, 140, 147, 375 Law Roman, 145 legitimacy, 8–10, 19–20, 30, 35–36, 38–39, 80, 83, 85, 109, 129, 132, 145–46, 177, 256, 258, 316, 361, 367, 380–81 libraries, 156, 158, 162, 166 inventories, 155, 160–61, 163 Liège, 105, 252 limes, 60, 328 Liudolfingians, 131 Lombards, 25–26, 30, 33, 36, 39, 43, 49–50, 74, 204, 226, 252, 305, 347, 369, 385 Lombardy, 47, 60, 62, 113, 116, 229–30, 338, 374 Longinus, 225, 280, 292, 297 Lorraine, 116, 123–24, 127, 131, 133, 195, 372 Lorsch gate-hall, 348–50 Lotharingia, 116, 123–24, 255, 278, 279. See Lorraine
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Luidolfingians. See Ottonians Lupus de Ferrières, 148, 179, 185, 376 Magdeburg, 60 Magyars. See Hungarians Mainz, 29, 59, 76, 113, 121, 164, 168, 171, 178, 180, 190, 200, 260, 328–29, 346, 348 Majestas, 9, 146, 250, 255, 257, 261–63, 286, 293–94, 307, 311, 366, 375, 381, 383, 387 major domus, 19, 21, 23, 26, 360 Mals, 227, 333–36, 338–39, 388 mandorla, 250, 253, 261–63, 270, 288, 294, 297, 312, 336, 380–81 manuscripts Abrogans, 195 Atlakvida, 204–207 Atlamal, 204–206 Atli, 204–207 Atlilied, 204–205, 207–208 Bamberg Bible, 266 Beowulf, 204 Book of Kells, 157, 217, 219, 222–24, 226, 238 Chanson de Roland, 51 City of God, 35–36, 66, 147 Codex (51), 222, 225 Codex Aureus from St. Emmeram, 256, 288, 311, 313, 316, 325, 380, 385 Codex Millenarius, 226–29 Coronation Sacramentary, 255, 262, 264, 316, 380–81 Cutbercht Codex, 226 De civitate dei. See City of God De fide catholica contra Judaeos, 195, 215 De institutione clericorum, 185 De rerum naturis, 185 Drogo Sacramentary, 220, 264, 290–91, 381 Ebo Gospel, 269 Eddas, 204–205, 377 Epistola de litteris colendis, 140 Ermanarich, 204 Etymology, 35 Evangelienbuch, 192–93, 198, 200–201 Evangelienharmonie, 198 evangelistary, 230 Folchard Psalter, 220, 274 Godescalc lectionary, 229–30, 232, 235–36, 243, 261, 269, 359
Golden Psalter of St. Gallen, 162, 274, 316–17, 382 Gospel of St. Médard, 235–36, 243, 359 Grandval Bible, 265 Heliand, 198–202 Hildebrandslied, 196, 204 In honorem Hludowici, 340 lectionaries, 229–30, 232–33, 235 Lex Salica, 195 Liber de cultura moratorium, 186 Liber de exodiis et incrementis . . ., 190 Liber de laudibus sanctae crucis, 179, 219–20, 359 Libri Carolini, 65, 268 Libri scottice scripti, 222 Ludwigslied, 211 Malbergische Glossen, 195 Merseburger Zaubersprüche, 194 Mondsee-Wiener Fragmente, 195 Muspilli, 196–97 Nibelungenklage, 205 Nibelungenlied, 204–205, 208, 213–14, 377 sacramentaries, 6, 158 Sigurd, 204–205 Stuttgart Psalter, 266, 268–69, 272–73, 382 Thidrekssaga, 204–205, 207, 213–14 Utrecht Psalter, 268, 272–78, 280, 288, 312, 382–83 Versus in Aquisgrani palatio . . . De imagine Tetrici, 189 Visions of Wetti, 173, 188–89 Vita Carolini, 34, 53, 135, 154, 174, 177–78, 190, 316, 332, 345 Vita Hludowici, 80, 82 Vivian Bible, 249–51, 253, 261–62, 265, 380 Vocabularius Sti. Galli, 195 Waltharilied, 204, 213 Waltharius, 212, 214, 216 Wessobrunner Gebet, 196–97 Wieland, 204 Marcus Aurelius, 315 Maximian, 227, 234, 281, 283 Merovingians, 7, 9, 15–19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 30, 32, 34–35, 52, 81, 83–84, 90, 102, 133, 135, 138, 141, 143, 145, 149, 156, 164, 168, 170–71, 192, 195, 204, 219, 251, 301, 323, 328–29, 332, 373 Brunehildis, 21
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Childeric III, 32, 34, 38 Chilperich II, 26 Chlodovech, 17, 35, 41, 230 Chlotachar II, 21 Dagobert, 19, 21–22, 168 Theuderic III, 23 Theuderic IV, 30 Merseburg, 194 Methodius and Kyrillos, 123 Metz, 21, 37, 103, 109, 165, 170, 255, 262, 279, 286, 290–91, 296, 315–16, 347 Middle High German, 192, 205 Milan, 62, 300 missi dominici, 76, 89, 150 monasteries, 9, 23, 28, 40, 45, 48, 52, 54, 59, 80, 87, 90, 127, 142, 149, 156, 165–66, 184, 216, 220, 226, 274, 345, 374, 376, 378 Corbie, 168, 353 Corvey, 168, 260, 341, 353, 388 Echternach, 144 Eigenklöster, 30 Freising, 144 Fulda, 101–102, 127, 144, 157–58, 160, 164–66, 168, 173, 176, 178–79, 185–86, 193–98, 200, 208, 220, 