50

PolemiusSilviu8,Bede, and theNames oftheMonths

C'on nelportpartotle pales.

Si s'i ensaienttotades
De rencen rencIi chevalier,
Si vospuisporvoirtesmoignier
Ni ot un sol ne fustmoilliez.
Moltparen estchascunsiriez
Por Caradeuqui ot beu
Que autresimoillies
n'enfu.
La ro-neen estmoltdolente
Si estmainteautredamegente.
en ontmoltenhaie
Guignier
Et si li portent
grantenvie
Por que qu'el distselirement.
Tantparle heentmortelment
Que tantne heentrienvivant.

daz hornman durchden palas truog

von einemzuom anderengnuog
ftiralle ritteregemeit.
ich sage Uchftirdie worheit,
daz stiwurdentalle nas.
ieklicherzornigwaz,
daz getrunkenhetteKarados,
so daz er sich nUtbegos.
die kiiniginhettegrosleit
unde ander vrowentrurikeit.
sU truogentGyngeniergrozenhaz
und nidetentstiumbe daz,
daz sU sprach: 'trinkentsicher.'
stihassetentsU mortlicher,
denne ie wip gehassetwere.

POLEMIUS SILVIUS, BEDE, AND THE NAMES OF

THE MONTHS
BY C. W. JONES

ALTHOUGH
studentsin the West duringthe early Middle Ages knew verylittle
about thelanguageand customsofeasternraces,thenamesofthemonthsaccording to the Hebrews, Egyptians (Alexandrians),Athenians,Macedonians, and
othereasternpeoplesappear at intervalsin westernliterature.ProfessorMountfordcalled attentionto one sourcefortheselists.' This note willdiscussanother,
and morepopular,sourceforthe namesofthe monthsaccordingto the Hebrews,
Egyptians,and Greeks (Macedonians).
Mommsen2has publisheda Calendar writtenby PolemiusSilvius,3whichhad
previouslybeen edited by Henschenius.4Both editionsare based on the one extant manuscript,Bruxellensis10615-10729, saec. xii. The Calendar was only
a partofa Laterculuswrittenby Silvius; the remainderof theLaterculusMomm1 J. F. Mountford,'De MensiumNominibus,'Journalof HellenicStudies,XLIII (1923), 102-116.
An extensionof the work of Mountfordhas recentlyappeared: K. Hanell, 'Das Menologiumdes
Liber glossarum,'Bulletinde la Societtdes Lettresde Lund (1931-1932). But Hanell disregardsany
appearanceof the namesof the monthsnot mentionedby Mountford,and accepts the anonymityof
the Libellus de Anno. Lammert,Bursian's Jahresberichte
CCxxxi (1931), 110, suggestedthat the
names of the monthscould be recoveredfromthe writingsof the Fathers,especiallythe names of
the Hebrew monthsfromJerome'scommentaries;but a rathercarefulexaminationshowsthat any
such list is farfromexhaustive.
2 CorpusInscriptionum
Latinarum,i, 335-357.
3Silvius dedicatedhis workto his contemporary
Eucherius,Bishop of Lyons: 'Domino beatissimo
EucherioepiscopoSilvius.Laterculumquem prioresfeceruntcum difficilibus
supputatoribusindiciis
notatumlegissem,ne minusdoctisessetobscuriorabsolutione,positarumin eo rerumsignificationem
mutavi et apud te potissimum,a quo mea omnia pro tanto qui internos est amorisstudio comproy
banturdigestumdirexi.Laetificaboriudiciotuo, si eum tibiplacuissecognovero.'Silvius is evidently
thewritermentionedby HilariusofArlesand ProsperofAquitaine;cf.CorpusInscript.,i, 333.
4Acta Sanctorum,
Mensis lunii 7 (Antwerp,1717), pp. 178-184. Henschenius'textwas copied in
J. P. Migne's PatrologiaLatina, xiii, 675 ff.

