10.11588/fr.1980.0.49946 Rosamond McKitterick THE STUDY OF FRANKISH HISTORY IN FRANCE AND GERMANY IN THE SIX- TEENTH AND SEVENTEENTH CENTURIES > I have decided that it would be better to record the cvents which are happening in our own time myself, for the information of posterity . . . rather than allow the extraordinary life of the most remarkable king, the greacest man of those living in his own period, to sink into the shades of oblivion, together with his outstanding achievements which can scarcely be matched by modern man<.' So, between 829 and 836, wrote Einhard in the preface to his biography of Charlemagne, king of the Franks, some twenty years after the ruler's death. Einhard was among the first to write of the deeds of the great Frankish king;1 2 he had known Charlemagne personally and had lived at the royal court. He attempted therefore to give a factua! and truthful account of what he knew.3 Even by the end of the ninth Century, however, when the >monk of St Gall< wrote his »Gesta Caroli Magni«, much that was legendary had crept into the story. Charlemagne is represented as the monarch whose valour, sense of justice, wisdom and strength served both to act as an ideal of the great monarch and to typify the glorious era of his rule.4 By the time the »Chanson de Roland« was written down at the end of the elcventh Century, Charlemagne had become a great hieratic figure, wo centuries old and with a flowing snowy beard, a holy Emperor and Champion of Christendom against the infidel, the mighty warlord whose conquests embraccd the civilized world.* Charlemagne as the epic hcro, most Christian prinec and Emperor of the Western World figured prominently in both French and German epic poetry and he was also the object of a liturgical cult in Europe which was widespread after his canonization by Pope Alexander III in 1165.4 6 In the annals and chronicles on the other hand, from the royal Frankish annals and the chronicles of Ado of Vienne, Aimon of Flcury, Regino of Prum and Sigebert of Gcmbloux in the ninth, tenth and cleventh centuries to Johannes Trithemius in the fifteenth Century, there is a rather more sober and historical account of the history of the Franks and the exploits of the Carolingian kings.7 Nevcrthclcss, many of these 1 Einhard, Vita Karoli Magni ed. R. Rau, Quellen zur karolingischen Reichsgeschichte I, Darmstadt 1974, p. 164-6, transl. L. Thorpe, Two Lives of Charlemagne, London 1969, pp. 51-2. 2 Apart from the authors of the various annals of course, such as Annalcs Mcttenscs Priores, cd. B. von Simson, MGH SS i. u. 5-, Hannover 1905, and Annales regnum Francorum, ed. R. Rau, Quellen zur Karolingischen Reichsgeschichte I, pp. 9-155. 3 See F. L. Ganshof, L’historiographic dans la monarchie Franquc sous Ics Mcrovingicns et Carolin­ giens, in: Settimane di Studio del Centro Italiano sulP alto Medioevo XVII, Spolcto 1970, pp. 631-85, who vindicates Einhard’s authority as an hisiorical source. 4 Notker Babulus, Gesta Karoli Magni, cd. R. Rau, Quellen zur karolingischen Reichsgcschichte III, pp. 322-427. 4 The epic of pseudo-Turpin, Historia Karoli Magni et Rotholandi was also very populär, and was translated into Old French, Catalan, Provencal, Anglo-Norman,- Welsh and Irish. See for example D. Hyde (ed.), Gabaltas serluis moir, London 1917 (Irish Texts Society). 6 R. Folz, Etudes sur lc culte liturgique de Charlemagne dans l’Eglise de l’Empire, Paris 1951. 7 Ado of Vienne (800-873) Chronicon, PL 123 and see W. Kremers, Ado von Vienne. Sein Leben und seine Schriften, Stcyl 1911; Aimon of Fleury (c. 950-1008) Historia Francorum, PL 139, Regino of Prüm (d. 915) ed. R. Rau, Quellen zur karolingischen Reichsgcschichte III; Flodoard, Annales, MGH SS III and Historia Rcmensis ccclcsiae, MGH SS XIII; Sigebert of Gembloux (1080-1112), Chronicon ed. The Study of Frankish History 557 chroniclers drew material from each other; there was little critical historiography and only the most elementary study of the sources, so that their picture of both the Franks and the Carolingian kings was sometimes as fanciful and idealized as that of the epic poets.1 The Franks were claimed as the ancestorsof French, German and Austrian alike, and the Frankish kings the ancestors of Emperors. The twenty-seven large woodcuts, intended to be pasted together to form a long scroll and printed by Robert Peril in 1535 for example, depicted a tall genealogical tree illustrating the descent of the Emperors of Austria from the Frankish kings Pharamond, Clodio, Merovech and Clovis.1 The Carolingians were obviously far from being forgotten during the Middle Ages but it was the historical Charlemagne and his Franks who were rediscovered in the sixteenth Century, and that discovery is closely connected with the general development of the study of mediaevai history in Europe.’* Even a cursory look at much of the historiographical work of Renaissance and Reformation Europe reveals a lively interest in the Middle Ages, and in France and Germany at least it was Frankish history which received much of the attention. Although the populär stories about Charlemagne continued to be written well after the beginning of the sixteenth Century, and some of the most celebrated of epic poems, such as Le Laboureur's »Charlemagne« (Paris 1664 and 1666) and Cointin’s »Charlemagne et le retablissement de l’Empire roman« (Paris 1666) and »Charlemagne Penitent« (Paris 1687) were written in the seventeenth Century fully in the mediaevai tradition,8 9 10 11 it is with the growth of scholarly and antiquarian interest in the Franks, both Merovingian and Carolingian, that 1 shall be concerned in this article. French historical writing of the sixteenth Century was directly related to the critical spirit of Italian Renaissance scholarship, and in particular to the methods of textual criticism and philology elaborated by such scholars as Lorenzo Valla and Poggio Bracciolini. The Reforma­ tion also roused a passionate interest in ecclesiastical history and the development of doctrine; mediaevai theology was searched for incipient signs of Protestant principles and the mediaevai period bccame a favourite hunting ground for polemicist and scholar alike. Perhaps the best example of a Carolingian source seized on with joy by the Protestants and placed on the Index by the Catholics (where it remained until 1900) is the treatise known as the »Libri Carolini«, written by Theodulph, bishop of Orleans at the end of the eighth Century." The Paris manuscript of the »Libri Carolini«, now Paris, Bibliotheque de I*Arsenal lat. 663, was L. C. Bethmann, MGH SS VI; Abbas uspergensis Chronicon Universale MGH SS VI; Widukind of Corvey, Res Gestae Saxonicac, MGH SS III; J. Trithcmius (1462-1516) Compendium sive breviarium primi voluminis annalium sive historiarum de origine regum et gentis Francorum, Mainz 1515. 8 R. Folz, Le Souvenir et la legende de Charlemagne dans l’Empire germanique medievale, Paris 1950, and W. Braunfei^ (ed.), Karl der Grosse, in: Lebenswerk und Nachleben, IV: Das Nachlebcn, Düsseldorf 1965. 3 Robert Peril, La Genealogie et descente de la Tres illustre maison Dautriche, Antwerp 1535. Editions of the scroll appeared in French (1537), Latin (1540), Spanish (1540) and Dutch ($. d.) 9* And indeed with the development of the concept of the Middle Ages in European ihought. The important and exhaustive book by Jürgen Voss, Das Mittelalter im Historischen Denken Frankreichs. Untersuchung zur Geschichte des Mittclaltcrbcgriffcs und der Mittclaltcrbewertung von der zweiten Hälfte des 16. bis zur Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts (Munich 1972)cspccially pp. 101-80, w ith its uscful Identification of the four main intellectual currents in the evaluation of the Middle Ages, provides an essential context for the subjcct under discussion hcrc. 10 David Maskell, The Historical Epic in France 1500-1700, Oxford 1973. 11 The most reccnt edition of Libri Carolini, sive Caroli Magni Capitulare de Inuginibiis is by H. Baethgen, MGH Conc. II Supplement (1924). Ann Freeman, »Theodulph of Orleans and the Libri Carolini<, in: Spcculum 32 (1957) pp. 663-705 discusses the authorship and history of this treatise. 