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Y202: Charlemagne 768–814

The Carolingian Renaissance: work of scholars and extent of a cultural revival

  • 2 things to know
  • Unit group 2

Overview

Recall questions on the work of scholars including Alcuin, Einhard and Paul the Deacon, courts at Frankfurt, Aachen and Paderborn, extent of a cultural revival.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Key term

What did Alcuin contribute to Charlemagne's programme?

Key term

Name three of the royal centres associated with Charlemagne's court.

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    What did Alcuin contribute to Charlemagne's programme?

    Model answer

    Brought from York to head the palace school, he set the curriculum of the liberal arts, wrote the textbooks used to teach it, worked on a corrected text of the Bible and led the attack on the Adoptionist heresy.

  2. 2

    What is Einhard best known for, and on what did he model it?

    Model answer

    He wrote a short life of Charlemagne, modelling it closely on the classical lives of the Roman emperors, which is why it is both the fullest portrait we have and a carefully shaped one.

  3. 3

    Why must Einhard's biography be used with caution?

    Model answer

    He was a courtier who owed his career to the dynasty, he wrote to present Charlemagne as a Roman emperor, and he borrowed phrases and even physical descriptions from his classical model.

  4. 4

    What did Paul the Deacon, a scholar at Charlemagne's court, write and compile?

    Model answer

    At Charlemagne's command he compiled the collection of readings from the Church Fathers used in the reformed liturgy, and after returning to Monte Cassino he wrote a history of his own Lombard people.

  5. 5

    On which earlier building was the chapel at Aachen modelled?

    Model answer

    It was modelled on the Byzantine church of San Vitale at Ravenna.

  6. 6

    Describe the design of the palace chapel at Aachen.

    Model answer

    It is a tall domed octagon ringed by a two-storey ambulatory and gallery, faced with marble and mosaic and fitted with bronze doors and railings cast on the spot, with the throne set in the upper gallery facing the altar.

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