Periphyseon on the Division of Nature

Book excerpt: Johannes Scotus (c. 800-c. 877), who signed himself as "Eriugena" in one manuscript, and who was referred to by his contemporaries as "the Irishman" is the most significant Irish intellectual of the early monastic period. He is generally recognized to be both the outstanding philosopher of the Carolingian era and of the whole period of Latin philosophy stretching from Boethius to Anselm. Since the seventeenth century, it has become usual to refer to this Irish philosopher as John Scottus (or 'Scotus') Eriugena to distinguish him from the thirteenth-century John Duns Scotus. Myra Uhlfelder (Bryn Mawr PhD 1952) taught classical and medieval Latin at Bryn Mawr.