Martin Hiberniensis (Martin the Irishman) (c. 819 - 875), was a

teacher A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

scribe A scribe is a person who serves as a professional copyist, especially one who made copies of manuscripts before the invention of automatic printing. The profession of the scribe, previously widespread across cultures, lost most of its promi ...

, and master of the

cathedral school Cathedral schools began in the Early Middle Ages as centers of advanced education, some of them ultimately evolving into medieval universities. Throughout the Middle Ages and beyond, they were complemented by the monastic schools. Some of these ...

Laon Laon () is a city in the Aisne department in Hauts-de-France in northern France. History Early history The holy district of Laon, which rises a hundred metres above the otherwise flat Picardy plain, has always held strategic importance. In ...

Background

Hiberniensis, "one of the greatest Irish Carolingian scholars," notes that he was an exile in the ''Annals of Laon'' (''Annales Laudunenses''). There is not much known about the reason for his exile or what happened afterward.

Career

Martianus is assumed to have been a

lay Lay may refer to: Places *Lay Range, a subrange of mountains in British Columbia, Canada *Lay, Loire, a French commune *Lay (river), France *Lay, Iran, a village *Lay, Kansas, United States, an unincorporated community People * Lay (surname) * ...

all his adult life; there is no indication that he was a

monk A monk (, from el, μοναχός, ''monachos'', "single, solitary" via Latin ) is a person who practices religious asceticism by monastic living, either alone or with any number of other monks. A monk may be a person who decides to dedica ...

. He settled at Laon in the late 840s during the term of Bishop Pardule. By the early 850s, he was master of the cathedral school where he remained until the end of his life. His students included

Dido Dido ( ; , ), also known as Elissa ( , ), was the legendary founder and first queen of the Phoenician city-state of Carthage (located in modern Tunisia), in 814 BC. In most accounts, she was the queen of the Phoenician city-state of Tyre (t ...

Manno Manno is a municipality in the district of Lugano in the canton of Ticino in Switzerland. History Manno is first mentioned in 1184. In 1298, the Bishop of Como owned estates in the village. In 1335, the village divided into two sections, Man ...

Bernard Bernard (''Bernhard'') is a French and West Germanic masculine given name. It is also a surname. The name is attested from at least the 9th century. West Germanic ''Bernhard'' is composed from the two elements ''bern'' "bear" and ''hard'' "brav ...

, and

Hincmar Hincmar (; ; la, Hincmarus; 806 – 21 December 882), archbishop of Reims, was a Frankish jurist and theologian, as well as the friend, advisor and propagandist of Charles the Bald. He belonged to a noble family of northern Francia. Biography Ea ...

. His intellectual interests included

computus As a moveable feast, the date of Easter is determined in each year through a calculation known as (). Easter is celebrated on the first Sunday after the Paschal full moon, which is the first full moon on or after 21 March (a fixed approxi ...

exegesis Exegesis ( ; from the Ancient Greek, Greek , from , "to lead out") is a critical explanation or interpretation (logic), interpretation of a text. The term is traditionally applied to the interpretation of Bible, Biblical works. In modern usage, ...

medicine Medicine is the science and practice of caring for a patient, managing the diagnosis, prognosis, prevention, treatment, palliation of their injury or disease, and promoting their health. Medicine encompasses a variety of health care pract ...

history History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...

grammar In linguistics, the grammar of a natural language is its set of structure, structural constraints on speakers' or writers' composition of clause (linguistics), clauses, phrases, and words. The term can also refer to the study of such constraint ...

, and

Greek Greek may refer to: Greece Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group. *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family. **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...

. He annotated the ''Annals of Laon,'' the computistical works of

Bede Bede ( ; ang, Bǣda , ; 672/326 May 735), also known as Saint Bede, The Venerable Bede, and Bede the Venerable ( la, Beda Venerabilis), was an English monk at the monastery of St Peter and its companion monastery of St Paul in the Kingdom o ...

. He also provided a commentary on

Martianus Capella Martianus Minneus Felix Capella (fl. c. 410–420) was a jurist, polymath and Latin prose writer of late antiquity, one of the earliest developers of the system of the seven liberal arts that structured early medieval education. He was a nati ...

's ''De nuptiis Philologiae et Mercurii'' and preserved fragments of a lost commentary on

Virgil Publius Vergilius Maro (; traditional dates 15 October 7021 September 19 BC), usually called Virgil or Vergil ( ) in English, was an ancient Roman poet of the Augustan period. He composed three of the most famous poems in Latin literature: t ...