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PolemiusSilvius,Bede, and theNames oftheMonths

51

sen later edited forthe MonumentaGermaniaeHistorica.'As a headingforeach

month on the Calendar appeared the names of the monthsaccordingto the
Hebrews,Egyptians,Athenians,and 'apud Graecos alios.' For instance:
MensisJanuarius
Tibi; apud Atheniensis,
Dies xxxi.Vocaturapud Hebraeos,Sebit;apud Aegyptios,
Pusidicon;apudGraecosalios,Edinen.
are no longer
The sourcesfromwhichPolemiusSilviusobtainedhisinformation
extant. Mommsen surmisedthat he took all four lists of monthsfromsome
menologium
withwhichhe was acquainted.2No evidenceindicatesthat Silvius'
sourcewas knownduringthe Middle Ages. From Polemius' Calendar,Eucherius
took the completelist of the Hebrew months,whichhe reproducedin his Inin turn,took some of his
structiones
II, 7.3 The compilerof the LiberGlossarum,
fromEucherius,4but does not appear to have knownthe Laterculus.
information
In the year 725, Bede publishedhis largerwork on chronology,now called
De TemporumRatione,in whichhe gave the names of the monthsaccordingto
the Hebrews,Egyptians,Greeks,and Romans (Chs. 11-14). In writingthis extended discussion,Bede's purpose was otherthan merelyto recordinteresting
information.The English-IrishPaschal controversyhad centred in a Canon
Paschali&,allegedlywrittenby Bishop Anatolius of Laodicea (A.D. 269). Two
recensionsofthe Canon seemto have been currentin Britainin Bede's time.One,
the recensionnow extant,was upheld by the Irish clergy.The English clergy
relied upon anothertext,whichmay merelyhave been a passage quoted from
the authenticCanon by Eusebius.5The incidentswhicharose at the Council of
of
Whitbyand the strugglebetweenthe two churchesover the interpretation
the Canon at that time are well known.The disputecontinuedto Bede's day,
and he was called upon to refutethe Irish. This he did in his Epistola ad Wichredam.In that letterBede chargedthe Irishwithadheringto a corruptor spurious
canon; he attemptedto prove that the originalworkof the Bishop of Laodicea
had favoredthe Englishpractice.6Althoughthe Irish versionimposedon many
mediaeval scholars,includingRoger Bacon,7 modernscholarshiphas asserted
that the extant Canon is undoubtedlya forgery,8
therebysustainingthe judgI

ChronicaMinora,i, 511 if.

CorpusInscript.,i, 333.
3C. Wotke,EucheriiOpera(CSEL. xxxi), p. 153.
4 J. F. Mountford,
op. cit.,p. 102.
5 HistoriaEcclesiastica,vii, 32.
6 'Ipsum vero libellumAnatoliipostmodumin aliquibus Latinorumexemplaribus
esse corruptum,
eorumnimirumfraude,qui paschae verumtempusignorantes,erroremsuumtantipatrisauctoritate
defenderegestirent,'J. A. Giles,Bedae OperaOmnia,i, 161.
7 The 'Opus Majus' ofRogerBacon,editedby J. H. Bridges(London, 1900), I, 271.
8 Cf. C. Plummer,Baedae OperaHistorica(Oxford,1896) ii, 191; Bruno Krusch,Studienzurchristlichmittelalterlichen
(Leipzig, 1880), p. 319; A. Anscombe,'The Paschal Canon Attributed
Chronologie
to Anatolius of Laodicea,' English HistoricalReviewx (1895), 515 f.; C. H. Turner,'The Paschal
Canon of "Anatoliusof Laodicea," ' ibid., pp. 699 ff.I am inclinedto accept Turner'ssurmisethat
the pseudo-Anatolianrecensionwas composedin northernBritainin the late sixthcentury.It is possible that it was composedby opponentsof the Victorianreckoningbeforethe Dionysiac reckoning
was introducedintoEngland.
2

