Dungal Letterato E Astronomo. Note di stilistica e di astronomia sulla Lettera a Carlo Magno circa le eclissi di sole dell'810
Paolo Zanna, Costantino Sigismondi

TL;DR
This paper analyzes D'ungal's 810 letter to Charlemagne about solar eclipses, exploring its literary style, historical context, and astronomical accuracy, revealing its significance in medieval science and literature.
Contribution
It offers a detailed stylistic and astronomical analysis of D'ungal's letter, linking literary features with medieval eclipse knowledge and historical astronomy.
Findings
The letter follows a canonical rhetorical structure.
It references Macrobius and possibly Vitruvius' astronomical ideas.
It accurately discusses eclipse frequency and visibility in 810.
Abstract
D\'ungal's letter to Charlemagne on the double solar eclipse in the year 810 is extremely interesting both for its form and for its subject matter. Part I of the present study deals with the epistula as a literary work (genre, language, sources), dealing in turn with vocabulary, morphology and syntax, rythmical prose and rhetorical figures, literary and Biblical references. If we compare it with D\'ungal's other works, the letter is cast in the canonical oratio structure similar to his later Responsa contra Claudium (ed. Zanna, Firenze 2002) and it is likewise based on lengthy quotations drawns from Macrobius' commentary In Somnium Scipionis. A possible echo of Vitruvius' astronomical presentation in book IX of his De architectura is suggested. Finally, we attempt to define how the author's persona as famulus et orator and reclusus at St-Denis relates to Charlemagne and to abbot Waldo…
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Taxonomy
TopicsRenaissance Literature and Culture · Byzantine Studies and History · Historical, Literary, and Cultural Studies
