The Society for Ancient Languages
Week Ten
English Translation |
EINHARDI LIBER III |
EINHARD BOOK 3 |
| XXV. Erat eloquentia copiosus et exuberans poteratque quicquid vellet apertissime exprimere. Nec patrio tantum sermone contentus etiam peregrinis linguis ediscendis operam impendit. In quibus Latinam ita didicit ut aeque illa ac patria lingua orare sit solitus, Graecam vero melius intellegere quam pronuntiare poterat. Adeo quidem facundus erat ut etiam dicaculus appareret. | 25. In eloquence he was rich and fluid and could express most clearly whatever he wished. Not merely limited by his native speech, rather he occupied himself in learning foreign languages, by which efforts he learned Latin so well that he wont to speak equally well in it and in his native language. Greek truly he could understand better than speak. He was so skilled that he would seem a wit. |
| Artes liberales studiosissime coluit, earumque doctores plurimum veneratus magnis adficiebat honoribus. In discenda grammatica Petrum Pisanum diaconem senem audivit; in ceteris disciplinis Albinum cognomento Alcoinum, item diaconem, de Brittania Saxonici generis hominem, virum undecumque doctissimum, praeceptorem habuit, apud quem et rhetoricae et dialecticae, praecipue tamen astronomiae ediscendae plurimum et temporis et laboris inpertivit. Discebat artem conputandi et intentione sagaci siderum cursum curiosissime rimabatur. Temptabat et scribere tabulasque et codicellos ad hoc in lecto sub cervicalibus circumferre solebat, ut, cum vacuum tempus esset manum litteris effigiendis adsuesceret; sed parum successit labor praeposterus ac sero inchoatus. | He cultivated the liberal arts most devotedly, and he affixed great honors upon the most venerated teachers. In learning grammar he heard [the lectures of] the old deacon Peter of Pisa. For other studies he had the teacher Alcuin, of family name Albinus, also a deacon, a man from Britain of Saxon origin, a most learned man from whatever origin, with whom he spent much time and labor on rhetoric and dialectic, but especially on astronomical studies. He studied the art of computus and with keen attention most carefully laid out the course of the stars. He also tried to write and to that end he was wont to distribute writing tablets and notebooks in bed under the pillows, so that when there would be free time he might practice his hand in making letters; but the effort, begun late and in reverse [of the normal order of learning], accomplished little. |
| XXVI. Religionem Christianam, qua ab infantia fuerat inbutus, sanctissime et cum summa pietate coluit; ac propter hoc plurimae pulchritudinis basilicam Aquisgrani exstruxit auroque et argento et luminaribus atque ex aere solido cancellis et ianuis adornavit. Ad cuius structuram cum columnas et marmora aliunde habere non posset, Roma atque Ravenna devehenda curavit. | 26. He cultivated the Christian religion, in which he had been steeped from infancy, in the most holy fashion and with the utmost piety; and in this regard he built a basilica of the greatest beauty at Aachen and adorned it with gold and silver and lamps and gratings and doors of solid bronze. When for his building he could not get columns and marble from elsewhere, he had them brought down from Rome and Ravenna. |
| Ecclesiam et mane et vespere, item nocturnis horis et sacrificii tempore, quoad eum valitudo permiserat, inpigre frequentabat curabatque magnopere ut omnia quae in ea gerebantur cum quam maxima fierent honestate, aedituos creberrime commonens ne quid indecens aut sordidum aut inferri aut in ea remanere permitterent. Sacrorum vasorum ex auro et argento vestimentorumque sacerdotalium tantam in ea copiam procuravit, ut in sacrificiis celebrandis ne ianitoribus quidem, qui ultimi ecclesiastici ordinis sunt, privato habitu ministrare necesse fuisset. | He attended the church both morning and evening, also during night services and masses, indefatigably insofar as strength permitted him, and he was greatly concerned that all things which were carried on there would be done with the greatest propriety, frequently reminding the sacristans lest they would allow something unsuitable or shabby to be brought in or to remain in it. He provided [numbers] of sacred vessels of gold and silver and such a quantity of sacramental vestments that not even for doorkeepers, who are the lowest eclesiastics in the hierarchy, was it necessary to minister in the celebration of mass in their own clothes. |
| Legendi atque psallendi disciplinam diligentissime emendavit. Erat enim utriusque admodum eruditus, quamquam ipse nec publice legeret nec nisi submissim et in commune cantaret. | He most diligently improved the discipline of reading [the lesson] and singing psalms. For he was extensively learned in both, although he himself neither would read publicly nor would sing except softly and in common. |