medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
jbugslag wrote:
>
> Thanks for this. With respect to Alban on 20 June, could this
> represent a slight shift to make room for a more locally important
> saint on 22 June (I'm not aware of any possibilities, however)?
No. If anything it would be the other way around: 20th June is the
Translation of St Edward the Martyr. Do you have an illustration of the
calendar? Otherwise I would suspect a mistake in the article. [I have just
checked the Museum's catalogue - Alban is indeed marked correctly on 22nd
June!]
> And as for Frideswide, I thought of her, but as I mentioned, it seems
> peculiar that there are no English female saints.
English female saints don't really figure all that large in any calendar.
But an Oxford one wouldn't omit her.
> And why on earth would they have gone to all the trouble of putting all of
> this on an astrolabe?
Well, an astrolabe is concerned with time. It shows a map of the night sky
at a particular time and date. If you know where you are, you can tell the
time and date. If you know the time and date, you can tell where you are.
You can cast horoscopes. It is not unreasonable to have a calendar.
By the way, the Painswick Astrolabe is at Oxford, not the British Museum. I
shan't be going there before early December, but I suppose I could have a
look at it... Everyone latches on to it because it dates from c.1370 and so
is probably nearest to Chaucer's treatise. [I have just looked at the
Painswick Astrolabe on the Museum's website, and it has exactly *three*
saints' days per month, giving 36 in total - not the 56 you listed. Where
did that list come from?]
John Briggs
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