FREDEGISO di TOURS. - English scholar, born probably in the last quarter of the 8th century (a letter of Alcuino from 798 calls him “puer”), died in 834. He was a disciple of Alcuino, first at York and then at Carlomagno’s palace school, where he later held a chair (beginning of the 9th century). In 804 he was elected abbot of the monastery of S. Martino in Tours, and in 819 he received the office of chancellor to Ludovico il Pio.
Besides several short poems, he wrote, in epistolary form, the short treatise De nihilo et tenebris (PL 105, 751-56), in which he seeks to demonstrate that these two concepts correspond to an objective reality. Perhaps, however, rather than by the postulates of an exaggerated realism, F. was led to this position by exegetical concerns regarding the relevant passages of chap. I of Gen., which seemed to him incapable of any other explanation.
The importance of the Epistola for the history of philosophy lies in the fact that it constitutes one of the earliest examples, in scholasticism, of the dialectical method.