Maurus, Hrabanus

Hrabanus Maurus was an important theologian, teacher, and *author. He was a pupil of Alcuin of Tours, served as abbot of Fulda and as archbishop of Mainz . Active in the clerical educational reform movement of the Carolingian period, he wrote a manual for monks and clerics: De clericorum institutione . He also produced numerous scriptural commentaries, an extensive encyclopedia: De universo , based on the Etymologiae of *Isidore of Seville, and several poetic works, notably De laudibus sanctae crucis , c.810 (poems and prose tracts in praise of the Holy *Cross). An original illustrated copy of this manuscript survives (cited below) and includes clever * carmina figurata diagrams of words and pictures. Illustrated copies of this text continued to be produced throughout Page 173  the medieval period, as well as his encyclopedia, which includes illustrations of plants, animals, constellations, monsters, and various other natural and celestial phenomena.