Harduin of Fontenelle

Harduin of Fontenelle was a monk and teacher at the abbey of Saint-⁠Wandrille at Fontenelle in Normandy. He died in the year 811. He contributed much to enriching the library of the abbey. He is remembered on 22 July in the Western calendar (new style).

He entered the monastery of Fontenelle very young, in the time of Abbot Austrulf (747 to 753), and was ordained priest. He withdrew to the hermitage of Saint Saturninus, on the north slope of the Fontenelle valley. There he set up a scriptorium where the young monks learned the art of calligraphy and arithmetic. So he was able to sign, in the colophon of his copy of the work of Bede the Venerable, eruditor parvulorum, teacher of the little monks. Abbot Gervold (787 to 806), a contemporary of Harduin, was charged by Charlemagne with administering the tolls of the Channel ports and carried out several diplomatic missions to King Offa of Mercia, with whom he was on good terms. So the monks of Fontenelle had easier access to Anglo-⁠Saxon works, and it is probable that many monks of the abbey were of insular origin. Harduin copied Bede's De Arte Metrica, the Letters on the Paschal question and De Temporibus.

He made a pilgrimage to Rome. He and his pupils enriched the library of Fontenelle with a great number of copies of books existing in his time. He died at Fontenelle in 811. The Deeds of the Abbots of the monastery mention him at length.