558 Rosamond McKitterick discovered in a French cathedral library by du Till« who published it in 1549.12 It was welcomed by the Protestants as an impressive source of support from the past for their Opposition to images. Calvin in particular cited it in all the Genevan editions of his »Institutes«.13 Church histories such as those of Baronius and Flacius Illyricus incorporated a great deal conceming the early middle ages and included much hitherto unpublished source material. Baronius, for example, was the first to print any of the papal letters from the early Carolingian period contained in the unique copy of the »Codex Carolinus«, now Vienna ms lat. 449. Generally however, the interest of the church historians was in Europe as a whole rather than in the Frankish kingdoms alone.14 Early attempts in the sixteenth Century in France to write histories of the Franks and French drew part of their impulse from a sense of the past as a living legacy, a tradition that was still alive. The Carolingians were a vital part of that tradition. Charles Dumoulin for example, addressing Henri II in 1552 observed >It is well known that in fact the most noble, virtuous and wise Charlemagne . . . and Louis the Pious . . . transmitted to you not less but equal and identical power and authority along with the same crown, and that these things are clearly indivisible and inseparable. The ancient ordinances of the said Charlemagne and Louis the Pious still exist in the registers of your sovereign parlement and chambre des comptes and in many authentic books<.15 For Dumoulin Charlemagne symbolized national unity; he had legitimized feudal custom, had provided precedents for the Gallican church and established the French monarchy. Dumoulin’s words also express another absorbing interest of his contemporaries, an interest in the history of .the institutions of France, the precedents for royal rights and obligations, and the origins of French law. The first historians were predominantly men trained at the law schools of Orleans and Bourges under Alciato and TEtoile, members of the gens du robe and of either the Paris or provincial parlementMuch of their writing has to be seen against the turbulent background of the French Wars of Religion. Many of these historians were Huguenots, and their writing is distinguished by the use they made of their historical knowledge to formulate politica! arguments. Perhaps the most cohcrent and impressive of the Huguenots was Francois Hotman (1524-90), with Beza the principal progenitor of Huguenot political thought, whose treatise »Francogallia«, first published in 1573, was a remarkable exposition of the history of the Frankish Constitution. It was designed to establish beyond doubt the antiquity of the public council of the nation, >in later times called the assembly of the 12 Jean du Tillet, bishop of Meaux and his brother du Tillct, Sieur de la Bussiere published a numbcr of works relating to the history of the Franks. Jean du Tillet produced the Chronicon de regibus Francorum ad Henricum 11, Paris 1548; translated into French almost immediately as La Chronique des Roys de France. Le Catalogue des Papes. Catalogues des Empereurs, Paris 1550. The Sieur de la Bussiere produced the »Recueil des roys de France«, Paris 1586. 13 J. Calvin, Institutio christianae religionis, Geneva 1550, etc. 14 Caesar Baronius, Annales ecclesiastici 12 volumes, Rome 1588-1607; Flacius Illyricus (Vlacic) Historia integram ecclesiae christi ideam secundum centurias complectcns 13 volumes, Basle 1559-1574. A succinct account of historical writing from the sixteenth Century onwards conceming mediacval history is to be found in R. C. van Caenegem's excellent handbook, Guide to the Sourccs of Medieval History, Amsterdam 1978. See too Donald R. Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship, New York and London 1970 and J. Voss, Das Mittelalter im Historischen Denken Frankreichs. 15 C. du Moulin, Commentarius ad edictum Henrici secundi contra parvas datas et ab usus curiae Romanae, Lyon 1552, preface transl. Donald R. Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship, New York and London 1970, p. 171. His book: Premiere partie du traicte de l’origine, progres et excellcnce du royaume et monarchie des Francoys et couronne de France, Lyons 1561, asserted the relevance of Frankish institutions to the study of feudalism. Voss too thinks that in this »rechtshistorische Schule« are to be seen the real beginnings of research into the medieval period, Das Mittelalter im Historischen Denken Frankreichs (note 9a) pp. 111-125, and scc his references p. 112, n. 4. The Study of Frankish History 559 three estates<, which had originated in the fifth Century with the assimilation of Franks and Gauls into the nation of »Francogallia.«“ Hotman was a jurisconsult and had written treatises on feudalism and Roman law before embarking on the »Francogallia«.* 17 Like many of his contemporarics, Hotman attempted to prove the derivation of the consultative assembly and the dependence of the king upon his people from Frankish tradition. In »Francogallia« for example his chapters discussed whether the kingdom of Francogallia was hereditary or elective (c. 6) and the custom appropriate to the election of kings and the supreme power of the people in condemning and deposing kings for known cause (c. 7). He discussed at length the deposition of the last Merovingian king Childeric III and the Substitution of the Carolingian Pippin in 751, and concluded that it was not the Pope who had constituted Pippin king but a national assembly.11 The cases of the deposition from or elevation to the throne of Louis the Pious, Charles the Simple, Odo and Charles the Fat, and the final takeover by the Capetians were also considered.'9 As well as the political polemic of Hotman’s treatise, his use of the primary sources and the wide ränge of his knowledge are impressive. He always cites his authorities very carefully and by name; for the Carolingian period he used Einhard’s life of Charlemagne, the capitulary collection by Ansegisus, the »Lex Salica«, »Lex Ripuaria« and »Leges Alemannorum«, the chronicles of Ado of Vienne, Regino of Prum, Flodoard’s history of Rheims and Paul the Deacon’s history of the Lombards.20 He has been accused of distorting his sources sometimesto suit his argument. Giesey and Salmon, Hotman’s editors, note for example Hotman’s quotation from Aimon of Fleury’s Chronicle in the 1573 edition of the »Francogallia« where the Franks raised up (erigunt) Theuderic as king, which in the second edition in 1576 bccomes the Franks elected (eligunt) Theuderic as king.21 On the whole however Hotman read his authorities critically and treated them with respect. Hotman’s insistence on the authority of the sources was paralleled in the work of his contemporaries, who not only possessed a lively curiosity about the history of France but also developed the historical method which distinguished their histories once and for all from the mediaeval chronicle, for they made the essential distinction between primary and secondary authorities. Despite their work there were still some htterati who were reproducing the mediaeval accounts straight from the chronicles, such as Nicolas Gilles, secretary to Louis XII, in a book with a charming title which expressed his approach to perfection: »Les tres elegantes, trcs veridiques et copieuses annales des tres pieux, tres nobles, tres chrestien et trcs exccllens modcrateurs des belliqueuses Gaules« (Paris 1569). His stress was on cohercnt narrative rather than on any critical appraisal of his material. Among those who evolved the new historical method were Francois Baudouin (whom Hotman detested) and his two greatest disciplcs, Papire Masson and Pierre Pithou. Their “ Francois Hotman, Francogallia, Geneva 1573, cd. and transl. R. E. Giesey and J.H.M. Salmon, Francois Hotman Francogallia, Cambridge 1972. 17 F. Hotman, Defeudiscommentariotripertita, Lyon 1573, and ld.,Commentarium inquatuor Libros institutionum iuris civilis, Basle 1560, and Id., Justiniani imperatoris vita, Strasbourg 1556. 11 Giesey and Salmon point out in their edition of »Francogallia« (note 16) p. 47, that in »De l eudis« Hotman accordcd Pippin the initiative in persuading Pope Zacharias to deposc Childeric and there is no mention of the public council. 19 Giesey and Salmon (note 16) p. 56. 20 For dctails about the late tifteenth and early sixteenth Century editions of Frankish texts see G. Monod, Du progres des etudes historiques en France depuis le XVIe siccle, in: Revue Historique I (1876) pp. 5-38, W. Levison and H. Löwe, Deutschlands Gcschichtsquellen im Mittelalter 1 Vorzeit und Karolinger, Weimar 1953 pp. 1-9, and bclow pp. 561-563. Hotman’s probable sources are listed in GtESEY and Salmon’s Bibliography, but unfortunately only in their modern editions. 21 Hotman, Francogallia, cd. Giesey and Salmon (note 16), p. 230. 