Corbie
Encyclopedia
Corbie is a commune
Communes of France
The commune is the lowest level of administrative division in the French Republic. French communes are roughly equivalent to incorporated municipalities or villages in the United States or Gemeinden in Germany...

 of the Somme
Somme
Somme is a department of France, located in the north of the country and named after the Somme river. It is part of the Picardy region of France....

 department in Picardie
Picardie
Picardy is one of the 27 regions of France. It is located in the northern part of France.-History:The historical province of Picardy stretched from north of Noyon to Calais, via the whole of the Somme department and the north of the Aisne department...

 in northern France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

.

Geography

The small town is situated 15 km (9.3 mi) up river from Amiens
Amiens
Amiens is a city and commune in northern France, north of Paris and south-west of Lille. It is the capital of the Somme department in Picardy...

, in the département of Somme and is the main town of the canton of Corbie. It lies in the valley of the River Somme
Somme River
The Somme is a river in Picardy, northern France. The name Somme comes from a Celtic word meaning tranquility. The department Somme was named after this river....

, at the confluence of the River Ancre. The town is bisected by the Canal
Canal
Canals are man-made channels for water. There are two types of canal:#Waterways: navigable transportation canals used for carrying ships and boats shipping goods and conveying people, further subdivided into two kinds:...

 de la Somme
Somme River
The Somme is a river in Picardy, northern France. The name Somme comes from a Celtic word meaning tranquility. The department Somme was named after this river....

.

This Satellite photograph shows it in its context. The town is to the left and the fen
Fen
A fen is a type of wetland fed by mineral-rich surface water or groundwater. Fens are characterised by their water chemistry, which is neutral or alkaline, with relatively high dissolved mineral levels but few other plant nutrients...

ny Somme
Somme River
The Somme is a river in Picardy, northern France. The name Somme comes from a Celtic word meaning tranquility. The department Somme was named after this river....

 valley winds down to it from the right. The chalk
Chalk
Chalk is a soft, white, porous sedimentary rock, a form of limestone composed of the mineral calcite. Calcite is calcium carbonate or CaCO3. It forms under reasonably deep marine conditions from the gradual accumulation of minute calcite plates shed from micro-organisms called coccolithophores....

 of the Upper Cretaceous plateau
Plateau
In geology and earth science, a plateau , also called a high plain or tableland, is an area of highland, usually consisting of relatively flat terrain. A highly eroded plateau is called a dissected plateau...

 shows pale in the fields. The River Ancre flows down from the north-east. The A29
Autoroutes of France
The Autoroute system in France consists largely of toll roads, except around large cities and in parts of the north. It is a network of worth of motorways. Autoroute destinations are shown in blue, while destinations reached through a combination of autoroutes are shown with an added autoroute logo...

 is shown under construction snaking across the chalk in the southern part of the picture. The fainter, straight line just to its north is the road N29. It passes through Villers-Bretonneux
Villers-Bretonneux
Villers-Bretonneux is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:Villers-Bretonneux is situated some 19 km due east of Amiens, on the D1029 road and the A29 motorway.-History - World War I:...

, the village just south of Corbie.

Corbie Abbey

The town of Corbie grew up round Corbie Abbey
Corbie Abbey
Corbie Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Corbie, Picardy, France, dedicated to Saint Peter.-Foundation:It was founded in about 659/661 under Merovingian royal patronage by Balthild, widow of Clovis II, and her son Clotaire III...

, founded in 657 or 660 by the queen regent Bathilde, with a founding community of monks from Luxeuil Abbey
Luxeuil Abbey
Luxeuil Abbey was one of the oldest and best-known monasteries in Burgundy, located in the "département" of Haute-Saône in Franche-Comté, France.-Columbanus:...

 in the Franche-Comté
Franche-Comté
Franche-Comté the former "Free County" of Burgundy, as distinct from the neighbouring Duchy, is an administrative region and a traditional province of eastern France...

.

Its scriptorium
Scriptorium
Scriptorium, literally "a place for writing", is commonly used to refer to a room in medieval European monasteries devoted to the copying of manuscripts by monastic scribes...

 came to be one of the centres of work of manuscript illumination when the art was still fairly new in western Europe. In this early, Merovingian, period the work of Corbie was innovative in that it showed pictures of people, for example, Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome
Saint Jerome is a Christian church father, best known for translating the Bible into Latin.Saint Jerome may also refer to:*Jerome of Pavia , Bishop of Pavia...

. It was also the place of creation, in about 780, of the influential Caroline minuscule script.

The contents of its library are known from catalogues of the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In 1638, Cardinal Richelieu ordered the transfer of the library's books to the library at Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Saint-Germain-des-Prés
Saint-Germain-des-Prés is an area of the 6th arrondissement of Paris, France, located around the church of the former Abbey of Saint-Germain-des-Prés....

, which was dispersed at the end of the eighteenth century.

