Alcuin of York

abbot|735-804 AD|Aachen
Alcuin of York (c. 735-804) was the leading scholar of the Carolingian Renaissance and the most influential English intellectual of the early Middle Ages. Educated at the cathedral school of York, he was recruited by Charlemagne around 781 to lead the palace school at Aachen, where he reformed education, promoted the Carolingian minuscule script, and helped revise the liturgy and the text of the Latin Bible. From 796 he served as abbot of the monastery of St. Martin at Tours, and his voluminous correspondence-letters to Charlemagne, kings, bishops, and former pupils-forms one of the richest bodies of evidence for the cultural and political life of the Frankish court.
15
Letters sent
0
Letters received
15
Total letters
4
Correspondents

Top correspondents

All letters (15)

To Charlemagnec. 793 AD

To the most devout and most learned King Charles, Alcuin sends greetings.

alcuin york #1
To King Ethelred of Northumbriac. 793 AD

The catastrophe at Lindisfarne has given me cause to write to you on matters that I would have preferred to raise in...

alcuin york #3
To Higbald, Bishop of Lindisfarnec. 793 AD

When I heard what had happened, my first impulse was to write to you immediately.

alcuin york #4
To Charlemagnec. 794 AD

The Adoptionist controversy demands our attention, and I write to give you my assessment of where things stand and...

alcuin york #5
To Charlemagnec. 796 AD

On the matter of the Saxon mission and the question of baptism, I want to press a point that I have raised before...

alcuin york #6
To Arno of Salzburgc. 796 AD

The mission to the Avars [who had been recently defeated by Charlemagne's forces and whose territory was now open to...

alcuin york #7
To Charlemagnec. 796 AD

On the question you raised about the use of force in the conversion of the Saxons and the Avars, I want to be as...

alcuin york #8
To Charlemagnec. 798 AD

I return to the question of the Saxons because I believe the current approach is producing exactly the outcome I...

alcuin york #10
To Charlemagnec. 799 AD

The news of Pope Leo's arrival at your court and the circumstances that compelled it raises questions of the...

alcuin york #11
To Arno of Salzburgc. 799 AD

The situation in Rome has shaken me more than I can easily say.

alcuin york #12
To Charlemagnec. 799 AD

I want to say something about the liberal arts that goes beyond the immediate practical arguments — arguments about...

alcuin york #13
To Charlemagnec. 800 AD

The coronation has happened, and I find myself struggling to express what I feel about it — not uncertainty,...

alcuin york #15