R
RABANUS MAURUS
(Hrabanus, Rhabanus, also known as Magnentius; ca. 780–856). Born in Mainz of a
noble family, Rabanus (which means “raven” in Old High German) received the best
education available in his day. A favorite pupil of Alcuin, he was called “Maurus” after a
disciple of St. Benedict. Rabanus moved in the highest circles of power of the
Carolingian world. He became abbot of Fulda in 822 and solicited the patronage of
Lothair I to make this one of the outstanding monastic foundations of the age. Rabanus
supported Louis the Pious in the political turmoil of the 830s and 840s, and Lothair I on
Louis’s death. The victory of Louis the German in 840 forced him into exile for about a
year; upon his return to German lands, he retired to the abbey of Petersburg until named
archbishop of Mainz in 847.
Rabanus was a prolific author and the teacher of some of the most outstanding of the
Carolingian scholars, among them Walafrid Strabo. Many of his works have a
pedagogical intent. De institutione clericorum (before 819) covers ecclesiastical grades,
liturgy, liturgical vestments, catechetical instruction, and the Liberal Arts. De rerum
naturis (after 840; also known as De universo) is an encyclopedic work in the style of
Isidore of Seville but with an allegorical level of interpretation. His extensive corpus of
poetry includes a number of carmina figurata, in which the words of poems are arranged
in designs to illustrate them. However, it is for his biblical interpretation that Rabanus
was most famous in the Middle Ages and early-modern period, even though this material
has not been widely studied by modern scholars.
Rabanus wrote commentaries on most books of the Bible: all of the historical books of
the Old Testament, many of the books of wisdom literature (significantly, not the Song of
Songs), the Major Prophets, Maccabees, the Gospel of Matthew, the Acts of the Apostles,
and the Pauline epistles. These are composites of patristic sources, but the extracts from
the various patristic works are carefully arranged so as to present allegorical
interpretations, mostly having to do with Christ and the church, in a coherent and easily
accessible form. These interpretations were widely read before the modern period; they
survive in many manuscripts and in printed versions through the 16th century. For his
role as a Christian educator, Rabanus earned the title praeceptor Germaniae.
E.Ann Matter
[See also: ALCUIN; BIBLE, CHRISTIAN INTERPRETATION OF;
CAROLINGIAN ART; LOUIS I THE PIOUS; WALAFRID STRABO]
Rabanus Maurus. Omnia opera. PL 107–12.
Medieval france: an encyclopedia 1462