Table Of ContentTHE NEW MIDDLE AGES
BONNIE WHEELER, Series Editor
Ihe New Middle Ages is aseries dedieated to
transdisciplinary studies of rnedieval cultures, with
partieular ernphasis on recuperating wornen's
his tory and on feminist and gend er analyses.
This peer-reviewed series includes both
seholarly rnonographs and essay collections.
PUBLISHED BY PALGRAVE:
Women in the Medieval Islamie World: The Postcolonial Middle Ages
Power, Patronage, and Piety edited by Jeffrey Jerorne
edited by Gavin R. G. Harnbly Cohen
Ihe Ethies of Nature in the Middle Ages: Chaucer's Pardoner and Cender Theory:
On Boecaccio's Poetaphysics Bodies of Discourse
by Gregory B. Stone by Robert S. Sturges
Presenee and Presentation:
Crossing the Bridge: Comparative Essays
Women in the Chinese Literati Tradition
on Medieval European and Heian Japanese
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Women Writers
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Ihe Lost Love Letters of Heloise and Abelard: Cynthia Ho
Pereeptions of Dialogue in 1iveljih-Century
France
by Constant J. Mews Engaging Words: Ihe Culture of Reading
in the Later Middle Ages
by Laure! Arntower
Understanding Scholastie Ihought with Foucault
by Philipp W Rosernann
Robes and Honor: The Medieval World of
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For Her Cood Estate:
edited by Stewart Gordon
Ihe Life of Elizabeth de Burgh
by Frances A. Underhill
Representing Rape in Medieval and Early
Constructions ofWidowhood and Virginity in Modern Literature
the Middle Ages edited by Elizabeth Robertson and
edited by Cindy L. Carlson and Christi ne M. Rose
Angela Jane Weisl
Same Sex Love and Desire Among Women
Motherhood and Mothering in in the Middle Ages
Anglo-Saxon England edited by Francesea Canade Sautrnan and
by Mary Dockray-Miller Parne!a Sheingorn
Listening to Heloise: Sight and Embodiment in the Middle Ages:
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edited by Bonnie Whee!er by Suzannah Biernoff
Listen Daughter: The Speeulum vi~~inum and ElemlOY oJ Aquitaille: Lord and Lady
the Formation oJ Religious Wamen in the edited by Bonnie Wheeler and
MiddleAges lohn Carmi Parsons
edited by Constant J. Mews
Isabel La Cat6lica, Queen oJ Castile: Critical
Seience, the Singular, and the Question of Essays
Theology edited by David A. Boruchoif
by Richard A. Lee,jr.
Homoerotieism and Chivalry: Discourses
Cender in Debate from the Early Middle Ages of Male Same-Sex Desire in the Fourteenth
to the Renaissance Century
edited by Thelma S. Fenster and by Richard Zeikowitz
Clare A. Lees
Portraits of Medieval Women: Family,
Malory's Morte Darthur: Marriage, and Politics in England
Remaking Arthurian Tradition 1225-1350
by Catherine Batt by Linda E. Mitchell
The Vernacular Spirit: Essays on Medieval Eloquent Vilgins: From Thecla to Joan of Arc
Religious Literature by Maud Burnett McInerney
edited by Renate Blumenfeld-Kosinski,
Duncan Robertson, and N ancy Warren The Persistence of Medievalism: Narrative
Advetltures in Contemporary Culture
Popular Piety and Art in the Late Middle Ages: by Angela jane Weisl
Image Worship and Idolatry in England
1350-1500 Capetian Women
by Kathleen Kamerick edited by Kathleen Nolan
Absent Narratives, Manuscript Textuality, and Joan of Are and Spirituality
Literary Structure in Late Medieval Ellgland edited by Ann AsteIl and Bonnie Wheeler
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The Texture of Soeiety: Medieval Women in the
Creating Community with Food and Drink Southern Low Countries
in Merovingian Caul edited by Ellen E. KitteIl and
by Bonnie Eifres Mary A. Suydam
Representations of Early Byzantine Empresses: Charlemagne's Mustache: And Other Cultural
Image and Empire Clusters of a Dark Age
by Anne McClanan by Paul Edward Dutton
Encountering Medieval Textiles and Dress: Troubled Vision: Cender, Sexuality, and Sight in
Objects, Texts, Images Medieval Text and Image
edited by Desiree G. Koslin and edited by Emma Camp bell and Robert
janet Snyder Mills
CHARLEMAGNE'S MUSTACHE
AND OTHER CULTURAL
CLUSTERS OF A DARK AGE
Paul Edward Dutton
CHARLEMAGNE'S MUSTACHE AND OTHER CULTURAL CLUSTERS OF A DARK AGE
© Paul Edward Dutton 2004
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2004 978-1-4039-6223-2
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any
manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief
quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
First published 2004 by
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ISBN 978-0-230-60247-2 ISBN 978-1-137-06228-4 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-06228-4
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Dutton, Paul Edward, 1952-
Charlemagne's mustache I Paul Edward Dutton.
