The question of the grades of feasts is even more tricky when dealing with
the more personal, non-liturgical calendars made for various astronomical,
astrological and medical purposes which proliferate from the late fourteenth
century. Beyond a certain core of nationally and internationally venerated
saints and feasts, there seems to have been considerable freedom for
individuals to compile lists for their own devotion. For example, in the 15
manuscripts of the calendar of Nicholas of Lynn edited by Sigmund Eisner, ie
they are all of the same text, no two examples share the same list of saints
and the correspondence falls as low as 30%.
Eisner unfortunately does not include any information about the grades of
feast in his printed edition. However, in the 20 or so folding calendars I
have looked at, it is usual to distinguish only two "grades": usually in red
and black.
A wonderful tool for those with an interest in calendars is the medieval
calendar calculator prepared by Peter Binkley. The program distinguishes six
grades of feast.
http://www.wallandbinkley.com/mcc/mcc_main.html
With Peter's help, I hope to have Eisner's Nicholas of Lynn calendar there
soon.
Hilary Carey
Univesity of Newcastle, NSW
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