Einhard and the Historia Augusta

Stover, Justin; Woudhuysen, George

Abstract

In recent years, a consensus has begun to develop that Einhard had read the Historia Augusta and that he used it in his Vita Karoli magni. In particular, scholars have argued that he must have drawn the rare word dicaculus from the text. In this article, we first review the history of the idea that Einhard had read the HA, then show how weakly grounded it is. In particular, we demonstrate that it is very unlikely that the text was his source for dicaculus. We conclude with some thoughts on the way that this might influence recent debate over the HA in the Carolingian period.

Citation

Stover, J., & Woudhuysen, G. (2023). Einhard and the Historia Augusta. The Journal of Medieval Latin, 33, 1-16. https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JML.5.133612

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Aug 26, 2022
• Publication Date: 2023
• Deposit Date: Aug 26, 2022
• Publicly Available Date: Jan 1, 2025
• Journal: Journal of Medieval Latin
• Print ISSN: 0778-9750
• Electronic ISSN: 2034-635X
• Publisher: Brepols Publishers
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 33
• Pages: 1-16
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1484/J.JML.5.133612
• Keywords: Einhard; Historia Augusta; Transmission; Medieval Manuscripts
• Public URL: https://nottingham-repository.worktribe.com/output/10366829
• Publisher URL: https://www.brepolsonline.net/doi/abs/10.1484/J.JML.5.133612