| Administrative History | Einhard (Eginhard) was born in what is now west Germany in around 770. He was educated at Fulda, an Insular foundation, and from there was recruited to the court of Charlemagne (742-814) at Aachen: Charlemagne was appreciative of Insular learning. He used his friendship with Charlemagne well to gain influence at court and it was chiefly through him that Louis I (the Pious, 778-840) followed Charlemagne to the throne. His reward was an abbacy and extensive property, and he retained his power until his death in 840, twenty-six years after Charlemagne’s death. His history of the life and reign of Charlemagne, 'Vita Caroli Magni', is still the prime source for that important period of Frankish history, well-written and apparently well-researched. |
| Source | Gifted by Dr James Melvin (1795 - 1853). Melvin was born in 1795 in Aberdeen and educated there at the Grammar School and at Marischal College, where he graduated A.M. in 1816. He was a teacher and later also lecturer in humanity (Latin) at his old college. He was a careful and successful teacher and an eminent Latin scholar, and ‘Latin Exercises as dictated by the late James Melvin, LL.D.’ was published in 1857 (four years after his death in 1853) by the rector of Grantown Grammar School: it was subsequently revised and re-edited by other teachers. He produced a Latin grammar in 1822, of which there were several editions. His library of over 6,000 books (mostly a fine collection of classical and mediaeval Latin literature) was left to Marischal College, Aberdeen. |
| Copyright | Subject to the condition of the original, copies may be supplied for private research use only on receipt of a signed undertaking to comply with current copyright legislation. Permission to make any published use of material from the collection must be sought in advance from the University Archivist and, where appropriate, from the copyright owner. Where possible, assistance will be given in identifying copyright owners, but responsibility for ensuring copyright clearance rests with the user of the material. |