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Before Grosseteste: Roger of Hereford and Calendar Reform in Eleventh- and TwelfthCentury England
Author(s): Jennifer Moreton

Source: Isis, Vol. 86, No. 4 (Dec., 1995), pp. 562-586
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of The History of Science Society
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Before
Grosseteste
Roger of Herefordand CalendarReform in

Eleventh- and Twelfth-CenturyEngland
By Jennifer Moreton*
HE EXISTENCE IN THE WEST COUNTRY-that area of England that is nearest to
the Welsh border-in the eleventh and twelfth centuries of a group of scholars with
scientific interests has long been recognized. The part that compotus played in the development of these interests was noted by C. H. Haskins many years ago, but it has not been
studied in any detail.' Yet both the area and the topic are of the greatest importance for
the development of Western science in the Middle Ages: for it was here that a proposal
for a reform of the ecclesiastical calendar, based not only on the reckoning traditionally
attributed to Dionysius Exiguus but relating also to observed phenomena, was arrived at,
then verified with the use of newly available scientific ideas from Arabic sources.
One reason for the neglect of this topic is that three very important computistical treatises-the eleventh-century Compotus of Gerland and those of Roger of Hereford and the
writer who has been identified with a certain "Constabularius," both from the twelfth
century-have not been printed.2
* Dublin Instituteof Technology, Kevin Street, Dublin 8, Ireland.
I am gratefulto Wolfson College, Oxford, for a Visiting Fellowship in 1993-1994 that allowed me to work
on this article;to Daniel McCarthyfor much helpful discussion; and to Peter Moretonfor technical assistance.
1For the West
Countryand science see Charles Burnett,"The Introductionof Arabic Learning into British
Schools,"in TheIntroductionof Arabic Philosophyinto Europe,ed. C. E. Butterworthand B. A. Kessell (Leiden:
Brill, 1994), pp. 40-57; for compotussee C. H. Haskins, Studies in the History of Medieval Science (1924; rpt.,
New York, Unger, 1960), Chs. 5, 6.
2
Dionysius Exiguus: A Scythianmonk who lived in Rome ca. 500-ca. 550. He called himself "the little" out
of humility. His computisticalwritings appearin Patrologia cursus completus:Series Latina (hereafterPL), ed.
J. P. Migne, Vol. 67 (1848), cols. 453-520.
Gerland:His compotus was possibly written in 1081. L. M. de Rijk, Gerlandus computista (Assen, 1959),
established the computist's identity, but much confusion surroundshim. The forthcomingedition of Gerland's
Compotus,by Faith Wallis of McGill University, is eagerly awaited. To Rijk's list of manuscripts(p. xxii) may
be addedOxford,Bodleian LibraryMS AuctariumF.1.9, s.xii, fols. 12v-26v; and Oxford,Bodleian LibraryMS
Digby 56, s.xii, fols. 170r-195v, both of which have West Countryprovenance.Thereis much variationbetween
manuscripts.Quotationsin this essay are from Digby 56.
Roger of Hereford:Roger dedicatedhis treatise on the compotusto GilbertFoliot, bishop of Herefordfrom
1146 to 1163. By 1176, Roger tells us, he had "sweated"in the cathedralschool of Herefordfor many years.
He appears to have been a member of the bishop's household; see Haskins, Studies in History of Medieval
Science, pp. 124-125. Roger's manuscripts:Oxford, Bodleian LibraryMS Digby 40, s.xii-xiii, fols. 21-50v
(headed "Prefatiomagistri Rogeri infantis in compotum");Cambridge,University LibraryKk.l.1, s.xiii, fols.
Isis, 1995, 86: 562-586
?1995 by The History of Science Society. All rights reserved.
0021-1753/95/8401-0001$01.00
562

JENNIFERMORETON
563
The aim of this article is to explain why the study of compotus flourished in the West
Country and then to examine its development in these and related treatises. A section is
devoted to the Kalendarium of Robert Grosseteste, whose contribution to science is better
known than that of the previously mentioned figures. It is a truism that well-known writers
attract attributions. It is not surprising that a set of calendar tables that bear a close relationship to Gerland's treatise, and that form the centerpiece of the Compotus of Roger of
Hereford, should have been attributed to Grosseteste from an early period; but it is ironic,
in view of their importance, that they should have been printed only in this version, which
was copied when the principles governing their construction had been forgotten.3
First of all, what was compotus? Its exponents have been called "the first specialist
scientists of the Middle Ages." Astronomy was concerned with all the planets; compotus
studied only lunar and solar movements. It evolved because of the exigencies of the Christian calendar. Christmas and saints' days are dates in the solar calendar, the Roman civil
calendar, which (with modification) we still use today. Problems arose with solar reckoning
because of inaccurate astronomical measurement, but they were fairly easily solved.4 Lunar
measurement, too, was inaccurate; but there were more immediate problems involving the
dating of Easter. To establish this most important day in the Christian year it was necessary
to collate lunar and solar movements.
Easter is associated with the Jewish Passover, which is the fourteenth day (luna 14) of
the lunar month Nisan (Exodus 12:2, 6). The Last Supper is traditionally (on the authority
of the Synoptic Gospels) held to have been the Passover meal; the Resurrection, occurring
three days later, was thus on the seventeenth day of the lunar month (luna 17). But the
the solar calendar.
day of the Resurrection was also the first day of the week-Sunday-in
Controversy arose early between adherents of the new faith who observed a Christian
Pasch on luna 14, whatever day of the week it fell on, and those who observed the feast
on the following Sunday. The former were anathematized as Quartodecimans. A further
constraint was the belief, arbitrarily arrived at, that Nisan, luna 14, could not fall before
the spring equinox.
How could it be ensured that Easter was kept on the same date throughout the Church?
The difficulties that might ensue if the date varied are chronicled, as is well known, by
Bede.5 Even where astronomical expertise existed, it was no good waiting to observe the
appropriate moon, since the faithful had to know when the preceding fast began. What
222v-239r (unascribed);a third manuscript-Oxford, Corpus ChristiCollege 233-appears to have contained

the treatise:it is cited in a list of contents, but the treatise itself is missing. Quotationsin this essay are from
Digby 40.
Floruit 1175, known only for this treatise.London, British LibraryMS Cotton Vitellius A
"Constabularius":
XII, fols. 87v-97v. P. J. Willets, "A ReconstructedAstronomicalMS from ChristChurchLibrary,Canterbury,"
British Museum Quarterly, 1965-1966, 30:22-30, identified the treatise as the work of a certain "Magister
Cunestabilis";he is referredto in this article as Constabularius.
3 Arvid
Lindhagen,ed., "Die Neumondtafeldes Lincolniensis,"Archivfor Matematik,Astronomioch Fysik,
1916, 11-12:15-41. The tables and the accompanyingmaterialare also discussed in FerdinandKaltenbrunner,
Die Vorgeschichteder GregorianischenKalenderreform(Vienna, 1876), pp. 305-307; and W. E. van Wijk, Le
nombred'or: Etude de chronologie technique(The Hague, 1936), pp. 39-41.
4 Olaf
Pedersen, "The Corpus astronomicumand the Traditionsof Medieval Latin Astronomy,"Studia Copernicana, 1973, 3:57-96, on p. 64. For a definitionof compotussee Digby 40, fol. 22v: "compotusest scientia
distinctionistemporumsecundummotumduorumprincipaliumplanetarum,solis videlicet et lune."On problems
caused by inaccuratemeasurementand their solution see Jennifer Moreton, "Sacrobosco and the Calendar,"
Viator, 1994, 25:229-244.
5 Bede, Historia ecclesiastica, 3.25. In 651
Queen Eanfledawas still fasting while her husbandOswy, king of
Northumbria,was celebratingEaster.