560 Rosamond McKitterick interest, in contrast to Hotman, was more historical than political, and they developed an historical approach to the law and its relevance to past and present in which techniques and principles were gradually formulated. Baudouin, a lawyer and member of the gens du robe, considered that the French, English, Germans, Spanish and Italians ought not to be ignorant of the Franks, Anglo-Saxons, Goths and Lombards. He insisted on the importance of the primary sources and made a point of stating that he had visited the royal archives; his history of the Angevin house, commissioned in 1568 but never completed, was intended to be a critical history, based on legal and documentary records as well as on the accounts of the chroniclcrs.22 His main work, published in 1561, discussed the importance of the law and jurisprudence in the development of historical institutions.23 Papire Masson (1544-1611), Baudouin’s pupil, published his great work, the »Annales Francorum«, in 1577, and dedicated it to Henri 111. In his preface Masson professed his wish to devise an historical method of working with the primary sources.24 To this end his history, divided into four books covering the Merovingian, Carolingian, Capetian and Valois kings, drew largely on original material. His account is stuffed with extracts, usually acknowledged, from Contemporary chronicles, diplomas, letters and poetry. Not only did he work from published material, using the editions made in the first half of the Century, he also sought out manuscripts of unpublished material. Apart from his own collection, a number of his friends possessed rieh libraries and six of the works cited in the »Annales«, induding the annals of the abbey of St Denis and Flodoard's history of Rheims written at the end of the ninth Century, came from Jean St Andreas library at Notre Dame. In another library he found a manuscript of the poetry of Sedulius Scotus, he quoted from a manuscript containing Carolingian capitularics, a copy of the collection made by Ansegisus in 826, and obtained a manuscript of the letters of Lupus, abbot of Ferneres. Like many of his fellow savants Masson used the royal library and found there among other treasures the original, now apparently lost, of the famous letter from Pope John VIII to Charles the Bald about becoming Emperor.25 This he published for the first time in his »Annalcs«. Masson did a great deal to rescue the Carolingians from the cloud of myth and sentiment which surrounded them; he was one of the first to deny that Charlemagne had founded the University of Paris. He studied all his sources critically in Order to cvaluate their reliability and was furthermore one of the first to emphasize the importance of linguistic texts, in particular that of the famous Strasbourg oaths of 842.2e* The »Annales Francorum« seem to have enjoyed considerable popularity and copies of it are to be found in many of the sixteenth and sevcntccnth Century libraries of Europe, often heavily annotated. The Cambridge University Library copy belonged to John Moore, Bishop of Norwich and then Ely, who died in 1714. The greatest contributions made by Pierre Pithou, Baudouin's other great pupil, to Frankish and early mediaeval studies were the texts he edited from manuscripts (many of them in his own possession) such as Salvian, Paul the Deacon’s history of the Lombards, the laws of the 22 Donald R. Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship, New York and London 1970, pp. 116-48 and pp. 144-5. 23 F. Baudouin, De institutione historiae universae et eius cum iurisprudentia coniunctione prolegome- non, Paris 1561. 24 Papire Masson, Annalium libri quatuor quibus res gestae Francorum explicantur, Paris 1577. The only full length study of Masson is P. Ronzy, Un humaniste italisant, Papire Masson 1544-1611, Paris 1924. " MGH Epp VII p. 302, No. 47. 24 Another who published the oaths was Claude Fauchet, Recueil des Antiquitez gauloises et fran^oiscs, Paris 1579. The Study of Frankish History 561 Visigoths and the legislation of Charlemagne, Louis the Pious and Charles the Bald.27 His most enterprising and innovatory works were his two collections of mediaeval sources, which included letters and capitularies as well as narrative sources, and which were intended by him to act as aids in the writing of history.21 Pithou was primarily a philologist, and perhaps more interested in collecting and editing the sources than in writing history. Yet he regarded the historian as a critical scholar, who had to analyze chronicles and histories as well as non­ narrative material. Part of Pithou’s function as procurateur general to Henri III was to look after the royal archive and library, which put him in an excellent position for his work; he was himself something of a bibliophile and gathered together a rieh collection of books. So too did Pithou’s great friend Antoine Loisel. Loisel edited the »Annales Laurissenses Maiores«, now known as the Royal Frankish Annals, from a manuscript in his library.* Etienne Pasquier, a member of Pithou’s circle of friends and colleagues w hich included most of the scholars, antiquaries and bibliophiles of his day, w'as, like Hotman, primarily concemed with an attempt to define the French Constitution and France itsclf. Behind his work was the conviction that all the relics of the past were aspects of a country’s civilization and culture and therefore relevant to its history. He applied the historical methods of the philologists and jurists developed by Baudouin and Masson to every kind of historical evidence and outiined his principles in a book whose title, »Recherches de la France«, gave a new name to the historical method he and his colleagues advocated.'c His interest in the Franks prompted him to contribute to some of the vexed questions of Frankish history. Like Masson he refuted the legend that Charlemagne had founded the University of Paris and also questioned the ancient myth, popularized by >Fredegar« in the seventh Century, about the Trojan origins of the Franks. The legend was morc or less completely discredited by the sixteenth Century scholars, yet this was soon forgotten and the Trojan myth found so much favour later on that in 1714 Nicolas Freret was thrown into the Bastille for demonstrating, at a private meeting of the *Academie des Inscriptions« in Paris, that the Franks were of Germanic origin.'1 Even in the sixteenth Century there were determined advocates of the Trojan origins of the Franks, such as Guillaume Postei, the title of whose book, »L'Histoire memorable des expeditions depuis le deluge faictes par les Gaulois ou les Francois«, speaks for itself.52 A word nceds to be said concerning the early printed editions of sources, dating from the first Century of printing, used by these scholars. Papire Masson made use of material still in manuscript, and so, occasionally, did Francois Hotman (in the third edition of his *Francogal- lia«), but for the most part historians limited themsclves to printed texts. As far as historical sources were concerned the first scholar who edited texts unaltered from manuscripts w^as 21 His cdiiion of Salvian, Salvianus Massiliensis, De gubernatione Dei et de iusto praesentique eius iudicio libri XVIII, Paris 1580, was ccrtainly edited from a manuscript in his possession. 29 P. Pithou, Annalium et historiae Francorum ab anno Christi DCCVIII ad annum DCCCCXC scriptores coaetanei XII, Paris 1588; Historiae Francorum ab anno Christi DCCC ad annum MCCLXXXV, Frankfurt 1596. * Loisel is perhaps best rcmcmbcrcd for his »Institutes Coutumicrs«, first published in Paris in 1605 and edited M. Reulos, Paris 1935. See too M. Reulos, Etüde sur Pesprit, les sources et la methode des Institutes Coutumicrs d'Antoine Loisel, Paris 1935. •'° E. Pasquier, Rcchcrchcs de la France, Paris 1560. On Pasquier sce G. Hutpert, »Naissance de Phistoire de France: les »Rcchcrches« d'Esticnne Pasquier, Annalcs 23 (1968) pp. 6^-105, Donald R. Kel- ley, Foundations (notc 22) pp. 271-300, and Voss, Das Mittelalter im historischen Denken Frankreichs (note 9a) pp. 105-6. 51 On the question of the Trojan origin of the Franks sce G. HurrERT, The Trojan Franks and their critics, in: Studics in the Renaissance 12 (1965) pp. 227-41 and Id., The Idcaof Perfect History: Historical crudition and historical philosophy in Renaissance France, Illinois 1970. M Paris 1552. 562 Rosamond McKitterick Guilelmus Parvus, usualiy known as Guillaume Petit (d. 1526), a Dominican friar from Normandy who had been in charge of the royal library at Blois under Franjois 1 and thus had access to many ancient manuscripts. In 1509 he became Louis XIPs confessor. Among the early mediaeval texts he edited were the »Historia Langobardorum« of Paul the Deacon, publishedin Paris in 1514, Gregory of Tours« »Historiae Francorum« and the Chronicle of Ado of Vienne, published in Paris in 1512, and Aimon of Fleury's »De regum Francorum« (1514), the chronicles of Liutprand of Cremona (Paris 1514) and Sigebert of Gembloux (Paris 1515) and the »Historiae persecutione Wandalicae« (Paris s. d.) of Victor Vitensis.33 34 Other editions, mostiy published in Cologne, Basle and Strasbourg included Einhard’s »Vita et Gesta Karoli Magni« and the »Annales Regni Francorum« edited by Hermann von Neuenar (Cologne 1521); in 1561 another edition of the »Annales« came out. The second book of the chronicle of Freculph of Lisieux which covers the years from the Incarnation to the establishment of the Frankish kingdoms was edited and printed by Novesianus in Cologne in 1539. Another, and better, edition of Paul the Deacon, edited by Conrad Peutinger, appeared a year after that of Petit and was printed at Augsburg in 1515, together with Jordanes* »History of the Goths«, a further edition of Paul the Deacon was made by Galienus in 1532.