Alcuin's Pupils

the Ascension, in the Drogo Sacramentary

As Italians were the main influential scholar groups at the Carolingian court before the arrival of Alcuin, it was, with Alcuin, the Anglo-Saxon influence which developed. Following the death of Alcuin in 804 A.D., it was one of his pupils, Theodulf (or Theodulph) who became his heir as chief of the Palace School. Generally, the influence of Alcuin, through his pupils, should have been bound to last in the Carolingian empire. It was short-lived however, likely due to the political troubles and fightings which soon developed after Charlemagne's death in 814

The men who were to take the succession of Alcuin in the development of litteracy in the Empire were Arno, archbishop of Salzburg, Theodulph, Bishop of Orleans, Eanbald, archbishop of York, Adelhard, a cousin of Charlemagne, abbot of New Corbie, Aldrich, abbot of Ferrières, Fridugis, the successor of Alcuin at Tours, and, eventually, Rabanus Maurus who became abbot of Fulda. Theodulf had been born c. 760 A.D. in Spain. He was of Visigothic descent and he had settled in the Carolingian kingdom in 788, joining the circle of scholars of the court. Charlemagne appointed him abbot of Fleury, and, later, about 798, bishop of Orleans. Theodulf was the abbott of a number of other monasteries at the same time, like St-Benoît-sur-Loire. He became the head of the Palace School after Alcuin. As far as the construction of the abbey church of Germigny-des-Prés is concerned, Theodulf hired a Armenian architect, Odo, who gave the building and its decoration a Byzantine taste (is that at the origin of the view according to which the romanesque art would have had a Armenian origin? In any case it looks like, Theodulf being a Visigoth, the link extant between Visigothic Spain and Byzantium was lasting). It is likely that he tended to extend to the Empire the establishment of parochial schools he had promoted inside his own bishopric. Theodulf may be considered the chief poet of Charlemagne's era. Charged with conspiracy by Louis the Pious in 818 A.D. in the affair of King Bernard of Italy, he was exiled to a monastery in Angers, and he died there in 821. As far as Rabanus Maurus is concerned, check a page dedicated to him

The influence of Alcuin, on the other hand, certainly was felt in the Empire due to that he had had like pupils too members of Charlemagne's family, young nobles sent to the court for their education, and young clerics of the palace chapel