SOURCE: Ganshof, F. L. “Einhard, Biographer of Charlemagne.” In The Carolingians and the Frankish Monarchy: Studies in Carolingian History, translated by Janet Sondheimer, pp. 1-16. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1971.

In the following excerpt, originally published in French in 1951, Ganshof argues that the Life of Charlemagne is not only historically valuable but also interesting reading in its own right.

Einhard does not stand in the forefront of the great figures of the Carolingian Renaissance which bequeathed to us such a major part of classical Latin literature. The influence of the English Alcuin, as teacher and writer, and above all as Charlemagne's adviser on ecclesiastical and intellectual matters, was vastly more profound. And the subsequent flowering of the Carolingian renaissance in the ninth century—which coincided with the political breakup of the Carolingian world—witnessed the development of minds more forceful and original than his, men such as the Saxon...