Corbie Abbey

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The Abbey of Corbie in Picardy was founded about 659/661 under Merovingian royal patronage by Balthild, widow of Clovis II and her son Clotaire III. The monks to staff it came from Luxeuil, which had been founded by St Columbanus in 590, and the Irish respect for classical learning fostered there was carried forward at Corbie. The rule of the founders was based on the Benedictine rule, as Columbanus had modified it. Besides gifts of estates to support the abbey, many exemptions were granted to the abbots, to free them from interference from local bishops: the exemptions were confirmed in 855 by Pope Benedict III. The abbots ranked as counts and had the privilege of a mint.

Above all, Corbie was renowned for its library which was assembled from as far as Italy, and for its scriptorium; it is recognized as an important center for the transmission of the works of Antiquity to the Middle Ages. An inventory (perhaps 11th century) lists the Church history of Hegesippus, now lost, among other extraordinary treasures. In the scriptorium at Corbie the clear and legible hand known as Carolingian minuscule was developed [1].

Among students of Tertullian, the library is of interest as it contained a number of unique copies of Tertullian's works, the so-called corpus Corbiense and included some of his unorthodox Montanist treatises, as well as two works by Novatian issued pseudepigraphically under Tertullian's name. The origin of this group of non-orthodox texts has not satisfactorily been identified. "Monks irritated by the interference of secular bishops may have found these works of Tertullian were congenial company! Perhaps this explains why such anti-establishment works were preserved". [2]

Among students of medieval architecture and engineering, such as are preserved in the notebooks of Villard de Honnecourt, Corbie is of interest as the center of renewed interest in geometry and surveying techniques, both theoretical and practical, as they had been transmitted from Euclid through the Geometria of Boethius and works by Cassiodorus (Zenner).

The Abbey of Corvey in Saxony was founded from Corbie, about 820.

One of Corbie's scholars was Radbertus Paschasius (died 865) who wrote on the nature of the Eucharist and promulgated the doctrine of Transubstantiation. His education had been at Corbie and must reflect its resources under its famous abbot Adalhard: he was well read in classical literature, particularly familiar with Virgil, Horace and Terence, and equally well read in the Church fathers. He knew Greek and perhaps a little Hebrew Schaff. At a later date, Jean Mabillon, the father of paleography had been a monk at Corbie. In July, 1658, he was transferred to the famous Abbey, where he occupied his time in the study of antiquities, while holding successively the offices of porter, of depositarius, and of cellarer, before he was transferred to the wider intellectual world that the Abbey of St-Germain-des-Prés offered.

In 1638 400 Mss were transferred to the library of the monastery of St. Germain des Prés in Paris. In the French Revolution, the library was closed and the last of the monks dispersed: 300 Mss still at Corbie were moved to Amiens, 15 km to the west. Those at St-German des Prés were loosed on the market, and many rare manuscripts were obtained by a Russian diplomat, Petrus Dubrowsky, and sent to St. Petersburg. Other Corbie Mss are at the Bibliothèque Nationale.

Main article: Corbie

Today the commune that grew up around the abbey's protective walling is the small city of Corbie (6,000 inhabitants) in the département of Somme (Picardie, France). One of France's most popular saints, Saint Colette, was born there in 1381.