Dear Kathy,
When I posted my earlier reply, I had not read the full text of the original
query and thus did not know about the additional bit "on Ascension Day":
> I'm finishing a translation of some manorial court rolls and am stuck with
> a date. It concerns a payment, made on Ascension Day, for a farm *de tertio
> Pasche* 9 Edward III. Does this refer to the third week after Easter
> Sunday, here 7 May 1340, or to perhaps 3 days after Easter?
Frank's first observation that Ascension Day (the Thursday following the
fifth Sunday after Easter) "would fall neither on the third day nor in the
third week after Easter" seems very much to the point, so much so that I
fail to understand how his second message (regarding the sundown to sundown
reckoning of the liturgical day) could resolve the problem and how it could
support the view that "De tertio Pasche would ordinarily refer to the third
week of Easter". As I myself had pointed out, the ordinary form for the
third Sunday after Easter was not a masculine numeral, but rather a feminine
one ("tertia", referring to "dies dominica"), and was not a genitive
construction (= inclusive count), but rather "post pascha" (= exclusive
count). I suppose that this general usage was observed also in datings under
Henry III.
If the dating "on Ascension Day" is not subject to doubt, then the
incompatible part of the dating, "de tertio Pasche", either must be
erroneous or maybe is no part of the dating at all. Have you considered the
possibility that "de tertio Pasche" might actually be a misreading or
misspelling of "de tertio pascue" (i.e. terrae pascuae)? That is, would the
translation "pasture-ground" instead of "Easter" help?
Otfried
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