Western Civilization I / Unit 10 WC1 0915 short lesson, about 20 seconds
The Carolingian Renaissance and a New Handwriting
Captions available
The idea
Charlemagne gathered scholars from all Europe, Alcuin of England among them on the witness, educated priests, built libraries, corrected the Vulgate, and revived rhetoric, logic and astronomy. The handwriting reform, Carolingian minuscule, gave separated letters, spaces, punctuation, and upper and lower case.
In practice
The letters you read descend from it.
Where people slip
A renaissance of copying and schooling, not of new thought. Keep the scale.
Your place on the trail
Every lesson rests on earlier ones and opens later ones. Tap any to jump.
Something wrong in this lesson? Flag it