235, 260, 341, 345–46, 349, 357–59, 366, 376, 389 Gandersheim, 296 Hersfeld, 144 Kornelimünster, 90 Kremsmünster, 44, 219, 226, 304 Lorsch, 124, 160, 165, 170, 260, 276, 341, 343, 346–48, 350, 352, 356, 358, 376, 383, 388 Murbach, 166, 186, 195 Reichenau, 82, 101, 144, 158–63, 171, 173, 185–86, 190, 193, 195, 213, 260, 334, 340, 376 Seligenstadt, 329, 341, 344–45, 348, 388 St. Denis, 36, 44, 248, 255–56, 279–80, 305, 354 St. Emmeram, 120, 197, 256, 288, 311, 313, 316, 325, 334, 380, 385 St. Gallen, 144, 158, 161–62, 164, 170, 186, 213, 220, 222, 225, 260, 266, 274, 286, 293, 296, 317, 334, 340, 357, 376, 382 St. Médart, 100 Steinbach, 329, 341–42, 344–47, 351, 353, 388 Wessobrunn, 196
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Würzburg, 36, 144, 157–58, 164–65, 168, 295–96, 329, 347, 376 monastic foundations, 25, 42, 158, 168 Monte Cassino, 33 Monte Soracte, 33 Moravians, 106, 122, 129, 131–32 Moses, 63, 183, 189, 266, 352 Münster, 59, 168 Müstair, 315, 333–34, 336, 339, 387 narrative, 6, 15, 158, 177, 190, 196, 198–99, 201, 203–205, 207–208, 211, 217, 226, 240, 251, 256, 264–68, 270–72, 277, 280, 284, 286, 288–93, 295, 297, 299, 308, 312, 314, 326, 336, 339, 375, 377–79, 381, 383, 386, 388 Naturns, 333–34, 338, 388 Neustria, 21, 25–26, 30, 45, 49, 108 Nithard, 99, 101, 108, 110, 113, 169, 192 Noricum, 143 Normandy, 47 Notker Balbulus, 118–19, 357 Noyon, 45 number symbolism, 183 Nymwegen, 100 Oceanos, 262, 270, 289, 294, 297, 381, 384 octagon, 318, 320, 333, 346, 359, 362, 364, 366–68, 389 Odo of Metz, 360 Odoakar, 208–209 Old High German, 143, 190–92, 375, 377 Orosius, 340 Osnabrück, 59, 168 Ostrogoths, 75, 191, 204, 214, 226, 361 Otfrid von Weissenburg, 179, 185, 192, 198, 200–201, 203–204, 263, 376 Ottonians, 6, 57, 134, 159, 215–16, 258, 260, 279, 313, 327, 330 Henry II, 288, 313, 383 Otto I, 320, 368 Otto II, 164 Otto III, 246, 322 Ovid, 153, 161, 186, 201, 326, 340 Paderborn, 59, 70, 168, 325–27, 329–30, 351 Palace Chapel, 10, 79, 146, 315, 318,
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320, 327–28, 330–31, 333, 339, 341, 343, 346, 360 Capella, 359 doors, 319 octagon, 360 pinecone, 319 railings, 320, 386 she-wolf, 319 Palace School, 10, 170, 174, 176, 229, 243, 252, 255, 282, 299, 310, 313, 316, 379 palaces, 323, 325–31, 333, 340, 345, 348, 359, 386 aula regia, 327–28, 330–31 palatium. See Pfalz Pancreator, 233, 250, 288 Pannonia, 62, 132 Pannonians, 97 Papacy, 23, 28, 33, 36–37, 39, 41–42, 45–46, 50, 65, 67, 69–71, 73, 81, 91, 93–94, 99, 116, 126, 137, 175, 368–71 Papal States, 40, 50, 62 Paris, 25, 49, 97, 104, 106–107, 113, 129, 195, 364 partition, 50, 76, 79, 81, 85, 90, 93, 96, 98–99, 107–108, 112–14, 116, 120, 123, 125–26, 130, 325, 330 Passau, 45, 62, 347 patron figures, 337 Paulus Diaconus, 153, 161, 174, 176, 204 Pavia, 39, 50, 124, 159 Pepinid Donation, 40 perigrinatio, 28 Persians, 181 Peter of Pisa, 153, 174, 176 Pettstadt, 301 Pfalz. See palaces picto-poems, 180–81, 183, 249 Pliny, 140 Politik Familien-, 20 Hausmachts-, 20, 24, 27, 29, 34 Kloster-, 20, 24 Kultur-, 20 Ost-, 19 Real-, 19, 87, 114 popes Formosus, 131 Gelasius, 69, 97, 107, 175 Gregory I, 139, 220 Gregory II, 28 Gregory III, 39
Gregory IV, 99, 181 Hadrian I, 45–47, 50, 64, 69, 233 John VIII, 124 Leo III, 68–72, 85, 94, 325, 327, 333, 360, 367 Paschalis I, 94 Stephen II, 38–39 Stephen III, 49 Stephen IV, 78, 80, 94 Sylvester, 41, 71 Zacharias, 32, 36, 45, 283, 285 Porphyrius, 179 portraits, 9, 146, 202, 243–45, 247–49, 253, 259–60, 306, 315, 317, 368, 375, 378, 380, 388 precincts, 261, 313, 324, 326, 343, 345, 348–49, 351–52, 354, 356, 381 Premonstratensians, 348 prophets, 261 Provence, 26, 30, 116, 132 Prudentius, 200 Psalms, 234, 267–68, 270–73, 285 Psalters, 260, 266, 272, 382 Golden Psalter of St. Gallen, 266 of Ludwig the German, 260 Stuttgart, 266 Utrecht, 265–66 Pseudo-Isidore, 116 Quierzy, 108 Raetia, 126, 143, 336 Ravenna, 8, 10, 40, 62, 145–46, 189, 227, 229–30, 234, 267, 281–82, 315, 324, 361, 366, 383 reforms Anianian, 343 Church, 29, 33, 64, 75, 145 Church and State, 90 church architecture, 341–42 educational, 144 liturgical, 7, 64, 145 monastic, 90–91 pastoral, 77 State, 88 Regensburg, 44, 47, 60–61, 84, 119–21, 123, 130, 144, 197, 256, 311, 325, 328–29, 334 regni francorum, 136 Reims, 76, 78, 80, 90, 94, 99, 102, 168, 171, 173, 260, 268, 279 Renaissance, 6, 10, 16, 75, 147, 157, 164, 217, 348, 373 Renewal, 142–43, 145
