Dungal (floruit 811–828) was an Irish monk, teacher, astronomer, and poet. He was to live at Saint-Denis, Pavia, and Bobbio.
He may be the same person as Hibernicus exul.
Biography
Dungal was born in
Ireland sometime in the late 8th century. His origins within Ireland are unknown, but he may have spent his student years at the School of Bangor. At some point either side of 800 he left Ireland. By 811 he was living at the monastery of Saint-Denis, near Paris. A letter of
Alcuin appears to identify him as a
bishop.
Solar eclipses
In a letter, directed to Charlemagne, he answered
Charlemagne's question of why two
occurred in the year 810,
[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.] drawing on his knowledge of the teachings of
Macrobius, Pliny, and other ancient authors.
[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] This letter demonstrates "a knowledge of astronomy far beyond the current ideas of his time".
Later life
Dungal wrote a poem on
wisdom and the seven liberal arts. In 823, Dungal was mentioned in a
capitulary of
Lothair I. In 825 he was by imperial decree appointed Master of the School at
Pavia which was located in the monastery of San Pietro in Ciel d'Oro. In 827 or 828, he defended the
iconodule against Claudius, Bishop of Turin and wrote to refute some of his religious teachings at the request of the emperor Louis the Pious.
Death and bequests
Dungal died at an unknown date after 827 or 828, probably at the Monastery of Bobbio. He bequeathed to Bobbio Abbey his valuable library, consisting of some 27 volumes,
[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] among which may have been the
Antiphonary of Bangor.
Latin texts by Dungal
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Carmina, Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 105: col 052-0532D
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Epistola de duplici Solis Eclipsi Anno 810, Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 105: col. 0447-0458C
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Responsa contra perversas Claudii Tauronensis Episcopi sententias, Migne, Patrologia Latina, vol. 105: col. 0465-0530A
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Carmina, De duplici solis eclipsi (Bibliotheca Augustana)
