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{{Short description|8th-9th century renaissance within the Carolingian Empire}}
[[File:Minuscule caroline.jpg|thumb|[[Carolingian minuscule]], one of the products of the Carolingian Renaissance.]]

The '''Carolingian Renaissance''' was the first of three [[medieval renaissances]], a period of cultural activity in the [[Carolingian Empire]]. [[Charlemagne]]'s reign led to an intellectual revival beginning in the 8th century and continuing throughout the 9th century, taking inspiration from ancient Roman and Greek culture<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Rietbergen |first=P. J. A. N. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/52849131 |title=A Short History of the Netherlands: From Prehistory to the Present Day |publisher=Bekking |year=2000 |isbn=90-6109-440-2 |edition=4th |location=Amersfoort |pages=29 |oclc=52849131}}</ref> and the [[State church of the Roman Empire|Christian Roman Empire]] of the fourth century. During this period, there was an increase of [[literature]], [[writing]], [[visual art]]s, [[architecture]], [[music]], [[jurisprudence]], [[liturgical]] reforms, and [[Religious text|scriptural]] studies. Carolingian schools were effective centers of education, and they served generations of scholars by producing editions and copies of the classics, both Christian and pagan.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|date=2005 |pages=290–291|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-280290-3 }}</ref>

The movement occurred mostly during the reigns of [[Carolingian]] rulers [[Charlemagne]] and [[Louis the Pious]]. It was supported by the scholars of the [[Carolingian dynasty|Carolingian court]], notably [[Alcuin|Alcuin of York]].{{sfnp|Trompf|1973}} Charlemagne's ''[[Admonitio generalis]]'' (789) and ''[[De litteris colendis|Epistola de litteris colendis]]'' served as manifestos. Alcuin wrote on subjects ranging from grammar and biblical exegesis to arithmetic and astronomy. He also collected rare books, which formed the nucleus of the library at York Cathedral. His enthusiasm for learning made him an effective teacher. [[Alcuin]] writes:<ref>{{cite web | url=https://mathshistory.st-andrews.ac.uk/Biographies/Alcuin/ | title=Alcuin - Biography }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QPoUCgAAQBAJ|title=Tried by Fire: The Story of Christianity's First Thousand Years|date=22 March 2016 |page=325|publisher=Thomas Nelson |isbn=978-0-7180-1871-9 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oH92EAAAQBAJ|title=The Art of Mathematics – Take Two: Tea Time in Cambridge|date=30 June 2022 |page=300|publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-108-97642-8 }}</ref>
{{blockquote|In the morning, at the height of my powers, I sowed the seed in Britain, now in the evening when my blood is growing cold I am still sowing in France, hoping both will grow, by the grace of God, giving some the honey of the holy scriptures, making others drunk on the old wine of ancient learning}}

Another prominent figure in the Carolingian renaissance was [[Theodulf of Orléans]], a refugee from the [[Muslim conquest of the Iberian Peninsula|Umayyad invasion of Spain]] who became involved in the cultural circle at the imperial court before Charlemagne appointed him bishop of Orléans. Theodulf’s greatest contribution to learning was his scholarly edition of the [[Vulgate]] Bible, drawing on manuscripts from Spain, Italy, and Gaul, and even the original Hebrew.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ|title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church|date=2005 |page=1603|publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-280290-3 }}</ref>

The effects of this cultural revival were mostly limited to a small group of court ''[[intellectual|literati]]''.<ref name=":02" /> According to [[John Contreni]], "it had a spectacular effect on education and culture in [[Francia]], a debatable effect on artistic endeavors, and an unmeasurable effect on what mattered most to the Carolingians, the moral regeneration of society".{{sfnp|Contreni|1984|p=59}}{{sfnp|Nelson|1986}} The secular and ecclesiastical leaders of the Carolingian Renaissance made efforts to write better Latin, to copy and [[Carolingian Libraries|preserve]] patristic and classical texts, and to develop a more legible, classicizing script, with clearly distinct capital and minuscule letters. It was the [[Carolingian minuscule]] that [[Renaissance humanism|Renaissance humanists]] took to be Roman and employed as [[humanist minuscule]], from which has developed early modern [[Italic script]]. They also applied rational ideas to social issues for the first time in centuries, providing a common language and writing style that enabled communication throughout most of Europe.