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Renovatio, 6–7, 16, 136, 140, 144, 158, 176–78, 226, 299, 301, 315, 320–21, 369 renovatio imperii, 4, 75, 136, 156, 215, 356, 372–73, 378, 383–84, 389 Resurrection, 235, 357, 359. See anastasis anastasis, 236, 341, 346, 357, 359, 366, 379, 389 Revelation, 155, 197, 232, 238, 307, 355, 366, 375, 379 rivers Aller, 55 Danube, 60–62, 122 Elbe, 55, 57, 60, 127 Lech, 132 Lippe, 55 Loire, 105, 108, 159, 190 Maas, 13, 90, 108, 127, 129 Main, 133, 327–28, 341 Rhine, 56, 60–61, 102–105, 108, 120–21, 158–59, 329–30, 346–47, 350, 371 Schelde, 105 Seine, 105, 108 Weser, 55, 57, 127, 354 Roma nova. See Aachen Rome, 8, 28, 33, 36, 38–39, 45, 50, 62, 67–68, 70–71, 74, 78, 88, 93, 107, 113, 124, 126, 130, 145–46, 163, 166, 174, 202, 233, 235, 290, 300–301, 315, 320, 332, 340, 342, 345, 348, 350, 359–61, 367–69, 371–72, 384, 389 Roncesvalles, 51 Rouen, 47, 104 Rudolf von Fulda, 185 sacerdotalis ordo, 4 Saint-Germain-des-Prés, 267 Salzburg, 44, 48, 62, 122, 144, 197, 226, 229, 304 Samuel, 38, 274 San Appollinare in Clase, 227 San Appollinare Nuovo, 227, 267, 282, 324 San Vitale, 10, 146, 234, 315, 361, 366 Saracens, 26, 106, 116, 124, 126, 129, 137 Saxons, 12, 25–26, 51–57, 59, 61, 109, 122, 127, 165, 168, 191, 198–99, 260, 302, 327, 329, 340, 351, 353–54, 369
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Saxony, 32, 42, 55, 57, 60, 62, 113, 121, 124, 126–27, 131–32, 372 Scandinavians Danes, 55, 59, 87, 97, 103, 106, 123, 129 Vikings, 12, 59, 97, 103–107, 113, 119, 123, 126–27, 129–30, 211–12, 326, 371–72 scriptoria, 9, 13, 156, 159–60, 162–63, 165, 169, 172, 193, 200, 229, 235, 245, 249, 256, 260, 269, 274, 279, 334, 375 Selena, 34, 270, 279, 288, 292, 294, 298, 335, 381 Sepulcher, 71–72, 235, 289, 357–58 Slavs, 12, 21, 27, 55, 57, 59, 61–62, 87, 97, 106, 118, 122, 127, 133, 372 Smaragdus, 90–91, 153 Soissons, 26, 37, 45, 49, 99, 104, 170, 235, 359, 379 Solomon, 82, 136, 163, 257, 340, 389 Sorbs, 55, 131 Spain, 46, 51, 54, 132, 258 Speyer, 113, 186 St. Ambrose, 119, 202 St. Andrew, 314 St. Augustine, 35–36, 66, 147, 154, 165, 178, 368 St. Benedict, 90, 178, 187, 336, 338, 388 St. Boniface, 24, 27, 32, 36–37, 42, 44, 136, 145, 153, 164, 348, 352, 358 St. Columban, 158 St. Gregory, 153, 255, 264, 337, 388 St. Jerome, 139, 172, 236, 265 St. John, 387 St. Kilian, 164 St. Martin of Tours, 119, 149, 180 St. Michael, 235, 349, 359 St. Michael’s, 341, 346, 358, 389 St. Nazarius, 347, 356 St. Paul, 163, 172, 303, 339, 388 St. Peter, 287, 303 St. Peter’s, 320, 345, 350 St. Pirmin, 158, 160 St. Prokulus, 388 St. Stephen, 304, 336–37, 354, 388 St. Vitus, 354 statues, 75, 172, 189, 315, 361, 386 equestrian, 10, 75, 146, 189, 314–15, 318, 361, 386
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Stephaton, 225, 280, 292, 298 Strasbourg, 110, 154 Oaths of, 43, 110–13, 121, 142, 179, 192, 245, 252, 370 Sts. Peter and Marcellinus, 342, 344 Sts. Peter and Paul, 347 style Animal, 223, 306–309, 314, 385 Baroque, 197, 254, 346, 356 Carolingian, 1, 64, 83, 136–37, 140, 143–45, 147, 154, 158, 164, 174–77, 180, 201, 203, 216–18, 221–22, 226–27, 240–41, 248, 263, 272, 281, 292, 298, 311–12, 318, 321, 323, 333–36, 341–42, 355–56, 358, 360, 373, 380, 386, 388 Gothic, 198, 204, 243, 304, 331, 333, 343, 345–46, 349 Imperial, 336 Insular, 6, 44, 157, 160, 163–64, 170, 216–17, 221, 226, 228–30, 241, 260, 274, 280, 301, 304, 306, 308, 314, 378, 385 Ottonian, 214 Renaissance, 338 Romanesque, 198, 265, 311, 335–36, 343–44, 354–55 Suetonius, 154, 177 Swabia, 113, 126, 131, 372 Synagoga, 289–90, 335, 387 synods, 32, 48, 67, 69, 74, 97, 107, 351 Tacitus, 203 Testament, 9, 38, 79, 198, 272, 360, 366 Last Will and, 79, 87, 156 Testaments, 160, 162 New, 269, 314, 381–82 Old, 15, 38, 63, 89, 92, 146, 177, 183–84, 220, 259, 321, 335, 375 Old and New, 146, 163, 185, 234, 261, 265, 267–68, 272, 286, 335, 340, 382, 387 theocracy, 63, 92 Theodelinda, 305 Theoderic the Great, 9, 75, 146, 189, 203, 205, 207–209, 214, 227, 315, 324, 340, 361, 377 Theodosius I, 136 Theodulf of Orleans, 220