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592

PolemiusSilvius,Bede, and theNames oftheMonths

ment of Bede. But one letterwas evidentlynot enoughto refutethe spurious

Canon, forBede many timeswent out of his way in the De TemporumRatione
to establishthe authenticityof his versionof the Canon,' althoughthroughout
the workhe carefullyrefrainedfromdirectlynamingthe Irish clergyas his adversaries.The primarycontentionarose froma variationin the followingpassage:2
primimensis,quod est xix annorumcirculiprincipium
Est ergoin primoannoinitium
xxvidie; iuxtaMacedonesveroDystri;
Aegyptios
quidemmensisPhamenoth
secundum
RomanosveroMartii
MacedonesDistri]mensisxxiidie [om.die];secundum
[secundum
vero,theDTR. reads:undecimoCalend.
mensisxxiii,id est viii KalendasAprilis[after
April.].
Both Bede and the unknownforgerused Rufinus' translationof Eusebius'
HistoriaEcclesiasticaas thesourceforthispassage.
Now the extendeddiscussionof the names of the monthsaccordingto the
Egyptiansand 'Greeks,'whichBede introducedinto the De TemporumRatione,
simplypreparedhis readersforthe followingargumentagainst the Irish recensionoftheAnatolianCanon:
secundamMartii
secundamdiemDistrimensisaeque vicesimam
Hic enimvicesimam
sumit.Et ne quis
forecommendans
quia simuluterquemensisinitium
indicatmanifeste
undecimoCalendas,sed octavo
dicat quod Anatoliusin hac sententianon scripserit
cuius
Phamenoth,
CalendasApriles,convincethoc non ita esse mensisAegyptiorum
diesest.
Aprilium
Calendarum
sed undecima
vicesimasextadiesnonoctavaCalendarum
inAnatoliolegunt
Cal. Apriles,
Utriqueautem,id est,et qui octavaCal. et qui undecima
diemAegyptiimensisin eademsententiahabentannotatam,quae
vigesimamsextam
iuxtaquodsuperius
probatur,
Calend.April.devenire
absqueulla dubietatein undecimo
eorumannalemdescribentes
signavimus.3
The English-IrishPaschal controversy
and thepseudo-AnatolianCanonPaschali8, then, were responsiblefor Bede's discussionof the names of the 'Greek'
and Egyptian months.The question has several times been asked whence he
acquired his knowledge.Undoubtedlyhis lists weretaken fromthe Calendar of
Polemius Silvius,whichBede describedas 'nuper transmissusad nos de Roma
to the Macedonian monthsas 'Greek'
computus.'4Bede wouldnot have referred
iftheyhad been correctlygivenin his source,forin bothrecensionsofthe Canon
Distroswas called Macedonian. Bede's argumentwould have been furthersupportedifhe had been able to say Macedonian insteadof Greek.But the heading
of Polemius Silvius, 'apud Graecos alios,' misledhim,and Bede was too careful
authority.From the
a writerto make alterationsin his sourcewithoutsufficient
same Calendar, Bede copied the names of the Hebrew months,but by moving
themforwardone monthhe changedtheirrelationto the Roman monthsfrom
thatmade by Silvius.Bede thusexplainedhis action:
1 DTR.,

Chs. 6,16,22,30,35,42.
I have giventhe passage accordingto the Irish recensionfoundin Migne's PatrologiaGraeca,x,
211, whichwas copied fromthe editionofBucherius,and I have placed in bracketsthe variantreadingsofGiles' textofthe De TemporumRatione(Bedae OperaOmnia,vi, 177). The principalvariation
lay in thedate oftheannual equinox,whichtheIrishobservedon March 25, theEnglishon March 21.
3 DTR. 14 (Giles,Bedae OperaOmnia,vi, 177-178).
4 Giles,op. cit.,vi, 177.
2

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PolemiusSilvius,Bede, and theNames oftheMonths

