Alcuin

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss Alcuin of York, c735-804AD, who promoted education as a goal in itself, and had a fundamental role in the renaissance at Charlemagne’s court. He wrote poetry and many letters, hundreds of which survive and provide insight into his life and times. He was born in or near York and spent most of his life in Northumbria before accepting an invitation to Charlemagne’s court in Aachen. To this he brought Anglo-Saxon humanism, encouraging a broad liberal education for itself and the better to understand Christian doctrine. He left to be abbot at Marmoutier, Tours, where the monks were developing the Carolingian script that influenced the Roman typeface.

→ Listen on BBC Sounds website

Guests

• Joanna Story No other episodes
  Professor of Early Medieval History at the University of Leicester
• Andy Orchard 2 episodes
  Rawlinson and Bosworth Professor of Anglo-Saxon at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Pembroke College
• Mary Garrison 2 episodes
  Lecturer in History at the Centre for Medieval Studies at the University of York

Reading list

• Alcuin of York c. A.D. 732- 804: His Life and Letters
  Stephen Allott (William Sessions Limited, 1974) Google Books →
• Anglo-Saxon Kingdoms: Art, Word, War
  Claire Breay and Joanna Story (British Library Press, 2018) Google Books →
• Alcuin: Achievement and Reputation
  Donald Bullough (Brill, 2003) Google Books →
• Charlemagne
  Roger Collins (MacMillan Press, 1998) Google Books →
• A Mind Intent on God: The Prayers and Spiritual Writings of Alcuin: An Instruction
  Douglas Dales (Canterbury Press, 2011) Google Books →
• The Cambridge History of the Book in Britain, volume 1, c.400-1100
  Richard Gameson (ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 2012) Google Books →
• Alcuin: The Bishops, Kings, and Saints of York
  Peter Godman (ed.) (Clarendon Press, 1983)
• Alcuin and his Influence on European Culture: Proceedings of the Germania Latina III Conference, Groningen, September 1995
  L. Houwen and A. MacDonald (eds.) (University of Groningen, 1998)
• Ennobling Love: In Search of a Lost Sensibility
  C. Stephen Jaeger (University of Pennsylvania Press, 1999) Google Books →
• Carolingian Culture: Emulation and Innovation
  Rosamond McKitterick (ed.) (Cambridge University Press, 1994) Google Books →
• King and Emperor: A New Life of Charlemagne
  Janet L. Nelson (Allan Lane, 2019) Google Books →
• Early Medieval Europe, 300-1050. The Birth of Western Society
  David W. Rollason (Pearson, 2012) Google Books →
• Charlemagne: Empire and Society
  Joanna Story (ed.) (Manchester University Press, 2005) Google Books →

Related episodes

• The Carolingian Renaissance
  
  30 Mar, 2006 940 History of Europe
• Gerald of Wales
  
  4 Oct, 2012 940 History of Europe
• Alfred and the Battle of Edington
  
  7 Apr, 2005 940 History of Europe
• Saint Cuthbert
  
  28 Jan, 2021 270 History of Christianity
• Al-Ghazali
  
  19 Mar, 2015 210 Philosophy and theory of religion
• The Medieval University
  
  17 Mar, 2011 370 Education
• St Hilda
  
  5 Apr, 2007 270 History of Christianity
• The Lindisfarne Gospels
  
  20 Feb, 2003 270 History of Christianity
• Al-Kindi
  
  28 Jun, 2012 190 Modern Western Philosophy
• The 12th Century Renaissance
  
  20 Oct, 2016 900 History

Experimental. For more related episodes, visit the visual explorer.

---

Programme ID: m000dqy8

Episode page: bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dqy8

Auto-category: 270 (Christian church history)

Hello (First sentence from this episode)

Hello. Alcuin of York was one of the towering figures in the intellectual world of the 8th century and he changed education for the better and for good.