564
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
was necessary was an Eastertable that would lay down the dates in advance;if this table
was cyclical, it could, in theory, be used in perpetuity.
Paschaluniformitywas a source of discordin the Churchfor many centuries,but it was
eventually achieved (at least until the Gregorianreformof 1582) by the acceptance,from
the end of the seventh century, of the Dionysian reckoning for establishing the date of
Easter.The 19-yearcycle used in the Dionysian reckoningequates 19 solar years with 235
lunations,or lunarmonths.6The lunationis reckonedto be 29 1/2 days long, but since the
calendarcan reckononly in whole days, lunationsof 30 and29 days-"vulgar lunations"are alternated.A year composed of twelve of these lunationscontains 354 days--11 days
less thanthe year of 12 solarmonths.To keep the lunaryear as far as possible in alignment
with the solar, an extralunationof 30 days is addedto the formerwheneverthe difference
between it and the solar year exceeds thirty.Seven of these extra lunations,or embolisms,
are added at appropriatepoints in the cycle. The lunar reckoning then exceeds the solar
by 1 day. This extra day is omitted, or "leapt over," in the last year of the cycle: hence
the name saltus lune.
Bearing in mind that ecclesiastical reckoningcan deal only in whole days, the 19-year
cycle is the least unsatisfactoryway of collatingmotions thatare, in fact, incommensurable
in practicalterms; but it has intrinsic defects. The intercalationof the embolisms spoils
the alternationof 30- and 29-day lunations and makes for inaccuraciesin the age of the
moon at certainpoints of the cycle, which can be 1 or sometimes 2 days out. Moreover,
it is not a truecycle: to comprehendall the possible calendricalpermutationsof weekdays,
leap years, and embolisms, it is necessary to constructa table of 532 years.
The Dionysian paschal cycle is the productof the 28-year solar cycle and the 19-year
lunar cycle. Dionysius did not, in fact, create the cycle that bears his name. What he did
was to take an existing table and extend it for 95 years from A.D. 532. Bede's inclusion
of the cycle, which was to become the basis of all futureecclesiastical reckoning, in his
definitivework on the calendarensuredits wide dissemination,althoughit is probablethat
cycles of this kind were circulatingin Britainbefore his De temporumratione (A.D. 725).
Bede's cycle, which he calls the greatpaschalcycle, covers the years 532-1063 inclusive,
startingwhere Dionysius began his (noncyclical) table.7
The Celtic church was slow to accept the Dionysian dating. It differed in observing a
laterequinox (25 March,not 21 March)and in allowing the Eastercelebrationon Sunday,
luna 14, which resultedin its adherentsbeing branded(unfairly)as Quartodecimans.Their
submission at the Synod of Whitby in 664 is chronicledby Bede. But Celtic scholarship
lies behind the latter'sDe temporumratione; and the texts on which the Celtic arguments
were based continuedto be copied.8
The continuinginfluence of the Celtic churchis the firstfactor that has to be taken into
account when we turn to consider why the study of compotus flourished in the West
Country.It was an influence that seems to have persisted into the eleventh century and
6 Bedae Opera de temporibus,ed. Charles W. Jones (Cambridge,Mass.: Medieval Academy of America,
1943), pp. 3-104, chronicles the process of the acceptanceof the Dionysian reckoning.Throughoutthis article,
the "19-year cycle" denotes the ciclus decennovenalis of the standardecclesiastical reckoning. The "paschal
cycle" refers to the cycle of 532 years, Bede's "greatpaschal cycle" (see Table 1).
7 According to Bede (Historia ecclesiastica, 5.21), Ceolfrid, abbot of Wearmouthand Yarrow (ca. 710), said
that numerousscholarscould compose a 532-year cycle. Bede's descriptionof the cycle is to be found in Bedae
Opera de temporibus,ed. Jones, p. 290.
8 Bede, Historia ecclesiastica, 3.25. On the subject of the Irish and the Quartodecimanheresy see Daibhf
O'Cr6inin,"New Heresy for Old: Pelagianismin Irelandand the Papal Letterof 440," Speculum,1985, 60:505516; on the Irish dating of Easter see Daniel McCarthy,"EasterPrinciples and a Fifth-CenturyLunar Cycle
Used in the British Isles," Journalfor the History of Astronomy,1993, 24:204-224.

JENNIFERMORETON
565
beyond. The twelfth-centuryCompotusof Constabulariusappearsin a collection of codices, one of which contains Cummian'sletter, the only surviving copy of an important
documentthatwas writtencirca 633 to the abbotof Iona to explain why the southernIrish
had decided to bring their paschal observanceinto line with the dictates of the Papal See.
In the early thirteenthcenturythe canons of SalisburyCathedraladded Cummian'sletter
to a compendiumof computisticaltexts. Perhapsthe letter had been to the Continentand
back again, preservedin this way from destructionduringViking invasions of Britain;but
Celtic influence is evident also in a prayerbook that may have originatedat Leominster
in the early eleventh century.The prayerbook contains a calendarwith separateentriesin
June for the solstice accordingto Greek and Roman use. It should be emphasizedthat a
table for computing the date of Easter in the same volume accords with the standard
practiceof the WesternChurch;but adherenceto the official ecclesiastical calendardoes
not precludean interestin the problemsassociatedwith it.9
Turningto the texts to be examined in this article, we shall discover that Gerland,like
othersbefore him, disagreedwith Dionysius aboutthe year in which Christwas born. His
emendationof the Dionysian era dependedon the Acta synodi, one of the documentsused
by the Celtic church in defense of its dating of Easter; and it should be noted that the
Compotusof Constabulariuscontains a detailed examination of anotherof these documents, the De rationepaschali attributedto Anatolius of Laodicea.10
In additionto the surviving influence of the Celtic church, contacts between the West
CountryandLotharingia,with its earlyinterestin Arabicscience, began before the Norman
Conquest and reinforcedinterest in compotus.Lotharingianscience was disseminatedin
Englandby Abbo of Fleury,who taughtastronomyand compotusto the monks of Ramsey
from 986 to 988. Ramsey was the motherhouse of both Worcesterand Winchcombe,and
what C. W. Jones calls "Abbonianmaterial"was transmittedfrom Ramsey to the West
Country.RobertLosinga, who was bishop of Herefordfrom 1079 to 1085, continuedthe
Another Lotharingian,Walcher, prior of Malvem, who was in
computisticaltradition."1
Englandbetween 1091 and 1135, producedsome lunartables that will be discussed later.
Gerlandwas a native of Lotharingia.It has been suggestedthat,like RobertandWalcher,
he spent some of his life in England. Two manuscriptscontaining his Compotuswere
Gerlandseems to have been particularly
originallyat Worcesterand (probably)Hereford.12
influentialin what may be called the English computisticaltradition.He figures in some
9 On the role of Cummian's letter see Maura Walsh and Daibhf O' Cr6inin, eds., Cummian's Letter De
controversiapaschali and the De rationicomputandi(Studies and Texts, 86) (Toronto:PontificalInst. Medieval
Studies, 1988). The survivingcopy is now London, British LibraryMS CottonVitellius XII, fols. 79r-83r. See
Teresa Webber, Scribes and Scholars at Salisbury Cathedral, c. 1075-c. 1125 (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press,
1992), p. 63. For the prayerbook see B. J. Muir, ed., A Pre-ConquestEnglish Prayer-Book(Henry Bradshaw
Society, 103) (Woodbridge,Suffolk: Boydell, 1988). Muir agrees with EdmundBishop and Neil Ker that it was
writtenin Winchester;the Leominsterprovenanceis suggestedby Joe Hillaby,"EarlyChristianandPre-Conquest
Leominster,"Transactionsof the WoolhopeNaturalists'Field Club, 1987, 45:557-685, on p. 630. The table for
computingthe date of Easteris reproducedby Muir on p. 15. If this is intended, as Muir says, to be a 19-year
cycle, 1 year is missing.
10A new edition of this importanttext is forthcoming:Anatolius,De rationepaschali, ed. Aidan Breen, Daniel
McCarthy,and JenniferMoreton (Medieval Studies) (Queenston,Ontario:Edwin Mellen).
n See J. W. Thomson, "The Introductionof Arabic Science into Lorrainein the Tenth
Century,"Isis, 1929,
12:184-193; and Alfred Cordoliani, "L'activit6computistiquede Robert, 6veque de Hereford,"in Melanges
offerts taRend Crozet,Vol. 1, ed. P. Gallais and Y.-J. Rious (Poitiers:Societe de Etudes Medievales, 1966), pp.
333-340. The "Abbonianmaterial"includes Oxford, Bodleian MS Digby 56, of which Gerland's Compotusis
a part;see CharlesW. Jones, Bedae pseudepigrapha:ScientificWritingsFalsely Attributedto Bede (Ithaca,N.Y./
London:Cornell Univ. Press, 1939), p. 13.
12Bedae
Opera de temporibus,ed. Jones (cit. n. 6), p. 154; and Burnett, "Introductionof Arabic Learning"
(cit. n. 1), p. 44.

