Lay abbot, politician (perhaps in spite of himself), occasional theologian, hagiographer, poet, historian, perhaps an artist and an architect, Einhard certainly earned his epitaph, the seven couplets in which Hrabanus Maurus described him as wise,...

(ca. 770–840). Frankish scholar and biographer. The author of the 9th-century Vita Caroli, the first known western biography of a secular leader since late antiquity, was born to noble parents in the Main Valley. As a boy, Einhard was educated at...

(fl. mid-14th c.). Music theorist named as the author of De motettis componendis, which gives some simple precepts for the composition of isorhythmic motets. One source names him as the author of the Tractatus de diversis figuris, elsewhere ascribed to...

Einhard (also Eginhard or Einhart) (c. 775 – March 14, 840 in Seligenstadt, Germany) was a monk, Frankish historian and a dedicated servant of Charlemagne. He wrote a number works, the most famous of which was produced at the request of...

Charlemagne believed in fair government for all.He ruled an empire called Francia that stretched larger than the boundaries of what today are France and Germany. Despite the great distances and difficulty in traveling, Charlemagne (742-814) gathered all his leaders for meetings every year.At these assemblies,...

In the following excerpt, Dutton explores the characteristics of Einhard the man, not limited only to his writing of the Life of Charlemagne, and considers him as courtier, poet, theologian, and the author of Translation and Miracles.

In the following excerpt, Thorpe examines the biographies of Charlemagne and Einhard and comments on the latter's reticence to write anything negative about his subject.

In the following excerpt, originally published in French in 1951, Ganshof argues that the Life of Charlemagne is not only historically valuable but also interesting reading in its own right.