Town

In 1234, Floris IV, Count of Holland
Floris IV, Count of Holland
Floris IV , Count of Holland from 1222 to 1234. He was a son of William I of Holland and Adelaide of Geldern....

 died at a tournament
Tournament (medieval)
A tournament, or tourney is the name popularly given to chivalrous competitions or mock fights of the Middle Ages and Renaissance . It is one of various types of hastiludes....

 held here. In 1475, the town was taken by Louis XI. The Spanish
Spain
Spain , officially the Kingdom of Spain languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Spain's official name is as follows:;;;;;;), is a country and member state of the European Union located in southwestern Europe on the Iberian Peninsula...

 took it on 15 August 1636 but were ousted in November by Richelieu and Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII of France
Louis XIII was a Bourbon monarch who ruled as King of France and of Navarre from 1610 to 1643.Louis was only eight years old when he succeeded his father. His mother, Marie de Medici, acted as regent during Louis' minority...

 after a siege of three months.

In 1918, Corbie was on the margin of the battlefield of Villers-Bretonneux
Villers-Bretonneux
Villers-Bretonneux is a commune in the Somme department in Picardie in northern France.-Geography:Villers-Bretonneux is situated some 19 km due east of Amiens, on the D1029 road and the A29 motorway.-History - World War I:...

 at which the First Battle of the Somme (1918) of the Spring Offensive
Spring Offensive
The 1918 Spring Offensive or Kaiserschlacht , also known as the Ludendorff Offensive, was a series of German attacks along the Western Front during World War I, beginning on 21 March 1918, which marked the deepest advances by either side since 1914...

 came to a climax.

Sights

  • Abbey of St. Peter
    Corbie Abbey
    Corbie Abbey is a former Benedictine monastery in Corbie, Picardy, France, dedicated to Saint Peter.-Foundation:It was founded in about 659/661 under Merovingian royal patronage by Balthild, widow of Clovis II, and her son Clotaire III...

     (Saint Pierre)
  • Town Hall
  • Church of la Neuville; at the north-west end of the town

Personalities

  • Adalard of Corbie, a German cousin of Charlemagne
    Charlemagne
    Charlemagne was King of the Franks from 768 and Emperor of the Romans from 800 to his death in 814. He expanded the Frankish kingdom into an empire that incorporated much of Western and Central Europe. During his reign, he conquered Italy and was crowned by Pope Leo III on 25 December 800...

    , was abbot of Corbie. In 822, he founded Corvey Abbey
    Corvey Abbey
    The Imperial Abbey of Corvey was a Benedictine monastery on the River Weser, 2 km northeast of Höxter, now in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany....

     (Corbeia nova or "new Corbie") on the territory of Höxter
    Höxter
    Höxter is the seat of the Höxter district, and a town in eastern North Rhine-Westphalia on the left bank of the river Weser, 52 km north of Kassel in the centre of the Weser Uplands...

     in Westphalia
    Westphalia
    Westphalia is a region in Germany, centred on the cities of Arnsberg, Bielefeld, Dortmund, Minden and Münster.Westphalia is roughly the region between the rivers Rhine and Weser, located north and south of the Ruhr River. No exact definition of borders can be given, because the name "Westphalia"...

    .
  • Adela of France, Countess of Flanders (1009–1079), countess of Corbie, married Baldwin V, Count of Flanders
    Baldwin V, Count of Flanders
    Baldwin V of Flanders was Count of Flanders from 1035 until his death.He was the son of Baldwin IV, Count of Flanders, who died in 1035.-History:...

    (c. 1030-1070); their son, Baldwin of Mons became Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders
    Baldwin VI, Count of Flanders
    Baldwin VI of Flanders was briefly Count of Flanders, from 1067 to 1070. He was also count of Hainaut from 1051 to 1070....

    .
  • Saint Gérard (born at Corbie in 1025): abbot and confessor.
  • Saint Colette
    Saint Colette
    Saint Colette , born Nicolette Boylet , was an abbess and the foundress of the Colettine Poor Clares, a reform movement of the nuns of the Order of Saint Clare .-Life:...

     (born at Corbie in 1381): reformer of the Franciscan Order
    Franciscan
    Most Franciscans are members of Roman Catholic religious orders founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Besides Roman Catholic communities, there are also Old Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, ecumenical and Non-denominational Franciscan communities....

  • Eugène Lefebvre
    Eugène Lefebvre
    Eugène Lefebvre was a French aviation pioneer. He was the first person to die while piloting a powered airplane and the second person to be killed in a powered airplane crash.-Biography:...

    , aviation
    Aviation history
    The history of aviation has extended over more than two thousand years from the earliest attempts in kites and gliders to powered heavier-than-air, supersonic and hypersonic flight.The first form of man-made flying objects were kites...

     pioneer, born at Corbie 4 October 1878. He was the first pilot
    Aviator
    An aviator is a person who flies an aircraft. The first recorded use of the term was in 1887, as a variation of 'aviation', from the Latin avis , coined in 1863 by G. de la Landelle in Aviation Ou Navigation Aérienne...

     to be killed at the controls of his aeroplane
    Fixed-wing aircraft
    A fixed-wing aircraft is an aircraft capable of flight using wings that generate lift due to the vehicle's forward airspeed. Fixed-wing aircraft are distinct from rotary-wing aircraft in which wings rotate about a fixed mast and ornithopters in which lift is generated by flapping wings.A powered...

    , 7 September 1909

External links

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