![[Media/Meister_des_Codex_Amiatus_001.jpg]] *Illustration from early 700s of a scholar in his scriptorium.* After Charlemagne's death at Aachen in 814, his dynasty lasted only until the death of his great grandson, Charles the Fat, in 888. Culturally, though, the Carolingian impact on Europe was widespread and long-lasting. The Oath of Fidelity helped establish a feudal system in which local lords were not the ultimate authorities politically (although often they still were practically). Charlemagne also helped establish a single Latin Church from Ireland to Croatia, and to standardize education around a network of monasteries where scholars learned Latin (required of all priests and monks) and a course of study known as the Trivium (grammar, logic, rhetoric) and the Quadrivium (arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy). ![[Media/1024px-Freising_manuscript.jpg]] *Carolingian Miniscule writing.* The monks and scholars at these monasteries used a new writing system called Carolingian Miniscule that, unlike earlier script, began using lower-case letters, spaces between words, and punctuation. This allowed them to transcribe three or four pages in a day, rather than just one. As a result, over a thousand volumes survive using the new technique, versus just fifty from the previous Merovingian system. 90% of Latin literature survives in Carolingian copies; so along with the Muslim scholars in places like Baghdad, medieval monks preserved classical texts like Plato, Virgil, and Cicero. ----- Next: [[10.9 - Carolingian Money]] Back: [[10.7 - Holy Roman Emperor]]