==Background==
[[File:Empire carolingien 768-811.jpg|thumb|upright=1.35|Expansion of the [[Frankish Empire]]:<br />Blue = realm of [[Pepin the Short]] in 758;<br />Orange = expansion under [[Charlemagne]] until 814;<br />Yellow = [[March (territory)#Frankish Empire and successor states|Marches]] and dependencies;<br />Red = [[Papal States]].]]

As [[Pierre Riché]] points out, the expression "Carolingian Renaissance" does not imply that [[Western Europe]] was barbaric or obscurantist before the Carolingian era.<ref>Pierre Riché, Les Carolingiens. Une famille qui fit l'Europe, Paris, Hachette, coll. « Pluriel », 1983 p. 354</ref> The centuries following the [[dissolution of the Roman Empire]] in the West did not see an abrupt disappearance of the ancient schools.  Indeed, from them emerged [[Martianus Capella]], [[Cassiodorus]], and [[Boethius]], essential icons of the [[Culture of ancient Rome|Roman cultural heritage]] in the [[Early Middle Ages]], thanks to which the disciplines of liberal arts were preserved.<ref>Michel Lemoine, article Arts libéraux in Claude Gauvard (dir.), Dictionnaire du Moyen Âge, Paris, PUF, coll. « Quadrige », 2002 p. 94</ref> The 7th century saw the "[[Isidorian Renaissance]]" in the [[Visigothic Kingdom]] of Hispania<ref>Sur le sujet, voir Jacques Fontaine, ''Isidore de Séville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne wisigothique'', Paris, 1959</ref> in which sciences flourished<ref>{{cite book |last=Fernández-Morera |first=Darío |title=The Myth of the Andalusian Paradise. Muslims, Christians and Jews under Islamic Rule in Medieval Spain |year=2016 |publisher=ISI Books |isbn=9781504034692 |page=70}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Fear |first=A. T. |title=Lives of the Visigothic Fathers |year=1997 |publisher=Liverpool University |isbn=978-0853235828 |page=XXII-XXIII |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/livesofvisigothi00fear }}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Kampers |first=Gerd |title=Geschichte der Westgoten |year=2008 |publisher=Ferdinand Schöningh |isbn=9783506765178 |page=322}}</ref> and the [[History of Western civilization|integration of Christian and pre-Christian thought occurred]],<ref>Jacques Fontaine, ''Isidore de Séville et la culture classique dans l'Espagne wisigothique'', Paris, 1959</ref> while the spread of [[Scriptorium|Irish monastic schools]] (''scriptoria'') over Europe laid the groundwork for the Carolingian Renaissance.<ref>Pierre Riché, Éducation et culture dans l'Occident barbare (VIe-VIIIe siècles), Paris, Le Seuil, coll. « Points Histoire », 1995, 4e éd.. p.256-257, 264, 273-274, 297</ref><ref>[[Louis Halphen]], ''Les Barbares'', Paris, 1936, p. 236 ; [[Étienne Gilson]], ''La Philosophie au Moyen Âge'', Paris, 1944, p. 181.</ref>

There were numerous factors in this cultural expansion, the most obvious of which was that Charlemagne's uniting of most of Western Europe brought about peace and stability, which set the stage for prosperity. This period marked an economic revival in Western Europe, following the [[fall of the Western Roman Empire]] in the 5th century. Local economies in the West had degenerated into largely [[subsistence agriculture]] by the early 7th century, with towns functioning merely as places of gift-exchange for the elite.{{sfn|Verhulst|2002|p=133}} By the late 7th century, developed urban settlements had emerged, populated mostly by craftsmen, merchants and boaters and boasting street grids, artisanal production as well as regional and long-distance trade.{{sfn|Verhulst|2002|p=133}} A prime example of this type of emporium was [[Dorestad]].{{sfn|Verhulst|2002|p=133}}

