We have noticed the advance towards civilization which Henry I, made by the construction of towns; he effected another, by the introduction of tournaments and field sports, on a large, orderly and showy plan. Speaking generally, society in Germany during the Saxon line of its princes, was always improving.
[II. 2.]
State of Literature during the Saxon Dynasty.
911-1024.
"In the school of Paderborn," says the biographer of Meinwert, as he is cited by Schmidt, "there are famous musicians, dialecticians, orators, grammarians, mathematicians, astronomers and geometricians. Horace, the great Virgil, Sallust, and Statius, are highly esteemed. The monks amuse themselves with poetry, books and music. Several are incessantly employed in transcribing and painting."
A German translation of the Psalms, by Notker, a monk of the abbey of St. Gall, shews that some attention was paid to the language of the country. The Greek was cultivated; the writers of the times mention several persons skilled in it. Notker, in a letter to one of his correspondents, informs him, that "his Greek brothers salute him."
II. 2. State of Literature during the Saxon Dynasty.