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Ganz, D.

Ganz, D.

David Ganz, born in Welwyn, UK, in 1952. Ph.D. from the University of Oxford. Professor of Palaeography at King’s College, University of London.

Fellow (1 September 2005 – 30 June 2006)

CHARLEMAGNE’S BIOGRAPHER: A STUDY OF EINHARD

I came to NIAS to work in the Project Group The Formation of Carolingian Political Identity organized by Professor Mayke de Jong. My own part of the project was to produce an English translation of the biographies of Charlemagne by Einhard and Notker the Stammerer for Penguin Classics, to replace the volume translated by Professor Louis Thorpe, and first published in 1969, and to write a book length study of Einhard. The first draft of the translation is complete, together with introductory essays on Einhard and Notker.

Of the book on Einhard I have completed chapters on Einhard’s Life, on Learning to Write Latin Prose, on Einhard as an Artistic Patron, and on Einhard and the relics of Saints Marcellinus and Peter. I had hoped to complete a chapter on Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne: in fact I have written sections on the Preface to Einhard’s Life of Charlemagne, Einhard and Suetonius, Einhard and his Sources, Einhard and the Praise of Charlemagne, the Vocabulary of the Text and a provisional section providing new arguments for the date of composition of the Life of Charlemagne. This book is the first attempt at a complete interpretation of a Carolingian author through his vocabulary and aims to revise existing views.