566
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
widely disseminatedmaterialthat appearsto have been part of the stock-in-tradeof the

later commentatorson the Compotusin the schools, although his name is seldom mentioned with unqualifiedapproval.
In the West Countryin the eleventh and twelfth centuries, then, were to be found an
interestin compotusthatwas partof the legacy of the Celtic churchand the works of some
scholarly Lotharingianswith similar interests.To this may be added a knowledge of the
Jewish calendar,available in that part of England since the previous century. The Liber
ysagogarum alchorismi, which is attributedin one manuscriptto a certain "MasterA,"
contains a Jewish calendar.'3
Roger of Hereford,whose links with the West Countryare sufficiently well attested,
wrote not only on the calendarbut on astrologicalsubjects.14He had access to information
from Jewish sources, as we shall see. His Compotus,which will be discussed in detail,
was writtenin 1176.
In addition,the West Countrywas an area where the Arabic learning newly available
to Western Europe was eagerly received. This was often transmittedthrough Jewish
sources. Particularlyinterestingin this respect, and requiringfurtherinvestigation,is the
Compotusof Constabularius.Like his contemporaryRoger of Hereford, Constabularius
was preoccupiedwith the problemsof the ecclesiastical calendar.As we shall see, he was
perhapsnot in sympathywith Roger's proposal for reform. There are very few clues in
the treatise to the identity of its writer. It appearsto have been written in 1175, in England-to which there is one reference in the text. The writer's use of Anatolius's De
ratione paschali-that importanttext for those who supportedthe Celtic Easter-has already been noted. Another reason for linking its writer with the West Country is his
knowledge of Gerland,who is the most cited writerin a treatisefull of citation.But much
of his subject matter is more scientifically advanced than Gerland's, and some of his
informationcould have come only from personalcontact with Jewish scholars.15
GERLAND AND THE PASCHAL CYCLE
Thereis no traceof the "new science"in Gerland'sCompotus,which is insteadnoteworthy

for the skill it displays using the traditionalmethods of reckoning. It is not irrelevantin
this connection that Gerlandwas an abacist.16
An understandingof how the paschalcycle works was (and is) fundamentalto the study
of compotus.This is best explained in connection with Gerlandand his proposed emendation of the year of the Incarnation,since the argumenthinges on his discussion of
Dionysius's mistakeninterpretationof the data the cycle contains.
13 Charles
Burnett, "The Writings of Adelard of Bath and Closely Associated Works, Together with the
Manuscriptsin Which They Occur," in Adelard of Bath, ed. Burnett (London: WarburgInstitute, 1987), pp.
163-196, on pp. 173-174, describesthe Liberysagogarum alchorismi, attributedin one manuscriptto "magister
A." This manuscriptcontains a Jewish calendar tlat is evidently not included in MuhammadIbn Musa alKhwarizmi,Le calcul indien (Algorismus),ed. and trans.Andre Allard (Paris:Blanchard,1992), pp. xlv-lii, 2361.
14 See
Haskins,Studies in History of Medieval Science (cit. n. 1), pp. 124-126, for a list of writings attributed
to Roger. Nicholas Whyte edited one of his astrologicalworks in "Rogerof Hereford,Liber de arte astronomica
iudicandi: a Twelfth-CenturyAstrologer's Manual"(M.Phil. thesis, CambridgeUniv., 1991).
15The referenceto Englandis in CottonVitellius A XII, fol. 96ra: "quandoqueluna distansa sole paulominus
quam xxix gradibus in Anglia non apparebit."For the writer's knowledge of Jewish sources see the section
"Rogerof Herefordand the AstronomicalCompotus."On enthusiasmin the West Countryfor the new Arabic
learningsee the sources cited in note 1.
16 His
treatise, De abaco, was edited by B. Treutlein (Bolletino di Bibliographiae di Storia della Scienze
Matematicheet Fisiche Publicatoda B. Boncompagni, 10) (1877), pp. 595-607.

567
JENNIFERMORETON
Table 1. The Paschal Cycle

Cycle year
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
Epact
532
11
22
14
25
17
28
20
12
23
15
26
18
4b
2b
7b
5b
3b
551
lb
6b
4b
2b
7b
570
5b
12
3b
lb
6b
4b
589
2b
7b
5b
3b
608
lb
6b
4b
2b
7b
627
5b
3b
lb
6b
4b
646
2b
7b
5b
3b
lb
665
6b
4b
2b
7b
684
5b
3b
lb
6b
4b
703
2b
7b
5b
3b
lb
722
6b
4b
2b
7b
5b
741
3b
lb
6b
4b
760
2b
7b
Sb
3b
lb
779
6b
4b
2b
7b
5b
798
3b
lb
6b
4b
2b
817
7b
5b
3b
lb
836
6b
4b
2b
7b
5b
855
3b
lb
6b
4b
2b
874
7b
5b
3b
lb
6b
893
4b
2b
7b
5b
912
3b
lb
6b
4b
2b
931
7b
5b
3b
lb
6b
950
4b
2b
7b
5b
3b
969
lb
6b
4b
2b
988
7b
Sb
3b
lb
6b
1007
4b
2b
7b
5b
3b
1026
lb
6b
4b
2b
7b
1045
5b
3b
lb
6b
Paschal
term
5
Ap
25
M
13
Ap
2
Ap
22
M
10
Ap
30
M
19
Ap
7
Ap
27
Ap
15
Ap
4
Ap
24
M
12
Ap
1
Ap
21
M
9
Ap
29
M
17
A
Paschal
regular:
Dionysius's main contributionto calendarreformwas his introductionof the era of the

Incarnation,the method of dating from the nativity of Jesus Christ, which is still in use
today. But it was well known even in Bede's time that there were difficulties with the
Dionysian data.Bede chose not to spell this fact out, perhapsbecause he had alreadybeen
accused of heresy for his promulgationof an unorthodoxcalculationof the annus mundi.17
Gerlandis less reticent. Referringto the paschal cycle (Table 1), we see that it gives
the epacts and concurrentsfor 532 years, from 532 to 1063 A.D. inclusive. The epact is a
17 See Bedae
Opera de temporibus,ed. Jones (cit. n. 6), pp. 132-135. According to Jones, Bede maintained
the accuracyof Dionysius "withso noticeablea circumlocutionthatit seems probablethatthe datewas questioned
in his day" (p. 70). What Bede says is that if you cannot find the year you are looking for (i.e., the year that has
the right data), you must put it down to the carelessness of the chronographeror your own stupidity(p. 268).

568
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
numberthat representsthe difference in days between the lunar and the solar year, reckoning year by year. The epacts for the 19 years of the lunarcycle are shown horizontally
at the top of the table. The age of the moon on the first day of a particularmonth can be
establishedby adding the lunarregular,which is a fixed numberassigned to each month
of the lunaryear, to the epact.
The concurrentshows the feria (the day of the week) of the first day of the year. The
concurrentis shown for every year of the paschal cycle in the twenty-eight lines below
the epacts. The letter b indicates that the year is bissextile, that is, a leap year. The feria
of the first day of the month can be establishedby means of the solar regular,which is a
fixed number assigned to each month of the solar year. For example: March has lunar
regular9, solar regular5. Epact + lunarregular = age of moon on 1 March;concurrent
+ solar regular5 = feria on 1 March(Sunday = feria 1, Monday = feria 2, and so on).
Gerlandbases his criticism of the Dionysian reckoning on a close examinationof the
paschal cycle, which stands (or should stand) at the beginning of his treatise.18For his
informationhe relies heavily on Bede.
He argues as follows. Dionysius startshis cycle in 532, but it is the second year of his
table, not the first, which correspondsto the year of the Incarnation(532 is the last year
of the first cycle-not, as Dionysius makes it, the first year of the second). The Passion
of Christ was 33 and a little more years later, that is (accordingto Dionysius), the year
that correspondswith A.D. 566 in the paschal cycle. But "Dionysius and certain others"
assigned the first Easter Day to 27 March.19The Last Supper (luna 14) was thereforeon
Thursday,24 March. Countingback to the beginning of March, we find that 1 March is
luna 21 of the previous (30-day) lunation, feria 3 (Tuesday) in the solar reckoning. And
this correspondsto epact 12, concurrent5.20
If we consult the paschal cycle we find that the chronological elements-epact 12,
concurrent5-that relateto this date occur in the thirteenthyear of the cycle and 247 years
later.EitherChrist'searthlylife was shorteror longer than is recorded,or the Last Supper
could not have taken place on luna 14, the full moon of Passover.
Gerland has an alternativesolution. We can avoid misrepresentation,he says, if we
follow Theophilusin datingthe Crucifixionto 23 March.The Passoverfull moon (the allimportantluna 14) will then fall on 22 March; and Easter Day (luna 17) on 25 March.
This dating yields epact 14, concurrent7, which occurs in the forty-thirdyear of the 19year cycle. Christlived on earth,Gerlandhas alreadyestablished,for 33 years and a little
more. Countingback 34 years, we reach year 9 of the table; and it is to this year that the
Incarnationshould really be assigned. Dionysius has startedhis table 7 years too early:
the year he calls 532 is really only 525.21
It is not irrelevantto Gerland's proposedredatingof the ChristianEra that althoughthe
18
Digby 56, fol. 178r: "que operis huius caput est et principium."In this manuscriptan (inaccurate)cycle
occupies fol. 177v, but this is not the beginning of the treatise. There is a more accuratecycle on fols. 163v164r, but it is not partof the Compotusof Gerlandas it is copied in this codex.
19Digby 56, fol. 176v. This is not what Bede says; see Bedae Opera de temporibus,ed. Jones (cit. n. 6), p.
267: "Quodautem viii kal. apr. crucifixus,vi kal. earundemdie resurrexit,multorumlate doctorumecclesiasticorum constat sententiavulgatum."These, accordingto Jones, included Augustine himself (p. 382).
20Epact + lunarregular9 = luna 21: 21 - 9 = 12; concurrent + solar regular5 = feria 3: 3 - 5 + 7
= 5. As has been said, 29- and 30-day lunationsalternate."Unequalmonths"(months 1, 3, 5, etc.) have "equal"
(i.e., 30-day) lunations.The lunationbelongs to the month in which it terminates.If luna 14 falls on 24 March,
luna 1 is on 11 March, so 1 March is luna 21 of the previous lunation.
21 The relevant
passages were printedin Alfred Cordoliani,"Abbonde Fleury, Herigerde Lobbes et Gerland
de Besan9on sur l'ere de l'Incarnationde Denys le Petit,"Revue d'Histoire Ecclesiastique, 1949, 44:463-487,
on pp. 484-487.

