carvings survive, some close transcriptions of early Christian models but others strikingly
inventive in style and iconography, as, for example, a superb group close to Charles the
Bald that draws upon the expressive style of the Utrecht Psalter. The largest surviving
group of ivories decorate a throne made probably in eastern France for Charles the Bald
and now preserved in the Vatican as the Cathedra Petri, including a remarkable group of
twelve Labors of Hercules.
Lawrence Nees
[See also: AUXERRE; CAROLINGIAN DYNASTY; CHARLEMAGNE; CHARLES
THE BALD; GERMIGNY-DES-PRÉS; IVORIES; LATIN POETRY, CAROLINGIAN;
LIBRI CAROLINI; MANUSCRIPTS, PRODUCTION AND ILLUMINATION;
PALEOGRAPHY AND MANUSCRIPTS; PEPIN; RABANUS MAURUS; RELICS
AND RELIQUARIES; SAINT-DENIS; SAINT-RIQUIER; THEODULF OF
ORLÉANS; TOURS/TOURAINE]
Braunfels, Wolfgang. Die Welt der Karolinger und ihre Kunst. Munich: Callwey, 1968.
Horn, Walter, and Ernest Born. The Plan of St. Gall. Berkeley: University of California Press,
1979.
Hubert, Jean, Jean Porcher, and Wolfgang Fritz Volbach. The Carolingian Renaissance. New
York: Braziller, 1970.
Mütherich, Florentine, and Joachim E.Gaehde. Carolingian Painting. New York: Braziller, 1976.
Périn, Patrick, and Laure-Charlotte Feffer, eds. La Neustrie: les pays au nord de la Loire de
Dagobert a Charles le Chauve. Rouen: Musées et Monuments Départementaux de Seine-
Maritime, 1985.
CAROLINGIAN DYNASTY
. Named after its most illustrious member, Charles (Lat. Carolus) the Great, or
Charlemagne (742–814), the Carolingian family originated in the intermarriage of the
Austrasian noble families of Pepin I of Landen (d. 640) and Arnulf of Metz (d. ca. 645).
By the 9th century, their descendants ruled an area en compassing portions of modern
East Europe and most of the western part of the Continent. From Pepin III’s coronation in
751 until the early 10th century, there was always at least one Carolingian on a western
throne.
Carolingian fortunes were initially advanced by the Merovingian king Clotar II (r.
584–629), who named Pepin of Landen mayor of the palace (major domus) of Austrasia
for his help in uniting the Frankish kingdoms of Austrasia and Neustria. Under Pepin I,
the post of mayor developed into the most powerful office in the Frankish regions. Such
was the position’s importance that when Pepin’s son, Grimoald, became mayor on his
father’s death, he had his own son adopted by the reigning Merovingian king in order to
place him in line for the throne. This was a maneuver that other Frankish nobles could
not tolerate, however, and it led to Grimoald’s murder in 656.
Despite this temporary setback for the Carolingians, Pepin I’s grandson and duke of
Austrasia, Pepin II of Heristal, managed to gain the mayoralty of both Austrasia and
Neustria in 687. In contrast to Grimoald, he did not then seek access to the throne but
limited himself to the office of major domus, a vantage point from which he was able to
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