Karolus magnus et Leo papa

Karolus magnus et Leo papa, sometimes called the Paderborn Epic or Aachen Epic, is a Carolingian Latin epic poem of which only the third of four books is extant. It recounts the meeting Charlemagne, king of the Franks, and Pope Leo III, in 799. The conventional title, Karolus Magnus et Leo Papa, derives from the first modern edition by Ernst Dümmler in 1881.[1] A more recent edition by F. Brunhölzl under the title De Karolo rege et Leone papa was published in 1966[2] and re-published in 1999.[3]

Date and authorship

Carl Erdmann first brought historians' attention to the Paderborn Epic in 1951, when he argued that it was written before June 800.[4] The epic may have been written in 799, but probably in the decade after, certainly before Charlemagne's death (814).[5] Henry Mayr-Harting suggests that the court held at Aachen in 802 is the most plausible context of composition.[6]

Janet Nelson says that "one of [Charlemagne's counsellors] surely wrote this poem,"[7] and it may have been written by his own biographer, Einhard.[8] Francesco Stella has argued for the authorship of Modoin, whose debt to Virgil in his description of Aachen elsewhere equals that of the Paderborn poet.[9] It was familiar to Ermold the Black, who may have used it for the hunt scene in the fourth book of his Carmina in honorem Hludovici, an epic poem in honour of Charlemagne's son Louis the Pious.[10] Although it must have been more widely disseminated in Ermold's time, the only surviving copy is the single-book fragment preserved in a late ninth-century manuscript.[11]

Contents

Although the Paderborn Epic's hunt scene, probably describing an actual hunt in the spring of 799, is "highly stylized", the importance of women in Charlemagne's court is highlighted by the order of his retinue: the queen Luitgard, followed by sons Charles and Pippin, and then the "brilliant order of girls" (puellarum ... ordo coruscus), Rotrud, Bertha, Gisela, Ruodhaid, Theodrada and Hiltrud.[12] During the hunt, Charlemagne stops to take a nap and dreams that Leo has been attacked and his eyes and tongue cut out. Historically, Leo was wounded severely but his eyes and tongue were saved. The poet nevertheless mentions the mutilation five times and seven times describes a miraculous healing. The miracle was used to attest Leo's saintliness amidst accusation of adultery by his enemies. By August 799 one of Charlemagne's closest advisers, Alcuin of York, had burned a letter about Leo's adulteries, perhaps convinced of his innocence by the miraculous healing.[13]

The meeting at Paderborn was probably the first time an imperial coronation for Charlemagne was discussed, and it is no coincidence that its verse epic is "replete with imperial phraseology".[6] The poet compares Charlemagne to Aeneas, forefather of the Romans, and calls him augustus and Europae venerandus apex, pater optimus ("of Europe revered pinnacle, excellent father").[6][14][15] He likens his capital, Aachen, to a "second Rome" and a "Rome-to-be".[15] Although the identification of the city of the poem with Charlemagne's capital is nearly universal, it is not explicit in the poem, and the city might in fact be Paderborn itself, whose church was consecrated in 799.[16] Alluding to the conversion of the Saxons, the poet praises terror as a means: "What the contrary mind and perverse soul refuse to do with persuasion, / Let them leap to accomplish when compelled by fear."[17]

Notes

  1. ↑ MGH Poetae Latini Karolini Aevi (Berlin, 1881) I, 366–84 .
  2. ↑ Beumann et al. (1966), 22–28.
  3. ↑ Hentze (1999), 72–78.
  4. ↑ Bullough (1970), 66.
  5. ↑ Scharer (2009), 274.
  6. 1 2 3 Mayr-Harting (1996), 1117–18.
  7. ↑ Nelson (2005), 9.
  8. ↑ Noble (2009), 8–9.
  9. ↑ McKitterick, 140.
  10. ↑ Noble (2009), 121.
  11. ↑ Garrison (1994), 136.
  12. ↑ Scharer (2009), 274–75.
  13. ↑ Nelson (2005), 7–10.
  14. ↑ Bullough (1970), 105.
  15. 1 2 Garrison (1994), 130.
  16. ↑ McKitterick, 141.
  17. ↑ Garrison (1994), 133: Quod mens laeva vetat suadendo animusque sinister, / Hoc saltim cupiant implere timore coacti.

Sources

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