* Sebastian von Rotenhau published the first edition of Regino of Prüm at Mainz in 1521, while the prose Version of the »Visio Wettini« by Haito of Basle, was edited by the French humanist Jacques Lefevre d’Etaples (1450-1536) in Paris in 1513 together with five other accounts of visions.35 A work by Walafrid Strabo, his charming poem »Hortulus«, was printed by Joachim Vadianus in Vienna in 1510 from a manuscript at St Gail; Vadianus included two of the »Aenigmata« of Aldhelm of Malmesbury from the same manuscript.36 A rather curious Carolingian text printed at a very early stage was the deplorable poem by Hucbald of St Amand, the 136 hexameter »Ecloga de Calvis« in which every word begins with C, which was published as a separate pamphlet at Mainz in 1496 by Johannes Trithemius, presumably as a curiosity. The famous acrostic poem, »De Laudibus sanctae crucis« of Hrabanus Maurus, despite the difficulty of setting the type, was edited by Jakob Wimpheling and printed in black and red by Thomas Anshelm of Pforzheim in 1503. Other Carolingian texts printed were mostiy theological, such as the »Libri tres de cultu imaginum* of Jonas of Orleans printed in Cologne in 1554 and Antwerp in 1567, the homilies and exegesis attributed to Haimo of Halberstadt in many different editions, the commentaries of Paschasius Radbertus and his treatise on the Eucharist published in 1502 and 1550 respec- tively,37 * and the exegetical and didactic treatises of Hrabanus Maurus.Alcuin’s exegesis, his treatise on the Trinity and the homilies on the Gospels once attributed to him were all published in the third decade of the sixteenth Century but it was not until the eighteenth Century that Alcuin’s letters were published by Frohen.39 One collection of Carolingian Ictters published, no 33 E. P. Goldschmidt, Mediaeval Texts and their first appearance in print, London 1943, pp. 71-73. 34 As an Appendix IX to his edition of Eutropius, Basle 1532. 35 Liber trium virorum et trium spiritualium virginum, Paris 1513. 36 Now Vat. reg. lat. 469. 37 Paschasius Radbertus, Commentaria in Lamentationibus, Jeremiac, prophetac, Basle 1502, and De Corpore et sanguine Domini ed. N. Mameranus, Cologne 1550. 31 Hrabanus Maurus, Commentaria in Hiercmiam, Basle 1534, De clcricorum institutione et ccrcmoniis ecclesiae ex Veteri et Novo Testamento libri III, Cologne 1532, De Sacramcnto Eucharistiae, Cologne 1551, in: Ecclcsiasticum commentarii, Paris 1544. 39 Alcuin De Trinitate, Strasbourg 1530, In D. Ioannis Evangclio, Strasbourg 1527, In Ecclcsiasten, Basle 1531, In Gencsim, Hagenau 1529, In septem psalmos poscnitentialcs et CXVII1 psalmu et in Cantica graduum expositio. Drogonis de sacramcnto dominicac passionis commentatiuncula, Paris 1547, Homilic doctorum ecclesiasticorum in cvangelia dominicalia ac temporanea, opera Alchuini, Lyons 1520, 1525 ctc., Epistolae cd. Proben, Regensburg 1777. The Study of Frankish History 563 doubt due to Masson’s discovery of them, was that of Lupus, abbot of Ferneres,40 but as yet no other letter collections were printed. Those of Hincmar of Rheims for example were published in the next Century at Mainz.41 The resources of the sixteenth Century historians therefore were by no means meagre, even though they were limited. The fashion for finding and >editing< texts, even if, as in the case of the plays of Hrosvita discovered by Conrad Celtis, editing the text often consisted simply in handing the (in this case tenth Century) manuscript itself, in which Conrad had helpfully written titles and headings, to the printer so that the compositors set their type up from the original,42 meant that a good deal of historical material was made more readily available in the course of the sixteenth Century. Pierre Pithou and Andre Duchesne contributed greatly to the body of material in print concerning the Franks with their collections of sources, but the critical edition was not yet a feature of historical scholarship. The sixteenth Century in France generally was an age of secular scholars and individuals, lawyers and men of affairs, who used their classical, humanistic, education and their legal training to investigate the history of French institutions, the Gallican church and the French nation.42* They combined erudition with the writing of history and often used their historical knowledge to Support and illustrate their political views. In some ways their devotion to the history of France was a natural development from the enthusiastic production of French chronicles in the second half of the fifteenth Century, a production all for the glory of France, to which the large number of French incunables containing chronicles of French history witnesses. Hotman, Masson, Pithou, Pasquier, Baudouin and their contemporaries, such as Roben Gauguin who had published his *De Origine et gestis francorum« at Lyons in 1497, Jean Bodin and his »Methodus«,4* Vignier and his »Bibliotheque Historiale« of 1587,44 45 * Andre Duchesne and his collection of source material,4' Le Roy, Du Tillet, Du Haillan the Historiographer Royal who believed the maturity of French civilisation to have been in the Carolingian period, La Popeliniere who developed a theory of historiography, Cujas and Loisel, all illustrate the nature of French Renaissance historical scholarship.44 TTie Franks had been restablished as true and inspiring ancestors of the French. Through their sons and pupils, much that these scholars had established as far as method and principles of critical research were concemed was not forgotten, yet in the seventeenth Century, 4C Lupus Scrvatus, Epistolarum über, Paris 1588. The first edition of the works of Agobard of Lyons was edited, from a manuscript in Masson’s possession, in 1605. 41 Hincmar of Rheims, Epistolae, Mainz 1602, and again in Paris in 1615. 42 See A. Wilson, The Making of the Nuremburg Chronicle, Amsterdam 1976, pp. 32-33. This manuscript is now in Munich, Clm 14485. 42' On the formation of a patriotic view of the past in sixteenth Century' France see Voss, Das Mittelalter im historischen Denken Frankreichs (note 9a) pp. 105-111. 43 Jean Bodin, Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem, Paris 1566. 44 N. Vignier, La Bibliotheque Historialc, Paris 1587. He also criticized the legend of the Trojan origin of the Franks in his Traite de Testat ct origine des anciens frangois, Troyes 1582. 45 A. Duchesne, Historiac francorum scriptorcs, Paris 1536. 44 Louis Le Roy, Consideration sur Thistoire frangoise et universelle de ce temps, Paris 1567, Du Haillan, Histoire de France, Paris 1576; La Popelini^re, Histoire de France, Paris 1582, and Histoire des Histoires, Paris 1598; Cujas, Novellarum constitutionum imp. Iustiniani expositio, Cologne 1570. All these historians and many more are discusscd by George Huppert Tbe Idea of Perfect History’, Illinois 1970, N. Edelman, Attitudes of seventeenth Century France towards the Middle Ages, New York 1946, Donald R. Kelley, Foundations of Modern Historical Scholarship, New York and London 1970, and again, Voss, Das Mittelalter im historischen Denken Frankreichs (note 9a). There is also relevant material in J.G. A. Pocock, The Ancicnt Constitution and the Feudal Law, Bath 1974, and Arno Borst, »Das Karlsbild in der Geschichtswissenschaft vom Humanismus bis heutes in: Karl der Grosse, Lcbcnsw erk und Nachleben 1., IV Das Nachlcbcn, Düsseldorf 1965, p. 364-402. 564 Rosamond McKitterick scholarship, method and pure erudition developed rapidly at the expense of historical Interpre­ tation. The Franks were studied more and more for their own sake and the inherent fascination and complexities of the period than to illustrate the origins of Contemporary institutions or add weight to political arguments. In the seventeenth Century some of the most influential works of scholarship for the study of mediaeval and Frankish history, work in the form of editions of sources and books of reference often still not superseded today, was achieved, and it was based firmly unpon the pioneering work of the sixteenth Century. The man who best epitomizes seventeenth Century scholarship in Europe is of course Jean Mabillon.47 * He was born of a peasant family in 1632 and after he had completed his educationhe entered the Benedictine Order and spent a number of years at the monasteries of Nogent and Corbie before being sent to the headquarters of the Congregation of Saint Maur at Saint- Germain-des-Pres in Paris. Saint-Germain was already renowned as a centre of learning, largely due to the efforts of Luc d’Achery,41 and Mabillon joined the group of scholars among the monks there. His first assignment was to edit the »Opera« of Bernard of Clairvaux, an edition which established Mabillon's reputation. We may see Mabillon through English eyes, for Martin Lister, the English conchologist and doctor of medicine, visited Mabillon at Saint- Germain-des-Pres and wrote an account of the visit in his »Journey to Paris in the year 1698«. I visited at his chamber Pere Mabillon, uho has so well deserved of the Commonwealth of learning by his writings and that excellent book »De Re Diplomatica*; he seemed to me to be a very good natured and freehearted man and was well pleased to hear that our catalogue of English manuscripts was so forward at the Press at Oxford. He thankfully owned the favour of the Cotton library and was very sorry to hear of Dr. Bemard's death of whom he spoke very kindly; but he expressed a wonderful esteem for Dr. Calet the Dean of York.49 It is for his monumental »De Re Diplomatica« to which Lister referred that Mabillon is best remembered.50 In the Preface to »De Re Diplomatica« Mabillon explained that his aim was >to distinguish the true from the false by means of proved and reliable rules«. Mabillon criticized the comparative method used by Papebroche in 1675,51 that is, comparing a charter thought to be authentic with a possibly spurious one, and sought independent critcria. He divided his argument into six sections or books. The first discussed the use of Charters in the Middle Ages and defined and described the different kinds of legal document. He established that ecclestasti- cal and royal Charters were granted out from the Merovingian period onwards, that is from the sixth to the eighth centuries. He examined too what kinds of script were employed in Charters, the different materials on which they were written and the type of ink used. The second section was concerned with the content and style of the charter, its five main parts, the languagc, useof seals and System of dating. He devoted much of the third book to a discussion of those Charters whose authenticity Papebroche had queried, and the fourth to an examination of the where- abouts of the palaces and chanceries of the Frankish and French kings where the Charters had 47 E. Cuthbert Butler, »Mabillon*, in: Downside Review, 1893, p. 116-132; D. Knowles, Great Historical Enterprises, London 1963, p. 33-63 and the collected studies in Mabillon’s honour, Melanges et Documents publies a l’occasion du 2e centenaire de la Mort de Mabillon, Paris 1908. 