to boost their ranks, prestige, and importance. He saw that culture and education were dying in Europe and thought that part of his legacy as a ruler would be to stem the tide of deterioration. He spearheaded a movement now referred to as the CAROLINGIAN RENAISSANCE in an effort to preserve older culture and to create a common bond of Christian culture among the people under his rule. -He had all of the greatest scholars in the kingdom come to court and he sponsored their research and writing efforts. This is why we know so much about Charlemagne-one of them became his biographer. -He thought that learning was important, especially for priests, his cultural ambassadors. He issued a decree saying that every cathedral and monastery had to establish a school and to provide a free education to every boy who had the perseverance and intelligence to follow it. It was not fully carried out, but the ones that were established continued through the hard times that followed Charlemagnes death. These church schools emphasized [medieval] Latin grammar, rhetoric, and logic. -Reformed handwriting. CAROLINGIAN MINISCULE.He wanted to increase legibility and also words per page. Basis of our modern lower-case letters. -Standardized the language. Many people in his kingdom spoke different local dialects. He wanted a common scholarly language that could also be used by govt officials. Medieval Latin. Same grammatical rules as classical Latin, but more flexible and open, and very different from spoken Latin. Spoken Latin becomes Romance languages: French, It, Port, Rom, Sp-Not so many new ideas. He tried to boost monasteries and support them in their efforts to recopy ancient texts. As many as 90% of the Roman worksover 8000 still in existence today are preserved in the form of 8th and 9th century manuscripts copied in a Carolingian monastery. They switched from papyrus to parchment or sheepskin. They lasted longer, but were considerably more expensive. B...