[[File:Kloster Lorsch 07.jpg|thumb|250px|left|[[Lorsch Abbey]] gatehouse, {{circa|800}}, an example of the [[Carolingian architecture|Carolingian architectural style]]—a first, albeit isolated [[Classical architecture|classical movement]] in architecture.]]
The development of the Carolingian economy was fueled by the efficient organization and exploitation of labor on large estates, producing a surplus of primarily grain, wine and salt.{{sfn|Verhulst|2002|p=113}}{{sfn|Verhulst|2002|p=135}} In turn, inter-regional trade in these commodities facilitated the expansion of towns.{{sfn|Verhulst|2002|p=113}}{{sfn|Verhulst|2002|p=135}} Archaeological data shows the continuation of this upward trend in the early eighth century.{{sfn|Verhulst|2002|p=133}} The zenith of the early Carolingian economy was reached from 775 to 830, coinciding with the largest surpluses of the period, large-scale building of churches as well as overpopulation and three famines that showed the limits of the system.{{sfn|Verhulst|2002|p=134}} After a period of disruption from 830 to 850, caused by civil wars and [[Viking]] raids, economic development resumed in the 850s, with the emporiums disappearing completely and being replaced by fortified commercial towns.{{sfn|Verhulst|2002|p=134}}

One of the major causes of the sudden economic growth was the [[Arab slave trade]]. Following the rise of the [[Caliphate|Arab Muslim caliphates]], the [[History of slavery in the Muslim world|Arab elites created a major demand for slaves in the Muslim world]], with [[White slavery|European slaves]] particularly prized. As a result of Charlemagne's wars of conquest in [[Eastern Europe]], a steady supply of captured [[Slavs]], [[Pannonian Avars|Avars]], [[Saxons]], and [[Danes]] reached merchants in Western Europe, who then exported the slaves via [[Empúries|Ampurias]], [[Girona]], and the [[Pyrenees]] passes to [[Al-Andalus|Muslim Spain]] and other parts of the Arab world.{{sfn|Verhulst|2002|p=105}} The market for slaves was so lucrative that it almost immediately transformed the long-distance trade of the European economies.<ref>{{cite journal | title=New Light on the 'Dark Ages': How the Slave Trade Fuelled the Carolingian Economy | author=McCormick, Michael | journal=Past & Present | issue=177 | date=1 November 2002 | pages=17–54| doi=10.1093/past/177.1.17 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | title=From Slavs to Slaves | author=Frost, Peter | url=http://evoandproud.blogspot.com/2013/09/from-slavs-to-slaves.html | date=September 14, 2013 | website=Evo and Proud}}</ref> The slave trade enabled the West to re-engage with the Arab Muslim caliphates and the [[Byzantine Empire|Eastern Roman Empire]], so that other industries, such as textiles, were able to grow in Europe as well.<ref>{{cite book | title=The Theft of History | author=Goody, Jack | publisher=Cambridge University Press | year=2012 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Cc0LAQAAQBAJ | pages=87–88| isbn=9781107394704 }}</ref>

