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Smyth, Marina, “The physical world in seventh-century Hiberno-Latin texts”, Peritia 5 (1986): 201–234.

  • journal article
Citation details
Contributors
Article
“The physical world in seventh-century Hiberno-Latin texts”
Periodical
Volume
5
Pages
201–234
BibTeX
Description
Abstract (cited)
Exegesis, grammar and the date of Easter were not the only intellectual concerns of seventh-century Irish scholars. Their works reveal a surprising interest in the physical world for its own sake, not merely as containing signs of higher religious truths. Their cosmological system was remarkably consistent, though it must seem naive to the modern reader. A basic assumption was that all matter was made up of some combination of the four elements: fire, air, water, and earth. Particular doctrines were derived from christian sources and from some measure of observation. There is no awareness of the secular scientific tradition of late antiquity – not even indirectly through the works of Isidore of Seville. This was just as well, since it gave these Irish scholars the freedom to speculate independently – the essential condition for all scientific advance.
Subjects and topics
Headings
Hiberno-Latin literature to c.1169
Other subjects
cosmogony and cosmology
web page identifiers
Contributors
C. A., Dennis Groenewegen
Page created
April 2012, last updated: June 2020
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