58

qui
sacratusest,Nisanappellantes,
qui Paschaeceremoniis
Primummensemnovorum,
nuncinciditinAprilem,
nuncinMartiummensem,
lunaediscursum,
propter
multivagum
quia semperin ipso
nuncaliquotdiesMaii mensisoccupat.Sed rectiusAprilideputatur;
ea duntaxatregulacuiuset suprameminimus,
velincipitveldesinitveltotusincluditur;
luna extiterit,
sequentisannimensem
primum
observataut quae xv postaequinoctium
sicqueperordinem.1
praecedentis,
faciat;quae veroantea,novissimum
Bede copied the names of the Hebrew months,not only because the position
of the monthNisan was of primaryimportancein the reckoningof the date of
Easter, but also because the names ofthe Hebrewmonthswereneedfulin Biblical exegesis.But he naturallyomittedthenames oftheAthenianmonthsas irrelevant.
because the 'Greek'
These listsof Bede have been disregardedby chronologists
monthsin Giles' text do not agree withany otherextantlist. Studentswho are
acquainted withGiles' textknowthat it is extremelyfaulty.The textwas based
on the ancienteditionofHervagiusofthe completeworksof Bede, publishedat
Basle, A.D. 1563; but the editormaintainedthat he had, withthe assistanceof
Thomas Wright,collatedthe earliereditionwithmanuscriptsin the BritishMuseum and the BibliothequeNationale.2The evidencewhichfollowswill,I think,
show that neitherthe editor nor his assistant seriouslyendeavoredto obtain
an accurate text. The accepted names of the Macedonian monthsare: Dios,
Apellaios, Audynaios,Peritios,Dystros,Xanthikos,Artemisios,Daisios, Panemos, Loos, Gorpiaios,Hyperberetaios.3Giles' text disagrees in three places:
for Apellaios, vvxtwv
for Audynaios, Oap-ytXLwzv
for Peritios.4The
AXapfrgoXt(tv
othernine names agree withthe list of Ginzel,and the list of Polemius Silvius.
I am unable to account for the presenceof these three names in Giles' text,
but a rotographof the Berlin MS., Phill. 1831, an excellentmanuscriptof the
Rationewrittenat Veronain the late eighthorearlyninthcentury,
De Temporum
shows that in that manuscriptthe names all agree with the text of Polemius
Silvius. That evidence,togetherwith otherfactsgivenbelow, shows that Bede
correctlycopied the Macedonian monthsfromSilvius' Calendar. His list,then,
in some way was garbledin the printededitions.Since this note was written,I
have examined rotographsof the followingmanuscriptsof the De Temporum
Ratione: Karlsruhe,Reichenau167; British Museum, Cotton,Vespasian B 6;
St Gallen 251; BibliothequeNationale,Latin 7296; Munich,Kbnigl.Bibl. 14725.
ProfessorLaistnerkindlysentme transcriptsfromSt Gallen 250 and Bibl. Nat.
Lat. 13403. All these manuscriptsgive the correctlist with minorvariations
which will be recordedin my edition of Bede's D. T.R. The manuscriptfrom
whichthe presentprintedtextwas takenis stillunknownto me.
foundin the MS.,
ProfessorMountfordtranscribeda shortwork,De Anno,5
Ratione.
VallicelliE 26, whereit appears immediatelyafterBede's De Temporum
11 (Giles,Bedae OperaOmniavi, 168-169).
Giles,op. cit.vi, v. The 'collations'appear in the same volume,pp. 456-459.
3 F. K. Ginzel, Handbuchder mathematischen
(Leipzig, 1906-14), in,
Chronologie
und technischen