JENNIFERMORETON
569
Council did not, as was thought,promulgatea specific method of calculatingEaster,it did

proscribethe Quartodecimanheresy. It has been noted thatGerlandwas not regardedwith
unalloyed approval:thus Constabularius,who calls him "my Gerland,"says that he is to
be imitated in everything except where he goes against the usage of the Church.In appealing to Theophilusfor his dating of the events of the Passion Gerlandwas, as has been
said, citing theActa synodi,which was attributedto the second-centurybishop of Caesarea.
The writerof this documentenvisaged the possibility of Easterbeing celebratedon luna
14. Although this document may not have been an "Irish forgery," it was part of the
materialthat was used to supportthe Celtic dating of Easter.22
Computisticalcalculationhas always been regardedas tiresome.23The tediousnesswas
somewhatmitigatedby the invention of the paschalregular,which, with the paschalterm
(the full moon from which EasterDay is reckoned),was a shortcutto establishingthe date
of Easter in any particularyear of the paschal cycle. The paschal regular(which can be
located at the bottom of Table 1), combined with the concurrent,gives the feria (day of
the week) on which the paschalfull moon falls. For example, let us take a year at random:
say, A.D.690. Referringto the paschal cycle, we find that it is year 7 of the 19-yearcycle.
The paschal term for year 7 of the cycle is 30 March;the paschal regularis 6. Referring
again to the cycle, we find that the concurrentfor 690 is 5. In that year, therefore, 30
March fell on feria 4, Wednesday (6 + 5 = 11; 11 - 7= 4). Easter Day was 4 days
later, that is, on 3 April.
A chartof the paschal cycle and the paschal regularsis included with the Compotusof
Constabularius,but there the latter are called the "angelic regulars."The paschal terms
and regularswere incorporatedin some ancientand widely disseminatedverses, beginning
"NoneAprilis,"which were thoughtto have an angelic provenance.24Roger includes the
verses in his treatise and refers to the legend; he adds cautiously that the paschal terms
were confirmedby the Council of Nicaea.25
ROGER OF HEREFORD AND THE GOLDEN NUMBER
What Gerlandhad proposed in his Compotuswas merely an alternativedate for the Incarnation;it did nothing to correct the underlyingweaknesses of the ecclesiastical reckoning. Bede's De temporumratione had establishedthe ecclesiasticalcalendarin the form
that it was to maintainuntil the Gregorianreform of 1582. The shortcomingsof the calendarwere recognized, but it was thoughtto have the authorityof the Council of Nicaea
22
For Constabularius'scaution see Cotton Vitellius A XII, fol. 87ra: "Noveris etiam preterceteros auctores
Geralandumquoque imitatum,et etiam imitandumin omnibus exceptis his in quibus obviat usui ecclesie." He
adds: "Namubi bene dicat, nemo melius."The Acta synodi is accessible underthe title De ordinationeferiarum
paschalium, in PL, Vol. 90 (1862), cols. 607-610A. Jones (Bedae Opera de temporibus,ed. Jones [cit. n. 6],
p. 88) and Walsh and O'Cr6infn(Cummian'sLetter [cit. n. 9], p. 36) differ about its provenance.
23 Hence Michael Scot's definition of the
subject in his Liber particularis (1256), Oxford Bodleian Library
MS Canonici, Miscellaneous 555, fol. 10v: "Vel dicitur compotus a compotando, ... quia compotationesnecessarie sunt ad doctrinameorum qui in compoto edocentur."
24 Cotton Vitellius A XII, fol. 98r. The verses were known to Isidore
(col. 560-636); he refers to them in his
Etymologies.See C. W. Jones, "A Legend of St. Pachomius,"Speculum,1943, 18:198-210. Dfibhf O'Cr6infn,
"Mo-SinnuMoccu Min and the Computusof Bangor,"Peritia, 1982, 1:287, printsthe verses in full.
25 Digby 40, fols. 33v-34r: "Contingitenim in primativaecclesia ut esset circa Paschalem calculationem
variatio, ita quod quidamut lerosolunite Pascha celebrarentmore ludeorumluna xiiii, quacunquedie evenerit:
alii autem ut Galli vitokal. Aprilis, qua die secundumsolis cursumresurrexitDominus. Set quoniamincongrua
esset diversitasinter quos erat catholice fidei unitas, Pacomius abba quidam, cum esset vir summe religionis,
rogatu multorumin dicto ieiunio Domin orasse legitur ut sibi placitum suum circa Paschalem sollempnitatem
manifestaredignaretur.Cui angelo revelantehos versus misisse dictus est. Set et eodem modo a Niceno Consilio
terminosconfirmatoshabemus."

570
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
behind it. As Roger of Herefordsays, "We dare not change anything relating to the lunations of the ecclesiastical compotus."26
As a shortcutto reckoning, the paschal regular appearsto have been replaced by the
golden number.Roger's treatise seems to have been the last to include the verses "None
Aprilis" and the first to include a discussion of the golden number. The epact and the
concurrentand the calculations connected with them relate to the paschal cycle, which
reflects Alexandrianreckoning.The golden numberwas relatedto the Roman calendar.It
acquiredits name, it was commonly believed, because it was such a marvelousdevice for
finding the age of the moon that the Romans inscribed it in their calendarsin letters of
gold.27
The golden numberwas a device for markingon the calendarall the new moons (primations) in the 19-year cycle. It first appearedin the tenth century, and it probablyoriginated in Celtic tradition.The golden number is usually found on the standardChurch
calendarin a column to the right of the date. Table 2 shows how the golden numberis
plotted throughoutthe 19-year cycle. All the dates on which the new moon occurs in the
first year of the cycle are indicatedby the number 1, in the second year by 2, and so on.
The numbersare sometimes replacedby the first nineteen letters of the alphabet.If you
had a calendar,it was a simple matterto find any new moon in the year and thus to locate
Easter.Of course, you would have to know the year of the 19-yearcycle: but that is easily
establishedby a well-known Dionysian argumentum,which Bede included in his treatise:
Add one to the Year of OurLord and divide by nineteen.Any remainderwill indicate the
year of the cycle. If there is no remainder,it is the last year of the cycle.28
But the golden number had another much more importantadvantage: it solved the
problem that was known as the "failureof the epacts." In several places in the eighth,
eleventh, and nineteenthyears of the cycle, addingthe epact and lunarregularyielded the
wrong dates. For example, 1 May is shown as luna 28. But in the eighth year of the cycle
the additionof an extra 30-day embolismic lunationfrom 6 Marchto 4 April throws the
reckoningout by 1 day, so that 1 May in this year is luna 27. Again, calculatingby epact
and lunarregular,1 August should be luna 2; in the nineteenthyear of the cycle, however,
the omission of 1 day, the saltus lune, from the July lunationmakes 1 August luna 3. This
is somethingthat Bede knew and thatevery calendartreatiseafterhim drew attentionto.29
The intrinsicdeficiencies of the 19-year cycle-its inaccuracyand the fact that at the
end of the 19 years the chronologicaldata do not, as it was thought,repeatthemselveswere amenableto examinationand improvementwhen it was set out on the calendar.In
the calendartables that Roger of Herefordconnected with Gerland-and that in the next
century were attributedto Robert Grosseteste-the golden numberis adaptedto make a
more accuratetable, which in theory could be used in perpetuity.It is to Roger's credit
that he realized that it could not, at least as it stood; and it is on that realizationthat his
proposal for calendarreform was based. As has alreadybeen noted, there was a further,
26
Digby 40, fol. 48r: "nihil in lunationibusvulgaris compoti mutareaudemus."
27Roger repeats the story about the origin of the term; see Digby 40, fol. 24v: "Aureusnumerus eo quod
aureis inscribebaturliteris dicitur, quia per hanc [sic] etas lune miro artificio dinoscitur."See Andr6 van de
Vijver, "Hucbaldde Saint-Amand,6colatre,et l'inventiondu nombred'or,"in MelangesAugustPelzer (Louvain:
Univ. Louvain, 1947), pp. 71-79.
28 Dionysius Argumentumpaschalia, in PL, Vol. 67 (1848), col. 501; and Bedae Opera de temporibus,ed.
Jones (cit. n. 6), p. 266. The calendarsprintedin ChristopherWordsworth,TheAncientKalendarof the University
of Oxford (Oxford Historical Society, 45) (Oxford: Clarendon, 1904), exemplify the placement of the golden
numberin a column to the right of the date.
29 Bedae
Opera de temporibus,ed. Jones, p. 221: "Suntautem anni tres circuli decemnovenalisin quibusidem
argumentumstabilitatemsui tenoris conservarenequeat."

