Bede, The Reckoning of Time

Beda (Venerabilis.), Beda Venerabilis (helgon.), el Venerable Beda (Santo), Bede Venerabilis Staff, Bede, the Venerable, Saint, 673-735

Liverpool University Press, Jan 1, 1999 - History - 479 pages

From the patristic age until the Gregorian calendar reform of 1582, computus -- the science of time reckoning and art of calendar construction -- was a matter of intense concern. Bede's The Reckoning of Time (De temporum ratione) was the first comprehensive treatise on this subject and the model and reference for all subsequent teaching discussion and criticism of the Christian calendar. It is a systematic exposition of the Julian solar calendar and the Paschal table of Dionysius Exiguus, with their related formulae for calculating dates. But it is more than a technical handbook. Bede sets calendar lore within a broad scientific framework and a coherent Christian concept of time, and incorporates themes as diverse as the theory of tides and the doctrine of the millennium.

This translation of the full text of The Reckoning of Time includes an extensive historical introduction and a chapter-by-chapter commentary. It will interest historians of medieval science, theology, and education, Bede scholars and Anglo-Saxonists, liturgists, and Church historians. It will also serve as an accessible introduction to computus itself. Generations of medieval computists nourished their expertise in Bede's orderly presentation; modern scholars in quest of safe passage through this complex terrain can hope for no better guide.

Contents

• ABBREVIATIONS: xi
• ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS: xiii
• INTRODUCTION: xv
• Computus as problembased science and doctrinachristiana: xviii
• A brief history of the Christian calendar before Bede: xxxiv
• Structure and content of The Reckoningof Time: lxiii
• Bedes sources: lxxii
• Manuscripts glosses editions and principles of translation: lxxxv
• THE RECKONING OF TIME: 1
• Preface: 3
• Table of Contents: 5
• IV The Paschal table chs 4465: 6
• Calculating or speaking with the ngers: 9
• Three ways of reckoning time: 13
• The smallest intervals of time: 14
• The reckoning of duodecimal fractions: 16
• II The Julian calendar chs 541: 19
• The worlds rst day: 24
• Night: 28
• The week: 32
• The seventy prophetic weeks: 36
• The week of the WorldAges: 39
• The months: 41
• The Roman months: 46
• Kalends nones and ides: 50
• The Greek months: 51
• The English months: 53
• The signs of the twelve months: 54
• The course of the Moon through the signs: 58
• for those who are ignorant of the signs: 60
• for those who do not know how to calculate: 63
• Whatthe age oftheMoon ison anygiven rst dayofthe month: 64
• What day of the week it is on the kalends: 68
• A formula for any Moon or weekday: 69
• For those who do not know how to calculate the age of the Moon: 71
• The number of hours of moonlight: 73
• When and why the Moon appears to be facing upwards facing downwards or standing upright: 74
• Why the Moon though situated beneath the Sun sometimes appears to be above it: 77
• On the size or eclipse of the Sun and Moon: 78
• What the power of the Moon can do: 80
• The harmony of the Moon and the sea: 82
• Equinoxes and solstices: 86
• The varying length of days and the dierent position of the shadows: 89
• Why the same days are unequal in length: 91
• In what places the shadows or days are equal: 93
• The ve circles of the universe and the passage of the stars under the Earth: 96
• The four seasons elements and humours: 100
• Natural years: 104
• The calculation of the leapyear day: 105
• Measuring the leapyear increment: 107
• Why it is intercalated on the sixth kalends of March: 109
• The Moon also has its quarterday: 110
• III Anomalies of lunar reckoning chs 4243: 113
• Whythe Moonsometimesappearsolderthan its computed age: 115
• The nineteenyear cycle: 121
• Embolismic and common years: 122
• The ogdoas and the hendecas: 124
• The years of the Lords Incarnation: 126
• Indictions: 130
• How certain people err concerning the beginning of the rst month: 132
• Formula for nding the number of the lunar epacts: 135
• Solar epacts: 136
• Formula for nding the number of the solar epacts and when leap year will fall: 137
• The lunar cycle: 139
• Formula based on the lunar cycle for nding the age of the Moon on 1 January: 141
• A formula to nd whatyear of the lunar cycle or of the nineteenyear cycle it is: 142
• A formula for nding it: 144
• Easter Sunday: 145
• The Moon of that day: 147
• The dierence between the Pasch and the Feast of Unleavened Bread: 149
• The allegorical interpretation of Easter: 151
• The Great Paschal Cycle: 155
• V The worldchronicle ch 66: 157
• VI Future time and the end of time chs 6771: 239
• Three opinions of the faithful as to when the Lord will come: 240
• The time of Antichrist: 241
• The Day of Judgement: 243
• The Seventh Age and the Eighth Age of the world to come: 246
• APPENDICES: 377
• Bibliography: 430
• Index of Sources: 445
• General Index: 465

About the author

Faith Wallis is Associate Professor in the Department of History at McGill University, Montreal.

Bibliographic information

• Title: Bede, The Reckoning of Time; Liverpool University Press Series; Translated Documents of Greece and Rome Series; Volume 29 of Translated texts for historians
• Authors: Beda (Venerabilis.), Beda Venerabilis (helgon.), el Venerable Beda (Santo), Bede Venerabilis Staff, Bede, the Venerable, Saint, 673-735
• Editors: Faith Wallis, Liverpool University Press
• Translated by: Faith Wallis
• Contributor: Faith Wallis
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Liverpool University Press, 1999
• ISBN: 0853236933, 9780853236931
• Length: 479 pages
• Subjects: History / Europe / Medieval