Thuringia, 23, 27, 30, 53, 109, 121, 124, 126, 133, 157 Thuringians, 52, 108–109 Tours, 76, 137, 139, 141, 160, 162, 169, 176, 178–79, 181, 248–49, 251–52, 254, 265 treaties Meersen, 113, 116, 123, 126, 371 Ribémont, 127 Verdun, 90, 113, 120, 125, 371 Trier, 62, 105, 127, 243, 324, 330, 347, 353 Two Authorities, 68, 97, 175, 369–70 usurpation, 10, 20, 83 Vandals, 203 vassalage vassals, 43, 47, 92, 112, 121 Verden, 55, 123, 168 Verdun, 361 Vienna, 195, 243, 245, 296, 304 Vienne, 102 Vikings. See Scandinavians Virgil, 139, 153, 161, 163, 186, 201, 326, 340 bishop, 44–45, 305 Virgin Mary, 264, 267, 287, 292–93, 295, 298, 303, 335, 349, 353, 360, 384 Visigoths, 203, 208 Vitae, 9, 145, 375 Vitruvius, 140, 160 Walahfrid Strabo, 82, 95, 101, 135, 159–60, 173–74, 178–79, 185–92, 260, 315, 361, 376 Welf, 95 Wergeld, 56 Widukind, 54–56, 122, 302 Willibrord, 27, 30, 42 Winckelmann, 241 wives Bertrada (P.III), 37, 44, 49, 136 Chiltrudis (Odilo), 43 Ermentrude (Ch.B), 113 Fastrada (Ch), 84, 328, 353 Hemma (LG), 119–20, 125 Hildegard (Ch), 83–84, 159 Himiltrud (Ch), 83 Irmingard (LP), 84–85, 93–95 Judith (LP), 95–96, 98–99, 101–102,
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107–108, 110, 113, 120, 183, 185, 255, 269, 325, 353 Liutgard (Ch), 84 Liutpirc (Tassilo III), 44, 47, 305 Plectrudis (P. II), 25–26 Wodan, 53, 56, 194
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Worms, 46, 52, 113, 325, 329–30, 347 Wynfrid, 27 Zeno, 75, 189, 315, 361 Zürich, 335
1
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Plate 1a. Picto-poem of Christ the Savior from Hrabanus Maurus’ De laudibus sancti crucis, Fulda. Inv. Codex 652, fol. 6v. (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek).
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Plate 1b. Dedicatory page from Hrabanus Maurus’ De laudibus sancti crucis, showing Hrabanus and Alcuin presenting the book to Otgar of Mainz, Fulda. Inv. Cod. 652, fol. 2v. (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek).
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Plate 1c. Dedicatory page from Hrabanus Maurus’ De laudibus sancti crucis showing the emperor Louis the Pious as Soldier in Christ. Fulda. Inv. Cod. 652, fol. 3v. (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek).
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Plate 2a. Display initial of the 51. Psalm, Folchart Psalter, c. 864/872. Inv. Cod. 23, fol. 135. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek).
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31 Plate 2b. Irish Gospel, c. 750, confronting pages showing a cross page and an initial page. Inv. Cod. 51, fols. 6, 7. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek).
5
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Plates 3a, 3b, 3c, 3d. Irish Gospel, c. 750, the Evangelists John and Marc, Matthew and Christ. Inv. Cod. 51. fols. 2, 78, 208, 266. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek).
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Plates 4a, 4b, 4c, 4d. Codex millenarius, the Evangelists Matthew, Inv. Cim. 1, fol. 17v, 18r. and Marc, Inv. Cim. 1, fol. 109v, 110r) with their emblems. (Kremsmünster, Stiftsbibliothek)(Millenarius: Photo P. Amand Kraml. copyright Stift, Kremsmünster).
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Plates 5a, 5b, 5c, 5d. Codex millenarius, the Evangelists Luke, Inv. Cim. 1, fol. 174v, 175r. and John, Inv. Cim.1, fol. 276v, 277r. with their emblems. (Kremsmünster, Stiftsbibliothek).
