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History Medieval

Charlemagne's Courtier

The Complete Einhard

edited by Paul Edward Dutton

Publisher
University of Toronto Press
Initial publish date
Feb 1998
Category
Medieval, Western
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781442601123
    Publish Date
    Feb 1998
    List Price
    $27.95
  • Paperback / softback

    ISBN
    9781551111346
    Publish Date
    Feb 1998
    List Price
    $22.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442602441
    Publish Date
    Feb 1998
    List Price
    $18.95
  • eBook

    ISBN
    9781442608504
    Publish Date
    Feb 1998
    List Price
    $23.95

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Description

Among the readings included are several existing letters by Emma (Einhard's wife), The Life of Charlemagne, and The History of His Relics. The latter work transports us into an almost unknown world as Einhard, the cool rationalist, arranges for a relic salesman, a veritable bone seller, to acquire saints’ relics from Italy for installation into his new church. The reader is taken on an intrigue-filled trip to Rome, where Einhard's men creep into churches at night to steal bones and then spirit them away to Einhard in the north. The relics are received in town after town as if they were the living saints come to cure the infirm. Einhard's descriptions of the sick, the lame, and the blind of northern Europe vividly expose us to a side of medieval life too rarely encountered in other medieval sources.

About the author

Paul Edward Dutton, Professor of Humanities at Simon Fraser University, is the author of a number of articles and books about the Middle Ages including The Poetry and Paintings of the First Bible of Charles the Bald with Herbert L. Kessler (University of Michigan Press, 1997) and Charlemagne's Mustache and Other Cultural Clusters of a Dark Age (Palgrave, 2004). He is Series Editor of UTP's Readings in Medieval Civilizations and Cultures.

Paul Edward Dutton's profile page