IDTR.
2

1 DTR. 14 (Giles,op. cit.,vi, 177).

J. F. Mountford,JournalofHellenicStudies,XLIII, 114-116.

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54

PolemiusSilvius,Bede, and theNames oftheMonths

'A librarianat some timeor othermarkedoffthe workentitledDe Anno and in

the marginhas writtenLibellusBedae de Anno.' I give Mountford'sreasonsfor
rejectingit as a workofBede's:
So faras theHebrew,Egyptian,and Athenianmonth-names
are concerned,
thislittle
tractateis remarkably
accurate,and themonth-names
whichare referred
to the'other
Greeks'agreeentirely
withthecorrect
listofMacedonianmonths.
But is theLibellusa
workofBede? If we turnto Bede's accountofnon-Roman
months(De Temporum
Ratione,xi-xiv),we discover
thatonlyin theEgyptianmonths
doeshislistagreewiththat
givenin theLibellus.He has no separateor completelistoftheAthenianmonths.
His
commence
Hebrewmonths
withNisanas theequivalentofAprilinsteadofMarch.The
ofthe'Graeci'whichhegivesarea mixture;
months
fortheyagreewiththenormalMacebutDecemberis givenas Elaphebolion,
as
donianlistfromMarchto November,
January
Nuchionand Februaryas Thargelion.
We neednotgo further
and enquirewhether
the
exordium
oftheLibelluscouldhavecomefromBede.It is clearthatthistractatecannot
be a workofBedenorevena compendium
basedonhiswork.
De Anno,whichMountfordwas unable to assignto a date or author,contains
an exordiumwhichis really an exact transcriptof a paragraphor chapterentitled De Anno in Polemius Silvius' Prologue to his Laterculus.1Silvius took
thisparagraphalmostverbatimfromMacrobius,Saturnaliai, 12-13, a passage
which Bede had knownbeforehis acquaintance with Silvius' work. Afterthe
exordiumcomesa list ofmonthsaccordingto the Romans,Hebrews,Egyptians,
Athenians,and 'apud Graecosalios.' The list is simplya copy ofthe headingson
the Calendar of Silvius. The work,De Anno, then, is equivalent to the exact
sourcefromwhichBede tookhis information.
Studentsfamiliarwiththemethods
of copyistsin the earlyMiddle Ages withrespectto computativeworkswill not
findit hardto imaginethattheLibellusdeAnnotravelledwiththeDe Temporum
Rationeuntil it was copied into the Vallicellimanuscript,less than a hundred
yearsafterthecompositionofthelatterwork.
Bede's change in the order of the Hebrew monthsallows us to determine
whetherlists of foreignmonthscompiledafterBede were taken fromtheLaterculusor the De Temporum
Ratione.Of the exampleswhichfollow,all are derived
fromthe latterwork. This use of the De TemporumRationeis natural; forfive
itscomposition,it was themostpopularcomputusin theWest.
centuriesfollowing
The Laterculus,on the contrary,seemsto have survivedsomewhatby chance.
The firstlist is foundin theLiberde ComputoofHrabanus Maurus.2Hrabanus'
workas a wholewas littlemorethan a copyfromBede and Alcuin,and the lists
ofthe monthswereundoubtedlytaken fromBede, althoughHrabanus was wary
of Bede's arrangementof the Hebrew months;he did not comparethe Hebrew
monthswith the Roman months,but merelynumberedthem fromNisan, the
firstmonthofthe Hebrewyear. The 'Greek' monthsare Macedonian, and agree
withthe BerlinMS., Phill. 1831,ratherthan Giles' text.
In an appendixto the worksof St Germanus,PatrologiaLatina, LXXII, 619624, is a CalendariumAnglicanum,to whichattentionhas not,to myknowledge,
withadditions
recentlybeencalled. The Calendaris based on Bede's Martyrology,
I
2

Mommsen,ChronicaMinora,i, 511.
PatrologiaLatina,cvii, 683-684.

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PolemiusSilvius,Bede, and theNames oftheMonths

55

especiallyfromtwochurches-Winchester and Ely.I The mostplausibleconclusionfromthenoticesis that a Winchestercalendarwas carriedto Ely at thetime
Ethelwold,Bishop of Winchester,reformedthe conventat Ely and established
the Benedictinerulethere.Ethelwoldwas the last to die (ob. 984) ofthosewhose
names are on the Calendar. The Calendar,then,was probablyunchangedafter
the tenthcentury.Our interest,aside fromdatingand placingthe Calendar,lies
in the factthat each monthis headed witha listofnamesforthat monthaccording to the Hebrews,Egyptians,'Greeks,' Romans, and 'Saxons.' These names
were all copied fromBede's De TemporumRatione.Again, evidencethat Bede
correctlywrotethe names of the Macedonian monthsappears,forthisCalendar
gives: December,Apileos; January,Cynidios;February,Penitios.
of Ramsay (circ.A.D. 1000) copied
Anotherearly English writer,Byrhtferth
the names of the monthsfromthe De TemporumRationewhenhe composedhis
Manual. But his editor,the late ProfessorS. J. Crawford,hesitatedto assign
the correctsourcebecause ofthe discrepancybetweenthe list of 'Greek' months
Manual and the list in Giles' text of Bede's De TemporumRain Byrhtferth's
tione.2Like all writerssave one who copied fromBede, Byrhtferth
called the
Macedonian months 'Greek.' He, too, gave the names of the Englishmonths
accordingto Bede, but,morecorrectlythantheauthorofthe CalendariumAnglicanum,called themEnglisc,the vernacularformofBede's Anglorum.
Anothercomputuswhichhas not attractedwide attentionand whichI hope
to discussin detail at a later date is publishedin PatrologiaLatina cxxix, 192731372. It was transcribedby Muratorifromthe MS. Ambrosianus150 in AnecdotaLatina iII, 111-209; cf.Krusch,Studienzurchristlich-mittelalterlichen
Chronologie(Leipzig,1880),pp. 206 if.The manuscriptwas writtenin the ninthcentury,
probablyat Bobbio. There is reasonablecertaintythat part of it was writtenin
theyear 784, and anotherpart in the year 810. Some ofit was copied froma computuswrittenas earlyas the sixthcentury.In thisworkthe listsofmonths3were
takenfromtheDe TemporumRatione.4The Hebrew monthsare givenaccording
to Bede's arrangement,
with Nisan the equivalentof April. The list of 'Greek'
monthsis correctlylabelled Macedonian, and the Roman equivalents fallone
monthbehindBede's list. But the compilercould easily have inferred'Macedonian' fromthe contextof the De TemporumRatione,and the orderdiffers
from
PolemiusSilvius and the LiberGlossarumas wellas fromBede.
Honorius Augustodunensis'also copied his list of Hebrew, Egyptian, and
1 E.g.: March, WithburgaofEly; Edward, King ofEngland; May, Elfgiva,Queen at Shaftsbury:
June,Eadburga of Winchester;July,SwithunofWinchester;GrimbaldofWinchester;Edgar King
of England; Kenelm of Gloucester; Christinaof Winchester;August, Ethelwold of Winchester;
December, Birinus,who assisted in foundingWinchester.The early saints of Ely are all -named:
Ermenilda (February), Etheldreda (June), Sexburga (July). These latter were also in Bede's
Martyrology.
2 S. J. Crawford,
Manual (E. E. T. S., London,1929) i, 22-25.
Byrhtferth's
3 P.L., cxxix, 1363.
4Other evidence indicatesthat Bede's work was knownonly to the compilerwho wrotein the