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31
Plates 6a, 6b, 6c, 6d. Enthroned Evangelists with tetramorphs from the Godescalc Gospels, c. 781-783, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen—Matthew, Inv. lat. 1203, fol. 1r, Marc, Inv. lat. 1203, fol. 1v, Luke, Inv. lat. 1203, fol. 2r, John, Inv. lat 1203, fol. 2v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
10
60 chapter two OASI/BRIL/SCHU/11812/02-06-2003
Plate 7a, 7b. Enthroned Christ, from the Godescalc Gospels, c. 781-783, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. lat. 1203, fol. 3r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France). Fountain of Life, from the Godescalc Gospels, c. 781-783, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. lat 1203, fol. 3v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
11
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31
Plate 8a. Fountain of Life, from the Gospel from Saint-Médard, Soissons, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. Lat. 8850, fol. 6v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
12
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chapter two
Plate 8b. Veneration of the Lamb, from the Gospel from Saint-Médard, Soissons, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. lat. 8850, fol. 1v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
13
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31
Plate 8c. Canon Table, from the Gospel from Saint-Médard, Soissons, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. lat. 8850, fol. 7v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
14
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chapter two
Plate 9a. Evangelist Marc with lion emblem, from the Gospel from Saint-Médard, Soissons, Palace School of Charlemagne. Inv. lat. 8850, fol. 81v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
15
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terminal histories and arthurian solutions
31
Plate 9b. Initial page to the Gospel of St. Mark, from the Gospel from Saint-Médard, Soissons, Palace School of Charlemagne. Inv. lat. 8850, fol. 82r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
16
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chapter two
Plate 10a. Writing figure, 6th century (Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale).
17
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31
Plate 10b. The Four Evangelists with tetramorphs, from the Aachen Gospels, Palace School of Charlemagne. fol. 14v. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow).
18
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chapter two
Plates 11a, 11b, 11c, 11d. The Four Evangelists from the ‘Ada’ Gospels—Matthew, Marc, Luke and John, Palace School of Charlemagne. Hs. 22 Ada, fol. 15v, fol. 59v. fol. 85v, fol. 127v. (Trier, Stadtbibliothek).
19
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terminal histories and arthurian solutions
31
Plates 12a, 12b, 12c, 12d. The Evangelists Matthew, Marc, Luke and John, from the Coronation Gospels, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. SKXIII/18, fol. 15, fol. 76v, fol. 117, fol. 178v. (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Treasury).
20
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chapter two
Plate 13. Charles the Bald as King David, miniature preceding the Book of Psalms, Vivian Bible, c. 845/46. Inv. lat.1, fol. 215v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
21
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31
Plate 14a. The enthroned emperor Lothair I, from the Gospels of Lothair, c. 850, Tours. Inv. lat. 266, fol. 1r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
22
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chapter two
Plate 14b. The enthroned emperor Lothair I, from the Psalter of Lothair, Palace School of Lothair, c. 850. Inv. Add. 37768, fol. 4. (London, British Library).
23
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31
Plate 15a. Dedication page showing the enthroned Charles the Bald receiving the Vivian Bible, c. 845/46. Inv. lat. 1, fol. 423v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
24
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chapter two
Plate 15b. St. Gregory from the Metz Coronation Sacramentary, c. 870, Palace School of Charles the Bald, St. Denis (?). Inv. lat. 1141, fol. 3r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
25
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31
Plate 15c. Ruler flanked by bishops, probably Charles the Bald, Metz Coronation Sacramentary, c. 870, Palace School of Charles the Bald, St. Denis (?). Inv. lat. 1141, fol. 2v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
26
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chapter two
Plate 16a. Dedication page showing the enthroned Charles the Bald, Codex Aureus from St. Emmeram, Palace School of Charles the Bald. Inv. Clm. 14000, fol. 5v. (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek).
27
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31
Plate 16b. Veneration of the Lamb, Codex Aureus from St. Emmeram, Palace School of Charles the Bald. Inv. Clm. 14000, fol. 6r. (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek).
28
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chapter two
Pate 17a. Crucifixion, showing Ludwig, the German, embracing the Cross. Psalter of Louis the German. Inv. Ms. Theol. lat. fol. 58, 120r.(Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Staatsbibliothek).
29
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31
Plate 17b. Initial page of Psalm 1 of the Psalter of Ludwig the German, before c. 850, Saint-Omer. Inv. Ms. Theol. lat. fol. 58, 3r. (Berlin, Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Staatsbibliothek).
30
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chapter two
Plate 17c. Christ in Majesty, Vivian Bible, c. 845/46. Inv. lat. 1, fol. 329v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
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31 Plate 18a, 18b. Christ in Majesty with pagan references, Metz Coronation Sacramentary, c. 870, Palace School of Charles the Bald, St. Denis (?). Inv. lat. 1141, fol. 6r. Ornamented capital initial T with crucified Christ, Metz Coronation Sacramentary, c. 870, Palace School of Charles the Bald, St. Denis (?). Inv. lat. 1141, fol. 6v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
31
32
60 chapter two OASI/BRIL/SCHU/11812/02-06-2003
Plate 18c, 18d. Crucifixion from the Gospels of Otfrid von Weissenburg, c. 868. Cod. 2687, fol. 153v. (Vienna, Österreichische Nationalbibliothek). Christ in Majesty with seraphim, Metz Coronation Sacramentary, c. 870, Palace School of Charles the Bald, St. Denis (?). Inv. lat. 1141, fol. 5r. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
33
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31
Plates 19a, 19b, 19c, 19d. Ornamented capital Initials C, D, C and T. Drogo Sacramentary, c. 850-855. Inv. lat. 9428, fols. 24v, 58r, 71v, 15v. (Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France).
34
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chapter two
Plate 20a. Story of Adam and Eve. Garden of Eden scenes from the Grandval Bible, Tours, c. 840. Inv. 10546, fol. 5v. (London, British Library).
