283 



they held in great repute, as containing medical rules and maxims of 

 very ancient tradition,* while Hanmer advances on authority, " that in 

 the time of Alfred, king of the West Saxons, anno 872, as Fabian and 

 Cooper have noted, there was a grievous malady reigning among that 

 people called the evil ficus, which also took the king, so that, say mine 

 authors, an Irish maid came out of Ireland, called Modwen, whose 

 monastery in time of rebellion was destroyed, and cured the king/'-f 

 The more distinguished learned authors of this period, were 

 Claude, a theological writer and commentator on many parts of the 

 Bible. Dungal, the author of the before-mentioned work, " De ima- 

 ginibus," preserved in the Bibliotheca Patrum, and of the epistle to 

 Charlemagne on the eclipse of the sun in 8IO4 Muratori says of 

 him, "hominem eruditum fuisse, sacrisque etiam literis ornatum, ac 

 simul in grammaticali foro ac Prisciani deliciis enutritum, ut legenti 

 constabit ;"§ and Colgan satisfactorily proves]] that he was an Irish- 

 man. Donatus succeeds in the catalogue, " quem nobis Hibernia 

 Scotorum insula transmisit,"** and who in his epitaph at Fiesole, 

 speaks of himself as the author of tracts, poetical and theological : 



" Fesulana preesul in urbe fui, 

 Gratuita discipuli dictabam scripta libellis, 

 Schemata metrorum dicta, beata senum." 



The classical and philosophical Johannes Scotus Erigena is the 

 next worthy of notice, the friend and companion of Charles the Bald, 

 and if history does not confound identity, the preceptor also of Alfred 



• " Pervetustas et fumosas membranulas multis literis interpunctas Hibemice scriptas, 

 quasin ore et amore mirifice habent; in quibus artis medicinae regulae antiquitus traditae ser- 

 vabantur."— De Reb. Hibern. Antw. 1684. p. 44. 



t Hanmer's Chronicle, ad ann. \ Preserved in D'Achery, Spicileg. torn. x. 



§ Rer. Ital. Script, torn. i. part. 2. p. 152. || Acta Sanctorum, p. 257. 

 ** Acta Sanctorum, p. 237. 



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