Alcuin › Texts

Short Name: Alcuin
Full Name: Alcuin, 735-804
Birth Year: 735
Death Year: 804

Alcuin [Alcuinus] Albinus Flaccus, was born in Yorkshire (and probably at York), c. 735. He received his early education under Egbert, Archbishop of York, to whom he was librarian for some time. Subsequently, in 782, at the request of Charlemagne, he went to France and attained there a position of considerable importance. He died at Tours in 804. His connection with hymnology is slight. His Opera were edited by Du Chesne, and published in Paris in 1617. See "Luminis fons, lux et origo lucis," p. 1667, i.

--John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology, New Supplement (1907)

Wikipedia Biography

Alcuin of York (/ˈælkwɪn/; Latin: Flaccus Albinus Alcuinus; c. 735 – 19 May 804) – also called Ealhwine, Alhwin, or Alchoin – was scholar, clergyman, poet, and teacher from York, Northumbria. He was born around 735 and became the student of Archbishop Ecgbert at York. At the invitation of Charlemagne, he became a leading scholar and teacher at the Carolingian court, where he remained a figure in the 780s and 790s. "The most learned man anywhere to be found", according to Einhard's Life of Charlemagne (c. 817–833), he is considered among the most important intellectual architects of the Carolingian Renaissance. Among his pupils were many of the dominant intellectuals of the Carolingian era.

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