Two Lives Of Charlemagne
Condition: SECONDHAND
This is a secondhand book. The jacket image is a photograph of the exact copy we have in stock. This image shows the condition of this book. Further condition remarks are below.
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few rulers have inspired biography with the immediacy and authority found in Two Lives of Charlemagne, a remarkable pairing of two medieval accounts of the most powerful monarch of the early Middle Ages. The first, written by Einhard — a scholar and intimate of the Frankish court — presents a precise, classically-modelled portrait of Charlemagne as warrior, administrator, and Christian king, drawing directly on personal acquaintance to chronicle the Emperor's campaigns, governance, and private character. The second, by Notker the Stammerer, a Swiss monk writing decades after Charlemagne's death, takes an altogether different approach: anecdotal, vivid, and at times almost fabulist, it preserves the legendary aura that had already begun to surround the great Emperor in popular memory. Together, these two contrasting narratives illuminate not only the man who united much of Western Europe under a single crown but also the medieval mind's dual impulse toward historical record and heroic myth. Einhard's cool Latinate precision stands in fascinating tension with Notker's warm, digressive storytelling, making this volume as much a study in medieval literary sensibility as it is a political biography. Published in the prestigious Penguin Classics series with an authoritative translation and introduction, this edition remains an essential gateway for anyone drawn to the origins of European civilisation — and to the enduring question of how great men are remembered long after their age has passed.
Author: Einhard And Notker The Stammerer
Format: Paperback
Genre: Biography
Condition remarks:
Book: Good
Jacket: No dust jacket
Pages: Good
Markings: Previous owner
Condition remarks: Condition as shown in image
Few rulers have inspired biography with the immediacy and authority found in Two Lives of Charlemagne, a remarkable pairing of two medieval accounts of the most powerful monarch of the early Middle Ages. The first, written by Einhard — a scholar and intimate of the Frankish court — presents a precise, classically-modelled portrait of Charlemagne as warrior, administrator, and Christian king, drawing directly on personal acquaintance to chronicle the Emperor's campaigns, governance, and private character. The second, by Notker the Stammerer, a Swiss monk writing decades after Charlemagne's death, takes an altogether different approach: anecdotal, vivid, and at times almost fabulist, it preserves the legendary aura that had already begun to surround the great Emperor in popular memory. Together, these two contrasting narratives illuminate not only the man who united much of Western Europe under a single crown but also the medieval mind's dual impulse toward historical record and heroic myth. Einhard's cool Latinate precision stands in fascinating tension with Notker's warm, digressive storytelling, making this volume as much a study in medieval literary sensibility as it is a political biography. Published in the prestigious Penguin Classics series with an authoritative translation and introduction, this edition remains an essential gateway for anyone drawn to the origins of European civilisation — and to the enduring question of how great men are remembered long after their age has passed.