==Import==
[[Kenneth Clark]] was of the view that by means of the Carolingian Renaissance, Western civilization survived by the skin of its teeth.<ref>[[Kenneth Clark|Clark]], ''Civilization''.</ref> However, the use of the term ''renaissance'' to describe this period is contested, notably by [[Lynn Thorndike]],{{sfnp|Thorndike|1943}} due to the majority of changes brought about by this period being confined almost entirely to the [[clergy]], and due to the period lacking the wide-ranging social movements of the later [[Italian Renaissance]].<ref name=Scott30>{{harvp|Scott|1964|p=30}}.</ref> Instead of being a rebirth of new cultural movements, the period was more an attempt to recreate the previous culture of the [[Roman Empire]].{{sfnp|Cantor|1993|p=190}} The Carolingian Renaissance in retrospect also has some of the character of a false dawn, in that its cultural gains were largely dissipated within a couple of generations, a perception voiced by [[Walahfrid Strabo]] (died 849), in his introduction to [[Einhard]]'s ''Life of Charlemagne'',{{refn|group=n|Einhard's use of the Roman historian [[Suetonius]] as a model for the new genre of [[biography]] is itself a marker for the Carolingian Renaissance.{{sfnp|Innes|1997}}}} summing up the generation of renewal:
<blockquote>Charlemagne was able to offer the cultureless and, I might say, almost completely unenlightened territory of the realm which God had entrusted to him, a new enthusiasm for all human knowledge. In its earlier state of barbarousness, his kingdom had been hardly touched at all by any such zeal, but now it opened its eyes to God's illumination. In our own time the thirst for knowledge is disappearing again: the light of wisdom is less and less sought after and is now becoming rare again in most men's minds.<ref>[[Lewis Thorpe]], tr., Einhard and Notker the Stammerer, ''Two Lives of Charlemagne'', 1969:49f.</ref></blockquote>

==Scholarly efforts==
{{See also|Carolingian minuscule|Medieval Latin}}
A lack of Latin literacy in eighth-century western Europe caused problems for the Carolingian rulers by severely limiting the number of people capable of serving as court [[scribe]]s in societies where Latin was valued. Of even greater concern to some rulers was the fact that not all parish priests possessed the skill to read the [[Vulgate Bible]]. An additional problem was that the [[vulgar Latin]] of the later [[Western Roman Empire]] had begun to diverge into the regional dialects, the precursors to today's [[Romance languages]], that were becoming mutually unintelligible and preventing scholars from one part of Europe being able to communicate with persons from another part of Europe.

[[File:Raban-Maur Alcuin Otgar.jpg|thumb|left|[[Alcuin]] (pictured centre), was one of the leading scholars of the Carolingian Renaissance.]]

To address these problems, [[Charlemagne]] ordered the creation of [[Carolingian schools|schools]] in a [[capitulary]] known as the ''Charter of Modern Thought'', issued in 787.<ref name="Carolingian Schools of Thought">[[Carolingian Schools]], Carolingian Schools of Thought.</ref>  A major part of his program of reform was to attract many of the leading scholars of the Christendom of his day to his court. Among the first called to court were [[Italians]]: [[Peter of Pisa]], who from 776 to about 790 instructed Charlemagne in Latin, and from 776 to 787 [[Paulinus of Aquileia]], whom Charlemagne nominated as [[patriarch of Aquileia]] in 787. The [[Lombards|Lombard]] [[Paul the Deacon]] was brought to court in 782 and remained until 787, when Charles nominated him [[abbot]] of [[Montecassino]]. [[Theodulf of Orléans]] was a [[Visigothic Kingdom|Spanish Goth]] who served at court from 782 to 797 when nominated as [[bishop of Orléans]]. Theodulf had been in friendly competition over the standardization of the [[Vulgate]] with the chief among the Charlemagne's scholars, [[Alcuin of York]].  Alcuin was a [[Northumbria]]n [[monk]] and [[deacon]] who served as head of the Palace School from 782 to 796, except for the years 790 to 793 when he returned to [[England]]. After 796, he continued his scholarly work as abbot of St. Martin's Monastery in [[Tours]].<ref name=Scott30/> Among those to follow Alcuin across the Channel to the Frankish court was [[Joseph Scottus]], an Irishman who left some original biblical commentary and acrostic experiments. After this first generation of non-Frankish scholars, their [[Franks|Frankish]] pupils, such as [[Angilbert]], would make their own mark.

