Emerald of Saint-Mihiel

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Smaragd von Saint-Mihiel (* 2nd half of the 8th century; † 29 October around 830), monk , headmaster and finally abbot , worked as an exegete , grammarian and parenetic (ethical admonisher) at the time of Charlemagne and Louis the Pious Writer. Today he is best known as the author of the first Carolingian prince mirror Via Regia (Königsweg).

life and work

Emerald was born in the 2nd half of the 8th century and probably comes from Spain or the Spanish-oriented area of ​​the southern Franconian Empire, perhaps as a descendant of a noble Visigoth family from Septimania . As the head of a monastery school , he was in contact with Charlemagne's court in Aachen. In the last years of Charles' reign he was appointed abbot of the monastery of Saint-Mihiel near Verdun (the date 805, which has been mentioned in research until recently, does not apply, is based on errors in the historiography of the 18th century; with some probability one can at 812). 809/10 asked Charlemagne and Theodulf von Orléans for an opinion on the theologically and politically important question of the Filioque (doctrine of the Trinity, which was one of the reasons for the separation between Eastern Orthodox and Western Catholic Christianity). Smaragd supported the efforts of the monastic reformers around Benedict von Aniane , who in 816, with the help of Louis the Pious, wanted to subordinate all monasteries in the Franconian Empire to the strict norma rectidudinis (norm of correctness). The great church reform synod of 816 in Aachen was probably prepared by him, his participation is assured. On this line he also wrote a commentary on the Rule of Benedict in 816/817. The close connections to Louis the Pious provided him with five documents for his monastery Saint-Mihiel in 816, 824 and 826. Probably in the course of the reforms, between 816 and 824 he moved his Saint-Mihiel monastery from the mountain village of Castellion to the valley of Godinécourt.

Smaragd wrote two commentaries on biblical texts: one (previously unpublished) commentary on the Psalms and - as his most extensive work - the so-called Expositio libri comitis , interpretations of the pericopes of the church year (including the epistles), both with compilations from the older theological one Literature. His most famous work today is the Fürstenspiegel Via regia (Königsweg). In research, opinions differ on the time of writing and the addressee. Main positions: between 811 and 814 for Charles' son Louis the Pious, at that time still sub-king of Aquitaine; around 810 for Karl himself (the fact that he was already in a higher age at that time does not speak against it, as the comparative examples in other older prince mirrors show). This writing is the first extant fully executed prince mirror in the Latin West. It's simple; the number of 36 chapters (as in the manuscripts), as the exponentiation of 6, a number of perfection, at the same time points to the desired goal. The teachings correspond to the greater part of the moral fund that applies to all Christians. It is characteristic of this that, according to the words of the prologue, the anointing (common to all Christians) at baptism is interpreted as an anointing for kingship. Accordingly, the duties assigned to the king are only occasionally to be distinguished from the Christian duties of a monk; and entire passages of the text can be found in Smaragd's Diadema monachorum (monk's crown, a kind of monk's mirror), which was written a little later . The Bible appears as a major source. In addition, the theological-moral writings of the church fathers and well-known authors of the early Middle Ages are quoted extensively, with the texts usually being taken from existing florilegia . In the Via regia , David , Solomon and Job are named as models for the king . The fact that, despite all ideas of harmony in relation to church and empire, the king should prove himself as a redeemed Christian through the release of the slaves ( servi ), primarily prisoners of war, testifies to the critical potential of parts of Christian traditions for the circumstances of the time.

Emerald's most original work is his commentary on the grammar by the late antique author Donat. He wrote it before his term in abbot. Probably influenced by Priscian , he tries to develop the Latin language through analogies.

Fonts

Translations

  • Katarina Hauschild, Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel. Prologue to the commentary on the Rule of Benedict. ISBN 978-3830674214 . St. Ottilien: Eos Verlag 2010.
  • Christian Schütz, Smaragdus von St-Michiel. The diadem of the monks. ISBN 978-3830673682 . St. Otilien: Eos Verlag 2009.

literature

  • Hans Hubert Anton:  Emerald of Saint-Mihiel. In: Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL). Volume 10, Bautz, Herzberg 1995, ISBN 3-88309-062-X , Sp. 644-648.  ( Article / beginning of article in Internet archive )
  • Otto Eberhardt: Via regia. The Fürstenspiegel Smaragds von St. Mihiel and its literary genre . ISBN 3-7705-1244-8 . Munich 1977 (Münstersche Mittelalter-Schriften / 28).
  • Jürgen Miethke : Political Theories in the Middle Ages . In: Hans-Joachim Lieber (ed.): Political theories from antiquity to the present . Bonn 1993.
  • Matthew Ponesse: Standing Distant from the Fathers: Smaragdus of Saint-Mihiel and the Reception of Early Medieval Learning. In: Traditio 67 (2012), pp. 71–99.
  • Fidel Rädle : Studies on the emerald of Saint-Mihiel . Munich 1974 (Medium Aevum. Philological Studies / 29).

Web links
personal data
SURNAME Emerald of Saint-Mihiel
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Monk, headmaster and finally abbot
DATE OF BIRTH between 750 and 800
DATE OF DEATH October 29 at 830