Clement and Dungal were not the only Irishmen of
note on the Continent. One, Dicuil, was an exponent of
geography. He founded his treatise (c. 825) on Caesar,
Pliny, and Solinus; he quotes and names many other
writers, including fourteen Greek; and generally impresses
us with his earnest studentship. An Irish monk named
Donatus wandered to Italy and became bishop of Fiesole
(c. 829); he, too, was a scholar acquainted with Virgil, a
teacher of grammar and prosody, and a lecturer on the
saints.[1] Sedulius, the commentator, an Irish monk of
Liege, copied Greek psalters, wrote Latin verses, knew
Cicero's letters, the works of Valerius Maximus, Vegetius,
Origen, and Jerome; was well acquainted with mythology and
history, and perhaps had some Hebrew.[2] Another Irishman,
John the Scot (Joannes Scotus Erigena), became the most
eminent scholar of his time: he alone, among all the learned
men Charles the Bald had about him, was able to translate
from Greek (c. 858-860). Well might Eric of Auxerre, writing
to Charles, express his astonishment at this train of
philosophers from Ireland, that barbarous land on the
confines of the world.[3] All these wanderers, and many
more, must have been responsible for the dissemination of
the books produced by Irish hands; and, in fact, many
manuscripts of Celtic origin and early in date, are still on
the Continent, or have been found there and brought to
Ireland.[4]