571
JENNIFERMORETON
Table 2. The Golden Number

Jan
1
2
3
Feb
Mar
19
11
19
16
19
16
11
13
12
19
10
16
18
17
19
15
20
22
12
23
13
10
10
10
18
13
13
10
18
10
10
10
18
18
15
15
15
12
12
12
26
17
27
17
28
18
15
12
12
17
17
17
17
14
29
30
14
14
31
14
14
14
11
11
9
9
17
17
14
14
11
11
8
8
16
8
8
11
19
19
19
19
3
11
14
11
11
12
12
19
19
17
14
3
14
15
15
14
18
18
12
12
12
10
10
17
15
17
13,2*
15
15
15
13*
18
17
5
13
10
6
9
Dec
10
18
18
Nov
16
12
9
13
13
18
15
Oct
13
24
25
5*
13
16
21
16*
18
8
16
16
15
Sep
16
13
14
Aug
8
16
8*
19
16
13
Jul
10
Jun
19
19*
5
May
11
11
11
11*
Apr
16
16
5
5
13
*Denotes embolism.
more fundamental,problemwith the cycle in that the lunarmeasurementwas itself inaccurate.An overestimationof the length of the lunationresultedin the date wherethe golden
numberwas markedon the calendargraduallybecoming later and later than the actual
new moon. This was a serious matter,because it could be easily recognized-in the next
Roger's proposedreformwas
century,accordingto a later compotist, by "any peasant."30
intended to put things right without disobeying what was thought to be the edict of the
Council of Nicaea.
Roger of Hereforddid not invent the tables that form the centerpieceof his treatise.He
thoughtGerlanddid: and we must treathis opinion with respect, althoughthere are problems with the attribution.The tables were certainlyin existence before 1176, the year when
30
Roger Bacon, Opus majus, Vol. 1, ed. J. H. Bridges (Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1897), p. 276: "Etiam
quilibetcomputistanovit, quod fallit primatioper tres dies vel quatuorhis temporibus,et quilibet rusticuspotest
in coelo hunc erroremcontemplari."

572
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
Table 3. Calendar from 25 August to 24 September (Adapted from Digby 40, fol. 40v)
Vulgar
Cycle
3
First
Second
t8
t2
11
h3
19
q 16
h 21
h 15
q 10
q4
c 12
8
16
e6
n1
n 19
*c 20t
*c 14
5
13
*1 10
*14
*t 23
*t 17
2
*h18
*h12
*q 7
*e3
15
b 11
*n16
4
h9
26
q 22
27
28
29
n 13
n7
30
31
1 September
*c 8
*c 2
*122
*1 16
*n 10
k 19
*h61
*e 15
g9
p 23
d18
*t 5
] *h24
*q 13
*e9
*n22
10
*n4
11
b 17
12
k 13
k7
14
s 20
15
13
s8
s2
g21
g 15
16
pll
d6
p5
19
d24
20
p 17
d 12
17
18
ml
a 21
a3
6
7
m 19
14
g3
6
m7
b 23
s 14
2
4
b5
k1
Day of Month
25 August
c 18
*q 1
*e21
17
t 14
*q 19
18
Fourth
c 24
*t 11
10
12
NaturalCycles
Third
a 152
21
m13
22
a9
23
i22
24
*Denotes embolism.
tHere the letters denoting the primationsof the naturalcompotuschange from a to b, from b to c, then d and
so on.
'Primation,1176.
2Solareclipse, 1093.
Roger wrote his treatise, since they appear, in what we shall see must have been their
original form, in a manuscript that includes the Compotus of Gerland and can be reliably
dated to 1131.31 I have chosen to study the tables in the form in which they appear in
31 London, British LibraryMS Cotton Vespasian A IX, fols. 62v-68r. See A. G. Watson, Catalogue of Dated
and Datable Manuscripts,c. 700-1600, in the Departmentof Manuscriptsin the BritishLibrary,2 vols. (London:
British Library,1979), Vol. 1, p. 108.

JENNIFERMORETON
573
Roger's Compotusbecause he explains how they work and how the principle on which
they were based was arrivedat.
How are the tables differentfrom those using the traditionalgolden number?This can
be explained with referenceto Table 3. If some additionalcomplications are ignored for
the moment, it can be seen that, in contrastto the standardChurchcalendar,each month
has not one but five columns for the lunardata.The firstcolumn, which is headed "Vulgar
Cycle," contains the conventional golden number;the following four are bracketedtogether under the heading "NaturalCycles." But the golden numberin these columns is
representedby a letter followed by a numberand appearsto bear no relationshipto the
numberin the first column.
Before examining the calendartables in detail, it is worth recordingthat they seem to
have had a profoundeffect on those who encounteredthem, at least in the West Country.
Roger's treatise seems to have been written in an atmosphereof violent controversy.In
the preface to his Compotus,the only part of it so far to have been printed,Roger refers
to a conflict that has brokenout among studentsof the topic. They are, he tells us, locked
in battle among themselves. The proponentsof the naturalcompotus reject the vulgar
compotus because of its lack of subtlety and because it follows the senses ratherthan
reason. The proponentsof the vulgar compotusreject the naturalcompotusbecause it is
remote from what can be perceived throughthe senses and is clear only to reason, a vain
and empty science not visible to the eyes or audible to the ears. There are also, he notes,
treatisesthat do not distinguishbetween the two and introducemuch thatis irrelevant;and
othersthat-designed only to satisfy the needs of the vulgarcompotus-are found to have
rejectedessentials.32
There is furtherevidence of the controversyin the writingsof AlexanderNequam.This
prolific writer on scientific subjects was an Augustinianwho was elected abbot of Cirencester in 1213. In a supplementalwork he refers to the "manifesterrorsin the vulgar
compotus."33
The function of the calendartables, which form the centerpiece of the Compotusof
Roger of Hereford,is to correct these errorsby substituting"natural"for "vulgar"reckoning. Roger's treatiseis a comprehensiveand densely argued account of calendarreckoning in all its aspects. It is very carefullyconstructed,and despite numerousdigressions,
particularlyin the first part of the work, Roger never loses sight of his main aim, which
is nothing less than the reformof the 19-yearcycle.
The treatise is divided into five books, the first three of which are given over to the
compotusvulgaris, or the ecclesiasticalcompotus.Roger, as has alreadybeen said, did not
envisage reform outside this context: his conclusion, after an exhaustive examinationof
all the availableevidence, is thatall thatis needed for the reformof the cycle is the (literal)
updatingof the golden numberwhenever occasion demands.
In the preface to his treatiseRoger tells us that he has "sweated"(desudavi)for many
years in the schools. His trainingis evident in the way in which he deals with his material.
Each aspect of it is carefully defined and differentiated.Thus compotus is distinguished
from astronomy,that other science that studies the motions of the planets, and the vulgar
32
Digby 40, fol. 21r. Roger's account is in the preface, which appears only in the Digby manuscript.An
extract from this was printedby J. C. Russell in "Herefordand Arabic Science in England about 1175-1200,"
Isis, 1932, 18:14-25, on pp. 20-21.
33 Alexander
Nequam, Suppletiodefectuum,Paris BibliothequeNational MS Lat. 11867, fol. 227 va-vb: "Et
iam vulgaris manifeste compotus errat"(my translation).Quoted in R. W. Hunt, The Schools and the Cloister:
The Life and Writingsof Alexander Nequam, 1157-1217, ed. and rev. MargaretGibson (Oxford: Clarendon,
1984), p. 82.