The later courts of [[Louis the Pious]] and [[Charles the Bald]] had similar groups of scholars many of whom were [[Carolingian schools#The Irish Teachers|of Irish origin]]. The Irish monk [[Dicuil]] attended the former court, and the more famous Irishman [[John Scotus Eriugena]] attended the latter becoming head of the Palace School at [[Aachen]].

One of the primary efforts was the creation of a standardized curriculum for use at the recently created schools. Alcuin led this effort and was responsible for the writing of textbooks, creation of word lists, and establishing the [[Trivium (education)|trivium]] and [[quadrivium]] as the basis for education.{{sfnp|Cantor|1993|p=189}}

Another contribution from this period was the development of [[Carolingian minuscule]], a "book-hand" first used at the monasteries of [[Corbie]] and Tours that introduced the use of lower-case letters. A standardized version of Latin was also developed that allowed for the coining of new words while retaining the grammatical rules of [[Classical Latin]]. This [[Medieval Latin]] became a common language of scholarship and allowed administrators and travellers to make themselves understood in various regions of Europe.{{sfnp|Chambers & al.|1983|pp=204-205}}

The earliest concept of Europe as a distinct cultural region (instead of simply a geographic area) appeared during the Carolingian Renaissance of the 9th century, and included the territories which practiced [[Western Christianity]] at the time.<ref>{{cite book |author=Dr. Sanjay Kumar |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iGc9EAAAQBAJ |title=A Handbook of Political Geography |publisher=K.K. Publications |year=2021 |page=127}}</ref>

Carolingian workshops produced over 100,000 manuscripts in the 9th century, of which some 6000 to 7000 survive.{{sfn|Buringh|2010|p=237}} The Carolingians produced the earliest surviving copies of the works of [[Cicero]], [[Horace]], [[Martial]], [[Statius]], [[Lucretius]], [[Terence]], [[Julius Caesar]], [[Boethius]] and [[Martianus Capella]].{{sfn|Buringh|2010|p=139}} No copies of the texts of these authors were made in the Latin West in the 7th and 8th centuries.{{sfn|Buringh|2010|p=139}}

== Reform of Latin pronunciation ==

According to [[Roger Wright (linguist)|Roger Wright]], the Carolingian Renaissance is responsible for the modern-day pronunciation of [[Ecclesiastical Latin]]. Up until that point there had been no conceptual distinction between [[Latin]] and [[Romance languages|Romance]]; the former was simply regarded as the written form of the latter. For instance in early medieval Spain the word for 'century'—which would have been pronounced */sjeglo/— was properly spelled ⟨saeculum⟩, as it had been for the better part of a millennium. The scribe would not have read aloud ⟨saeculum⟩ as /sɛkulum/ any more than an English speaker today would pronounce ⟨knight⟩ as */knɪxt/ rather than /naɪt/.<ref>Wright, pp. 44–50</ref>

Non-native speakers of Latin, however—such as clergy of Anglo-Saxon or Irish origin—appear to have used a rather different pronunciation, presumably attempting to [[Spelling pronunciation|sound out]] each word according to its spelling. The Carolingian Renaissance in France introduced this artificial pronunciation for the first time to native speakers as well. No longer would, for instance, the word ⟨viridiarium⟩ 'orchard' be read aloud as the equivalent [[Old French]] word */verdʒjǽr/. It now had to be pronounced precisely as spelled, with all six syllables: /viridiarium/.<ref>Wright, pp. 104–7</ref>

Such a radical change had the effect of rendering Latin sermons completely unintelligible to the general Romance-speaking public, which prompted officials a few years later, at the [[Council of Tours#Council of Tours 813|Council of Tours]], to instruct priests to read sermons aloud in the old way, in ''rusticam romanam linguam'' or 'plain roman[ce] speech' (while the liturgy retained the new pronunciation to this day).<ref>Wright, pp. 118-20</ref>

