only the fifty-sixth; Quinquagesima, as if it were the fiftieth, when it
is the forty-ninth; Quadragesima, as if it were the fortieth, when it is
the forty-second. Alcuin's answer is more subtle than satisfactory.

At the meals of Charlemagne some person always read to him. His example
was followed by many of his successors, particularly by Francis I. of
France, who, in an happier era for learning, imitated with happier
effects, the example of the Emperor.

[Sidenote: I. 2. State of Literature in the time of Charlemagne.]

Alcuin was general director of all the literary schemes of Charlemagne.
He was an Englishman by birth; skilled both in the Greek and Latin
language, and in many branches of philosophy. Having taught, with great
reputation and success, in his own country, he travelled to Rome. In
780, Charlemagne attracted him to his court.

There, Alcuin gave lectures, and published several treatises. In these,
he began with Orthography; then proceeded to Grammar; afterwards to
Rhetoric, and Dialectic. He composed his treatises in the form of
dialogues; and, as Charlemagne frequently attended them, Alcuin made him
one of his interlocutors. Few scholars of Alcuin were more attentive
than his imperial pupil; he had learned grammar from Peter of Pisa; he
was instructed in rhetoric, dialectic, and astronomy by Alcuin. He also
engaged in the study of divinity; and had the good sense to stop short
of those subtleties, in which Justinian, Heraclius, and other princes,
unfortunately both for themselves and their subjects, bewildered
themselves. Letters from Giséla and Richtrudis, the daughters of
Charlemagne, to Alcuin, shew that they partook of their father's
literary zeal: his favourite study was astronomy.