responsible for mythologizing the Germanic kingdom
into a new Athens, a new Rome, and a new Jerusalem.
Even though Theodulf of Orléans has been judged a
better poet, Alcuin’s own activity as a contributor to
the myth and to the body of Carolingian Latin poetry is
remarkable. He composed verse epistles, inscriptions,
epigrams, hymns. To his pupils he wrote lighter, more
lyrical verse. The artifi ce of his acrostic poems ad-
dressed to Charlemagne and to the Cross demonstrates
his knowledge and control of late-antique Latin prosody.
His elegies are particularly notable. “O mea cella” and
“The Nightingale” have been often anthologized. The
elegy on the Viking destruction of Lindisfarne in 793 is
one of three longer poems; the others are his metrical life
of St. Willbrord and the often-cited poem The Bishops,
Kings, and Saints of York, which contains much valuable
information about the school of York, its library (prob-
ably the best in Europe), and its personalities.
As master of the court school Alcuin wrote a num-
ber of educational texts. He resurrected Cassiodorus’s
system of the seven liberal arts but in his treatises
concentrated on the disciplines of the trivium: gram-
mar (including a work on orthography), rhetoric, and
dialectic. His De orthographia, his instruction in com-
putus (calendrical reckoning), and some of his exegetical
works (e.g., on John’s Gospel) are revisions of Bede’s
works. He probably authored the little educational
piece of mathematical conundrums, Propositiones ad
acuendos iuvenes. He is responsible for spreading the
Categoriae decem, a version of the Latin Aristotle. He
compiled biblical commentaries on Genesis (ques-
tions and responses), some Psalms, the Song of Songs
and Ecclesiastes, John’s Gospel, Revelation, and the
letters of Paul to Titus, Philemon, and Hebrews. His
hagiographic works consist mainly of reediting lives of
saints important to Francia: he reworked the biographies
of Martin of Tours, Richarius, Vedast, and Willibrord.
Alcuin also produced three moral tracts: one on the
virtues and vices (a popular work), another on the nature
of the soul, and the third, for the boys at St. Martin’s,
on confession of sins.
In the area of liturgy Alcuin made major contribu-
tions. He took charge of removing errors of transcription
from scriptural and liturgical texts and bringing them
into conformity with Roman usage. He assembled a
comes, a lectionary of epistles for the mass. He produced
a revision of the Hadrian (so-called Gregorian) mass
book, but the supplement and its preface, long attributed
to him, are probably the work of Benedict of Aniane (ca.
750–821). Alcuin composed a set of beautiful votive
masses, eventually incorporated into the Roman Missal,
which drew upon the Irish-English tradition of intense
personal piety put to the service of public prayer. He
also introduced Hiberno-English customs, such as the
recitation of the Creed at mass (newly formulated with
the Filioque clause by Paulinus of Aquileia) and the
celebration of the Feast of All Saints.
The western christological doctrine called adoption-
ism propounded by Elipand of Toledo and Felix of
Urgel, namely, that Jesus Christ in his human nature
was not the natural Son of God but an adopted one,
was vigorously rebutted as heretical by Charles’s theo-
logians, Paulinus and Alcuin. It was condemned at the
synods of Regensburg (790), Rome (798), and Aachen
(800). Although in the controversy Paulinus proved
the better theologian, Alcuin participated energetically,
writing three hasty apologetic treatises in response to
the heresy. A more successful foray into theology is
Alcuin’s later tract on the Trinity, heavily indebted to
Augustine’s De Trinitate but demonstrating Alcuin’s
own sophisticated reasoning.
In 796 Alcuin had asked to retire as a monk at Fulda,
sacred to the memory of Boniface; but Charlemagne in
granting him leave made him abbot of Tours, where he
remained until his death on 19 May 804. From Tours he
wrote some of his most famous letters to kings, bishops,
and monks in England, especially Northumbria. While
lamenting the depredations of the Vikings, he exhorted
his countrymen to courage and virtue. In keeping with
Charlemagne’s campaign to reform and publish sacred
texts Alcuin resolved to correct the textual corruptions in
the Vulgate Old and New Testaments, and the resultant
(now lost) Bible was presented to Charlemagne in Rome
on the day of his coronation as emperor, Christmas, 800.
Alcuin’s role in arranging for the coronation itself was
like so much of his activity for the king—both behind
the scene and effectual. Alcuin’s leadership in creating
better Latin texts led to increased care and production
in Frankish scriptoria; his name is therefore associ-
ated with the creation of the Carolingian minuscule
handwriting developed during the period (even though
he himself continued to use insular script), and with
the superb Bibles produced at Tours, which actually
postdate him.
There were in the court of Charlemagne others who
may have been better as grammarians or poets or diplo-
mats or exegetes or theologians or liturgists, but Alcuin,
confi dant and friend of the king, not only practiced all
these professions, he also taught, guided, and served as
a model for each of them.
See also Aldhelm; Bede the Venerable;
Charlemagne; Paul the Deacon; Theodulf of OrléansFurther ReadingPrimary Sources
PL 90:667–76 and PL 100–01 [includes most of Alcuin’s works,
but in unreliable editions]
Arndt, Wilhelm, ed. Vita Alcuini. MGH: Scriptores 15/1 (1887):
182–97ALCUIN