Alcuin, Anglo-Saxon name Ealhwine, known as Albinus c.737-804
Northumbrian scholar, and adviser to the Emperor Charlemagne

Born in York, he was educated at the cloister school, of which in 778 he became master. In 781, returning from Rome, he met Charlemagne at Parma, and joined the court at Aix-la-Chapelle (now Aachen). Here he devoted himself first to the education of the royal family, but through his influence the court became a school of culture for the Frankish empire, inspiring the Carolingian Renaissance. In 796 he settled in Tours as abbot and the school there soon became one of the most important in the empire. He continued to correspond with Charle-magne until his death. His works comprise poems, works on grammar, rhetoric, and dialectics, theological and ethical treatises, lives of several saints, and over 200 letters.

Bibliography: E M W Buxton, Alcuin (1922)