49 Luc d’Achery collected together a large number of medieval texts in his Spicilegium, Paris 1657. 44 M. Lister, Journey to Paris in the Year 1698, London 1699, pp. 121-122. Dr. Bernard was Savillian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford. Dr. Gale was the famous Anglo-Saxon scholar Thomas Gale. w De Re Diplomatica, Paris 1681, A Supplement to the work waspublished in 1704 and a second edition prepared by Mabillon’s disciple, the Abbe Ruinart and published after his death. 51 Daniel van Papenbroek, Propylaeum antiquarium circa veri ac falsa discrimen in vetustis membranis, Brussels 1673. For a discussion of both the Propylaeum and Mabillon's response to it see A. Poncelet, »Mabillon et Papebroche«, Melanges et Documents (note 47) pp. 169-175, and Levillain, »Le De Re Diplomatica«, ibid. pp. 195-252. The Study of Frankish History 565 been drawn up. Plates of the types of script used throughout the centuries with which he was concerned, taken from the manuscripts he had consulted, filled the fifth book. In the sixth, Mabillon included a collection of more than two hundred documents which he believed to be genuine on applying the rules he had expounded in the five preceding sections. It will beclear how fundamental, and, if I may be permitted the use of a tired word, revolutionary, to critical historical scholarship, particularly scholarship conceming the Frankish period, his work was. »De Re Diplomatica«, as well as establishing the necessity of the ancillary disciplines of palaeography and diplomatic for historical scholarship, contained the basis on which all succeeding scholars could only build; it remains a masterpiece. The stature and importance of the »De Re Diplomatica« were instantly recognized,“ and although there were various misguided efforts to fault Mabiilon’s criteria, his rules prevailed.52 53 Papebroche himself wrote an admiring and convinced letter to Mabillon and the work exerted a profound influcnce all over Europe. ln England, George Hickes, the celebrated Anglo-Saxon scholar, was loud in his praise of the »De Re Diplomatica« and discussed Mabiilon’s methods at length in his own remarkable work, the »Dissertatio Epistolaris« with which he prefaced his »Linguarum veterum septentrionalium Thesaurus«, published in 1703.54 * * Hickes sought to expound the critical foundations of the study of Old English antiquities, and it is his treatment of Anglo-Saxon Charters which is the most important part of his »Dissertatio«. As he himself affirmed, Hickes >had had time to master the teaching of the »De Re Diplomatica« and he establishcd a set of useful canons for Anglo-Saxon diplomatic. Mabillon in his turn recom- mended Hickes's treatise to his pupils and pronounced the Englishman to be >one of ten thousand, a truly learncd person<. Humphrey Wanley trained himself to imitate different hands by copying the plates from Book V of the »De Re Diplomatica«. Wanley leamt from it that handwriting had an historical development, and that the study of manuscripts and documents of all kinds was a Science.” Clearly relations with the Frcnch scholar and the most eminent English Anglo-Saxonists and mediaevalists were of the most cordial. In his work on the »Acta Sanctorum«, Mabillon had traced the life of Wilfrid of Hexham by Eddius Stephanus to a Cotton manuscript and requested a transcript from Thomas Gale through Dr. Bemard (hence Mabiilon’s distress at hearing of Bernard’s death from Lister). Gale discovered a morecomplete text of the life in a Salisbury manuscript, the additional material it contained was sent to Mabillon, who published it with due acknowledgcment in the »Acta Sanctorum«.* In Italy too, Mabillon exerted considerable influcnce, both personal and through his writings. Certainly he was indircctly responsible for the revival of learning in Italy in the eighteenth Century.57 Bacchini passed on Mabiilon’s teaching in palaeography, diplomatic and 52 See Julian Brown, »Latin Palaeography since Traube«, in: Transactions of the Cambridge Btbliogra- phical Society 3, 1959-63, pp. 361-381, reprinted with additional notes in Codicologica I ed. A. Gruys, Leiden 1976. w L. Levillain, »Le De Rc Diplomatica« (notc 51) pp. 248-251, and notc too the cautious rather than misguided response of Thomas Smith, Cotton’s librarian, in a letter to Humphrey Wanley, Harley ms. 3782, an. 51 ed. H. Ellis, Original Letters of Eminent Litcrary men of the sixteenth, seventeenth and eighteenth centuries No. CVII, London 1843, p. 253. * Sec David C. Douglas, English Scholars, London 1939, p. 117. ss This was pointed out by K. Sisam, Studics in the history of Old English literature, Oxford 1953, p. 263. See too C. E. Wright and R. C. Wright, The Diary of Humphrey Wamlev 1715-26, London 1966. On Wanley and bis importance for manuscript studies see brieflv P. E. Easterling, Notes on early dcscriptions and datings of Greck manuscripts, in: Studia Codicologica. Texte und Untersuchungen 124, Berlin 1977, pp. 179-187. * D. Douglas, English Scholars (notc 54) p. 71. On thcsc manuscripts see B. Colgrave, Tbc Life of Bishop Wilfrid by Eddius Stephanus, Text, translation and notes, Cambridge 1927. 57 A. Momigliano, »Mabiilon’s Italian disciple«, in: Essays in Ancicnt and Modern Historiograph}*, London 1966, pp. 285-315. 566 Rosamond McKitterick textual criticism, and it was Bacchini’s pupil Muratori, Librarian of the Ambrosiana in Milan and of the Duke of Modena’s library, who transformed Italian historical studies.*1 Mabillon’s interests were not only in the sphere of manuscript studies; in his »Traite des etudes monasti- ques« of 1691, he made an impassioned plea for intellectual work and intellectual integrity in the religious Orders and advocated objectivity and a critical spirit as the essential tools for the historian and Scholar. The work of Mabiilon on Latin manuscripts and that of his colleague Montfaucon on Greek Codices remained invaluable. Even Gibbon, in his own words, >was induced to consult the great Benedictine works, the »Diplomatica« of Mabiilon and the »Palaeographica« of Montfaucon at the view of so many manuscripts of different ages and character<. He adds >1 studied the theory without attaining the practice of the art«.w Other members of Mabillon’s Order at Saint-Germain-des-Pres also produced work of great erudition, containing much that related to Frankish affairs. The ecclesiastical origin and bias of many of the literary sources for the Carolingian period naturally matched the interests of the Maurists in France and the Bollandists in Belgium. Their volumes of saints lives critically edited from manuscripts and early printed texts were a great contribution to historical writing, while they should always be remembered for the methods they practised and taught. They also produced a number of essential handbooks, such as the year books, albeit the great productions of the Orders were early in the following Century, with the »Gallia Christiana«, a list of all the dioceses and abbacies of France during the Middle Ages, closely modelled on Ughelli’s »Italia Sacra«,'* and Bouquet’s »Receuil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France«. In 1676 Colbert initiated a scheme to compjete the narrative source collections started by Andre Duchesne and published in 1638. Later, LeTellier, archbishop of Rheims, revived Colbert’s plan and Bouquet of Saint-Germain-des-Pres was assigned the work; it was finally completed in 1904. This collection actually leaves a great deal to be desired, for it divides the narratives into sections separatcd according to period, and also expunges large portions of the text; it is gradually being replaced.