Collection of Letters: Detail
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Sender(s):
- Gerbert of Aurillac/Reims
Receiver(s):
Date:
Translated letter:
I am deeply aware that you understand my feelings, and therefore I love and embrace you and yours even more. I remember most honorably the warning by which you suspended me for a long time from association with certain princes; you let me know what you wished. I pray therefore by the venerable name of my father A[dalbero], by the involate faith with which I have always held him and his, that I not be compelled to forget the men whom I always especially loved, for love of him, neglecting my own good. May it come to the memory of my ruler/lady Theophanu that I have kept faith with her and her son, let her not permit me to become the glory of her enemies whom, for her sake, when I could, I led to shame and contempt. I pray again openly, I ask, I beseech, let his service not displease you, whom your empire, honor, and power have up to now pleased. Make yours with generosity, lest in the absence of honor, in the flight of the best arts, I may be made a partisan of Catiline who in leisure and in business was a diligent follower of the precepts of Tully [Cicero].
Original letter:
Historical context:
The addressee may be either the empress or archbishop Willigis of Mainz, but Theophanu is addressed at the end of it. Gerbert asks her support with a veiled threat to turn to her enemies if he does not get it.
Scholarly notes:
Manuscript source:
Printed source:
MGH BDKz ep.158 p.186-87