574
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
or artificialcompotusfrom the natural;the two ways of expoundingthe subject,in writing

and by means of tables, are described.34
Book 1 is an exposition, first, of the paschal cycle, which is none other than Bede's
greatpaschal cycle, updatedfor the next 532 years, 1064-1595 inclusive; and, second, of
the ecclesiasticalcalendar,which is representedin the treatiseby the calendartables themselves. As well as the golden number,they incorporatethe material-Sunday letters,saints'
days, astronomicalmaterial,and the like-that Roger describes in his text. Roger's digressions are easier to bear with if both cycle and tables are kept in mind. Books 2 and 3
explain and amplify the materialin the first book.
It should be emphasizedthat these three books deal not with actual astronomicalmeasurements,however accurateor inaccurate,but with their adaptationto the exigencies of
the ecclesiastical calendar,the compotusvulgaris. As has been pointed out, the ecclesiastical calculation of the primationsis often as much as 2 days out. Book 4 of Roger's
treatise,which contains the calendartables, describes the compotusnaturalis.
The compotusnaturalis presentsan improvedversion of the ecclesiastical reckoningin
thatit distributesthe time encompassedby 19 solar years equally among the 235 lunations
with which they are collated; for while the vulgar compotus,Roger tells us, deals only in
integraldays, years, and months, the naturalcompotus,using fractions, divides the same
amount of time into equal parts. He eventually arrives at a value for the "naturallunation"-based not on astronomicalmeasurementsbut on the vulgar compotus-of 29 days,
12 hours, 29 moments, 348 atoms (approximately29 days, 12 hours, 44 minutes). Fortunately for the reader-to avoid tedium, Roger tells us-the fractionsare roundedup into
whole hours.35
Whatarethese fractions?Roger tells us thatthereare40 momentsin an hour,564 atoms
in a moment.The odd value of the atom, which, unlike thatof the moment,does not appear
in Bede, is specific to the 19-yearcycle: it resultsfrom an attemptto accountfor the saltus
lune, the 1 day at the end of the 19-year cycle by which 235 lunations exceed 19 solar
years. The true length of the lunation, it was asserted, was less than was traditionally
reckoned. The 24 hours (960 moments) of the saltus lune were divided into the 235
lunations of the lunar cycle, and thus it was possible to show that the real length of the
lunation was 4 moments, 48 atoms, less than the traditionalreckoning (each atom being
calculatedas 1/564 moment).36
In book 5 of his treatise it becomes clear that Roger was familiar with sexagesimal
fractions.We may well ask why he did not use them in book 4 as well, substitutingthem
for the cumbersomevaluesjust noted. The answeris thatthe calculationin book 4 is based
on that of Gerland,who was writing at a period when such fractions were not generally
available.37
Roger has, in fact, improvedon his original.Gerlandused Roman fractions.In case his
readers are unfamiliarwith them, Roger includes a chart that details them. Duodecimal
34 Digby 40, fol. 22v: "In scriptovero singula diffusa ac dilucide pertractantur;
in tabulavero singula breviter
et per figurascoartanturet continentur."
35Digby 40, fol. 22v: "vulgarisvero per quasdamtemporumintegritates,ne ex subtilitatevulgares deficiant;
quicquidnaturalissubtilissimeper portiunculastemporumenquirit,in quadamgrossitudineinequalitercomprehendit."Fol. 37v: "Sciendumautemquod licet hec tabulaad naturalempertineatcompotum,non tamen minutias
distinguerepotuit set tantumhoras, ne prolixitatemagnitudiniseius teduo afficeremus.Omnis tamen sub integritatehorarumcolligit ut vulgaris sub integritatedierum,ut in tribus vel iiii lunationibusadditioneunius hore
vel pluriumomnes minutie comprehendatur."
36 The calculation, which was probablyof Celtic origin, is to be found in the De cursu et saltu lune of Ps.Alcuin, in PL, Vol. 129 (1853), cols. 986-988.
37
Digby 56, fols. 173r-174r.

JENNIFERMORETON
575
fractions were the only ones known to the Romans, who thought in terms of a whole
numberbeing broken down in twelfths.38The Romans were a practicalpeople, and for
practicalpurposestheir system was perfectly adequate;but for the sort of calculationthat
Gerlandwas essaying it was extraordinarilyclumsy and, indeed, inaccurate.He eventually
allots to each naturallunation of 29.5 days an extra 2/3 (bisse) of an hour, 2 moments,
11/12 (deunx) of a moment, 1 sicilicus, 7 atoms, and 1/4 atom. Roger records Gerland's
calculationand then points out thatthe same fractionscan be expressedin differentterms.
Fortunately,he uses only moments and atoms for his own calculations.
Having explained how to calculate the naturallunation,Roger goes on to show how it
is plotted on the calendar.The text of book 4 is discursive,but it is possible to extractthe
following informationfrom it.
Because the 19-yearcycle does not take account of the leap day, Roger has substituted
for the conventional calendaralternativetables for 19 X 4 years, which will allow the
date and hour of the primationto be given as accuratelyas possible within the constraints
imposed by calculating in lunations of equal length and whole hours.39The year of the
primationis representedby a letter of the alphabet,so that all the primationsof the first
year are representedby a, those of the second by b, and so on, followed by a numberthat
representsthe hour at which the primationoccurs.
There follow several apparentlyconflicting statementsabout the year of the paschal
cycle and, consequently,the year A.D.in which the tables begin. These are set out in what
follows (although not in Roger's order). They are best explained with reference to the
paschal cycle (see Table 1).
The tables startedfrom 1056 in Dionysian reckoning, because this was the beginning
of the 76-year cycle. Year 1 correspondsto year 12 of the 19-year cycle, which has
concurrent1 in a leap year and epact 1. The solaryear begins on 22 March,which is where
the astronomicalyear startswith the entry of the sun into the sign of Aries and which is
also the earliest paschal term.
"The cycle" is, of course, the paschal cycle. Year 12 has epact 1. It should be noted
that Roger is looking not at the beginning of the cycle but at the end. In the last line of
the cycle, which contains the data for 1045-1063, the twelfth year (1056) has concurrent
lb. But Gerland,Roger says, began "thattable" in the very last year of the cycle with
concurrent6, before Marchwhen the cycle of concurrentsbegins, in the fourthyear after
the bissextile where the cycle of concurrentsstarts.40According to the paschal cycle, this
is the eleventh year of the same 19-yearcycle (1055).
How can these two statementsbe reconciled? Roger emphasizes the explanation by
giving it twice. Although the solar year begins on 22 March,in honor of the paschal feast
andthe entryof the sun into Aries, the lunaryear, with its mutation,begins on 1 September.
Laterhe repeatsthe statement:the lunaryear begins from Septemberin the first cycle of
epacts, year 12 (of the 19-yearcycle), epact 1.41
38For Roger's chart see Digby 56, fol. 34v. On Roman fractions see Karl Menninger,Number Words and
NumberSymbols:A CulturalHistory of Numbers,trans.Paul Broneer (Cambridge,Mass./London:MIT Press,
1969), pp. 158-161.
39Digby 40, fol. 36r: "Unde et aliam subposuimuskalendariitabulam,in qua quaterxix anni continenturut
horas primationumquantumvicinius propter minutias fieri potest, necnon et naturalesprimationesquantum
similitervicinius fieri potest, secundumequalitatemlunationumet horarumintegritatumpatefaciamus."
40Digby 40, fol. 36v.
41
Digby 40, fol. 36v: "Inceptionemautemfacientes ab i cum bissexto et i epacta,id est a xiiocicli xix"ispropter
solis motum et Paschalis sollempnitatisdignitatemab xi kalendis Aprilis ubi et sol Arietemingredituret primus
dies Pasche celebratursolarem annumincipimus,lunaremvero cum omni mutationesua a kalendis Septembris.
... Incipientesa Septembriannumlunaremprimi cicli anno epactarum..."

