Editing Alcuin (section)

== Scholarly and literary output ==
=== Mathematician ===
{{Main|Propositiones ad acuendos juvenes}}

The collection of mathematical and logical word problems entitled ''Propositiones ad acuendos juvenes'' ("Problems to Sharpen Youths"){{sfn|Alcuin|n.d.}} is sometimes attributed to Alcuin.<ref name="Peterson-2005">{{Cite web |url=http://www.maa.org/mathland/mathtrek_11_21_05.html |title=Ivars Peterson's MathTrek 21 November 2005}}</ref>{{sfn|Atkinson|2005|pp=354-362}} In a 799 letter to Charlemagne, the scholar claimed to have sent "certain figures of arithmetic for the joy of cleverness",<ref>''Epistola'' 172, MGH ''Epistolae'' 4.2: 285: "aliquas figuras arithmeticae subtilitatis laetitiae causa"</ref> which some scholars have identified with the ''Propositiones''.{{sfn|Jullien|1994|p=482-483}}{{efn|A more skeptical attitude toward Alcuin's authorship of this text and others is taken by {{harvnb|Gorman|2002|pp=101-130}} }}

The text contains about 53 mathematical word problems (with solutions), in no particular pedagogical order. Among the most famous of these problems are: four that involve [[river crossing problem|river crossings]], including the [[Jealous husbands problem|problem of three anxious brothers]], each of whom has an unmarried sister whom he cannot leave alone with either of the other men lest she be defiled<ref name="3-brothers">{{Cite web |url=http://logica.ugent.be/albrecht/alcuin.pdf |title=Latin title and English text of the problem}}</ref> (Problem 17); the [[Fox, goose and bag of beans puzzle|problem of the wolf, goat, and cabbage]] (Problem 18); and the problem of "the two adults and two children where the children weigh half as much as the adults" (Problem 19). [[Alcuin's sequence]] is the solution to one of the problems of that book.

=== Theologian ===
Alcuin's work as a theologian was more concerned with conservation than originality. His nine scriptural commentaries—on [[Book of Genesis|Genesis]], the [[Psalms]], the [[Song of Solomon]], [[Ecclesiastes]], Hebrew Names, the [[Gospel of John]], the Epistles [[Epistle to Titus|to Titus]], [[Epistle to Philemon|Philemon]], and [[Epistle to the Hebrews|the Hebrews]], The Sayings of St. Paul, and [[Book of Revelation|the Apocalypse]]—consist mostly of sentences taken from the [[Church Fathers]], the apparent motive being to collect into convenient form the observations on the more important scriptural passages of the best commentators who had preceded him. Alcuin also engaged in [[textual criticism]] of the [[Vulgate]], which had many variant readings in his time. Four Bibles are shown by the dedicatory poems affixed to them to have been prepared by him, or under his direction at Tours, probably during the years 799–801. Whatever the exact changes made by Alcuin in the Bible text may have been, the known disposition of the man—that he intended to recover [[Jerome]]'s original text as much as possible—no less than the limits of the scholarship of his time, makes it certain that these changes were not of a far-reaching kind.

Of the three brief moral treatises Alcuin has left us, two, {{lang|la|De virtutibus et vitiis}}, and {{lang|la|De animae ratione}}, are largely abridgments of the writing of [[Augustine]] on the same subjects, while the third, "On the Confession of Sins," is a concise exposition of the nature of confession, addressed to a congregation of monks. Closely allied to his moral writings in spirit and purpose are his sketches of the lives of saints [[Martin of Tours]], [[Vedast]], [[Richarius]], and [[Willibrord]], the last being a biography of considerable length.

Alcuin opposed the [[Spanish Adoptionism|adoptionist Christology]] advanced by [[Felix (bishop of Urgell)|Felix of Urgell]] and [[Elipandus of Toledo]], two bishops from Iberia.

=== Liturgist ===
Besides his fame as an educator and a theologian, Alcuin was also the principal agent of the [[Mass (liturgy)|liturgical]] reform accomplished under the authority of Charlemagne. Upon Charlemagne's accession the [[Gallican Rite]] prevailed in France, but it was so modified by local customs and traditions as to constitute a serious obstacle to complete ecclesiastical unity. It was the purpose of the king to substitute the [[Roman Rite]] in place of the Gallican, or at least to bring about such a revision of the latter as to make it substantially one with the Roman. The strong leaning of Alcuin towards Roman traditions, combined with his conservative character and the universal authority of his name, qualified him for the accomplishment of a change which the royal authority in itself was powerless to effect.

