Saint Dungal
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Saint Dungal, born in Ireland and died after 827, was an Irish monk, who served Charlemagne as an astronomer.
In a letter, directed to Charlemagne, he explains to the emperor the solar eclipse of the year 810 . To do so he uses modern astronomical notions that where published by Copernicus only 700 years later, in 1540. He expresses a heliocentric world view.[1]
He bequeathed to the Bobbio Abbey his valuable library, consisting of some seventy volumes, among which was the famous Antiphonary of Bangor.
[edit] References
- The Astronomy of Macrobius in Carolingian Europe: Dungal's Letter of 811 to Charles the Great. Early Medieval Europe, 3. Harlow, Essex, 1994
