>[...]
>You'd have to look at the whole of your roll to decide whether this
>is plausible. Otherwise, the "third Easter day" or "third Easter
>sunday" would also make sense, i. e. Tuesday immediately following or
>the second sunday after Easter.
Given the actual difference of opinions, maybe we could give the discussion
a somewhat broader issue by comparing what we know or believe to know about
"inclusive" and "exclusive" counting.
What I **believe** to know about this matter or about its grammatical
aspects is that genitive constructions of the type "tertius/-a/-um Paschae"
were usually inclusive (counting, when referring to days, the Sunday of
Easter as the first of the three), whereas praepositional constructions of
the type "tertius/-a/-um post Pascha" were per se exclusive (not including
the day or week or whatever of Easter itself into the count). So far I agree
with Christoph that "tertius (dies) Paschae" would give Tuesday (and not
Wednesday) after Easter Sunday, and that "tertius (dies dominicus) Paschae"
would give, from a purely gramatical point of view, the second Sunday after
Easter (if the masculine form "dies dominicus" in fact were used, which I
doubt for the dating of liturgical feasts in the late middle ages).
But, and here it seems that I have to disagree or to confess my historical
ignorance, did anybody ever see dating formulas where the Sundays/weeks
after Easter were given by **inclusive** count? What I myself believe to
know about the historical aspects of the problem is that only the **days**
following a feast were (or could be) dated by inclusive count, including the
feast day itself, whereas the **Sundays/weeks** following a feast were given
by exclusive count, without including the feast itself. According to this
rule the Sunday after Easter Sunday could be dated "octavis Paschae"
(because it is the eighth day after Easter Sunday, this Easter Sunday
included) or "prima post Pascha", but not "secunda Pascae" (nor "prima
Paschae"). Accordingly, the second Sunday after Easter would have to be
dated "secunda post Pascha", and not "tertia Paschae". Am I right, or am I
giving too much weight to my limited experience with dating formulas?
Otfried
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