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Plate 20b. Stag allegory, with Psalm 41, 2, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820-830, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 53v. (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek).
35
36
60 chapter two OASI/BRIL/SCHU/11812/02-06-2003
Plate 20c. Annunciation, with Psalm 71:6, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820-830, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 83v. (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek).
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terminal histories and arthurian solutions
31 Plate 20d. The Three Kings, with Psalm 71:10-11, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820-830, Saint-Germain-des Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 84v. (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek).
37
38
60 chapter two OASI/BRIL/SCHU/11812/02-06-2003
Plate 21a. Crucifixion, with Psalm 68:22, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820-830, Saint-Germain-des- Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 80v (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek).
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terminal histories and arthurian solutions
31
Plate 21b. Weighing the souls, with Psalm 9:5, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820-830, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 9v. (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek).
39
40
60 chapter two OASI/BRIL/SCHU/11812/02-06-2003
Plate 21c. Christ triumphant, with Psalm 90:13, Stuttgart Psalter, c. 820-830, Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Inv. Cod. bibl. fol. 23, 107r. (Stuttgart, Württembergische Landesbibliothek).
41
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31
Plate 22a. The prophet Samuel anoints David, Golden Psalter, c. 890. Inv. Cod. 22, fol. 59. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek).
42
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chapter two
Plate 22b. Joab’s campaign, Golden Psalter, c. 890. Inv. Cod. 22, fol. 140. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek).
43
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31
Plate 22c. Siege and surrender of a city, Golden Psalter, c. 890. Inv. Cod. 22, fol. 141. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek).
44
60 chapter two OASI/BRIL/SCHU/11812/02-06-2003
Plates 23a, 23b. Obverse and reverse, Enger reliquary, before c. 785. Inv.-Nr.: 88, 632. (Berlin, Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Kunstgewerbemuseum).
45
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31
Plate 24. Reliquary associated with St. Stephen, c. 830, Aachen. Inv. SCHK XIII/26. (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum, Schatzkammer).
46
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chapter two
Plate 25a. Tassilo Chalice, c. 768/69, perhaps later (Kremsmünster, Stiftsbibliothek) (Photo Elfriede Mejchar, copyright Stift Kremsmünster).
47
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terminal histories and arthurian solutions
Plate 25b, 25c, 25d. Ornamental detail of the Tassilo Chalice (Kremsmünster, Stiftsbibliothek).
31
48
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chapter two
Plate 26a. First (back) Cover of the Lindau Gospel, c. 770-830. Inv. MS1 (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, Photography: David Loggie).
49
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31
Plate 26b. Second (front) Cover of the Lindau Gospel, c. 870. Inv. MS1 (New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, Photography: David Loggie).
50
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chapter two
Plate 27a. Direct view of the golden, gem encrusted gospel cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 879, featuring the ‘architecture’ of the gospel cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 870. Inv. Clm. 14000, VD. (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek).
51
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terminal histories and arthurian solutions
31
Plate 27b. Oblique view of the golden, gem encrusted gospel cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 879, featuring the ‘architecture’ of the gospel cover of the Codex Aureus of St. Emmeram, c. 870. Inv. Clm. 14000, VD. (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek).
52
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chapter two
Plate 28. Portable altar, the Arnulf Ciborium, c. 870 (Munich, Schatzkammer der Residenz, Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen).
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31
Plate 29. St. Johann, exterior, Müstair, Graubünden, Switzerland.
53
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chapter two
Plate 29a. Mural, Ascension, St. Johann, Müstair. Inv. LM-11990. (Schweizerisches Landesmuseum, Zürich).
55
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31
Plates 29b, 29c, 29d. Murals of figures from the north wall. Mural in the Apse with majestas. Mural of Peter and Paul before Nero; St. Johann, Müstair. (Stiftung Pro Kloster St. Johann in Müstair, Photo S. Fibbi-Aeppli).
56
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Plates 30a, 30b, 30c, 30d. Murals of St. Gregory (top right), flogging of the Philistines (bottom left), founder portraits (bottom right). St. Benedict, Mals, valley of the Adige, Italy.
57
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Plates 31a, 31b, 31c, 31d. St. Gregory, Christ flanked by cherubim, St. Stephen in niches. Religious and secular patrons between the niches. St. Benedict, Mals.
58
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chapter two
Plate 32a. Mural of cattle. St. Prokulus, Naturns.
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31
Plate 32b. St. Paul being aided in his escape from Damascus. St. Prokulus, Naturns.
59
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chapter two
Plate 32c. Gated hall at the abbey at Lorsch.
61
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Plate 32d. Rotunda, St. Michael’s, Fulda.
31
62
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chapter two
Plate 33a. Palace Chapel, interior, Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow).
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31 Plate 33b. Legendary pelican feedings its young with its own heart. 19th century mosaic. Interior, Palace Chapel, Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen, Photo: Andreas Herrmann).
63
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chapter two
Plate 33c. Octagon interior, upper level, marble throne, marble sheeted pillars, porphyry columns. Palace Chapel, Aachen. (Dom Kapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Müchow).
1
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1. Hollow altar with Carolingian candle sticks in the crypt of Regensburg Cathedral. Formerly the high altar of the Carolingian cathedral.
2
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2. The emperor shown leading the horse of the pope to support the papal claim of the Constantinian donation. Fresco in the oratorium of St. Sylvester in Santi Quattro Coronati, Rome. (Bildarchiv Foto Marburg).
3
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3. Inscribed lead plate found in a sarcophagus, 8th/9th century, pointing to the missionary activity of Fulda. The inscription reads OTTO XPIAN DE PAGANO ONO OCT, meaning Otto become Christian died on the nones (7th) of October. (Fulda, Dommuseum).
