ANGILBERT (740-774)

Frankish poet and prelate at the court of Charlemagne.


Of noble parentage, he was educated at the famous palace school at Aachen, undel Alcuin, and was closely connected with the court and the imperial family. In 800 he accompanied Charlemagne to Rome and was one of the witnesses to his will. He was made abbot of Centula (Saint-Riquer), Picardy, in 794.


Angilbert´s Latin poems show the culture and tastes of a man of the world. A fragment of an epic, probably by him, describes life at the palace and the meeting between Charlemagne and Leo III and earned him the nickname of "Homer" from Alcuin. Shorter poems show skill in versification and are interesting for their picture of the imperial circle.