* 40 41 All the Roman monuments and remains of France were, again on the prompting of Colbert, described by Montfaucon in »Les monuments de la monarchie frangaise« (1729-35). DuCange carried on the philological methods of the sixteenth Century and produced his incomparable »Glossarium ad scriptores mediae et infimae latinitatis«, a lexicon of mediaeval Latin published in 1678, which is only now being replaced, fascicle by fascicle, by an entire team in the Bavarian Academy buildings in Munich.42 * * French Jesuit scholarship was mostly concerned with the history of the councils of the mediaeval church, and a collection of the decrees of thesccouncils was put together by Jacques Sirmond and continued in succeeding decades by Labbe and Cossart, Hardouin, Coleti and Mansi; it was completed in 1798.45 Clerical scholarship thus devoted much of its energies to editing and Publishing historical material of all kinds, and devising methods for its evaluation and interpretation. M L. Muratori, Antiquitates Italicae, Milan 1723-1896 and Annali d'Italia dal principio dell’cra volgare sino all' anno 1500, Milan 1744. 54 Gibbon, quoted by David Douglas in: English Scholars (note 54) p. 361. 40 F. Ughelli, Italia sacra, sive de episcopis Italiae, et insularum adiacentium 9 vols., Rome 1644-62. 41 M. Bouquet, Recueil des Historiens des Gaules et de la France, Paris 1738-1904. A. Giry et al, Collection de textes pour servir a l’ctude et ä l’enseignement de l’histoire 51 vols., Paris 1886-1929, and L. Halphen et al, Classiques de l’histoire de France au Moyen Age, Paris 1923 -, are the continuations of this enterprise. 42 Mittellateinisches Wörterbuch, under the general direction of B. Bischoff, O. Prinz and J. Schneider, Munich 1959 -. 42 J. Sirmond, Concilia antiqua Galliae, Paris 1629, Labb£ and Cossart, Sacrosancta Concilia, Paris 1671—2, and Hardouin, Acta conciliorum et epistolae decrctales ac constitutiones summorum Pontificium, Paris 1715. The Study of Frankish History 567 One further erudit associated with the group who used to meet in a small room at Saint- Germain-des-Pres on Wednesday evenings under the leadership of Mabillon, was Etienne Baluze, Colbert’s librarian.°a Baluze had access to a far greater number of manuscripts than Pithou had had a Century earlier, and his greatest contribution to Frankish studies was the new edition, based on a far wider ränge of manuscripts than the edition of Pithou, of the Capitulary legislation of the Carolingian kings, an edition only (rather unsatisfactorily) replaced at the end of the nineteenth Century* Martin Lister visited Baluze in Colbert’s library and described him as a >little old man, but very cheerful and of a quick wit. He complained much of the refusal of the Emperor’s people conceming the manuscripts of Vienna in Order to the publication of the Capitularies, for he said letters were never at war.<65 * German humanists and seventeenth Century scholars were as active as the French in the editing of mediaeval texts and the study of Frankish history, for the Franks were regarded as the ancestors of the Germans as well. Jakob Wimpheling’s »Epitome rerum Germanicarum« published in 1505 was the first history of Germany based on original sources. Other humanists, such as Conrad Celtis (1439-1508), Conrad Peutinger (1465-1544) and Beatus Rhenanus (1485- 1547) wrote histories of their country as well as editing a number of texts.* Beatus Rhenanus was the first to offer any convincing historical evidence conceming the Germanic origin of the Franks in »Rerum Germanicarum libri tres« (Basel 1551);his book was widely read in France; it is quoted by Hotman for example. In 1532 the earliest collection of narrative sources relating to Germany was published, and it includcd among other Carolingian texts, Einhard’s life of Charlemagne.67 * 69 German and French scholars edited the texts they found in monastic libraries, and the scarch for these texts was often extended into long journeys, the voyages litteraires. Mabillon for example visited Germany and Italy; from Italy he sent back no less than 4192 manuscripts and printed books, and it was on his way back from Germany that hediscovered the seventh Century Lectionary of Luxcuil in Burgundy, which lead him to write his study of the old Frankish >Gallican< liturgy* At Reichenau in 1683, a record was kept of the Codices Mabillon consulted. They included a ninth Century catechism, »Vigilii libri V adversus haereses«, Gregory of Tours’ »Liber de gloria martyrum«, the homiliary of Paul the Deacon, Primarius’s commcntary on the Apocalypse, the commentary on the Rule of Benedict by Hildericus and Walafrid Strabo’s Commentary on the Psalms.6* Montfaucon too travelled widely, and his »Bibliotheca Bibliothecarum«, published in 1739, included catalogues of the manuscripts in all the libraries he had visited, still uscful in providing descriptions of libraries as they were before the depradations of the French Revolution. As far as regional histories and handbooks for the mediaeval period are concerned there is really nothing from Germany in the seventeenth Century to compare with French scholarship of the samc period except for the work of Hermann Conring (1606-1681) who delineated the development of German law down to the sixteenth Century and used the historical method in 1 have not dealt at all with the thinking about the Middle Agcs on the part of the seventeenth Century French litcrati; for this see Voss, Das Mittelalter im historischen Denken Frankreichs (note 9a) pp. 126- 137. * E. Baluze, Capitularia regum francorum, Paris 1677, reedited Boretius MGH Cap. 1 and II, Hannover 1883. M. Lister, Journey to Paris in 1698, London 1699, p. 130. * On Conrad Celtis sce L. W. Spitz, Conrad Celtis; the German arch Humanist, Cambridge 1957. Conrad Peutinger, Scrmones convivialcs de mirandis Germaniae antiquitatibus, Strasbourg 1506. 67 See above p. 562. M J. Mabillon, De liturgia Gallicana libri III, Paris 1685 and see P. Salmon, Le Lectionnaire de Luxcuil, Rome 1944. 69 P. Lehmann (cd.). Mittelalterliche Bibliothekskataloge Deutschlands und der Schweiz I, Munich 1918, p. 236. 568 Rosamond McKitterick teaching law,* 71 72 73 and Bernard Pez (1683-1735), an Austrian Benedictine who knew both Mabillon and Montfaucon pcrsonally and who edited a collection of mediaeval sources, many of them Carolingian, and in many cases still the only editions available.71 Early work in the field of Frankish history in France and Germany thus established many of the methods and emphases of historical writing about the period, as well as collecting together the sources for it, whether in printed editions or in manuscript and archive collcctions. It is evident from the voyages litteraires that scholars found and expected to find unpublished texts and hitherto unknown sources for the mediaeval period hidden away in monastic and private libraries; in this of course they followed the example of the Italian humanists with their expeditions in search of manuscripts.72 The sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was a period of the formation of great libraries, and in France especially, these collections were made available to scholars. The tradition of scholarly and academic libraries as well as monastic libraries containing both precious manuscripts and printed books which developed in France and Germany does much to explain how and why scholars were able to indulge their interests and develop their methods. Even before Mazarin’s librarian Gabriel Naude wrote his handbook »Advis pour dresser une Bibliotheque« in 1627, in which he proffered sound advice for any gentleman wishing to form a library which would assist learning,75 the principle of private collections of books being made available to scholars was well established. Interest in Frankish and French history furthermore lead in a number of notable cases to the gathering together of magnificent collections of manuscripts, Charters and curiosities. The most remarkable collec­ tion of books and antiquities in France was the royal collection, and the preeminence it enjoyed was one which in a sense traced its origins right back to Charlemagne himself.74 Charlemagne, his son, Louis the Pious, and grandsons Charles the Bald, Lothar and Louis the German had all had palace libraries, and there is even some evidence to suggest that the books were available to scholars.75 After the death of Charles the Simple in 923 there are no details of royal books until the reign of the Capetian king Louis IX (1226-1270). Louis possessed a >true library< according to Geoffroi de Bcaulieu, who went on to explain that Louis’s library had been inspired by that of the king of the Saracens which had to servc the needs of scholars and which Louis had seen when on Crusade. Louis had all the books relating to the Bible and the patristic writings copied, and those who wished to study them could do so. All these books were dispersed to religious houses on Louis’s death, and although all his successors possessed books the first king really to organize a library on a grand scale was Charles V (1364- 1380). His library was designed not only to satisfy the personal tastes of the members of the 73 H. Conring, Definitus Imperii Germanici libri duo, Helmstadt 1654; De origine iuris Germanici liber unus, Helmstadt 1649. 