London
Ghent
St Omer
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Ingelheim
St Quentin
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Orville
Lorsch
Quierzy
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Koeth
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Corbeny
Salz
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Ven
Kissingen
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Würzburg
Chelles
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Geneva
Ratisbon
Metz
Lechfeld
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Bodman
Longlien
(Longlier)
Speyer
Seilles
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Herstal
Schlettstadt
Duren
Sinfeld Eresburg
Herstelle
Thuringen
Brunsberg
Rehme
Wolmirst
Canterbury
St Riquier
Rouen
Reims
St Amand
1
2
6 7
3 4
5
Echternach
Aachen
Salzburg
Magdeburg
Tours
Germigny
rdeaux
uch
Bourges
St Gall
Reichenau
Paris
Toulouse
Narbonne Aix-en-Provence
Avignon
Lyon
Vienne
Cluny
Tarentaise
Embrun
Pisa
Aquileia
Turin
Genoa
Milan
Ravenna
Florence
Siena
Venice
Rhine
Seine
L
oire
Rhône
Elbe
Danube
o
A
D
R
I A
T
I C
N E E S
A L P S
A N Y
SEX
W E S T
F R A N K I S H
K I N G D O M
EAST
FRANKISH
KINGDOM
P O
BURGUNDY
CROATIA
campaign of literary and artistic production,
which continued into the tenth century. From
the later tenth century the Roman empire ruled
by a Saxon dynasty in Germany, commonly
called the Ottonian dynasty, also drew scholars
and artists from afar, including the Byzantine
empire.
For a small group, the world suddenly
became much smaller, and men such as
Gerbert of Aurillac took advantage of the new
range of possibilities. Born and educated in
southern France, he became a famous teacher
at Reims in northern France, then became tutor
the earliest
manuscript for a
d painter as the
–83). Although we
was made, it and
y luxurious
agne.
n three centuries,
ed under court
rrent supply of
y turning over
ristian) ivories
Rohrbach
Leutmerken
Tägerschen
Pfäffikon
Helfenschwil
Willmandingen
Bettighofen
Dieterskirchen
Oberndorf
Buchheim
Mengen
Wolfenweiler
Spaichingen
Tuningen
Klengen
Wurmlingen
Tuttlingen
Löffingen
Fischingen
Binzen
Lausheim
Weizen Singen
Diessenhofen
Bülach
Glatt
Höngg
Zurich
Ringwil
Kempraten Grabs
Fischbach
Constance
Bermatingen
Siggingen Urlau Luttolsberg
Mindersdorf
Bussnang Amriswil
Sitterdorf
Heldswil
Zuzwil
Lommis
Aadorf
Elgg
Büren
Zell
Turbental
Jonschwil Bütschwil
Ulm
Schörzingen
Pfohren
Ewattingen
Goldach
Steinach
Durnten
Wetzikon
Langenargen
Egringen
Winterthur
Wängi
Rickinbach Henau
Uzwil
Herisau
Uster
Kirchen
Stammheim
Mönchaltorf
Egg
Eschenbach
Schlins
Leiblach
Buchorn
Bodman
Romanshorn
ST GALL
ST GALL
Gossau
Leutkirch
Wasserburg
Uznach
Rankweil
Rhine
Thur
Rhine
Rhine
Lake Constance
Lake Zurich
Lake Wallen
Allgäner
Alpen
Bregenzer Wald
S w a b i a n J u r a
Black Fo
rest
BREISGAU
BERCHTOLDSBAAR
SCHERRAGA
U
ARGENGAU
AARGAU
KLETTGAU
ALBGAU
LINZGAU
NIBELGAU
ZÜRICHGAU
THURGAU
HEGAU
RAETIA
CURIENSIS
N
0
0
20 miles
30 kms
end of the period the core of the later English
and French nations had been defined.
