The dove and the star: enduring ideas from seventh-century Ireland

Abstract

In the cosmology of Augustinus Hibernicus, scriptural data are combined with the classical theory of the four elements as the sole components of all matter. For him the dove at the baptism of Christ was a semblance fashioned from the element air. Similarly, the Magi saw a semblance of a star temporarily fashioned from the element fire, and he stressed also that Scripture never said that the star guided the Magi all the way from the East. The fortuna of these ideas is followed into the high middle ages.