4
60 chapter two 4b. St. Peter with Charlemagne and pope Leo III. Restored mosaic originally installed by pope Leo III. Lateran Palace, Rome (Photo P. Wilson).
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4a. Christ with the emperor Constantine and pope Sylvester I. Restored mosaic originally installed by pope Leo III. Lateran palace Rome (Photo P. Wilson).
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31
5. Roman marble sarcophagus showing the mythical abduction of Proserpina, c. A.D. 200, taken to have been Charlemagne’s coffin for 400 years. It was probably among the columns and other classical objects transported north following his campaigns in Italy. (Aachen, Treasury of the Cathedral).
5
6
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chapter two
6. Idealized royal figures of the Hungarians. Budapest (Photo H. Herrmann).
7. Porphyry column and Corinthian capital. Aachen, cloisters of the Cathedral.
7
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31
8. The Lord’s Prayer from the Abrogans, an Old High German dictionary. Codex Sangallensis 911. fol. 320 (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek).
8
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chapter two
9. Genesis scenes from the Bamberg Bible, c. 850. Inv. A.I. 5, fol. 7v. (Bamberg, Staatliche Bibliothek).
9
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31
10. Illustration to Psalm 38, showing a crowned personage, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library).
11. Illustration to Psalm 77, showing a crowned personage, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library).
10
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chapter two
12. Illustration to Psalm 1, a man in meditation day and night sitting under a fastigium, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library).
11
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13. Illustration to Psalm 23, itemizing all details of the text, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library).
14. Illustration to Psalm 43, analogy of a besieged city, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library).
15. Illustrations to Psalm 12, pictorial interpretation of text, Utrecht Psalter, c. 820, Hautvillers. (Utrecht, University Library).
12
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chapter two
16. The Lothair crystal, carved with the story of Susanna, c. 865, Vausort. Inv. 1855, 1201.5. (London, British Museum).
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31
17. Crucifixion crystal, c. 867, St. Denis. Inv. 1855, 0303.1. (London, British Museum).
18. Crucifixion crystal, c. 850/870. On loan Erzbischöfliches Diozösanmuseum. Inv. DM-K013/D (Freiburg, Augustiner Museum).
13
14
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chapter two
19. Ivory throne of St. Maximian, early 6th century. (Ravenna, Archiepiscopal Palace).
15
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31
20. Angel, ivory panel, 11th century copy, style of Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. Kg: 102. (Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum).
16
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chapter two
21. Ivory front cover, Lorsch Gospels, Three Kings before Herod and with the Virgin and Child, c. 810, Aachen (Rome, Museo Sacro Vaticano, Bildarchiv Fotomarburg).
17
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31
22. Ivory back cover, Lorsch Gospels, Nativity, c. 810, Aachen. Inv. JX 856 (London, Victoria and Albert Museum).
18
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23. Scenes following the Resurrection of Christ, Ivory diptych, c. 810, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow).
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31
24. Ascension, c. 810, Palace School of Charlemagne, Aachen. Inv. Kg 54:217. (Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum).
25. Christ in majesty, ivory panel, c. 900, Maastricht/ Liège. Inv. Kg. 54:208. (Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum).
19
20
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chapter two
26. Crucifixion Ivory, covering panel of the Book of Pericopes of Henry II, c. 820/30. Inv. Clm. 4452, fol. VD (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek).
21
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31
27. The Temptation of Christ, ivory book cover of the Drogo Sacramentary, c. 850, Metz (Frankfurt a. M., Liebighaus).
22
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chapter two
28. Liturgical ivory comb, c. 850, Metz, from St. Heribert in Cologne (Cologne, Schnütgenmuseum, Rheinisches Bildarchiv Köln).
23
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31
29. Christ in Majesty, front ivory book cover from the Tuotilo Gospels, c. 900, St. Gallen. Cod. 53. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek).
24
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chapter two
30. Ascension of Mary, back ivory book cover from the Tuotilo Gospels, c. 900, St. Gallen. Cod. 53. (St. Gallen, Stiftsbibliothek).
25
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31
31. Ivory panel book covers from Würzburg, after c. 850. Inv. M.p.th. f. 67 (Würzburg, Universitätsbibliothek).
32. Ivory pyx with nativity. Inv. ANSA X42 (Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum).
33. Reliquary casket of walrus ivory, 8th century, from Gandersheim. Inv. MA58 (Braunschweig, Anton-Ulrich-Museum).
26
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34. Scenes from the life of Christ, ivory casket, c. 880. Inv. MA59 (Braunschweig, Anton-Ulrich-Museum).
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31
35. Scenes from the life of Christ, ivory casket, c. 880. Inv. MA59 (Braunschweig, Anton-Ulrich-Museum).
27
28
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chapter two
36. Silver beaker from Pettstadt, late 8th, early 9th century (Nürnberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum).
29
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31
37. Detail from the roof of the Arnulf Ciborium, c. 870 (Munich, Schatzkammer der Residenz, Bayerische Verwaltung der staatlichen Schlösser, Gärten und Seen).
30
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38. Portable red porphyry altar from Adelhausen. Earliest of its kind, c. 800, made of oak, silver, cloisonné and niello on gold foil. Inv. 12133. On loan Adelhauserstiftung. (Freiburg, Augustinermuseum).
31
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31
39a. Equestrian statue of a Carolingian emperor, 9th century, one of the Palace Schools, Metz. Inv. OA8260. (Paris, Musée du Louvre).
