Eginhard

Eginhard or Einhard , born towards 775 and deceased the March 14th 840, was a writer of the 9th century known to have been the biographer of Charlemagne.

Biography

Well-read man of the Carolingian time, Eginhard was educated with the Abbaye of Fulda and came towards 791/792, to supplement his formation at the court of Charlemagne. Friend of Alcuin, it played a big role in school work and the intellectual rebirth of the 9th century He is the author of Vie of Charlemagne , in Latin.

Eginhard is a great name of the Carolingian rebirth. It was also sent in the empire for several missions concerning the construction of the large buildings wanted by the emperor (imperial palace and palatine Chapelle of Aachen, palate of Ingelheim…). Become right-hand man of the emperor, this one entrusted several diplomatic missions to him which it concluded.

As of the death of Charlemagne, it evolved/moved then at the court of his son, the emperor Louis the Piles and dealt with the teaching of Lothaire, his oldest son. In reward, Louis the Piles entrusted several abbatiats to him laic, of which that of the Abbaye of Saint-Wandrille (Fontenelle) in 816-823. Seeing wire of Louis the Piles tearing, he preferred to withdraw secular life and attempted to write the " Vita Karoli " ( life of Charlemagne ) probably around 830, in the literary tradition of the Life of the twelve Césars of Suétone. He dies in 840 with the Benedictine abbey of Seligenstadt (close to Francfort-sur-le-Main) which he had founded in 828.

Better than a biographer for the time, Eginhard enlumine life of its sovereign a such Hagiographal : to see crowning of Charlemagne.

There are of him two works:

Vita and gesta Caroli Magni , printed with Cologne, 1521, with Utrecht, 1711, etc, and translated into French by Denis, Paris, 1812;
Yearly regnum Francorum , 741-829, and 62 Letters .

Alexandre Teulet gave his Œuvres , with French translation, and of the notes, Paris, 1843 and 1857.

Partial source

External bonds

Note on Éginhard by [[François Guizot]]

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