De mirabilibus sacrae scripturae
7th-century Latin treatise by anonymous Irish philosopher / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
De mirabilibus sacrae scripturae (English: On the Miraculous Things in Sacred Scripture) is a Latin treatise written around 655 by an anonymous Irish writer and philosopher known as Augustinus Hibernicus or the Irish Augustine.
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The author's nickname is in reference to the philosopher Augustine of Hippo. This pseudo-Augustine was born in Ireland sometime in the first half of the seventh century and is noted especially for his natural philosophy.
Around the year 655 he wrote a treatise called De mirabilibus Sacrae Scripturae. It has long been regarded as an exceptional work, in that it demonstrates a strictly scientific approach in the matter of making direct observations of nature and subjecting them to a strictly logical interpretation.
His treatise seeks to explain each miracle in the Scriptures as an extreme case of phenomena, yet still within the laws of nature. Augustine also gives a list of the terrestrial mammals of Ireland, and solves the problem of how they reached Ireland after the flood of Noah by proposing a solution – hundreds of years ahead of its time – that the island had been cut off from continental Europe by marine erosion.