Josephus Scottus (‘the Irishman’) (d. c.794), monk, poet, and biblical exegete, was one of the many Irish peregrini in the western Carolingian empire. It is possible that he belonged to the Cianachta Breg (in the present Co. Louth). He was educated at Clonmacnoise under the lector and priest Colgu (qv) grandson of Duinechaid and at York under Alcuin, whom he befriended. His obit (if it is indeed his) in the Annals of Ulster (794) states that he was the grandson or descendant of Cernach and had become abbot of Clonmacnoise (‘Joseph nepos Cernae abbas Clúana maccu Nóis’).
He accompanied Alcuin to France, where he became a scholar at the court of Charlemagne, and later abbot of an unidentified monastery in Switzerland or Bavaria. In 787/8 Joseph and some companions were dispatched by Charlemagne as ambassadors (missi) to Rome and Benevento, where they escaped with their lives from an ambush. During Alcuin's absence in England (790–93), Joseph sent him news of Carolingian affairs and handled some business for him. Joseph may have retired to the monastery of Monte Cassino at the end of his life.
The evidence for Joseph's scholarly activity is scattered. Among his extant works are a number of poems in the acrostic style, including poems on theological issues and the earliest praise-poem in honour of his patron Charlemagne. He also wrote a poetic epistle to the Frisian missionary Liudger. He is the author of an abbreviation of Jerome's commentary on Isaiah, which, it seems, has little claim to originality. The prefatory letter and verses are addressed to Alcuin, who commissioned the work. Alcuin refers to Joseph in four of his letters: one to Colgu, two written to Joseph himself, and another (mentioning Joseph's recent death) to Remigius of Chur. Joseph has been suggested as the probable author of a set of glosses on the Isagoge of Porphyry. His name occurs twice in a ninth-century manuscript, Bern, Burgerbibliothek 363 (ff 119r, 123r), in relation to Servius's commentary on Virgil's Aeneid.