In the ninth and tenth centuries, under the impulse of the Carolingian
favor, France, in which there is heretofore no evidence of Horace's
presence from the end of Roman times, becomes the greatest center of
manuscript activity, the Bernensis and six Parisian exemplars dating
from this period. Yet the indexes of St. Gall, Reichenau, and Bobbio
contain the name of no work of Horace, and only Nevers and Loesch
contained his complete works. The _Ecbasis Captivi_, an animal-epic
appearing at Toul in 940, has one fifth of its verses formed out of
Horace in the manner of the _cento_, or patchwork. At about the same
time, the famous Hrosvitha of Gandersheim writes her six Christian
dramas patterned after Terence, and in them uses Horace. Mention by
Walter of Speyer, and interest shown by the active monastery on the
Tegernsee, are of the same period. The tenth century is sometimes spoken
of as the Latin Renaissance under the Ottos, the first of whom, called
the Great, crowned Emperor at Rome in 962, welcomed scholars at his
court and made every effort to promote learning.
The momentum of intellectual interest is not lost in the eleventh
century. Paris becomes its most ardent center, with Reims, Orleans, and
Fleury also of note. The _Codex Parisinus_ belongs to this period.
German activity, too, is at its height, especially in the education of
boys for the church. Italy affords one catalogue mention, of a Horace
copied under Desiderius. Peter Damian was its man of greatest learning,
but the times were intellectually stagnant. The popes were occupied by
rivalry with the emperors. It was the century of Gregory the Seventh and
Canossa.
In the twelfth century came the struggle of the Hohenstaufen with the
Italian cities, and the disorder and turmoil of the rise of the communes
and the division of Italy. One catalogue shows a Horace, and one
manuscript dates from the time. England and France are united by the
Norman Conquest in much the same way as Germany and France had been
associated in the kingdom of Charlemagne. It is the century of Roger
Bacon. Especially in Germany, England, and France, it is the age of the
Crusades and the knightly orders. It is an age of the spread of culture
among the common people. In France, it is the age of the monastery of
Cluny, and the age of Abelard. Education and travel became the mode. In
general, acquaintance with Horace among cultivated men may now be taken
for granted. The _Epistles_ and _Satires_ find more favor than the
_Odes_. Five hundred and twenty citations of the former and
seventy-seven of the latter have been collected for the twelfth century.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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