Hrabanus Maurus

776 Mainz
856 Winkel


The important early medieval scholar Hrabanus Maurus (around 776-856), also known as Rabanus, Reabanus or Rhabanus Maurus) was educated at the Benedictine monastery of Fulda and as a young monk in 802 he went to Alkuin in Tours, who gave him the epithet "Maurus", after the favorite student of St. Benedict.
In 804 he returned to Fulda, where he was ordained in 814, in 822 he became the abbot of the monastery and in 847 archbishop of Mainz. With his restless teaching of all hitherto known science, he turned the Fulda monastic school into Germany's most famous school, awarding him the epithet "Praeceptor Germaniae".
Thanks to Hrabanus Maurus, Fulda became the most important location for the survival of classical antiquity. His comprehensive work survived in over 1200 manuscripts and is proof of the far-reaching extent of the knowledge he passed on. His first work, a tract entitled "De laudibus sancte crucis opus" was first published in print in 1503.
Also worth mentioning is his most extensive work "De rerum naturis", comprising 22 volumes, which builds upon Isidor of Seville's famous encyclopedia. "De rerum naturis" summarized the entire knowledge of the time in theological and ecclesiastical terms.

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