Lay Intellectuals in the Carolingian World

Collection of essays examining lay involvement in literary and artistic activity in the Carolingian Empire.

Patrick Wormald (Edited by), Janet L. Nelson (Edited by)

9780521174091, Cambridge University Press

Paperback, published 3 March 2011

278 pages
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.6 cm, 0.41 kg

Review of the hardback: 'This excellent collection of essays does a great service in forcing an important issue into our historical consciousness, and, one hopes, into our debates.' H-German

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

1. In place of an introduction Janet L. Nelson
2. Secular sanctity: forging an ethos for the Carolingian nobility Thomas F. X. Noble
3. Einhardus Peccator David Ganz
4. The world, the text, and the Carolingian: royal, aristocratic and masculine identities in Nithard's histories Stuart Airlie
5. Eberhard of Friuli, a Carolingian lay intellectual Paul J. E. Kershaw
6. Dhuoda Janet L. Nelson
7. Intellectual women? Liutberga and the education of Carolingian women Valerie Garver
8. Charles the Bald, Hincmar of Rheims, and the ivory of the pericopes of Henry II Celia Chazelle
9. Problems of authorship and audience in the writings of Alfred the Great David Pratt
10. 'Stand strong against the monsters': kingship and learning in the empire of King Æthelstan Michael Wood
11. The lay intellectual in Anglo-Saxon England: Ealdorman Æthelweard as historian Scott Ashley
12. Conclusion Richard Abels.

Subject Areas: Early history: c 500 to c 1450/1500 [HBLC], European history [HBJD]