The Carolingians and the Written Word

Abstract

This pioneering book studies the function and status of the written word in Carolingian society in France and Germany in the eighth- and ninth-centuries. It demonstrates that literacy was by no means confined to a clerical élite, but was dispersed in lay society and used for government and administration, and for ordinary legal transactions among the peoples of the Frankish kingdom. While exploiting a huge range of primary material, Professor McKitterick does not confine herself to a functional analysis of the written word in Carolingian northern Europe but goes on to assess the consequences and implications of literacy for the Franks themselves and for the subsequent development of European society after 1000. Key topics discussed include law and the use of the written word, the conduct and record of legal transactions, the economic and social status of the book in Carolingian society, the methods evolved to organize and define written knowledge, and the whole question of lay literacy.

Laymen, Clerics, and Documentary Practices in the Early Middle Ages: The Example of Catalonia

“…In eighth-century private charters in the Regestum Farfense, 20 of 31 scribes (65 percent), responsible for 72 of 101 documents (71 percent), did not self-identify as clerics or monks. 129 It is striking that the pattern noted by McKitterick, namely, an increase in monastic scribal presence over time, is precisely the opposite of what is found in the Italian material, where the clerical and monastic presence decreases over time. Clearly, the importance of early-medieval lay scribes is a regional phenomenon, and only a broadly based comparative study will be able to determine pan-European trends.…”

La Educación De La Mujer Antes Del Año 1000. ¿es Dhuoda Un Caso Único?

“…Otra curiosidad: en las listas de préstamo de las bibliotecas de Colonia y Weissenburg figuran los nombres de varias mujeres (McKitterick, 1989a).…”

“…No sabemos con exactitud quién era esta dama, (McKitterick, 1989a), pero en el folio 2v una inscripción informa expresamente de que in honore domini nostri Ihesu Christi ego, Ratyndrudis, ordinavi librum istum, o sea que muy probablemente fue un regalo que hizo al monasterio y que no fue compuesto para su uso personal. Otro testimonio relacionado con éste es el llamado códice de Gundohinus…”

“…Madalberta de Meaux, a finales del mismo siglo, encargó una copia del De Trinitate de san Agustín 24 , y Adeldrudis comisionó un códice 25 para el obispo Arnulfo de Metz (McKitterick, 1989a). Godgifu (o Godiva), mujer del conde Leofric de Mercia, en la primera mitad del siglo XI, según Orderico Vitalis, "envió orfebres y les dio gran cantidad de oro y plata para convertirlos en cubiertas para evangeliarios, cruces e imágenes de santos".…”

The Invention of a Theology of Abduction: Hincmar of Rheims on Raptus

“…84 Other laypeople are known to have owned Bibles and commentaries or to have borrowed theological works from ecclesiastical libraries. 85 Against this background, the lay elite probably did develop their own theological ideas, drawing directly on biblical stories. The most famous example of such a 'lay theologian' is Dhuoda, a ninth-century noblewoman who wrote a moral tract for her teenage son William.…”