Rethinking the Carolingian reforms

Editors:
Arthur Westwell
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Ingrid Rembold
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Carine van Rhijn
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This book challenges long-standing interpretations of the Carolingian period (c.750-900) as an age of ‘reform’ or ‘renaissance’, in which culture was subjected to a programme of correctio (correction). This understanding, which leans heavily on prescriptive texts issued by the monarchy, has long foregrounded royal initiative and the cultural products of a small intellectual elite. Understudied texts and manuscripts of the period, however, reveal a much more universal concern for moral improvement and change for the better. This expressed itself in varied ways depending on the resources, connections and aims of the individuals and communities who produced them. Their horizontal networks of exchange and personal relationships could be just as influential as top-down prescription. The often anonymous creators and copyists in a huge range of centres emerge as active participants in the shaping and re-shaping the ideas and ideals of their world. A much more dynamic picture of Carolingian culture emerges when we widen our perspective to include them. We can see that the Carolingian age did not witness a coherent programme of reform, nor one distinct to this period and dependent exclusively on the strength of royal power. Rather, it formed a particularly intense, well-funded and creative chapter in the much longer history of moral improvement for the sake of collective salvation.

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