York's rich Anglo-Saxon heritage celebrated in new lecture on Alcuin
Posted on 23 October 1997
Alcuin was an early medieval scholar, brought up and educated in the cathedral community of York. In 767 he became master of the cathedral school where he had a seminal influence on the young clerks, who included future archbishops. His fame spread and the Emperor Charlemagne invited him to join his court. Alcuin went on to fashion Charlemagne's educational and religious policy which had long-lasting effects on European culture.
"Alcuin was one of the most learned and influential figures of the Middle Ages," says Dr Catherine Cubitt of the Centre for Medieval Studies. "He lived in York when it was a leading political and commercial capital, and its cathedral school was a European centre of scholarship. The vitality and prosperity of this Anglo-Saxon age in York is often overlooked by popular concentration on the Vikings. We aim to rejuvenate interest in York's earlier pre-eminence by establishing this lecture."
The first York Alcuin Lecture will be given by Professor Donald Bullough, Emeritus Professor at the University of St Andrews, and the foremost scholar of Alcuin studies. His biography of Alcuin is shortly to be published by Oxford University Press. The lecture is at 7.30 in the McLagin Hall, St William's College on Friday 31 October, and is open to all.
Notes to editors:
- Alcuin's initiatives at Charlemagne's court bore fruit in the Carolingian Renaissance which transformed the shape of European Christianity. Without the efforts of Charlemagne and Alcuin, many important Latin texts would have been lost to posterity. Their educational reforms led to a huge boost to intellectual activity with the creation of great works of art - in manuscript, sculpture and architecture.
- The CMS and the Dean and Chapter will continue their co-operation on highlighting the achievements of Alcuin and York's early medieval past, by organising an international conference in York on 'Court Culture in the Early Middle Ages' from 17 to 19 July 1998.