Alcuin
Northumbrian deacon and teacher who joined Charlemagne’s court, taught the king and his circle, worked on the correction of the Latin Bible, and later taught at St Martin’s at Tours.
Einhard calls him “Albin of Britain, surnamed Alcuin”, a deacon of Saxon, that is English, descent, the greatest scholar of his day, and the king’s teacher in rhetoric, dialectic and astronomy (Einhard, Life of Charlemagne 25). At the synod of Frankfurt in 794 Charlemagne asked the bishops to receive him into their fellowship and prayers as a man learned in the teaching of the church (Synod of Frankfurt (794), chapter 56).
His own letters show him at Tours, in “the house of St Martin”, teaching Scripture, the liberal arts, grammar and the stars, and asking to send pupils to York for the books he had used there under his master (Alcuin, Letters 78 (pp. 345–346)). In 800 he wrote that the king had set him to correct the text of the Old and New Testament (Alcuin, Letters 136 (p. 529)). See Charlemagne’s Reform of Church and Learning.
In the timeline
- AD 789, firm dateCharlemagne’s Reform of Church and Learning
In the General Admonition of 789 Charlemagne orders the clergy of his kingdom to keep the canons, preach the faith, sing the Roman chant, open schools and copy books correctly. With Alcuin and other scholars he has the text of the Bible revised.
Primary sources
Life of Charlemagne (Vita Karoli Magni)
- Einhard, Life of Charlemagne 25sourcebooks.fordham.edu
Letters of Alcuin
- Alcuin, Letters 78 (pp. 345–346)archive.org
- Alcuin, Letters 136 (p. 529)archive.org