Dungal of Bobbio

"Dungal" redirects here. For other uses, see Dungal (disambiguation).

The Irish monk Dungal lived at Saint-Denis, Pavia and Bobbio. He wrote a poem on wisdom and the seven liberal arts and advised Charlemagne on astronomical matters.^[1] He died after 827, probably at the Monastery of Bobbio. He may be the same person as Hibernicus exul.

In a letter, directed to Charlemagne, he answered Charlemagne's question of why two solar eclipses occurred in the year 810, drawing on his knowledge of the teachings of Macrobius, Pliny, and other ancient authors.^[2]

He bequeathed to Bobbio Abbey his valuable library, consisting of some 27 volumes,^[3] among which may have been the Antiphonary of Bangor. He wrote to refute some of the religious teachings of Claudius of Turin at the request of the emperor Louis the Pious.

Latin texts by Dungal

• Carmina, Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 105: col 052-0532D
• Epistola de duplici Solis Eclipsi Anno 810, Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 105: col. 0447-0458C
• Responsa contra perversas Claudii Tauronensis Episcopi sententias, Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 105: col. 0465-0530A

References

1. ^ M. L. W. Laistner, Thought and Letters in Western Europe: A.C. 500 to 900, 2nd. ed., (Ithaca: Cornell Univ. Pr., 1957), pp. 214, 290-91.
2. ^ Bruce S. Eastwood, "The Astronomy of Macrobius in Carolingian Europe: Dungal's Letter of 811 to Charles the Great", Early Medieval Europe, 3(1994): 117-134
3. ^ See the new edition of the Bobbio catalogue by M. TOSI, ‘Il governo abbaziale di Gerberto a Bobbio’, in Archivum Bobiense, 2 (1985), pp. 195-223, with Dungal's bequest at nos. 496 to 522

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Name	Dungal
Alternative names	Dungal of Saint-Denis
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