Dungal, Epistola de duplici solis eclipsi... An Analysis
Dungal, Epistola de duplici solis eclipsi... An Analysis

Summary/Abstract: In the letter through which Dungal demonstrates to Charlemagne the mathematical rationality of the two eclipses of sun of 810 there is no reference to the allegorical model of the universe promoted in patristics from Clement of Alexandria to Cosmas Indicopleustes. Inspired by In Somnium Scipionis, where Macrobius synthesises the astronomic knowledge of the Greco-Roman world, it shows that during the Carolingian period the pre-Christian cosmological model, which proves that we are in mid first European Renaissance. The originality of the letter consists in the simple answer of actuality that Dungal suggests to the emperor: the predictable periodicity of the astronomic events proves that their association with tragic moments of the personal life is related to superstition, namely to pseudo-science. In the following lines, I propose an analysis of the text of this letter from the perspective of the sources, of structure and of pre-Christian cosmology elements.

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