THE CAROLINGIAN RENAISSANCE

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Nicolescu Lia Andreea | 2013 8124 | Turma 2AD


After the fall of the Roman Empire, Europe had slipped into the Dark Ages, seeming that the people did not
have any intellectual pursuit, no interest in creativity, in innovation and in science. Europe had to recover and
rebuild itself, raising above and surpassing the huge culture that the romans had managed to achieve, but
they first had to feel secure, which the feudalism and returning to the land for survival seemed to promise.
In the early Middle Ages a new form of government appeared, having its origins in the Germanic dynasty
named Merovingian, also known as the Franks, form which later developed into feudalism. The king was
appointing counts to be in charge of different kingdoms with defense, administration and judgment of
disputes. The counts had to provide armies and they rewarded the people which enrolled with land.
The Merovingian king Clovis (481-511) had a major impact over the Western Europe when he converted to
Christianity, comparing himself to the roman ruler Constantine. He was ambitious and made a ruthless king,
turning his aggression into holy wars. After his death, there was no successor who was able to rise to his
power and influence and the Merovingian Dynasty started to decline and was followed in 751 by the
Carolingian Dynasty starting with the coronation of Pepin the Short.
The most impressive Carolingian king was Charlemagne which came to throne after his fathers death in 768.
He united most of the Western Europe for the first time since the falling of the Roman Empire: the territories
of France, Belgium, Holland, Switzerland, almost all of Germanys territories and large parts of Italy and Spain.
He understood that such a large kingdom had to be united under one ideology and that could only be
Christianity. Therefore, he focused on promoting a common language and writing style for communication
which was the language of cult, Latin.
He established schools where the students could learn not only Latin, but also logic, rhetoric, arithmetic,
astronomy, geometry and music. The main objective of this cultural renaissance was the schooling of the
clergy to properly fulfill their religious functions, but also to create an intellectuality that could be kept around
the kings court for political advising.
In arts, an important feature was the restoration of monumental architecture. Therefore, the most important
buildings of cult were designed as basilicas after the Byzantine model (St. Abbey, Paris, the Imperial Abbey,
Lorsch), the exception and also the most representative monumental building being the Palatine Chapel in
Aachen (built between 792 - 805) built on a central plan inspired by the basilica of San Vitale, Ravenna.
The arts renaissance, although kept under tight political and religious control, was able to flourish in an
original manner, not being so dependent on the past and not simply copying classical models, but adapting
them and introducing new elements.
The antic roman forms were renewed by giving them precise meaning and adapting them to the new religious
ideology. For example, the entrance in the Lorsch Abbey is an interpretation of the triumphal roman arch.
The Carolingian Renaissance was an inspiration for future intellectual movements which left legacy transcripts
of old barbaric poems which praised the history and the wars, numerous dogmatic treaties, liturgical books
and a Bible which text was revised in Latin.