As there was now no unambiguous way to indicate whether a given text was to be read aloud as Latin or Romance, and native Germanic speakers (such as church singers) numerous in the empire might have struggled to read words in Latin orthography according to Romance orthoepy, various attempts were made in France to devise a new orthography for the latter; among the earliest examples are parts of the [[Oaths of Strasbourg]] and the [[Sequence of Saint Eulalia]]. As the Carolingian Reforms spread the 'proper' Latin pronunciation from France to other Romance-speaking areas, local scholars eventually felt the need to create distinct spelling systems for their own vernaculars as well, thereby initiating the literary phase of Medieval Romance.<ref>Wright, pp. 122–32, 143–4</ref> Writing in Romance does not appear to have become widespread until the [[Renaissance of the 12th century|Renaissance of the Twelfth Century]], however.<ref>Wright 2002, p. 151</ref>

==Carolingian art==
{{main|Carolingian art}}
Carolingian art spans the roughly hundred-year period from about 800–900. Although brief, it was an influential period. Northern Europe embraced classical Mediterranean Roman art forms for the first time, setting the stage for the rise of [[Romanesque art]] and eventually [[Gothic art]] in the West. [[Illuminated manuscript]]s, [[metalwork]], small-scale [[sculpture]], [[mosaic]]s, and [[fresco]]s survive from the period.

==Carolingian architecture==
{{main|Carolingian architecture}}
{{multiple image
| caption_align     = center
| header_align      = center
| header            = Instrumental music
| align             = right
| image1            = Ethan playing his cithara with King David, from the Vivian Bible, Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Latin 1, folio 215v.jpg
| width1            = 122
| alt1              = Cithara player from Charles the Bald Bible
| caption1          = A musician playing a cithara that is thought to have evolved from the Greek lyre, from the 9th century [[Charles the Bald]] Bible.
| image2            = Cithara from Utrecht Psalter Psalm 42.jpg
| width2            = 102
| alt2              = Cithara player from Utrecht Psalter
| caption2          = Player with [[cithara]] that appears lute-like, from the 9th century [[Utrecht Psalter]].
| image3            = Cythara first illustration from Stuttgart Psalter.jpg
| width3            = 150
| alt3              = Stuttgart Cythara
| caption3          = A [[cithara]] (word used by the early 9th century [[Stuttgart Psalter]]) being held as a [[citole]] three centuries later.
| footer_background = #7BAFD4
| footer_align      = <!-- left (default), center, right -->
| footer            = Documents created during the Carolingian Renaissance show the growth of instrumental music with new instruments. The images may document earlier European cythara (lute types) or else a "revival of the Roman [[kithara]]."<ref name=winternitz3>{{cite journal |last=Winternitz |author-link=Emanuel Winternitz |first=Emanuel |title=THE SURVIVAL OF THE KITHARA AND THE EVOLUTION OF THE CITTERN, A Study in Morphology |url=https://www.academia.edu/24214847 |journal=Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes |volume=24 |issue=3/4 |pages=213 |date=July–December 1961|doi=10.2307/750796 |jstor=750796 |s2cid=195057025 |access-date=24 November 2016}}</ref>
}}

Carolingian architecture is the style of North European architecture promoted by Charlemagne. The period of architecture spans the late eighth and ninth centuries until the reign of [[Otto I, Holy Roman Emperor|Otto I]] in 936, and was a conscious attempt to create a Roman Renaissance, emulating [[Roman architecture|Roman]], [[Early Christian art and architecture|Early Christian]] and [[Byzantine architecture]], with its own innovation, resulting in having a unique character.{{sfnp|Contreni|1984|p=63 }} This syncretic architectural style can be exemplified by the [[St Mark's Basilica|first church of St Mark's]] in Venice, fusing [[Romanesque architecture#Origins|proto-Romanesque]] and Byzantine influences.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Brown |first1=Thomas |title=The Oxford History of Medieval Europe |last2=Holmes |first2=George |publisher=Oxford University Press |year=1988 |location=Great Britain |pages=55 |language=en}}</ref>