32
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chapter two
39b. Equestrian statue of a Carolingian emperor, 9th century, one of the Palace Schools, Metz. Inv. OA8260. (Paris, Musée du Louvre).
33
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31
40a, 40b, 40c. Main portal door panels and details of the coffered sections. Aachen, Palace Chapel.
34
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chapter two
41. Roman bronze casting of a ‘wolf’ in the entrance to the Palace Chapel, Aachen.
35
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42. Bronze pinecone in the entrance to the Palace Chapel, Aachen.
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43a, b. Sections of railing from the upper level of the interior octagon of the Palace Chapel in Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow).
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43c, d. Sections of railing from the upper level of the interior octagon of the Palace Chapel in Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow).
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44a, b, c. Sections of railing from the upper level of the interior octagon of the Palace Chapel in Aachen. (Domkapitel Aachen. Photo: Ann Münchow).
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45. Foundations of the Carolingian (bottom) and later palaces at Paderborn. (Paderborn, Kaiserpfalzmuseum).
46. Fragments of a Carolingian sandstone capital from the church nave (Paderborn, Kaiserpfalzmuseum).
47. Decorated plaster, palace walls, c. 799 (Paderborn, Kaiserpfalzmuseum).
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48. Suggested reconstruction of the Pfalz at Ingelheim. according to A. Corboz, Frühes Mittelalter, p. 5.
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49. Damaged Corinthian capital from the palace at Ingelheim. Inv. S469 (Mainz, Landesmuseum).
50. Decorative stone panel showing a winged horse from the Carolingian palace church, St. Wigbert, at Ingelheim. Inv. S3023. (Mainz, Landesmuseum).
51. Remains of a window architecture, limestone and sandstone 7th–8th centuries. Inv. S3027a-d. (Mainz, Landesmuseum).
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52. Plan of the Pfalz at Aachen according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 183.
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53a. Restored Carolingian colonnade, Aachen.
53b. Original masonry of the palace complex at Aachen.
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54. Suggested reconstruction of the westwork of the Palace Chapel at Aachen according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 53.
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55. Flanking angels. St. Prokulus, Naturns, valley of the Adige, Italy.
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58. Einhard Basilica, Steinbach, present interior view of the nave. Note the walled-in arcades.
59. Einhard Basilica, Steinbach, present exterior view. Note the walled-in arcades near the entrance.
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57. Einhard Basilica, Steinbach. Plan with indication of crypt and altar screen, according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 112.
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56. Einhard Basilica, Steinbach. Model.
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60a. Einhard Basilica, Seligenstadt. Exterior view of the nave.
60b. Einhard Basilica, Seligenstadt. Interior view of the nave, Carolingian brickwork laid bare.
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61. St. Justinus, Höchst. Carolingian colonnades and capitals.
62. St. Justinus, Höchst. Detail of a Carolingian capital.
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63. Carolingian composite capital, Aachen, cloisters of the Cathedral.
64. Fragment of ornamental altar stone, c. 800-840, Lorsch. Inv. Pl. 33:4. (Darmstadt, Hessisches Landesmuseum).
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65. Original plan of the Benedictine abbey at Lorsch, according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 34.
66. Gated hall at the abbey at Lorsch. Note the gentler slope of the original roof and the ornamental details.
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67a, 67b. Gated hall at the abbey at Lorsch. Detail of the arches, capitals and pilasters.
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68a. Altar screens from St. John, Müstair, Graubünden, Switzerland.
68b. Altar fragment from Lauerach. (Bregenz, Vorarlberger Landesmuseum).
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68c. Carolingian altar screen from the convent at Frauenchiemsee (Munich, Archäologische Staatssamlung, Museum für Vor- und Frühgeschichte).
68d. Carolingian altar screen from St. Johannis, Mainz. Recovered from the church floor. Inv. S3090 (Mainz, Landesmuseum).
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69. Corvey. Proposed appearance of the original westwork according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 50.
70a. Corvey. Present appearance of the westwork.
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70b. Close-up and consecrating inscription on the westwork.
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71. Corvey. Crosscuts of the westwork— lower level (rt.), upper level (lt.) according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 76.
72b. Corvey. Spacial arrangement of the chapel of St. John at the upper level.
72a. Corvey. Columns and pillars of the ‘crypt’ at the lower level.
72c. Corvey. Traces of wall painting – the chapel of St. John.
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73a, 73b. Corvey. Composite foliage capital and cornice.
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74a. Carolingian capitals, after 744, comparable to the column capital in the crypt at St. Michael’s in Fulda. From the monastery church founded by Sturmius at Fulda. (Fulda, Dom Museum).
74b, c. Carolingian capitals from the nave of the Ratgar Basilica, c. 800 (Fulda, Dom Museum).
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75a. St. Michael’s chapel, Fulda. Exterior view.
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75b. St. Michael’s, external view of the rotunda section.
76. Supporting column in the crypt of St. Michael’s, Fulda.
77. St. Michael’s, Fulda. Reconstructed crosscut, according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 174.
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78a, 78b. Capitals from the rotunda, St. Michael’s, Fulda.
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78c, 78d. Capitals from the rotunda, St. Michael’s, Fulda.
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79b. Octagon of the Palace Chapel at Aachen.
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79a. Westwork of the Palace Chapel at Aachen.
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80a. San Vitale, Ravenna. Exterior view of the octagon.
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80b. San Vitale, Ravenna. Interior view of choir.
80c. San Vitale, Ravenna. Interior view of niches.
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81. Lower (l.) and upper (r.) levels of the Palace Chapel at Aachen, according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 52.
82. Cross-section of the Palace Chapel at Aachen, according to Corboz, Mittelalter, p. 53.