EINHARD (Einhardus, Einardus, Agenardus). - Biographer of Charlemagne, b. at Engilfrit in the Maingau between 768 and 770, d. in the abbey of Seligenstadt, 14 March 840. He studied successfully at Fulda, where he appears as scribe of the abbot Baugulf in 6 documents of 788-91, and in the "scola palatii" under the direction of Alcuin, whence he emerged a perfect humanist. His academic name was Beseleel. He resided at the court of Charlemagne (792-94 until 814), first as "nutritius" then as "exertor operum regalium in Aquisgrani palatio" (Gesta abbatum Fontanellensium, 17: MGH, Scriptores, II, p. 293) with the task of superintending the construction of the imperial monumental complex of Aachen. In 806, he brought to Rome in the Emperor's name the act of Thionville containing the division of the Empire. Louis the Pious gave to E. and to his wife Imana (the legend in the 12th century would later take possession of their youthful idyll) the localities of Michelstadt in the Odenwald and of upper and lower Mühlheim on the Main (11 Jan. 815); moreover he assigned to E. the great abbeys of St. Peter of Mont Blandin, St. Bavo (Ghent), Fontenelle, St. Servatius near Maastricht and other benefices. E. thus became one of the most powerful lay abbots of the era. From about 817 he was secretary of Louis the Pious, tutor of Lothair, and took an active part in the life of the court until 829, distinguishing himself "non solum pro scientia, verum etiam pro universa morum honestate" (Walafrid Strabo in the prologue added to the Vita Karoli). In 830 he obtained permission to retire to upper Mühlheim, where he founded the abbey called Seligenstadt and erected a basilica, on the model of St. Praxedes, in honor of the martyrs Sts. Marcellinus and Peter, whose bodies he obtained in 827 through the good offices of the notorious distributor of false relics, the deacon Deusdona. He governed the new abbey wisely, as lay abbot, and made it an active center of culture. In 836 he lost, to his extreme sorrow, his consort (cf. the correspondence of Lupus of Ferrières, ed. E. Dümmler in MGH, Ep. aevi Kar., IV, Berlin 1925, pp. 9-17). E. was buried in the aforementioned basilica and Rabanus Maurus composed his epitaph (ed. E. Dümmler, in MGH, Poetae latini aevi Karolini, II, pp. 237-38). E. is considered the prototype of the lay intellectuals of the Carolingian age: devout, man of letters, artist, historian and theologian.
Works: the principal one is the Vita Karoli Magni (critical ed. O. Holder-Egger, in MGH, Scriptores rerum Germanicarum in usum scholarum [1911]; BHL, 1580, Supplementum, p. 66), written between 817 and 822, a source of primary importance for the history of Charlemagne, notwithstanding real defects which there is no point in exaggerating, such as the faulty chronology, the exaltation of the hero, etc.; in it the author demonstrates genuine gifts as a historian and man of letters. Besides a certain number of letters (ed. K. Hampe, in MGH, Epistolae aevi Karolini, III [1899], pp. 125-45), two short works by E. survive which relate to the iconoclastic controversy aroused by Claudius of Turin (v.), namely the Translatio et miracula ss. Marcellini et Petri (ed. G. Waitz, in MGH, Scriptores, XV, I [1887], pp. 338-64; BHL, 5233) in a prologue with 4 books, written between 830 and 834, in which the author demonstrates how justified is the faithful's trust in the relics of the holy martyrs; the Quæstio de adoranda cruce (ed. K. Hampe, cited above, pp. 146-49), written for Lupus of Ferrières (Apr. 836), a little jewel of literature and precision; after a subtle distinction between oratio and adoratio, it concludes in favor of the adoration, that is veneration, of the Cross. A rhythmic composition is also attributed to him, the Poesia Christi Martyrum Marcellini et Petri (ed. E. Dümmler, in MGH, Poetae latini aevi Karolini, II, pp. 125-35; BHL, 5232). The annals, sometimes called Annales Einhard, do not belong to him.