Aelius Donatus Aelius Donatus (; fl. mid-fourth century AD) was a Roman grammarian and teacher of rhetoric. Works He was the author of a number of professional works, of which several are extant: *Ars maior – A commentary on Latin grammar. * Ars minor – ...

. Following the deposition of Hincmar, Martianus actively helped restore order in the cathedral chapter. A copy of a letter from Martianus to a fellow humanist,

Servatus Lupus Lupus Servatus, also Servatus Lupus ( 805 – c. 862), in French Loup, was a Benedictine monk and Abbot of Ferrières Abbey during the Carolingian dynasty, who was also a member of Charles the Bald's court and a noted theological author of the 9th ...

of Ferrières, has survived. Martianus is thought to have corresponded with Irish and continental scholars at the court of

Charles the Bald Charles the Bald (french: Charles le Chauve; 13 June 823 – 6 October 877), also known as Charles II, was a 9th-century king of West Francia (843–877), king of Italy (875–877) and emperor of the Carolingian Empire (875–877). After a ser ...

Greek literature

''"Martin is especially remarkable for his considerable knowledge of Greek, being particularly noted as the scribe of the most extensive Greek-Latin

thesaurus A thesaurus (plural ''thesauri'' or ''thesauruses'') or synonym dictionary is a reference work for finding synonyms and sometimes antonyms of words. They are often used by writers to help find the best word to express an idea: Synonym diction ...

then in existence in western Europe (Laon MS 444), which he may possibly have copied from an Irish exemplar. He has also been credited with a work known as 'Scholica graecarum glossarum,' a series of notes on Greek words. Additionally, he copied some Greek verse by

John Scottus Eriugena John Scotus Eriugena, also known as Johannes Scotus Erigena, John the Scot, or John the Irish-born ( – c. 877) was an Irish Neoplatonist philosopher, theologian and poet of the Early Middle Ages. Bertrand Russell dubbed him "the most ...

, with whom he appears to have been acquainted."'' (Breen, 2009, p. 405)

Scribal innovations

Martianus was an innovative

calligrapher Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

. He contributed to what is called the 'grammar of legibility' by use of word separation and punctuation, almost unheard of in his lifetime. ''"In his role as teacher and supervisor of a school of scribes he cultivated the use of

Carolingian minuscule Carolingian minuscule or Caroline minuscule is a script which developed as a calligraphic standard in the medieval European period so that the Latin alphabet of Jerome's Vulgate Bible could be easily recognized by the literate class from one reg ...

, a very neat and legible type" in place of his native

insular script Insular script was a medieval script system originating from Ireland that spread to Anglo-Saxon England and continental Europe under the influence of Irish Christianity. Irish missionaries took the script to continental Europe, where they found ...

'' (Breen, 2009, p. 405) At least twenty-one manuscripts survive containing specimens of his

autograph An autograph is a person's own handwriting or signature. The word ''autograph'' comes from Ancient Greek (, ''autós'', "self" and , ''gráphō'', "write"), and can mean more specifically: Gove, Philip B. (ed.), 1981. ''Webster's Third New Inter ...

, which are now housed in Laon, Paris, and Berlin.

Manuscripts

Martianus was an avid collector of manuscripts, which he bequeathed to Laon.

Summation

Breen (2009, p. 405) describes Martianus's legacy as not as an original thinker and translator of works in Greek, but as a

humanist Humanism is a philosophical stance that emphasizes the individual and social potential and agency of human beings. It considers human beings the starting point for serious moral and philosophical inquiry. The meaning of the term "humani ...

and

educator A teacher, also called a schoolteacher or formally an educator, is a person who helps students to acquire knowledge, competence, or virtue, via the practice of teaching. ''Informally'' the role of teacher may be taken on by anyone (e.g. whe ...

of great distinction."''

Notes and references

*Moran, Dermot. ''The Philosophy of John Scottus Eriugena''. Cambridge University Press, 1989. *Breen, Aidan. ''Martinus (Martin) Hiberniensis'', in ''Dictionary of Irish Biography'', Cambridge, 2009, pp. 404–05.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Martianus Hiberniensis Irish scribes Irish educators Irish poets 810s births 875 deaths Medieval Irish historians 9th-century Irish people 9th-century Irish writers Irish expatriates in France 9th-century Latin writers Latinists Writers from the Carolingian Empire Irish scholars and academics