Carolingian monasteries

The Abbey of St. Gallen was the foremost centre for the study of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville in the Carolingian period. Not only can more than twenty early medieval manuscripts transmitting material from the Etymologiaebe associated with Carolingian St. Gallen, but its scriptorium also produced two scholarly redactions of Isidore’s encyclopaedia in the second half of the ninth century. The prototype codices of these two redactions survive today in Swiss libraries, one as Zofingen, Stadtbibliothek, Pa 32, the other as St. Gallen,Stiftsbibliothek, MS 231 – 232. The first redaction represents an attemptto enrich the Etymologiae by incorporating Isidore’s De natura rerum into the encyclopaedia. The second redaction is the result of a collation of four sets of manuscripts of the Etymologiae, some of which survive today and bear collationmarks and variant readings inserted into the margins. While none of the many hands that were involved in the collation and copying of the two redactions can be attributed to any of the known scholars active at St. Gallen in the ninth century, the redactions seem to have been produced over the course of several decades under the auspices of the praepositus and later abbot Hartmut.

Abstract (ITA):
Benedetto di Aniane, in stretta collaborazione con Ludovico il Pio, attuò una importante opera di gestione normativa del monachesimo franco imponendo in tutto l’Impero l’osservanza della Regula Benedicti. I capitularia editi fra 750 e 850 descrivono bene le tappe e l’importanza di questa svolta: l’anelito uniformatore precede l’azione di Carlo Magno, ma i momenti centrali di una prima azione riformatrice si situano fra 782 e 806. Una analisi dei capitularia di questa fase mostra il ricorrere di alcune tematiche centrali relative al monachesimo: fra le più importanti, le modalità di applicazione della Regula, il rapporto fra vescovi e abati, quello fra monaci e canonici, l’applicazione della giustizia, le procedure da applicare con i novizi.

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Abstract (ENG):
Benedict of Aniane, in close collaboration with Louis the Pius, completed an important work of the normative administration of Frankish monasticism by imposing throughout the Empire the observance of the Rule of St. Benedict. The capitularia, which were edited between 750 and 850, describe well the steps and the importance of this effort; the desire for unity precedes Charlemagne’s actions, but the central moments of a first reform movement take place between 782 and 806. An analysis of the capitularia of this phase shows the recurrence of some central themes related to monasticism. Among the most important one finds: the modes of applying the Regula; the relationship between bishops and abbots, and between monks and priests; the application of justice; and the procedures to apply with novices.

Final copy of article sent to The Heroic Age for publication

Haimo, the master of the monastic school at Saint-Germain (Auxerre) never wrote a treatise on anger. Understanding his thoughts about anger, therefore, requires reconstructing them from the various references scattered throughout his commentaries and homilies. In this essay I perform that reconstruction. Haimo focused not on whether anger was good or bad, or on whether or not one should avoid it. Indeed, Haimo assumed that people would by nature become angry. Instead, he focused on the duration of anger once felt. Haimo’s concern was for emotion as experience, and for the transformation of one emotional experience into another.

In the Carolingian period, most intellectual centers owned a copy of the Etymologiae of Isidore of Seville. Large and important centers, such as Reims or Fleury, may have possessed as many as three or four copies. The ultimate record-holder is, however, St. Gallen. By the end of the ninth century, the St. Gallen library held at least four complete series of the Etymologiae, several codices containing its parts, and also three collections including a selection from Isidore’s monumental encyclopedia. Moreover, several manuscripts, which are now no longer preserved at St. Gallen, contain traces that suggest that they were owned by the monastery in the second half of the ninth century. To what should this interest in the Etymologiae at St. Gallen be attributed? Is there a deeper significance in the fact that many of the codices of the Etymologiae from Carolingian St. Gallen represent distinct text-versions, some of them rare in the Carolingian area, so that the abbey possessed not only one of the largest but also most diverse collections of the manuscripts of Isidore’s encyclopedia? And is there perhaps a connection between this extraordinary accumulation of manuscripts and the traces of a large-scale scholarly project concerning the Etymologiae surviving in the same codices?

Les auteurs exposent brievement les resultats de la cinquieme campagne de fouilles du complexe monastique haut-medieval de Velika Gospa (S.Maria Alta) pres de Bale en Istrie (Croatie). Apres les campagnes consacrees a l'etude de l’eglise principale, a trois nefs, et de la chapelle au sud ouest, l'intervention de 1999 a permis d'etendre la fouille vers le Sud et de documenter l'existence d'une serie de structures appartenant au monastere et reliant partiellement les deux edifices cultuels (organzses autour d'une sorte de "cloitre"). Le plan general des differentes pieces du Sud et du Sud-Est du complexe a ete defini grâce a un decapage peu profond, tandis qu'une approche plus fine a permis de preciser l'aspect de la facade ouest de la chapelle meridionale et de son clocher axial, qui semble appartenir au premier art roman.

A través del análisis de las miniaturas de cinco copias carolingias del texto de la Psychomachia de Prudencio se estudia cómo fueron utilizadas por los miembros de las comunidades de religiosos a las que dichos códices pertenecieron como mecanismo mnemónico.  Ello permitía a los individuos memorizar la información necesaria para el proceso de enseñanza y aprendizaje e igualmente para la práctica de la meditación y la Lectio Divina.  En las distintas imágenes que acompañan el texto de Prudencio se han identificado diversos elementos propios de las técnicas mnemónicas de la antigüedad y la Edad Media a través del análisis formal e iconográfico.  La disposición de las miniaturas con relación al soporte, los elementos formales y compositivos de éstas, y los tituli que las acompañan se tienen en cuenta para identificar los elementos mnemónicos de las mismas.  La presencia de temas iconográficos bien establecidos en torno al período en el que se ilustraron estos códices igualmente confirma el interés por la familiaridad y la intención de que la información expresada visualmente en estos códices, por medio del texto y la imagen se inscriba en la mente del usuario.  Entre estos elementos destaca la utilización de imagines agentes, imágenes activas cercanas a la realidad que exaltan los sentidos por ser extraordinariamente memorables y encontrarse fuera de lo común.