A medieval monk wrote a 146-line poem where every single word starts with C.

Ideas & Philosophy · Published 3 October 2026 Swipe more like this →

In short: Hucbald of St Amand was a polymath who shaped Carolingian music theory, yet his most enduring legacy might be a bizarre literary stunt. He penned a hexameter poem praising baldness, using only words beginning with the letter C. It became a Renaissance sensation, even recommended as a cure for stuttering.

Born around 840 or 850 in northern France, Hucbald was a Benedictine monk and a central figure in the intellectual life of the Carolingian era. Educated at Elnone Abbey—later Saint-Amand—under his uncle Milo, he mastered the quadrivium before embarking on a career that spanned music theory, hagiography, and poetry. By 872, he had returned to Saint-Amand to lead the monastery school, later traveling to restore musical education at institutions like St. Bertin and Rheims that had suffered during Norman incursions.

Hucbald’s primary contribution to musicology is his treatise Musica, written about 880. Heavily influenced by Boethius and Ptolemy, the work sought to harmonize ancient Greek theory with the practical realities of Gregorian chant. While earlier scholarship often credited him with the influential Musica enchiriadis—a foundational text for Western polyphony and Daseian notation—modern analysis confirms this was the work of anonymous contemporaries within his same intellectual circle. Hucbald’s own musical legacy survives through a few sacred compositions and his efforts to standardize the musical gamut.

Beyond his technical work, Hucbald was a prolific literary figure. His Ecloga de calvis is a linguistic curiosity consisting of 146 lines of Latin hexameter, all starting with the letter C. Dedicated to Hatto, the archbishop of Mainz, the poem humorously catalogs famous bald figures, including the apostle Paul. The work circulated widely during the Renaissance, with at least six printed editions appearing in the early 16th century. Erasmus famously suggested that reciting its alliterative lines could help those struggling with stuttering, cementing the monk's reputation as both a rigorous scholar and a playful master of language until his death on June 20, 930.

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