I. Rabanus Maurus: Opera omnia, in Migne, Tom. CVII.-CXII. His Carmina are in Dümmler’s
Poetae Latini aevi Carolini, II. 159–258. Migne’s edition is a reprint, with additions, of that of
Colvenerius, Cologne, 1617, but is not quite complete, for Dümmler gives new pieces, and
others are known to exist in MS.
II. The Prolegomena in Migne, CVII. col. 9–106, which contains the Vitae by Mabillon, Rudolf,
Raban’s pupil, and by Trithemius. Johann Franz Buddeus: Dissertatio de vita ac doctrina Rabani
Mauri Magnentii, Jena, 1724. Friedrich Heinrich Christian Schwarz: Commentatio de Rabano
Mauro, primo Germaniae praeceptore (Program). Heidelberg, 1811. Johann Konrad Dahl: Leben
und Schriften des Erzbischofs Rabanus Maurus. Fulda, 1828. Nicolas Bach: Hrabanus Maurus;
der Schöpfer des deutschen Schulwesens (Program). Fulda, 1835. Friedrich Kunstmann:
Hrabanus Magnentius Maurus. Mainz, 1841. Theodor Spengler: Leben des heiligen Rhabanus
Maurus. Regensburg, 1856. Köhler: Hrabanus Maurus und die Schule zu Fulda (Dissertation).
Leipzig, 1870. Richter: Babanus Maurus. Ein Beitrag zur Geschichte der Paedagogik im
Mittelalter (Program). Malchin, 1883. Cf. E. F. J. Dronke: Codex dip Fuld. Cassel, 1850. J.
Bass Mullinger: The Schools of Charles the Great. London, 1877, pp. 188–157. J. F. Böhmer:
Regesten zur Gesch. d. Mainzer Erzbischöfe, ed. C. Will. 1. Bd. a.d. 742–1160. Innsbruck,
1877.
III. Du Pin, VII. 160–166. Ceillier, XII. 446–476. Hist. Lit. de la France, V. 151–203. Bähr, 415–447.
Ebert, II. 120–145.
His Life.
Magnentius Hrabanus Maurus is the full name, as written by himself,^1216 of one of the greatestscholars and teachers of the Carolingian age. He was born in Mainz^1217 about 776. At the age of
nine he was placed by his parents in the famous Benedictine monastery of Fulda, in the Grand-duchy
of Hesse, which was then in a very flourishing condition under Baugolf (780–802). There he received
a careful education both in sacred and secular learning, for Baugolf was himself a classical scholar.
Raban took the monastic vows, and in 801 was ordained deacon. In 802 Baugolf died and was
succeeded by Ratgar. The new abbot at first followed the example of his predecessor, and in order
to keep up the reputation of the monastery for learning he sent the brightest of the inmates to Tours
to receive the instruction of Alcuin, not only in theology but particularly in the liberal arts. Among
them was Raban, who indeed had a great desire to go. The meeting of the able and experienced,
though old, wearied and somewhat mechanical teacher, and the fresh, vigorous, insatiable student,
was fraught with momentous consequences for Europe. Alcuin taught Raban far more than book
knowledge; he fitted him to teach others, and so put him in the line of the great teachers—Isidore,
Bede, Alcuin. Between Alcuin and Raban there sprang up a very warm friendship, but death removed
the former in the same year in which Raban returned to Fulda (804), and so what would doubtless
have been a most interesting correspondence was limited to a single interchange of letters.^1218
(^1216) Praefatio to his De laudibus sanctae crucis Migne, CVII. col. 147, 148. Magnentius indicates his birth at Mainz.
which was called in the Old High German Magenze (see Ebert II. 121 n.). Hrabanus is the Latinized form of Hraban (i e."raven
"). Rabanus is the ordinary spelling. Maurus was the epithet given to him by Alcuin (Migne, CIX. col. 10) to indicate that in
Rabanus were found the virtues which had made Maurus the favorite disciple of the great St. Benedict.
(^1217) Cf. his self-written epitaph, Migne, CXII. col. 1671.
(^1218) Only one of the two, Alcuin’s, has been preserved (Migne, C. col. 398). That Raban wrote first is a reasonable
conjecture from Alcuin’s letter. Cf Mullinger, p. 139.