576
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
Table 4. Parallel Years for the Natural Compotus and the 19-Year Cycle (Digby 40, fol.
48v)
This Calendar
Epact
1
Letter
19-Year Cycle
12
12
13
23
14
15
15
16
26
17
18
18
19
none
10
11
11
22
12
13
14
14
25
15
16
17
17
28
18
10
19
20
11
In their original form the tables presumablystartedfrom September,as they do in the

manuscriptof 1131 mentionedearlier.Did Roger himself choose to complicatemattersby
startinghis tables from 22 March?The resultof this shift is thatwe have to deal with what
The calendartables reflect
J. D. North has aptly called the "arithmeticof congruences."42
two differentcycles that do not share a startingpoint. The year representedby the traditional golden number,with its Romanaffiliations,startsfrom 1 January.The year of epacts
startsfrom 1 September,as Table 3 makes clear. If you startthe year on 22 Marchyou
are still in year 11 (1055) in respect to the golden numberand the concurrent;but in terms
of the epact, on 1 Septemberyou move to year 12 (1056).
How this works can best be illustratedby an example. In book 5 Roger's discussion
hinges on the location of a specific new moon in September1176. The year 1176 is year
18 in the 19-yearcycle. As can be verified from Table 3, accordingto the golden number
of the traditionalreckoningthere was a new moon on 9 September.But accordingto the
naturalcompotus,the new moon (highlightedin Table 3) appearedon 6 Septemberat the
sixth hour.
How is this date arrivedat? Table 4 shows that accordingto the naturalcompotusthe
equivalentof year 18 is year 7 (representedby the letterg). The naturalcompotuscomprises
four 19-yearcycles. Because 1176 is a leap year, it is located in the thirdyear of the cycle,
as Roger explains. Years 1, 5, etc., of the first cycle, years 2, 6, etc., of the second cycle,
and years 3, 7, etc., of the thirdcycle are leap years.43But the primationon 6 September
42 J. D.
North, "ThomasHarriot'sPaperson the Calendar,"in The Light of Nature, ed. North and J. J. Roche
(Dordrecht:Nijhoff, 1985), pp. 145-174, on pp. 147-148.
43
Digby 40, fol. 37v: "set et sic ordinatisunt cicli quoniamprimus primumhabet bissextilem, secundus iium,
tertiusiiium,quartusiiiiu",per quod facile dinosci potest ciclus presens."

JENNIFERMORETON
577
is represented not by g but by h, because with regard to epacts the year changes on 1
September.
Once these dates are located, it is clear that there is a difference of 2 days, 6 hours,
between the traditional reckoning and that of the natural compotus. Not only are the lunations more accurately distributed throughout the 76 years of the revised cycle; the dates
of the primations are located earlier in the calendar.
Roger tells us in book 5 of his treatise that the revised dating originated with an observed
astronomical event, which he relates to Gerland. "Our natural compotus," Roger observes,
began at the time of compotists like Gerland from a solar eclipse, which happens only at
the new moon.44 Later in the same book he identifies the eclipse. In the time of Gerland,
Roger says, there was a solar eclipse: in 1086 according to his own reckoning (although
he began the table earlier), in 1093 according to Dionysian-that is, ecclesiastical-reckoning, on 23 September at 15:00 hours, taking the beginning of the day from the start of
the previous night (highlighted in Table 3). Roger eventually explicitly attributes the calendar tables to Gerland.45
What does 15:00 hours mean in Greenwich Mean Time (GMT)? The method of starting
the day from the evening before (i.e., from 18:00 hours) was sanctioned, according to
Bede, by "divine authority." The eclipse Roger describes thus happened at 09:00 hours
GMT. Astronomical data appear to support this time.46
The tables thus relate not to the paschal cycle but to the well-testified solar eclipse of
1093.47 This explains something that evidently puzzled Roger. In book 4 Roger makes it
clear that he attributes the calendar tables, which start in 1055, to Gerland. It is not immediately clear why, if the latter composed them, he should have started them in that year,
since even allowing for the fact that in terms of the epact 1055 becomes 1056 from 1
September, according to his calculations, this is still, as Roger says, "the very last line" of
the Dionysian cycle.47 Gerland calculated that A.D. 532 was really A.D. 525. The year that
corresponds to 532 in the next paschal cycle is A.D. 1064, which, according to Gerland,
should have been 1057. When we allow for the "mutation of the epacts" the tables should
start in 1056 if they are to collate fully with Gerland's reckoning. But the tables start where
they do because year 1 of the third cycle is 1093: the corresponding year of the first cycle
is therefore 1055 (1093 becomes 1094 in terms of the epact, of course, in September).
Did Gerland compose the tables, as Roger thought? Firm evidence is lacking; but the
tables seem at any rate to have been associated with Gerland's Compotus. In the 1131
manuscript the treatise follows the tables, which are unascribed and are separated from it
44Digby 40, fol. 48v: "Nosternaturalis[compotus]a proximocompotistarumut Gerlanditemporeper eclipsim
solis quod non nisi in primiluniocontingit inventus incepit."
45
Digby 40, fol. 49v: "TemporeautemGerlandifacta est eclipsis solis anno domini secundumipsum mlxxxvi
(licet tabulamsuperiorumprius inceperit),secundumDionisium mxciii nono kal. octobris, horarumxv, sumpto
exordio die a principioprecedentisnoctis, et hoc xxix graduvirginis, a quo puncto ipse suum naturalemincepit
compotum ... [S]ecundumnaturalemGerlandicompotum,quem preposuimus."
46 Bedae
Opera de temporibus,ed. Jones (cit. n. 6), p. 189: "Divina autem auctoritas,quae in Genesi dies a
mane usque ad mane computandosesse decrevit, eadem in Evangelio totius diei tempus a vespera inchoari et
consummaresanxit in vesperam."Bradley E. Schaefer, "Astronomyand the Limits of Vision," Vistas in Astronomy, 1993, 36, comments on the difficulty of using orthodox sources for establishing astronomicaldata
before 1800: "A more convenient resourcemight be any of the many commercialcomputerprogramsavailable
for personalcomputers,of which the Voyagerprogramhas a good reputationfor accuracy"(p. 313). This program
shows a solar eclipse on 23 Sept. 1093, between 08:00 and 10:40 GMT, in the relevant area (approx.lat. 52?,
long. 3?). It would have reachedits fullest extent at about 09:20. (Informationkindly suppliedby Daniel McCarthy.)
47Digby 40, fol. 36v. See R. R. Newton, Medieval Chroniclesand the Rotationof the Earth (Baltimore:Johns
Hopkins Univ. Press, 1972), pp. 145, 157 ff.

