Corbie Abbey
Corbie is a former monastery in the French town of the same name, Corbie, in the Somme Valley .
history
The Corbie monastery was founded by the Merovingian Queen Balthild between 657 and 661 and richly endowed with almost 22,000 hectares of land.
In the Carolingian era , Corbie was an important royal monastery. Its library and scriptorium (writing room) were of great cultural importance. Around 765 there was a momentous exchange of correspondence in Corbie's scriptorium: the semi- uncial of the Leutchar type was replaced by the Carolingian minuscule . Because of its clear shape, the Carolingian minuscule found favor at the royal court and soon spread from Corbie over the entire Franconian Empire . After Leutchar's successor, Abbot Maurdramnus, an early, fully developed form of the Carolingian minuscule is called Maurdramnus minuscule.
Maurdramnus' successors, the abbots Adalhard (Abbot of Corbie 780-826) and his half-brother Wala (Abbot of Corbie 826-836) played an important political role. In 815 they founded Corbie from Hethis and later the Corvey monastery , which was originally called "Corbeia nova", New Corbie.
Another abbot of Corbie, Paschasius Radbertus (abbot 843 / 44-851), was an important theologian of his time. According to the latest research results of the medievalist Klaus Zechiel-Eckes , Paschasius Radbertus was also the author of the pseudoisidoric decretals , a forgery which the historian Johannes Haller described as the “greatest fraud in world history”. The original purpose of the pseudoisidorical decretals was to protect the bishops from the encroachment of the archbishops (metropolitans) and secular potentates; however, due to their provisions on the independence of the papacy, the popes became the main beneficiaries of this forgery in the later Middle Ages.
In 881 Corbie Abbey was destroyed by the Vikings , but rebuilt; it continued to enjoy royal privileges, but no longer achieved such great political and cultural importance as in the first half of the 9th century. In the secularization of 1792 the abbey was abolished and the library's valuable collection of writings scattered.
St. Pierre Monastery Church
The main church of Corbie Abbey is built in the Gothic style and has been on the list of historical monuments of France since 1919. Today it only offers a faint image of what it was for its wedding.
The current building is the third church to be built on this site and is dedicated to the apostles Peter and Paul. Construction began after a previous Romanesque building had been demolished in 1501 under the 61st Prince-Abbot of Corbie. After its completion in 1775, which was delayed many times, the ship extended over a length of 117 m. The transepts were together 50 m long. The crossing tower reached a height of 90 m.
As early as 1792, the abbey church was sold during the revolution, then left to decay and used as a quarry. In 1816 it was decided, contrary to an earlier plan, not to tear it down completely, but to make it smaller. Stripped of its choir and transepts, the ship is only 37 m long today. The vault at a height of 25 m and the two monumental 55 m high west towers still bear witness to the former size.
Today the former abbey church is used by the Catholic community of Sainte-Colette-des-Trois-Vallées.
Corbie Abbey before 1810
West facade
The abbey church from the southeast
The vault of the main nave
Abbots of Corbie
literature
- David Ganz : Corbie in the Carolingian Renaissance . (Supplement to Francia , 20). Thorbecke, Sigmaringen 1990, ISBN 3-7995-7320-8 ( online )
- Tino Licht : The oldest Carolingian minuscule. In: Middle Latin Yearbook. International Journal for Medieval Studies and Research on Humanism 47, Stuttgart 2012, pp. 337–346.
Web links
Coordinates: 49 ° 54 ′ 32 " N , 2 ° 30 ′ 37" E