p. cm. - (The New Middle Ages)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
1. Charlemagne, Emperor, 742-814.2. France-History-To 987.
3. Carolingians-History. 4. Civilization, Medieval, I. Title. 11. New Middle
Ages (Palgrave Macmillan (Firm))
DC73.D872004
944'.014-<1c22 2003062223
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: May 2004
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Transferred to Digital Printing 2013
For my parents
CONTENTS
List cif Illustrations IX
Priface XliI
1. Charlemagne's Mustache 3
2. Charlemagne, King of Beasts 43
3. Karolus Magnus Scriptor 69
4. Of Carolingian Kings and Their Stars 93
5. Whispering Secrets to a Dark Age 129
6. A World Grown Old with Poets and Kings 151
7. Thunder and Hailover the Carolingian Countryside 169
Appendix 1 The Name oi the Elephant 189
Appendix 2 The Collection cif Biblical Citations
Sent to Emperor Lothar I 191
Appendix 3 Carolingian Royal Life Spans 195
Abbreviations 199
Notes 201
Index 273
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1.1 A tombstone of a Germanie warrior from Niederdollendorf
(Rheinisches Landesmuseum Bonn) 5
1.2 Childeric I's hair flows onto his shoulders on a
pIaster cast of his now lost golden signet ring
(Ashmolean Museum, Oxford) 6
1.3 A coin of Dagobert I (Cabinet des Medailles,
Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris) 6
1.4 A gold coin from Chalon of a Merovingian king (Cabinet
des Medailles, Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris) 7
1.5 The bronze Agilulf Visor from around 600 (Museo
Nazionale del Bargello, Florence) 7
1.6 A gold medallion of Theoderic the Great (Museo
Nazionale Romano, Rome) 8
1.7 Portrait of Theoderic on an amethyst gem (Antikensammlung
Bern: photo K. Buri, Harry N. Abrams Inc.) 8
1.8 An ivory diptych of Stilicho and his family (Museo del
Duomo di Monza) 11
1.9 An imperial coin portrait of Charlemagne (Staatlichen
Museen, Berlin) 24
1.10 Drawing after F. Le Blanc, 1689, of the image of
Charlemagne on one of his lead bullae; the obverse
bears the inscription RENOVATIO ROMAN. IMP. 25
1.11 Charlemagne portrait, Retable du Parliament de Paris
(permission RMN) 27
1.12 Reliquary of Charlemagne, mid-fourteenth century
(Domschatz Aachen: Domarchiv Aachen, photo:
Ann Münchow) 28
x LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
1.13 Drawing afterVetault ofLouis Rochet's statue of
Charlemagne, Roland, and Oliver from 1867, which
now stands outside the Cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris 29
1.14 Presentation Miniature from the First Bible of Charles
the Bald (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms.lat. 1, fo1. 423r) 31
1.15 Portrait of Louis the Pious in a manuscript of
Hrabanus Maurus's On the Praises cif the Holy Cross
(Vatican City, Bibliotheca Apostolica Vaticana,
Reg.lat. 124, fo1. 4v) 33
1.16 Portrait of Lothar I in the Gospels of Lothar
(Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. lat. 266, fo1. 1v ) 34
1.17 Crowning in the Sacramentary Fragment of Metz
(Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. lat. 1141, fo1. 2v) 35
1.18 Lothar I enthroned, Lothar Psalter (British Library,
Addit. ms. 37768, fo1. 4r) 36
1.19 Psalter of Charles the Bald (Paris, Bibliotheque
Nationale, ms.lat. 1152, fol. 3v) 37
1.20 Charles the Bald enthroned (Rome, Bible of San
Paolo fuori le mura, fol. 334v: Istituto Poligrafico e
Zecca dello Stato S.p.A., Rome) 38
1.21 Bronze equestrian statue of Charlemagne or
Charles the Bald (Musee du Louvre) 39
1.22 Charles the Bald on the Cathedra Petri, the wood and
ivory throne of Saint Peter (St. Peter's Basilica, Vatican
City: permission Fabbrica di San Pietro in Vaticano) 40
1.23 Detail of the top and back of the head of the
equestrian statue (Paris, Musee du Louvre: photo
Laura Dutton) 40
1.24 Hrabanus Maurus presents his On the Praises oi the
Holy Cross to Pope Gregory IV (Vienna,
Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Cod. 652, fo1. 2v:
Bildarchiv d. ÖNB, Wien) 41
2.1 The Godescalc Evangelistary, Fountain of Life (Paris,
Bibliotheque Nationale, Nouv. acq.lat. 1203, fo1. 3v) 56
2.2 Gospels of St-Medard of Soissons, Fountain of Life (Paris,
Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. lat. 8850, fo1. 6v) 57
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Xl
4.1 Charles the Bald gazes up at the Lamb of God in the
Codex Aureus of St-Emmeram (Munich, Bayerische
Staatsbibliothek, Clm. 14000, fols. 5v-6r) 96
4.2 Adoration of the Lamb in the Gospels of St-Medard of
Soissons (Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. lat. 8850, foL 1v ) 114
4.3 Zodiacal '0' in the First Bible of Charles the Bald
(Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale, ms. lat. 1, foL 8r) 115
4.4 Schematization of the front face of the Cathedra Petri
(St. Peter's Basilica,Vatican City). 123
7.1 Labors of the Months (ca. 820) (Vienna, Österreichische
Nationalbibliothek Cod. 387, foL 90v: Bildarchiv d.
ÖNB,Wien) 179
7.2 Hailstorm in the Utrecht Psalter, Ps. 28:3-10
(Utrecht, Cat. Cod. ms. BibL Rhenotraiectinae
ms. 32, foL 16r) 181
7.3 Angels cast lightning-bolt lances in the Utrecht
Psalter, Ps. 139:11 (Utrecht, Cat. Cod. ms. BibL
Rhenotraiectinae ms. 32, foL 78v) 182
7.4 Profile of a hailstorm. After Joe R. Eagleman,
Meteorology: The Atmosphere in Action (N ew York:
Van Nostrand, 1980). 184
