Angilbert

Angilbert, Count of Ponthieu (Template:C. – 18 February 814)Template:Sfnp was a noble Frankish poet who was educated under Alcuin and served Charlemagne as a secretary, diplomat, and son-in-law. He is venerated as a pre-Congregation saint and is still honored on the day of his death, 18 February.

Life

File:BN lat. 13159, fol. 43r.jpeg

A page from the Psalter of Charlemagne, copied between 795 and 800, and probably given by Charlemagne to Angilbert when the king visited Saint-Riquier for Easter 800<ref name=MH2001a>Michel Huglo, "The Cantatorium, from Charlemagne to the Fourteenth Century", in Peter Jeffery (ed.), The Study of Medieval Chant: Paths and Bridges, East and West (Boydell Press, 2001), pp. 89–104, at 89–92.</ref>

Angilbert seems to have been brought up at the court of Charlemagne at the palace school in Aquae Granni (Aachen). He was educated there as the pupil and then-friend of the great English scholar Alcuin. When Charlemagne sent his young son Pepin to Italy as King of the Lombards, Angilbert went along as primicerius palatii, a high administrator of the satellite court.Template:Sfnp As the friend and adviser of Pepin, he assisted for a while in the government of Italy. Angilbert delivered the document on Iconoclasm from the Frankish Synod of Frankfurt to Pope Adrian I, and was later sent on three important embassies to the pope, in 792, 794, and 796.Template:Sfnp At one time, he served an officer of the maritime provinces.Template:Sfnp He accompanied Charlemagne to Rome in 800Template:Sfnp and was one of the witnesses to his will in 811.Template:Sfnp

There are various traditions concerning Angilbert's relationship with Bertha, daughter of Charlemagne. One holds that they were married,Template:Sfnp another that they were not.Template:Sfnp They had, however, at least one daughter and two sons, one of whom, Nithard, became a notable figure in the mid-9th century,Template:Sfnp while their daughter Bertha went on to marry Helgaud II, Count of Ponthieu. Control of marriage and the meanings of legitimacy were hotly contested in the Middle Ages. Bertha and Angilbert are an example of how resistance to the idea of a sacramental marriage could coincide with holding church offices. On the other hand, some historians have speculated that Charlemagne opposed formal marriages for his daughters out of concern for political rivalries from their potential husbands; none of Charlemagne's daughters were married, despite political offers of arranged marriages.

In 790, Angilbert retired to the abbey of Centulum, the "Monastery of St Richarius" ({{#invoke:Lang|lang}}) at present-day Saint-Riquier in Picardy.Template:Sfnp Elected abbot in 794,Template:Sfnp he rebuilt the monastery and endowed it with a library of 200 volumes.Template:Sfnp It was not uncommon for the Merovingian, Carolingian, or later kings to make laymen abbots of monasteries; the layman would often use the income of the monastery as his own and leave the monks a bare minimum for the necessary expenses of the foundation. Angilbert, in contrast, spent a great deal rebuilding Saint-Riquier; when he completed it, Charlemagne spent Easter of the year 800 there. In keeping with Carolingian policies, Angilbert established a school at Saint-Riquier to educate the local boys.Template:Sfnp

Poetry

Angilbert's Latin poems reveal the culture and tastes of a man of the world, enjoying the closest intimacy with the imperial family.Template:Sfnp Charlemagne and the other men at court were known by affectionate and jesting nicknames. Charlemagne was referred to as "David", a reference to the Biblical king David.Template:Sfnp Angilbert was nicknamed "Homer" because he wrote poetry,Template:Sfnp and was the probable author of an epic, of which the fragment which has been preserved describes the life at the palace and the meeting between Charlemagne and Leo III. It is a mosaic from Virgil, Ovid, Lucan and Venantius Fortunatus, composed in the manner of Einhard's use of Suetonius.Template:Sfnp Of the shorter poems, besides the greeting to Pippin on his return from the campaign against the Avars (796), an epistle to David (i.e., Charlemagne) incidentally reveals a delightful picture of the poet living with his children in a house surrounded by pleasant gardens near the emperor's palace. The reference to Bertha, however, is distant and respectful, her name occurring merely on the list of princesses to whom he sends his salutation.Template:Sfnp

The poem De conversione Saxonum has been attributed to Angilbert.Template:Sfn

Angilbert's poems were published by Ernst Dümmler in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica. For criticisms of this edition, see Ludwig Traube in Max Roediger's Schriften für germanische Philologie (1888).Template:Sfnp

References

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Attribution

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Further reading

• A. Molinier, Les Sources de l'histoire de France.