The Imperial Abbey of Corvey (German: Fürstabtei Corvey) was a Benedictine abbey on the River Weser, 2km northwest of Höxter, now in North Rhine-Westphalia. It was founded ca. 820 by monks from Corbie in Picardy, under the patronage of the Emperor Louis the Pious and the abbot of the older foundation, whence the new one derived its name. Under the guidance of abbots drawn from the Imperial family, Corvey soon became famous for its school, which produced many celebrated scholars, among them the 10th century Saxon historian Widukind of Corvey. In its library were preserved the first five books of the Annales of Tacitus. From its cloisters went forth a stream of missionaries who evangelised Northern Europe, chief amongst them being St. Ansgar, the "Apostle of Scandinavia". The Annales Corbenjenses, which issued from the same scriptorium, is a major source of medieval history— spuriously supplemented by the forged Chronicon Corbejense which appeared in the 19th century. The longest lasting of the western Catholic monastic orders, the Benedictine Order traces its origins to the adoption of the monastic life by St. ... An abbey (from the Latin abbatia, which is derived from the Syriac abba, father), is a Christian monastery or convent, under the government of an Abbot or an Abbess, who serve as the spiritual father or mother of the community. ... Weser watershed The Weser is a river of north-western Germany. ... North Rhine-Westphalia (German: Nordrhein-Westfalen) is the largest in population (though only fourth in area) among Germanys 16 federal states. ... Events Michael II succeeds Leo V as Byzantine Emperor The Historia Brittonum is written (approximate date) Births Rhodri Mawr (the Great), ruler of Gwynedd (Wales) (approximate date) Photius I, patriarch of Constantinople (approximate date) Deaths December 24: Leo V, Byzantine Emperor (assassinated) Shankara, Hinduist teacher Tang Xian Zong, emperor of... Corbie is a commune of the Somme département, in northern France. ... Categories: Stub | Regions of France ... Louis the Pious (also known as Louis I, Louis the Fair and Louis the Debonaire, German form: Ludwig der Fromme, French form: Louis le Pieux or Louis le Débonnaire, Spanish form: Ludovico Pío) (April 16, 778 - June 20, 840) was Emperor and King of the Franks from 814... The Duchy of Saxony was a medieval Duchy covering the greater part of Northern Germany. ... Widukind of Corvey was a Saxon historical chronicler, named after the famous Saxon national hero Widukind. ... The Annals, or, in Latin, Annales, is a history book by Tacitus covering the reign of the 4 Roman Emperors succeeding to Caesar Augustus. ... Gaius Cornelius Tacitus Publius or Gaius Cornelius Tacitus (c. ... Ansgar, etching by Hugo Hamilton (1830) Ansgar, Anskar or Oscar, (September 8?, 801 - February 3, 865) was an Archbishop of Hamburg-Bremen. ... A Scriptorium was a room or building, usually within a Christian monastery where, during medieval times, manuscripts were written. ...

The Carolingian west end of the abbey, with its landmark matching towers (built 873 — 885) survives, the earliest standing medieval structure in Westphalia, but the abbey church is now Baroque. The Carolingians (also known as the Carlovingians) were a dynasty of rulers that eventually controlled the Frankish realm and its successors from the 8th to the 10th century, officially taking over the kingdoms from the Merovingian dynasty in 751. ... Westphalia (in German, Westfalen) is a (historic) region in Germany, centred on the cities of Dortmund, Münster, Bielefeld, and Osnabrück and now included in the Bundesland of North Rhine-Westphalia (and the (south-)west of Lower Saxony). ... Adoration, by Peter Paul Rubens: dynamic figures spiral down around a void: draperies blow: a whirl of movement lit in a shaft of light, rendered in a free bravura handling of paint In arts, the Baroque (or baroque) is both a period and the style that dominated it. ...

The school of Corvey declined after the 15th century, but the abbey itself, most of its feudal lands separated from it, continued until 1803, when it was secularized under Napoleonic administration and passed briefly to William of the family of Oranje-Nassau, then to Jérôme Bonaparte's Kingdom of Westphalia (1807), then to Prussia (1815); the landgrave of Hesse-Rotenburg rebuilt the abbey buildings as a Schloss (palace) which has descended to the duke of Ratibor. The famous abbey library has long since been dispersed, but the "princely library" (Fürstliche Bibliothek), an aristocratic family library, containing about 67,000 volumes, mainly in German, French, and English, with a tailing off circa 1834, survives in the Schloss. One striking feature of the collection is the large number of English Romantic novels, some in unique copies, for in Britain fiction was more often borrowed than bought, and was read to pieces in the lending libraries. 1803 was a common year starting on Saturday (see link for calendar). ... For other uses, see Napoleon (disambiguation). ... The Principality of Orange The title originally referred to the sovereign principality of Orange in southern France, which was a property of the House of Orange (from 1702 Orange-Nassau). ... Jérôme Bonaparte Jérôme Bonaparte (November 15, 1784 - June 24, 1860) was the youngest brother of Emperor Napoleon I of France. ... The Kingdom of Westphalia is a historical state in present-day Germany that existed from 1807-1813. ... 1807 was a common year starting on Thursday (see link for calendar). ... The coat of arms of the Kingdom of Prussia, 1701-1918 The word Prussia (German: Preußen or Preussen, Polish: Prusy, Lithuanian: Prūsai, Latin: Borussia) has had various (often contradictory) meanings: The land of the Baltic Prussians (in what is now parts of southern Lithuania, the Kaliningrad exclave of Russia and... 1815 was a common year starting on Sunday (see link for calendar). ... This article refers to the wide variety of writing called romantic. For literature from the European Romantic movement of the 18th and 19th centuries, see Romanticism: Art and Literature. ... Librarians and patrons in a typical larger urban public library A public library is a library which is accessible by the public and is often operated by civil servants and funded from public sources. ...

External links

• Corvey, Nordrhein-Westfalen: introduction
• Catholic Encyclopedia: Abbey of Corvie
• "Fürstabtei Corvey" (in German)
• Peter Garside and Anthony Mandal, "Producing fiction in Britain, 1800 – 1829": outlining the Corbie project