year 810.
P. L., CLXXII,

151-152.

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56

The IsenheimAltar

'Greek' monthsfromBede. Since all theseworksare to be foundin available editions,it is unnecessaryto reproducethe names of the monthsaccordingto the
authorsmentioned.Althoughthislist of workswrittenin the earlyMiddle Ages
whichcontainthe non-Romannames ofthe monthsmay not be exhaustive,it is
nearlyso. When we considerthe largenumberof computicompiledduringthose
centuries,mostofthembased on theDe Temporum
Ratione,we may be surprised
at the small numberof citations.The Old Englishversifier
of the De Temporum
Ratione candidly explained the omissionfromhis work of the names of the
months,and his reasonmay apply to many othermediaeval computisticworks:
'Weeks and monthsare knownto menaccordingto theirunderstanding
ofthem,
and thoughwe shoulddescribethemaccordingto bookishmeaning,it will seem
to unlearnedmentoo deep and uncommon."
OBERLIN COLLEGE.

THE ISENHEIM ALTAR

BY ARTHUR BURKHARD
THE Isenheim altar commands attentionon two accounts. Its nine painted
panels, the main work of Matthias Grtinewald,are commonlyconsideredthe
most imposingsinglemonumentof Germanpainting.The altar itselfrepresents
one ofthelargestcommissionseverentrustedto a Germanor any otherNorthern
artist.It surpassesin size by farthe Ghentaltar ofthe van Eycks or any of the
altars executed by Dtirer. Only Michael Pacher's workat St Wolfgangmight
possiblybe comparedwith it in respectto magnitudeand splendor,but even
this masterpieceis less impressivein artisticcompositionand grandioseeffect,
despitethe factthat it has been preservedintactin the place ofreligiousworship
forwhichit was originallyconstructed.The Isenheimaltar has suffered
a much
harsherfate.It was orderedforthemonasterychurchofSt Anthonyin Isenheim,
near Colmar in Alsace, by the abbot Guido Guersi,and its paintingswerepresumablycompletedby Grtinewaldseveralyearsbeforetheabbot's death in 1516.
During the reignof terrorfollowingthe Frenchrevolution,the altar was carelesslydismemberedin orderto save it fromdestruction.Subsequentlyalmostall
ofthe super-structure
and someofthe sculpturedfigures,
whichhad been broken
off,werelost,stolen,or destroyed.Fortunately,even thoughthe altar has never
been reconstructed,
most of the figuresand all of Grtinewald'spaintingshave
been preserved.These are today assembled for display in the Unterlinden
Museum of Colmar,wheretheyfairlyoverwhelmthe visitorwiththeirimaginative boldness,emotionalpower,brilliantvarietyofcolor,and sheermagnificence
of designand execution.These nine paintingsfromthe Isenheimaltar formthe
mostcomprehensive
and representative
workofMatthias Grunewald,and clearly
establishhis claim to rankwithDuirerand Holbein as one ofthe mostimportant
Germanmastersofall time.
1 Popular Treatiseson Sciencewritten
duringtheMiddle Ages, edited by Thomas Wright,p. 6. I
have used Wright'stranslation.

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