There was a profusion of new clerical and secular buildings constructed during this period, John Contreni calculated that "The little more than eight decades between 768 to 855 alone saw the construction of 27 new cathedrals, 417 monasteries, and 100 royal residences".{{sfnp|Contreni|1984|p=63 }}

{{anchor|Currency}}<!--linked-->

==Carolingian currency==
{{See also|Denier (coin)|label 1=Denier|Solidus (coin)|label 2=Solidus|French livre|label 3=Livre|English currency}}
Around AD&nbsp;755, Charlemagne's father [[Pepin the Short]] reformed the [[French livre|currency]] of the [[Francia|Frankish Kingdom]].<ref name=surfingwiththeallen>{{harvp|Allen|2009}}.</ref> A variety of local systems was standardized. Minor [[Mint (facility)|mints]] were closed and royal control over the remaining bigger mints strengthened,<ref name=surfingwiththeallen/> increasing purity.<ref name=chown/> In place of the gold [[Roman currency|Roman]] and [[Byzantine currency|Byzantine]] [[solidus (coin)|solidus]] then common, he established a system based on a new .940-fine [[silver coin|silver]] [[denier (coin)|penny]] ({{langx|la|denarius}}; {{langx|fr|denier}}) weighing 1/240 of a [[Units of measurement in France before the French Revolution#Mass|pound]] (''{{lang|la|librum}}'', ''{{lang|la|libra}}'', or ''{{lang|la|lira}}''; ''{{lang|fr|livre}}'').<ref name=chown/> (The [[Carolingian pound]] seems to have been about 489.5&nbsp;[[gram]]s,{{sfnp|Ferguson|1974|loc="[https://books.google.com/books?id=nfsFPrla1QEC&lpg=PA328 Pound]"}}{{sfnp|Munro|2012|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=eLk6CgAAQBAJ&pg=PT31 31]}} making each penny about 2&nbsp;[[gram]]s.) As the debased solidus was then roughly equivalent to 11 of these pennies, the [[Solidus (coin)#France|shilling]] (''{{lang|la|solidus}}''; ''{{lang|fr|sol}}'') was established at that value, making it 1/22 of the silver pound.<ref name=stannis/> This was later adjusted to 12 and 1/20, respectively. During the Carolingian period, however, neither shillings or [[French livre|pounds]] were minted, being instead used as notional [[unit of account|units of account]].<ref name=chown>{{harvp|Chown|1994|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=E4OGAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA23 23] }}.</ref> (For instance, a "shilling" or "solidus" of grain was a measure equivalent to the amount of grain that 12 pennies could purchase.){{sfnp|Scott|1964|p=40}} Despite the purity and quality of the new pennies, however, they were repeatedly rejected by traders throughout the Carolingian period in favor of the gold coins used elsewhere, a situation that led to repeated legislation against such refusal to accept the king's currency.<ref name=stannis>{{harvp|Suchodolski|1983}}.</ref>

The [[Carolingian system]] was imported to [[Saxon England|England]] by [[Offa of Mercia]] and other kings, where it formed the basis of [[Pound sterling#History|English currency]] until the late 20th century.<ref name=chown/>

== Gallery ==
<gallery>
File:Karolingischer Buchmaler um 820 001.jpg|[[Aachen Gospels (Ada School)|Aachen Gospels]] ({{circa|820}}), an example of Carolingian [[Illuminated manuscript|illumination]].
File:St gall plan.jpg|A copy of the [[Plan of Saint Gall]]
</gallery>

==See also==
* [[Iconography of Charlemagne]]
* [[Golden Age of Bulgaria|Golden Age of medieval Bulgarian culture]]
* [[Carolingian church]]
* [[Romance languages]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=n}}

==References==
===Citations===
{{Reflist|30em}}

===Bibliography===
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==External links==
* [https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p003hydz The Carolingian Renaissance], BBC Radio 4 discussion with Matthew Innes, Julia Smith & Mary Garrison (''In Our Time'', Mar, 30, 2006)

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Carolingian Latin literature|*]]
[[Category:Carolingian art|Renaissance]]