71 B. Pez, Bibliotheca ascetica antiquo-nova, Regensburg 1723-40. 72 Arising initially from the Council of Constance; the most notorious is Poggio Bracciolini’s search among the treasures of St. Gail, See P. Walter Goodhard Gordon (ed.), Two Renaissance Book Hunters, The letters of Poggius Bracciolini to Nicolaus de Niccolis, New York 1974. 75 G. Naud£, Advis pour dresser une Bibliotheque, Paris 1637. On Naude’s views concerning the Middle Ages and medieaval authors see Voss, Das Mittelalter im historischen Denken Frankreichs (notc 9a) p. 142. 74 On the history of the royal library see the indispensible account in: Leopold Delisle, Le Cabinet des Manuscrits de la Bibliotheque Imperiale I (Nationale II and III), Paris 1868-81.1 have drawn much of what follows from Delisle. 75 B. Bischoff, >Die Hofbibliothek Karls des Grossem, in: Karl der Grosse, Lebenswerk und Nachlc- ben, T. II. Das Geistige Leben, Düsseldorf 1965, pp. 42-62; idem >Die Hofbibliothek Ludwigs des Frommen«, in: Medieval Literature and Learning. Studies presented to R. W. Hunt, Oxford 1976, ed. M.T. Gibson and J. J. G. Alexander, pp. 3-22; and Rosamond McKitterick, Charles the Bald (823- 877) and his library: the patronage of learning, in: English Historical Review 95 (1980) pp. 28-47. The Study of Frankish History 569 royal family, but also to facilitate the studies of the savants. Christine de Pisan teils us that the library was collected together in three rooms in the palace, and that the books covered a wide ränge of topics, from beautiful books of hours to biblical and theological works and philosophi- cal and scientific treatises. In 1367 or 1368 this library was installed in the Louvre, and lamps were provided for those wishing to work at night (a luxury not provided in the Cambridge University Library until 1898). Books could be borrowed and this led to many losses. From a fourteenth Century inventory of the books it can be seen that most subjects were represented, including history; there were copies of a number of a classical historians, lives of the saints and chronicles of the crusaders, but most history was Contemporary and it was written in French, a notable absence being the lack of Latin authors on the history of France/* There were on the other hand a great number of Carolingian romances, that is, the later mediaeval epic poems about the Carolingian kings of the type referred to at the beginning of this article. Most of Charles V's books were lost or dispersed after his death and a great many were bought by the Duke of Bedford and dispersed again on Beford’s death in 1435. It is now possible to trace only a small proportion of the books which once graced the royal library of France. Charles V’s brothers and many of his nobles emulated the king in collecting books, and a tradition was established that the possession of a library was an essential accoutrement of the cultured gentleman; the Duc de Berry for cxample had a morc refined taste than his brother Charles V and possessed many exquisite illuminated books and classical texts.7t The royal library seems to have been built up again under Louis XI (1461-83). It was Louis who accorded his protection to Gering, Crantz and Friburger, the first printers to set up their press in Paris. Thus both printed books and manuscripts were added to the royal library, for Louis also encouraged translators, scribes and illuminators. He was interested in the history of his house, and was presented with a life of Charlemagne and a detailed genealogical description of the royal ancestry. Louis’s son Charles VIII commissioned manuscripts to add to the books he inherited from his father, including a history of >Saint< Charlemagne, a chronicle of the kings of France and a life of St Denis. Charles VIII fully understood the importance of the literary and artistic movement in Italy, and in 1459 he brought 1594 books back from Italy. It is Charles VIII’s books which form the kernel of the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris. The principle that in the general interest b.ooks amassed by a king ought to be zealously guarded was definitely recognized under Louis XII, and from his time onwards the library was no longcr the king’s personal property but rather a public collcction, open to scholars, both French and foreign. Düring Louis XII’s reign the royal library became the first in the world, for to it were added the superb collections of the Duc d’Orleans, the dukes of Milan, and of Louis of Bruges. Scholars not only gained access to the royal library; they were also encouraged to edit and publish any inedita they discovered, work which the new printing press greatly facilitated. Whcn Francois I came to the throne he founded a new College in Paris and added so extensively to the library that Cujas, a legal historian, complained that all the Latin manuscripts from his part of the Midi were now in the king’s library.7* In 1544 the royal library was transferred to Fontainebleau but was moved back to Paris in response to public request in 1604. The library benefited greatly from the Wars of Religion, for many monastic houscs were forccd to seil their books and they were acquired either by the king or by private collectors. The library of the abbey of St Denis is one of the most famous examples. St Denis possessed somc of the fincst Merovingian and Carolingian manuscripts in France, and 7b Delisle, Cabinet I (note 74) pp. 27-31. 77 J. Barrois, Bibliotheque protypographique. Lcs bibliotheques des fils du roi Jean, Charles V, Jean de Bcrri, Philippe de Bourgognc ct lcs siens, Paris 1530, and H. de Beauvoire, La librairie de Jean, duc de Berry au Chateau de Mchun-sur-Yeurc, Paris 1860. 7fi Quoted by Delisle, Cabinet 1 (note 74) p. 163. 570 Rosamond McKitterick the monks there had made and kept a reputation for literary and historical knowledge, as wellas their fame for fine calligraphy and book illumination.7* * Their loss was the gain of scholars. On 23rd October 1595 the magnificent Bible known as the Second Bible of Charles the Bald arrived in the royal library. It was a Codex four hundred folios thick, written in a beautifully regulär Caroline minuscule and decorated with large intricate initials at the abbey of St Amand in Northern France, and presented to Charles the Bald in about 870. Charles the Bald left some of his books to the abbey of St Denis when he died in 877, and this Bible is one of them. It is still to be seen in the Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris today (BN lat. 2). By the early seventeenth Century the need for books and an understanding of their importance for the maintenance of leaming and knowledge of the national heritage had become a matter of govemment business as well as royal patronage. By order of the Conseil d’Etat of 8th March 1622 for example, the manuscript collection of Philippe Hurault, a collection which had excited the admiration of fellow scholars and which contained many books relevant to the early history of France (including the »Historia Francorum« of Gregory of Tours and Regino of Prüm’s Chronicle), was transferred to the royal library. The order of the Conseil is illuminating: II importait au public et d Vhonneur du royaume que tel recueil de livres ne füt dissipe et nepassdt en mains etrangeres ainsi füt conserve ä posterite pour Zusage de ceux qui font profession des bonnes lettres.90 The principle of refraining from dispersing a library which had been carefully assembled to illustrate different branches of knowledge was also observed by the Dupuy brothers. Pierre and Jacques Dupuy were guardians of the royal library under Louis XIV and themselves possessed a remarkably good collection of manuscripts which they left to the royal libraryBy the mid- seventeenth Century the Dupuy brothers* collection was but one of many fine libraries of documents, manuscript and printed books used by scholars. Perhaps the finest of all was thatof Colbert; it was a library particularly invaluable for Frankish studies. Colbert had acquired the direction of the royal library in 1661 and expended a lot of his energies in acquiring books for it, sending expeditions as far afield as the Levant, Turkey, Egypt, Portugal and Italy as well as nearer home. Mabillon’s expedition to Italy for example was funded by Colbert. Colbert seems however to have been more interested in adding to theriches of his own library. He had by all accounts a veritable passion for books and an unerring eye for Carolingian manuscripts: evidently he prized these above all others. He was in a position to spread his book catching net as wide as he wished and a number of agents were in his cmploy who were responsible for searching for and acquiring books by fair means or foul. In practice the means were more often than not, foul. Many monasteries were persuaded to give or seil their books to the king's minister, often at absurdly low prices.12 One of the most spectacular acquisitions made by Colbert was from the cathedral library at Metz in Lorraine, the region covcred by Colbcrt’s agent de Morangis, a persistent man. Metz had been since the fifth Century one of the principal Frankish cities, the see of the saintly ancestor of the Carolingians, Arnulf, a centre for ecclesiastical reform in the eighth Century and a prominent bishopric in the ninth. In 869, Charles the Bald had given the bishop and canons of Metz his Psalter, a lovely book produced in the so-called »palace-schooh of Charles the Bald and still in its original jewellcd and ivory binding, and the Bible known as the First Bible of Charles the Bald or Vivian Bible (now ” Ibid. pp. 200-207. 