Between Seligenstadt and St. Bavo's Abbey, Ghent: making a collection out of Einhard's letters

The letter collection of Einhard, biographer of Charlemagne, is preserved in a unique but badly damaged manuscript dating from the third quarter of the ninth century. This manuscript was most probably copied out in St. Bavo’s Abbey in Ghent between 853/60 and 879, though contrary to the general assumption, the letter collection itself was not compiled at St. Bavo’s. In this paper, I argue that the collection probably originated as a letter-formulary in Seligenstadt, where Einhard spent the last years of his life. The core of the collection (letters 1–54 in the manuscript) appears to have been assembled around 834 or 835, possibly by Ratleik, who served Einhard as notary from 827 at the latest. This would explain why most of the letters in the collection date from the period after 828. In Einhard’s last years, several more of his letters were added to the collection (letters 55–64). Shortly after Einhard’s death (840), a copy of this collection was sent to St. Bavo’s, where a number of letters that were neither sent by nor addressed to Einhard were added (letters 65–70). In the third quarter of the ninth century, this manuscript served as a model for the extant copy, which is probably to some degree selective. I also argue that, essentially, Einhard’s letters owe their survival to their potential to be used as models for practical correspondence. As the letters are, in fact, anonymous (Einhard’s name is systematically abbreviated to its initial letter), they were not assembled as a letter collection of the “great Einhard,” but as a collection of epistolary models. A comparison with Alcuin and his letter collections shows that in the Carolingian period, Einhard had neither the authority nor the reputation of his contemporary.