阿尔琴Alcuin

阿尔琴出生于英格兰东海岸附近的一个高级家庭。他被送到阿尔琴，在那里他成为阿尔琴大教堂学校，即埃格伯特大主教学校的学生。

在埃格伯特大主教学校学习后，阿尔琴留在那里任教，并于778年成为该校校长。在阿尔琴的这所学校任教期间，阿尔琴建立了一个优秀的图书馆，是欧洲最好的图书馆之一，并使这所学校成为欧洲最重要的学术中心之一。他写了一首长诗，描述了与阿尔琴历史相关的人物，然后他前往大陆。

781年，阿尔琴接受了查理曼的邀请，前往亚琛参加当时顶尖学者的会议。会后，他被任命为查理曼在亚琛的宫廷学校校长，并在那里发展了加洛林小写体，这是一种清晰的书写体，已成为现今罗马字母书写方式的基础。在离开亚琛之前，阿尔琴负责了最珍贵的加洛林手抄本，现称为《金色福音书》。这些是一系列以金色为主、常书写于紫色羊皮纸上的彩饰杰作。

加洛林小写体的发展，尽管有些间接，但对数学史产生了重大影响。这种书写体比之前使用的无间隔大写书写体更易读，因此，在9世纪，大多数数学著作都被重新抄录成这种新书写体。现存的古希腊数学家的著作大多因此抄录过程而得以保存，而正是用小写体书写的‘最新’版本流传了下来。

阿尔琴不仅是查理曼在亚琛的宫廷学校校长，还是查理曼的私人朋友，并成为他两个儿子的老师。事实上，阿尔琴在亚琛居住过两个时期，分别是782年至790年，以及793年至796年。

796年，阿尔琴从位于亚琛的查理曼宫廷学校退休，成为图尔圣马丁修道院的院长，在那里他让修士们继续使用加洛林小写字体工作。在图尔期间，阿尔琴安排他的一些学生前往阿尔琴，将他收集在那里的一些较稀有著作带回图尔。他写道：-

我说这些，是为了让你们同意派我们的一些男孩去那里获取我们需要的一切，并将不列颠的花朵带回法国，这样除了阿尔琴的有围墙的花园之外，图尔也可能有天堂的枝条结出果实。

阿尔琴在算术、几何和天文学方面撰写了基础教材，当时欧洲学术的复兴才刚刚开始，这场复兴主要由阿尔琴本人领导。他的教科书以问答形式写成。然而，他在这一领域的工作，与他所发展的富有灵感的书法不同，几乎没有显示出独创性。

晚年时，阿尔琴用一段相当优美的描述总结了自己的职业生涯：-

清晨，在我精力最旺盛的时候，我在不列颠播下种子，如今到了傍晚，当我的血液渐渐变冷时，我仍在法国播种，希望两者都能在上帝的恩典下生长，让一些人得到圣典的蜜，让另一些人沉醉于古代学问的旧酒……

阿尔琴对后世的影响可以用Siegried Sassoon在THIS LINK写的一首诗来说明。

Alcuin of York was born into a high ranking family who lived near the East Coast of England. He was sent to York where he became a pupil at York cathedral school, Archbishop Ecgberht's School.

After being a pupil at Archbishop Ecgberht's School, Alcuin remained there as a teacher, becoming headmaster of the school in 778. During his time as a teacher at this school in York Alcuin built up a fine library, one of the best in Europe, and made the school one of the most important centres of learning in Europe. He wrote a long poem describing the men associated with York's history before he left for the continent.

In 781 Alcuin accepted an invitation from Charlemagne to go to Aachen to a meeting of the leading scholars of the time. Following this meeting, he was appointed head of Charlemagne's Palace School at Aachen and there he developed the Carolingian minuscule, a clear script which has become the basis of the way the letters of the present Roman alphabet are written. Before leaving Aachen, Alcuin was responsible for the most precious of Carolingian codices, now called the Golden Gospels. These were a series of illuminated masterpieces written largely in gold, often on purple coloured vellum.

The development of Carolingian minuscule had, although somewhat indirectly, a large impact on the history of mathematics. It was a script which was much more readable than the old unspaced capital script which was in use before this and, as a consequence, most of the mathematical works were freshly copied into this new script in the 9th century. Most of the works of the ancient Greek mathematicians which have survived do so because of this copying process and it is the 'latest' version written in minuscule script which has survived.

Not only was Alcuin headmaster of Charlemagne's Palace School at Aachen but he also was a personal friend to Charlemagne and became the teacher of his two sons. In fact Alcuin lived in Aachen for two periods, during the years 782 to 790 and then again from 793 to 796.

In 796 Alcuin retired from Charlemagne's Palace School at Aachen and became abbot of the Abbey of St Martin at Tours, where he had his monks continue to work with the Carolingian minuscule script. While in Tours Alcuin arranged for some of his pupils to go to York to bring some of the rarer works that he had collected there back to Tours. He wrote:-

I say this that you may agree to send some of our boys to get everything we need from there and bring the flowers of Britain back to France that as well as the walled garden in York there may be off-shoots of paradise bearing fruit in Tours.

Alcuin wrote elementary texts on arithmetic, geometry and astronomy at a time when a renaissance in learning in Europe was just beginning, a renaissance mainly led by Alcuin himself. His lesson books were written in a question - and - answer format. However his work in this area, unlike the inspired calligraphy he developed, shows little originality.

Late in his life Alcuin summed up his own career with a rather beautiful description:-

In the morning, at the height of my powers, I sowed the seed in Britain, now in the evening when my blood is growing cold I am still sowing in France, hoping both will grow, by the grace of God, giving some the honey of the holy scriptures, making others drunk on the old wine of ancient learning...

The influence of Alcuin on later generations can be illustrated by a poem by Siegried Sassoon at THIS LINK