Monasteries, already important in
preceding centuries, played if anything an
enhanced role in the ninth and tenth. Many
2 The Abbey of St Gall
sites with abbey properties
places with 10 charters or more
places with 5-10 charters
places with 3 or 4 charters
places with 2 charters
campaign of literary and artistic production,
which continued into the tenth century. From
the later tenth century the Roman empire ruled
by a Saxon dynasty in Germany, commonly
called the Ottonian dynasty, also drew scholars
and artists from afar, including the Byzantine
empire.
For a small group, the world suddenly
became much smaller, and men such as
Gerbert of Aurillac took advantage of the new
range of possibilities. Born and educated in
southern France, he became a famous teacher
at Reims in northern France, then became tutor
to the future Emperor Otto III, and was
appointed by him Pope Sylvester II in 997.
Artists similarly travelled. We know of a
Carolingian painter in the employ of abbots
travelling from central France to central
Germany and returning, of Anglo-Saxon artists
active at Fleury and probably in the Meuse
region, and one famous master who worked for
the Archbishop of Trier in the late tenth century
probably visited Rome.
Gerbert’s career exemplifies the relative
insignificance of borders. Latin was the shared
language of written culture and administration
nearly everywhere in the West, and there was
an emerging sense of a special Western
Christendom, represented by the enlargement
of Christendom westwards to encompass all of
Scandinavia, including Iceland and Greenland,
and eastwards to include Poland and Hungary.
Borders were very much in flux in any event,
prompted only in part by the raids and
subsequent invasions of the Vikings. By the
tradition, and for it was made the earliest
preserved luxury illuminated manuscript for a
ruler, known after its scribe and painter as the
Godescalc Evangelistary (781–83). Although we
do not know where that book was made, it and
a group of other extraordinarily luxurious
books were made for Charlemagne.
After a hiatus of more than three centuries,
carvings on ivory were produced under court
patronage. As there was no current supply of
new ivory, many were made by turning over
Late Roman secular (never Christian) ivories
and carving the back.
Also for the court were made large-scale
works in bronze, including the doors and
railings for the palace chapel. How the difficult
art of bronze casting was recovered remains
something of a mystery, as is also the case with
the wall mosaics at Aachen and at Theodulf’s
chapel at Germigny, another technique revived
after several centuries abeyance other than in
the city of Rome.
The Frankish royal courts became the first
court centre of cultural and artistic patronage
in the post-Roman period, and drew many
creative figures from beyond the Frankish
realm, including Alcuin from northern England,
Theodulf from northern Spain, Paulinus of
Aquileia and others from Italy, and later John
the Scot Eriugena from Ireland.
OTTONIAN EUROPE
From the later ninth century the Frankish
kingdoms were in decline, but Alfred the
Great’s Wessex began a major royal-sponsored
Lake Wallen
end of the period the core of the later English
and French nations had been defined.
Monasteries, already important in
preceding centuries, played if anything an
enhanced role in the ninth and tenth. Many
received royal support, or the support of major
local aristocratic patrons, and in turn were
expected to contribute to royal projects,
providing not only books and teachers but also
money and even soldiers. Some of the royal
monasteries became major centres of artistic
production, the monastery at Tours, for
example, producing something like two
complete bibles and a gospel book annually
during the second quarter of the ninth century.
The ties between state and church were
especially intimate in Ottonian Germany,
culminating in the eleventh century in intense
conflicts. Some monasteries sought to insulate
themselves from secular ties; the great
monastery of Cluny (founded 919) was
chartered as dependent only upon the pope,
and also strengthened its independence by
creating an order, an alliance of many
monasteries scattered across Christendom
with the Burgundian mother house at its head.
The well-documented case of the abbey of St
Gall, just south of Lake Constance in modern
Switzerland, shows the extent of monastic
involvement in land-holding patterns and also
of literary and administrative culture.
Monasteries were also important as the
home of holy men, specialists in prayer, and of
the holy men and women of the past, present
through their relics, whose cult became
increasingly important through the period.
Relics were required in association with every
altar, usually small portions of holy bodies in
small but elaborately decorated reliquaries.
2 The Abbey of St Gall
sites with abbey properties
places with 10 charters or more
places with 5-10 charters
places with 3 or 4 charters
places with 2 charters
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