University of Western Ontario

Abstract

In late eighth-century France, Alcuin of York was largely responsible for the program of education and reform which Charlemagne was attempting to implement. In addition to helping to draft Charlemagne’s documents of reform, Alcuin contributed a diverse body of written work—including riddling dialogues, grammatical treatises, theological tracts and exegesis—and undertook to teach as many as he possibly could. In fact, for Alcuin, teaching was the penultimate goal in learning (second only, of course, to a better understanding of God). As Alcuin put it, “Devotion to learning is worth little without the desire to teach, as Solomon said: ‘Unseen treasure and hidden wisdom, what use is there in either?’ So the whole concern of the intelligent man must be in teaching, or his labour in learning will be in vain. As we read in the prophet: ‘They who teach many shine as the firmament with everlasting light.”’