1,0 Ibid. p. 214. 11 Ibid. pp. 262-265, L. Dorez, Catalogue de la Collection Dupuy, Paris 1928, and S. Solente, »Les Manuscrits des Dupuy a la Bibliotheque Nationale-, in: Bibliotheque de l'Ecole des Chartcs 88 (1927) pp. 177-250. *2 Delisle, Cabinet 1 (note 74) p. 443-477. The Study of Frankish History 571 BN lat. 1), written and illuminated at Tours in 846 and presented to Charles by the lay abbot, Count Vivian. The former manuscript was in fact in Colbert’s day at first associated with Charlemagne rather than his grandson and this of course made it the more precious. Colbert lusted after these two books and would not rest until he had them. De Morangis succeeded in coaxing the Psalter out of the canons of Metz, in return for which Colbert sent them a full size portrait of Louis XIV! Considerable pressure was then exerted on the canons, insinuating that they would be guilty of treason were the treasure not delivered into the hands of the king’s servant, and the Bible duly arrived in 1675. This time the canons were presented with a jewelled cross worth 1000 livres.” Martin Lister saw these two books when he visited Colbert’s library in 1698. The library was then still in the charge of Etienne Baluze. Lister wrote: I saw the library of the late Monsieur Colbert, that great patron oflearning. The Gallery wherein the printed books are kept is a Groundroom . . . the manuscript library is above stairs in three rooms and it is the choicest of that kind in Paris. It contains 6610volume$. The catalogue of them Monsieur Baluze showed me, which he said was designed mostly for the press. (Baluze) showed me many rare books, Carolus Calvus Bible, a vast folio in vellum and hisprayer book or hours all writ in Gold letters. Also the Missa Beati Rhenanus whereof all the copies were bumt but four, The original deed of the Agreement of the Greek and Roman church agreed upon at Florence and many others which I have forgol. . Both the Bible and the Psalter, together with the rest of Colben’s books now form part of the Bibliotheque Nationales collection. As well as the original manuscripts and documents, Carcavy, Baluze’s predecessor as librarian, and Baluze, when they could not procure the Originals, made copies of documents relating to history, public law and administration. They copied cartularies, diplomatic corres- pondence and Charters from Originals in the royal library and private collections and formed thereby a veritable treasure house for the historian. That many historians and scholars customarily workcd in Colbert’s library is attested by the register of readers kept by Baluze, which records among others, the names of Mabillon, Montfaucon, Cotelier and Du Cange.1* A further depository of documentary material was the Cabinet des Chartes founded in 1762 and transferred in 1790 to the Bibliotheque Nationale. A collection of a rather different kind amassed for the use of scholars and artists was that of the amateur but zealous Roger de Gaignieres. Gaignieres had lodgings in the Guise apartments and was a man of modest means, serving the Duc de Guise as an equerry. He deliberately collected material which would illuminate history and in particular the history of families. Gaignieres explorcd the archives of many abbeys and monasteries, copying everything he could find, and copying in its entirety anything dated before the ycar 900 that he could. He was an antiquarian par excellence. Lister visited Gaignieres’ collection in 1698 and was much impressed, relating how he waited upon the Abbe Droine to visit m. Gaunicrcs (sic) at his lodgings at the hostcl de Guise. This gentleman is courtesy itself and one of the most curious and industrious persons in Paris. His Memoirs, Manuscripts, Paintings and stamps are infinite, but the Method in which he disposes them is very particular and useful. He shewed his portfolios in folio of red Spanish leather finely adomed.* * ** 13 The Psalter is now BN lat. 1152; on it and the Bible sec McKitterick (note 75). 94 Lister, Journey to Paris in the Year 1698 (note 65) pp. 128-130. ** Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. lat. 9366; the names most frequently rccurring are listed by Delisle, Cabinet I, (note 74) pp. 476-477. H Lister, Journey to Paris in the Ycar 1698 (note 65) p. 94. On Gaignieres sce briefly Voss, Das Mittelalter im historischen Denken Frankreichs (note 9a) pp. 166-167. 572 Rosamond McKirterick Gaignieres collection was more what the French called a Cabinet des curiosites et antiquites than a library, but it was one of many such cabinets in the country.17 It is collections such as the royal library, Colbert’s books and Gaignieres cabinet which illustrate not only how the keen, often obsessive, interest in the past was indulged, but also how historians and scholars were provided with the materials they needed. Side by side with the concentration on erudition and scholarship was the development of a philosophical type of historical writing, exemplified by Montesquieu, and above all Voltaire, which surveyed history as a whole and conceived it es a record of human activity in all its manifestations. Voltaire moreover, like many of his contemporaries, hated the Middle Ages; he was a particularly harsh critic of Charlemagne and dispised what he regarded as the learned clutter of the antiquary. David Douglas’s comments about the change in attitude in England towards mediaeval studies by Gibbon’s time in which >technical research had ceased to be the proper occupation for a gentleman<8' apply equally well to France, though perhaps less so to Germany, and there were many who would have agreed with Lord Chestcrfield's lofty observation to his son in 1747 that although he admitted that »Modern History begins properly with Charlemagne in the year 800; a general notion of what is rather supposed than really known to be the history of the five or six following centuries seems to be sufficient.<"* Nevertheless, in the eighteenth Century signs of a new professionalism in historical research and interpretation are to be observed. The critical techniques developed in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were gradually combined with the writing of history as a form of literary narrative and analysis, and Gibbon himself was an example of how learning and interpretation could marry. The founding of learned academies in the eighteenth Century, such as the »Academie des Inscriptions et Beiles Lettres« in Paris (called by that name only in 1716 and in fact the institution itself had been established in the preceding Century) the Prussian Academy founded by Frederick I and the »Akademie der Wissenschaften« in Göttingen founded in 1751 under the patronage of George II, drew its inspiration from the tradition of critical scholarship and erudition which had grown in the preceding two centuries, as did the establishment of the University of Berlin in 1809, of the »Monumenta Germaniae Historica« in 1823 and the »Ecole des Chartes« in Paris in 1824. These were the first beginnings of new developments in the study of mediaeval and of Frankish history which have had a direct impact on the study of Frankish history in our own day.*3 v There was a notable increase in the popularity of such Cabinets and the collection of antiquities aftcr the tomb of Childeric I, the carliest known Frankish ruier, who died in 482, was uncarthed at Tournai in 1653. M David C. Douglas, English Scholars, London 1939, p. 361. w Chesterfield, Letters to his Son No. CXIII, citcd by Douglas, English Scholars (note 88) p. 363. General studies of historiography which include discussions of the main developments of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries include J. W. Thompson, A History of Historical Writing, New York 1942, and E. Fueter, Histoire de PHistoriographie Moderne, Paris 1914; this is the augmented French edition, translated by Emile Jeanmaire. For some specific aspccts of modern historiography about the Frankish period sce D. Knowles, Great Historical Enterprises, London 1963, G. H. Pertz, Autobtog- raphy and Letters cd. L. Pertz, London 1893, Brycc Lyon, Henri Pircnnc; a biographical and intcllcctual study, Ghent 1974, G. Monod, »Du progres des etudes historiques en France depuis 1c XVIc siccle<, in: Revue Historiquc 1 (1876), and D. Bullough »Europac Pater: Charlemagne and his achicvcment in the light of modern scholarship«, in: English Historical Review 85 (1970) pp. 59-105. Voss, Das Mittelalter im historischen Denken Frankreichs (note 9a) pp. 180-368, is particularly valuablc on the continuing develop­ ment of interest in, and research on, the Middle Ages in France in the eighteenth and first half of the nineteenth centuries.