Reviews for The Carolingians and the Written Word

The average rating for The Carolingians and the Written Word based on 2 reviews is 5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2018-11-29 00:00:00 david judd dy Wow! Here is a scholarly book that, for the most part reads like a good novel. For monolingual Neanderthals like me, she doesn't translate all her quotes, but, on the other hand she does not use a lot of them; only when necessary. One gets the feeling (probable correctly) that she has read every document that is available that is mentioned. She makes her case that Franco-Alemania was much better read and served by libraries, scriptoria, and literate nobles, than is generally thought. She also shows the debt due to the Moravingians for their starting point in transformation from Roman to Medieval writings. Excellent read with the exception of about four pages that come across like the begats in the Bible.

Review # 2 was written on 2017-06-12 00:00:00 Eric Fry Literacy and writing were important to the Carolingians as the emperor established and expanded the administrative state. No shortage of eager bureaucrats to 'spread the word' in written form, either. Dense, rich, meaty, foundational research, including important work on the literacy already widespread before the Carolingians, based on the author's research on the pre-Carolingian St. Gall charters and manuscripts.