The first of Alcuin's liturgical works appears to have been a homilary, or collection of [[sermon]]s in Latin for use by priests. Another liturgical work of Alcuin consists of a collection of readings to be read on Sundays and holy days throughout the year, the {{lang|la|Comes ab Albino ex Caroli imp. praecepto emendatus}}. As, previous to his time, the portions of Scripture to be read at Mass were often merely indicated [[Marginalia|on the margins]] of the Bibles used, the {{lang|la|Comes}} commended itself by its convenience, and as he followed Roman usage here also, the result was another advance in the way of conformity to the Roman liturgy. The work of Alcuin which had the greatest and most lasting influence in this direction, however, was the [[missal]] which he compiled; prescribed as the official liturgical book of the Frankish church, Alcuin's missal soon came to be commonly used throughout Europe and was largely instrumental in bringing about uniformity in respect to the liturgy of the Mass in the whole [[Latin Church]]. Other liturgical productions of Alcuin were a collection of [[votive Mass]]es drawn up for the monks of [[Fulda]], a treatise called {{lang|la|De psalmorum usu}}, a [[breviary]] for laymen, and a brief explanation of the ceremonies of baptism.

=== Literary influence ===
Alcuin made the abbey school into a model of excellence and students flocked to it. He had many manuscripts copied using outstandingly beautiful [[calligraphy]], the [[Carolingian minuscule]] based on round and legible [[uncial]] letters. He wrote many letters to his English friends, to [[Arno of Salzburg|Arno, bishop of Salzburg]] and above all to Charlemagne. These letters (of which 311 are extant) are filled mainly with pious meditations, but they form an important source of information as to the literary and social conditions of the time and are the most reliable authority for the history of [[humanism]] during the [[Carolingian]] age. Alcuin trained the numerous monks of the abbey in piety, and in the midst of these pursuits, he died.

Alcuin is the most prominent figure of the [[Carolingian Renaissance]], in which three main periods have been distinguished: in the first of these, up to the arrival of Alcuin at the court, the Italians occupy a central place; in the second, Alcuin and the English are dominant; in the third (from 804), the influence of [[Theodulf of Orléans]] is preponderant.

Alcuin also developed manuals used in his educational work – a [[grammar]] and works on [[rhetoric]] and [[dialectics]]. These are written in the form of a [[dialogue]], and in two of them the interlocutors are Charlemagne and Alcuin. He wrote several [[theological]] treatises: a ''De fide Trinitatis'', and commentaries on the Bible.{{sfn|Page|1909|p=15}} Alcuin is credited with inventing the first known [[question mark]], though it did not resemble the modern symbol.{{sfn|Truss|2003|p=76}}

Alcuin transmitted to the [[Franks]] the knowledge of Latin culture, which had existed in [[History of Anglo-Saxon England|Anglo-Saxon England]]. A number of his works still exist. Besides some graceful epistles in the style of [[Venantius Fortunatus]], he wrote some long poems, and notably he is the author of a history (in verse) of the church at York, ''Versus de patribus, regibus et sanctis Eboracensis ecclesiae''. At the same time, he is noted for making one of the only explicit comments on [[Old English poetry]] surviving from the early [[Middle Ages]], in a letter to one Speratus, the bishop of an unnamed English [[Episcopal see|see]] (possibly [[Unwona]] of Leicester): {{lang|la|"verba Dei legantur in sacerdotali convivio: ibi decet lectorem audiri, non citharistam; sermones patrum, non carmina gentilium. Quid [[Hinieldus]] cum Christo?"}} ("Let God's words be read at the episcopal dinner-table. It is right that a reader should be heard, not a harpist, patristic discourse, not pagan song. What has [[Ingeld]] to do with Christ?").<ref>Donald A. Bullough, "What has Ingeld to do with Lindisfarne?", ''Anglo-Saxon England'', 22 (1993), 93-125 (p. 93 for the Latin [quoted from ''Epistolae Karolini Aevi II'', ed. by E. Dummler, ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'', Epistula 4 (Berlin, 1895), p. 183 (no. 12)]; p. 124 for the translation); {{doi|10.1017/S0263675100004336}}.</ref>

==== Perceived homoeroticism ====
Some historians, including the queer historian [[John Boswell]], have identified what they consider to be a [[homoerotic]] or homosexual [[subtext]] in Alcuin's writings.{{sfn|Boswell|2015|p=189}}{{sfn|Bromell|2002|p=16}}{{sfn|Coon|2011|p=18}} Others, like [[Allen Frantzen]], have disputed this characterisation of his work; Frantzen identifies Alcuin's language with that of medieval Christian ''amicitia'' or friendship.{{sfn|Frantzen|1998|p=198}}{{efn |See also {{harvnb|Jaeger|1991}} }} Douglas Dales and [[Rowan Williams]] say "the use of language drawn [by Alcuin] from the ''[[Song of Songs]]'' transforms apparently erotic language into something within Christian friendship – 'an ordained affection{{'"}}.{{sfn|Dales|Williams|2013|p=228}} According to David Clark, passages in some of Alcuin's writings can be seen to display homosocial desire, even possibly homoerotic imagery, though he argues that it is not possible to necessarily determine whether they were the result of an outward expression of erotic feelings on the part of Alcuin.{{sfn|Clark|2009|p=80}}