Tabularia (Apr 2005)
À partir de la diffusion de trois poèmes hagiographiques, identification des centres carolingiens ayant influencé l’œuvre de Dudon de Saint-Quentin
Abstract
In order to identify the traditional Carolingian centres bearing an influence on the works of Dudo de Saint-Quentin, it would be worthwhile to bring into relief the physical location of the sources used by the author. We shall concentrate here on the three Carolingian hagiographic poems identified by Leah Shopkow as being known to Dudo: Vita sancti Lamberti, written by bishop Stephen of Liège in the early tenth century, Vita sancti Germani, written by the monk Heiric of Auxerre in the second half of the ninth century, and Carmen de sancto Cassiano composed anonymously at around the same time. We shall see that the canon of Saint-Quentin, whose official collegiate church was geographically close to the Cambrai and Arras cathedrals, could have been familiar with Stephen’s text through one or the other of those two churches. But Dudo could also very well have stayed for a while in Liège since the clerics of his time did not shun travelling in the course of their studies. Besides, the existence in Laon as early as the tenth century of the last two hagiographic works studied shows once more the close links binding Dudo to the city. The traditional centre of cultural and intellectual life which influenced most the canon of Saint-Quentin thus seems to be the intellectual circle at Laon in the year 1000, a circle on which two prelates with strong personalities very much left their marks – bishops Rorico and Adalbero. This suggests the possible influence of two contemporary works, composed in Laon in the second half of the tenth century, on the historiography of Dudo.
Keywords
