Science at the time of Charlemagne

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Charlemagne (747–814) took a closer look at the "arts" of grammar and rhetoric . Under his rule he initiated the establishment of monastery schools, in which not only his own monks, but also lay people and clergy could train themselves. Charles established a general school system (for the clergy) directed through the empire and carried out by the monasteries.

Far-reaching writing reform

In order to be able to disseminate the knowledge of the time well, a script reform was required to standardize and simplify the script . Instead of the different letter forms that emerged in the various European cultural areas in post-antiquity, the national scripts, a clear and easily legible script appeared in the 8th century, the Carolingian minuscule . It spread over the whole of Europe until the 12th century, until it lost its round, broad character with a tendency towards breaking and elongation and became a Gothic minuscule .

Since Karl is said to have been personally dissatisfied with the spelling in his age (as it is said, he was not able to learn the old script), he suggested the introduction of punctuation marks that should make reading easier: the period ( colon) and the comma or virgula . There was also a question mark ; However, this was only brought into its current form at a later time. The exclamation mark, on the other hand, is a modern invention. The character spacing was also systematized for the first time: a simple one between letters, a double between words and a triple between sentences. The feed at the beginning of a paragraph was also the rule as the use of lowercase letters ( lowercase ) in addition to the capital letters ( capital letters ).

Decisive impulses for Western intellectual history

In the course of the endeavor to train and educate the clergy further, an era of renewal dawned that encompassed all areas of social and political life and thus led to the unification of the Franconian empire, albeit for a limited time. The educational, scientific and cultural endeavors for education were closely connected with the rulers' concern for church reform, as well as the reintroduction of the defunct Metropolitan Constitution as a structural element of the Frankish Church, the reorganization of the royal administration of property and the long-lasting determination of units of measure and the coin footer .

Some success failed to materialize, but the reform efforts of the time around 800 created a solid basis for Western intellectual history, a foundation into which the cultural heritage of past epochs as well as the intellectual achievements of different cultures flowed. How diverse the influences were is shown by the circle of scholars who Emperor Karl knew how to gather around him and shows how much this circle and, last but not least, Emperor Karl I personally contributed to the realization of the ambitious educational project.

The most important educational institution at court was the court chapel with its clergy . Karl reinforced this educational element by building a court library, having the court school designed and recruiting important scholars, including Alcuin , for it. This particularly shows that Karl himself was the driving force behind the correction of knowledge and the improvement of education. The entire court could take part in the literary and scientific exchange taking place here, teaching and learning. This circle, which took place among friends, the academy, which evidently took place in particular as a round table , formed an international society to which Anglo-Saxons , Lombards , Irish , Visigoths and of course Franks belonged.

literature

  • Franz-Reiner Erkens (ed.): Charlemagne and the legacy of cultures. Files from the 8th Symposium of the Medievalists Association, Leipzig, March 15-18, 1999. Berlin, 2001.

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