Johannes (c.800 - c.877), who signed himself as ‘Eriugena’ in one manuscript, and who was referred to by his contemporaries as ‘the Irishman’ (scottus — in the 9th century Ireland was referred to as ‘Scotia Maior’ and its inhabitants as ‘scotti’) is the most significant Irish intellectual of the early monastic period. He is generally recognized to be both the outstanding philosopher (in terms of originality) of the Carolingian era and of the whole period of Latin philosophy stretching from Boethius to Anselm.

Eriugena, philosophy