Abbo of Fleury - Works

Works

When in England Abbo learned of the martyrdom of Saint Edmund (November 870), and wrote a passion in Latin on it. He also wrote a Latin grammar for his English students, and three poems to St Dunstan. Among his other works are a simplification of the computus, the computation of the date of Easter; an Epitome de XCI Romanorum Pontificum Vitis (book on the lives of Roman popes, which is an abridgement of the earlier Liber Pontificalis), a Collectio Canonum, with clarifications about topics of Canon Law, and other treatises on controversial topics and letters. Around 980 to 985, he wrote a commentary on the "Calculus" of Victorius of Aquitaine, before the introduction of Arabic numerals, when calculations were often quite complex. The wide range of Abbo's thought is reflected in the commentary, covering the nature of wisdom, the philosophy of number, the relationship of unity and plurality, and the arithmetic of the Calculus. Abbo drew on his knowledge of grammar, logic and cosmology to illustrate his arguments, and set it all in the broader context of his theology of Creation. Most of Abbo's works can be found in the Patrologia Latina (CXXXIX,375-582).

There is one contemporary biography, written by his disciple Aimoin of Fleury, in which much of Abbo's correspondence was reproduced. It is of great importance, among other things as a historical source of information for the reign of Robert II of France, especially with reference to the Papacy.

Richard W. Pfaff sums up his achievement as follows: "One of the most versatile thinkers and writers of his time, Abbo put his mark on several areas of medieval life and thought, but none more so than in transmitting much that was valuable from the tradition of reformed French monasticism to the nascent monastic culture of late tenth-century England."