 Johannes (c.800–c.877), who signed himself as “Eriugena” in one manuscript, and who was referred to by his contemporaries as “the Irishman” (scottus—in the ninth century Ireland was referred to as “Scotia Maior” and its inhabitants as “scotti”) is the most significant Irish intellectual of the early monastic period. He is generally recognized to be both the most outstanding philosopher (in terms of originality) of the Carolingian era and of the whole period of Latin philosophy stretching from Boethius to Anselm. Eriugena is, also, though this parallel remains to be explored, more or less a contemporary of the Arab Neoplatonist Al-Kindi. 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 (see entry).