Carolingian renovatio: Words, images, and origins

An analysis of Carolingian monumental inscriptions reveals the care of patrons to fix the meaning of their monumental commissions. The patrons used the inscriptions to help those who would use the buildings use them correctly. By their frequent direct address of the reader the inscriptions themselves provide evidence reinforcing recent research determining that literacy functioned at a higher level in the early middle ages than previously assumed.;In using monumental inscriptions Carolingian patrons were participating in a cultural tradition from antiquity. Their specific practices reflect an awareness of the inscriptional habits of the patristic era, but not as a formalistic revival. The particularity and time-bound concerns addressed in Carolingian inscriptions show they were meant to be read as part of the contemporary world rather than as an imitation of antiquity.;Most Carolingian inscriptions were renovated out of existence and survive in manuscript sources rather than on walls. This process occurred when the particular inscriptions no longer communicated useful and necessary information to readers, further emphasizing the topicality of inscriptions as a genre.;Inscriptions at Aachen reflect the evolution of Charlemagne's titles from Frankish to Imperial during the construction and usage of the Palatine Chapel. Theodulf's private chapel at Germigny-des-Pres reveals in the conjunction of its inscription and its apse mosaic the final position on the Iconoclasm controversy of the author of the Libri Carolini, most important Carolingian statement on images. The many inscriptions of Angilbert's St.-Riquier educate the beholder in the proper understanding of the Trinity. The inscriptions at Fulda show a concerted effort to reconcile different groups inside the basilica and to tell the history of the monastic community's builders to outsiders.;The inscriptions, by fixing meanings and by addressing topical issues, correspond to Carolingian interests in establishing orthodoxy. The use of a medium drawn from the patristic era but made relevant exemplifies the Carolingian interest in renovatio.