Einhard

(ca. 770–840)

   The life of the Frankish emperor CHARLEMAGNE is best recorded by the Benedictine monk Einhard in his biography, Vita Karoli Magni Imperatoris (ca. 830). Einhard was born around 770 in Seligenstadt in the area of the Maingau as the son of an East Frankish aristocratic family.He received his education in the famous monastery of Fulda, which had been founded by St. Boniface in 744.Working in the scriptorium, between 788 and 791, Einhard copied a number of manuscripts. To further his education, Einhard was sent to the court of Charlemagne, where he became the student of ALCUIN who gave him the nickname Nardulus (Little Nard) because of his small stature.His outstanding abilities in the areas of architecture and painting were soon recognized since he was put in charge of building palatial residences in Aachen and elsewhere, and accepted into the group of the king’s intimate advisers in 996 or 997. Charlemagne also employed him as his spokesperson and diplomat. For instance, in 813 Einhard went to Rome to get the pope’s approval for the elevation of Charlemagne’s son Louis the Pious, who had been his own student, to the rank of co-emperor. After Charlemagne’s death in 814, Einhard continued to serve in his highly esteemed functions at court and received from Louis, together with his wife Imma (who died in 836), an estate in Michelstadt in 815. In 827 he had the relics of the saints Marcellinus and Peter transferred from Rome to his abbey in Michelbach in the Odenwald, and later to Mühlhaim (today east of Frankfurt). This transfer, which basically amounted to theft, Einhard discussed in 830 in his Translatio et Miracula S. Marcellini et Petri (The translation of the saints Marcellinus and Peter). Einhard also seems to have composed a number of poems while he studied under Alcuin, but none has survived.

   Einhard is most famous for his Vita Karoli Magni Imperatoris, which he based on the Annales royals (The royal annals), diplomatic, and juridical writings, and, of course, on his personal experiences with the emperor. This Vita was the first of its kind in the Middle Ages and was highly praised by Einhard’s contemporaries WALAFRID STRABO and Lupus of Ferriore, and was copied throughout the entire Middle Ages. Einhard glorifies Charlemagne and praises him above all for his magnanimitas (generosity) and constantia (constancy). The author drew much rhetorical material from classical sources, such as Suetonius’s lives of the emperors, but the Vita still offers a detailed and more or less realistic portrait of Charlemagne and his life, discussing his military accomplishments, his family, his hospitality to foreigners, his personal lifestyle, his patronage of the liberal arts, his religiosity, charity, building programs, his coronation as emperor in 800, and finally Charlemagne’s death in 814, along with his last will. Einhard also composed many letters, 58 of which have survived, the earliest dating from 823. He continued to write treatises and other texts until his old age, such as his Questio de adoranda cruce (On worshiping the cross).He died in 840 in Seligenstadt.

   Bibliography

   ■ Einhard. Charlemagne’s Courtier: The Complete Einhard. Edited and translated by Paul Edward Dutton. Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures 3. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1998.

   ■ Tischler,Matthias M. Einharts Vita Karoli: Studien zur Entstehung, Überlieferung und Rezeption. 2 vols. Monumenta Germaniae Historica, Schriften 48. Hannover, Germany: Hahnsche Buchhandlung, 2001.

   Albrecht Classen