medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Jim
There's no mystery: the Painswick Astrolable has space on its dial ring to
fit in three dates per month [for February: 2, 10, 22], and the BM astrolabe
has room for four! [Giving a composite list just obscured that fact...] The
basis for selection is that they are roughly the most important feasts in
the month, but with one from the beginning of the month, one from the end
and one (or two) from the middle! There's nothing more significant than
that! Saints' Days were the convenient markers for the medieval (civil)
calendar, so if you are putting months on your instrument you add Saints'
Days. Yes, they have been drawn from a fairly non-specific Sarum Calendar,
but no religious calendar works on exactly three (or four) feasts a month!
It is just like your office diary or "Saints of the Day". [The printers for
our year 2000 office diary went bust, so another had to be found at short
notice. When the diary arrived we found that it had been produced in Italy,
with a Saint's Day every day (in Italian)! For a non-denominational
high-technology organisation in an English-speaking Protestant country that
was mildly embarrassing...]
John Briggs
jbugslag wrote:
>
> John,
> I went back to the article I read after your last posting, and much
> to my embarrassment, I see that the calendar list I gave as belonging
> to the Painswick astrolabe was a composite list, including both its
> calendar and that of another astrolabe in the British Museum, dating
> c.1450. The list does indeed list Alban on 20 June, clearly from
> what you say a mistake.
>
> This would make the calendar given for the Painswick astrolabe (which
> is still probably wrong, at least for February, which has four feasts
> listed): 1 Jan. Circumcisio Domini 6 Jan Epiphany 22 Jan Vincent 2
> Feb Maria purificatio 10 Feb Scolastica 22 Feb Petrus in cathedra in
> Antiochia 24 Feb Mathias 2 Mar Chad 12 Mar
> Gregorius 25 Mar Maria annunciatio 4 Apr Ambrosius 19 Apr Alphegus
> 25 Apr Marcus 1
> May Philippus 19 May Dunstanus 25 May Aldhelm 11 Jun Barnabas 20
> [sic: 22] June
> Albanus 29 Jun Petrus et Paulus 7 Jul Translatio S. Thome 20 Jul
> Margareta 25 Jul Jacobus 10 Aug Laurentius 15 Aug Maria assumptio 24
> Aug Bartholomew 8 Sept Maria Nativitas 21
> Sept Matthaeus 29 Sept Michal, archangel 9 Oct Dionysius 18 Oct Lucas
> 28 Oct Simon et
> Judas 11 Nov Martinus 17 Nov Hugh of Lincoln 25 Nov Katerina 30 Nov
> Andreas 8 Dec
> Maria conceptio 21 Dec Thomas 25 Dec Nativitas
>
> That for the British Museum astrolabe (also possibly faulty) would be:
> 1 Jan. Circumcisio Domini 6 Jan Epiphany 13 Jan Hilarius 25 Jan
> Paulus conversion 2 Feb
> Maria purificatio 14 Feb Valentine 22 Feb Petrus in cathedra in
> Antiochia 24 Feb Mathias 2 Mar Chad 12 Mar Gregorius 21 Mar
> Benedictus 25 Mar Maria annunciatio 4 Apr Ambrosius 14 Apr Tiburtius
> 23 Apr Georgius 25 Apr Marcus 3 May Inventio cruces 6 May Johannes
> ante portam latinam 19 May Dunstanus 26 May Augustine of Canterbury
> 5 Jun Bonifacius 11 Jun Barnabas 24 Jun Johannes Bapt. Nativitas 29
> Jun Petrus et Paulus 7 Jul Translatio S.
> Thome 15 Jul Swithinus 22 Jul Maria Magdalena 25 Jul Jacobus 1 Aug
> Petrus ad vincula 10
> Aug Laurentius 15 Aug Maria assumptio 24 Aug Bartholomew 8 Sept Maria
> Nativitas 14 Sept Sancte Crucis 21 Sept Matthaeus 29 Sept Michal,
> archangel 9 Oct Dionysius 13 Oct Edward
> the Confessor translatio 18 Oct Lucas 28 Oct Simon et Judas 1 Nov
> Omnium sanctorum 11
> Nov Martinus 25 Nov Katerina 30 Nov Andreas 6 Dec Nicholas 8 Dec
> Maria conceptio 21
> Dec Thomas 25 Dec Nativitas
>
> If anything, this makes the choices all the more mysterious to me.
> Thanks, in any case, with your help on this.
> Cheers,
> Jim
>
>
>
> On 9 Nov 2008 at 1:54, John Briggs wrote:
>
>> 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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>
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John Briggs
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