The Carolingian Renaissance revives classical learning

c. 787–820 CE·Culture, arts & philosophy·Carolingian Empire (Western Europe)·

c. 787–820 CEDate

Culture, arts & philosophyCategory

19Empires active

Date: c. 787–820 CE
Category: Culture, arts & philosophy
Region: Carolingian Empire (Western Europe)
Era: Post-Classical / Medieval
Significance

From the late 780s Charlemagne launched a sweeping cultural and educational reform later termed the Carolingian Renaissance.

Drawing scholars from across Europe to his court at Aachen, he relied above all on the English cleric Alcuin of York, who reorganised the palace school, standardised the curriculum of the trivium and quadrivium, and promoted the establishment of cathedral and monastic schools throughout the empire. A royal directive (the Admonitio generalis of 789 and the circular De litteris colendis) urged churches to teach literacy and copy accurate texts. Scribes developed Carolingian minuscule, a clear, economical script that became the basis of later Roman typefaces and greatly improved the legibility and reproduction of books. Monastic scriptoria copied vast numbers of classical Latin works, and many ancient texts survive today only through these ninth-century manuscripts. By standardising Latin, liturgy and learning across a vast realm, the movement preserved much of antiquity's literary heritage and laid intellectual foundations for medieval European education and the later twelfth-century renaissance.

See the world map in c. 787–820 CE →More culture, arts & philosophy The Post-Classical / Medieval era

The Carolingian Renaissance revives classical learning

Empires active in c. 787–820 CE

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The Carolingian Renaissance revives classical learning

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Empires active in c. 787–820 CE

Related culture, arts & philosophy events

Further reading

The Story of Art