578
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
by other calendrical material. The solar eclipse is marked in the equivalent year (562) in
the paschal cycle, which stands (as Gerland intended it to) at the head of the treatise. In
at least two other manuscripts, the eclipse is clearly associated with him, since it is described as eclipsis Gerlandi.48
Alfred Cordoliani seems to have seen a manuscript in which the tables are integrated
into Gerland's treatise. In chapter 17 of book 2, he tells us, the year 1086 is mentioned in
connection with a solar eclipse. The third 19-year cycle of "his table" begins on 23 September 1086. The epact and concurrent assigned to this year indicate that it is 1093 in
terms of the Dionysian cycle.49
The difficulty with using the appearance of the tables in book 2 of Gerland's Compotus
as evidence that he invented them is that the book is a collection of tables and calculations
that may or may not have been composed by Gerland. Cordoliani confessed that most of
the manuscripts he saw lacked the second book. The Compotus, which he described as of
"primordial importance for anyone who was concerned with the history of the ecclesiastical
Compotus," has not yet found an editor. How much, if any, of the material of book 2
(which differs in different manuscripts) is the work of Gerland can therefore be a matter
only of conjecture; the presence of the calendar tables there certainly cannot be firm
evidence that Gerland wrote them, nor, indeed, of the date of his treatise.50
A further difficulty if the tables are regarded as an integral part of Gerland's Compotus
is that they are constructed on the principle of the golden number. The function of the
material in book 2 in the manuscripts that I have seen appears to be to illustrate the ideas
that have been elucidated in book 1. The golden number is not mentioned there.51
How, if at all, do the tables relate to Gerland's correction of the Dionysian era? He
corrected the traditional date of the Incarnation by 7 years, so that the year of the solar
eclipse, A.D. 1093, is 1086 in his reckoning, as Roger says. But we have already noted
that, in terms of the epact, 1093 becomes 1094 in September.
This is how Gerland himself reckoned. The rule to find the year of the epact, he tells
us, is to add nine to the year of the Incarnation and divide by nineteen. The usual rule, as
has been said, is to add one. In one manuscript the copyist makes it clear that this differs
from the Dionysian calculation by adding "s[ecundum] G[erlandum]" over the text.52Thus
the Dionysian year 532 is corrected to 524, which becomes 525 only from 1 September.
It is a reasonable assumption that whoever composed the tables thought they corresponded exactly with Gerland's reckoning. After all, 1056 is 532 years later than 524 and
is thus the apparent beginning of the third paschal cycle. Disappointingly, he was a year
out. In terms of the year of epacts, 524 becomes 525. The corresponding year in the next
cycle, as has been said, is 1057.
48 For the attributionsto Gerlandsee
Digby 56, fol. 163v; Bodleian Rawlinson C.749, fol. 1lr; and Cotton
Vespasian A IX (fol. 33r has "eclypsis solis ix kal. oct.").
49Alfred Cordoliani,"Le comput de Gerlandde Besanqon,"Revue du Moyen Age Latin, 1946, 2:313. Cordoliani unfortunatelydoes not identify the manuscript.Was it Paris, Bibliotheque Nationale MS Lat. 15118,
which Haskins, Studies in History of Medieval Science (cit. n. 1), says contains tables that "mentionthe eclipse
of 1093" (p. 85 n.)?
50Cordoliani,"Computde Gerland,"p. 309 (on the absence of the second book). See W. M. Stevens, "Sidereal
Time in Anglo-Saxon England,"in Voyageto the Other World,ed. C. B. Kendalland P. S. Wells (Minneapolis:
Univ. MinnesotaPress, 1992), pp. 125-152: "Cataloguershave sometimes mentionedTabulaeGerlandiwithout
determiningwhetherthe accompanyingtext or various texts are by the same author"(p. 151 n. 70).
51 As I noted earlier,I have found no descriptionof it in a treatiseearlier than Roger's, despite its very early
occurrencein calendartables.
52
Digby 56, fol. 173r: "Si vis scire quotus sit annus epactarumsume [above text: s.g.] annus Dominice
incamationisquotquotfuerintcompleti in Pascha unde vis scire epactamet eis adde ix. Postea divide equaliter
per xix Quotquotremanserint:totus est annus epactarum."

JENNIFERMORETON
579
The discrepancybetween the tables and Gerland's corrected date of the Incarnation
probablyimplies that the latterpredatesthe former.Gerlandhad made a lengthy study of
the De temporumratione of Bede before formulatinghis theory about the date of the
Incarnation.53
Even if the slight discrepancywere recognized, the solar eclipse of 1093
must have seemed startlingevidence of the truthof his findings.
There is an intriguingparallel to the calendartables. On 18 October 1092, as is very
well known, Gerland'sfellow Lotharingian,Walcher the prior of Malvern, saw a lunar
eclipse. He was able to recordthe exact time at which it happenedby using an astrolabe;
and this, as is also well known, is the earliestrecordedappearanceof such an instrument
in England.Walcher's account is to be found in a manuscriptwrittenbetween 1124 and
1140 at Worcester,which also contains a copy of Gerland's Compotus.54It immediately
precedes not a calendar,but a set of lunartables that list the primationsyear by year for
76 years from 1036 to 1111 inclusive. These primationsare not the ones that are representedin the calendartablesby the traditionalgolden number.A collation with our calendar
tables shows a similar,but not identical, updatingof the primation.
MaterialaccompanyingWalcher'stables explains the principleson which they are constructed.If the phases of the moon affect both humanactions and the practiceof medicine,
we are told, they need to be plotted accurately.With due respect to the Fathers of the
Church,the traditional19-yearcycle is inadequatefor this purpose.A passage from chapter
43 of Bede's De temporumratione is quoted in supportof this contention.The primations
can, however, be accuratelyplotted if you note the hour and point of a solar eclipse by
using an astrolabeor otherperfectumhorologium.Thatwill give you the new moon. From
thatpoint you can calculatethe lunations,giving each a mean value of 29 days, 12 hours,
3 points (there are 4 points in an hour).55
In the materialthat immediatelyprecedes the lunartables, which is headed "De experientia scriptoris,"Walcherclaims to have composed the tables himself. In his experience,
he says, solar and lunareclipses are the best way to establishthe naturalbeginning of the
lunation.He then describestwo lunareclipses thathe has seen and shows how the second
of these, on 18 October 1092, can be collated with the new moon indicated in the lunar
table on 4 October.He has extendedhis reckoningbackward,he continues, to compose a
cycle of 76 years, beginning in the eleventh year of the 19-year cycle, so that the years
might correspondat the beginning. According to the golden numberthe primationoccurs
on 3 Januaryin that year; he has discoveredit to be on 1 January.56
53Digby 56, fol. 170r: "Sepe volumina domini Bede de scientia computandireplicans."
54Oxford,Bodleian MS AuctariumF.1.9, fol. 90r-91r. Partof Walcher'saccountis printedin Haskins,Studies
in History of Medieval Science (cit. n. 1), pp. 114-115.
55Bedae Opera de temporibus,ed. Jones (cit. n. 6), p. 258. AuctariumF.1.9, fol. 86v: "Si in humanisactibus
velut in exercitationibusmedicine aliquos habet effectus lunarisincrementisive decrementivarietas, sicut sapientes experti senserunt, necesse est ut accensionis lune dies et hora semper ac deinde totius discursus eius
dimensio ad purumdinoscitur.Vulgaris quippe supputatioqua constatcyclus decennovenalissanctorumpatrum
rationaliteret utiliterpaschalibusterminis et ceteris inveniendis est prefixa, set naturalidiscursui coequari non
potes per omnia. [Quotationfrom Bede.] Hec iccirco descriptio[sic] beati Beda interserimusne quisquammiretur
cum naturalemsupputationemcui dilucidande servimus biduo vel fortasse plus interdumvulgati supputationi
antecederedeprehendit.Sic autem comprehendipoterit si quandodefectus solis apparuerettibi, nota diligenter
horamdiei et punctumipsius hore si potes, quod leviterfacereper astrolabiumvel per aliudperfectumhorologium
potes.... In ipsa vera hora et puncto hore in quo solis eclipsis deprehenderis,accensionem lune non dubites
fieri cuiuscunqueetatis usitatus compotus ipsa die lunam pronuntiettunc incipit prima fieri. Quod si sequentis
lunationisaccensioneminvenire vis, ... computa .xxviiii. dies et.xii. horas equinoctialeset.iii. punctos, in quo
ultimo sive sit dies sive sit nox, sequentis lunationisfiet accensio." Haskins is mistakenin calling these Roman
fractions.
56AuctariumF. 1.9, fol. 90rab:"cyclumquelxxvi annos composui, cuius initiumut anni sociareturingressuin
xi anno cycli decennovenalis instituendumputavi, quia illo tantum anno lunam quam iii non. ianuarii prima

580
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
This is indeed what his tables show. The primationon 1 Januarycould not have been
established,however, withoutdataderivedfrom the 1092 lunareclipse. AlthoughWalcher
uses a different notation for his calculation of the mean lunation, his data are similar to
(althoughnot identicalwith) those in the calendartables, as has alreadybeen pointed out.
In 1093 both tables record the primationon 23 September.It is possibly a coincidence
that two tables exist giving data for a period of 76 years that are similar but apparently
derived from differentastronomicalevents.
THE KALENDARIUMOF ROBERT GROSSETESTE
A version of the calendar tables, which survives in "many ascribed thirteenthcentury

copies," has been attributedto Robert Grosseteste (1168?-1253).57 It differs from the
version that Roger of Herefordknew in thatit startsfrom 1 Januaryratherthan 22 March.
But it is otherwiseidenticalwith the tables that were in existence long before Grosseteste
was born.
As noted earlier,it is only in this version thatthe tables have been printed.Their editor,
Arvid Lindhagen, correctly inferred that they aimed at "increasedprecision within the
frameworkof the Julian Calendar"(or, as Roger of Herefordwould put it, of the vulgar
compotus)58 Lindhagenattemptedto find the astronomicalbasis for the shift in the golden
number,which, with the benefit of Roger's text, we know to have been the solar eclipse
of 1093.
The tables themselves could not have been constructedby the learned bishop, but the
early ascriptionis evidence that they were associated with him. Was he responsible for
the canons-instructions for use-that accompany them? These are of varying length.
Additional materialthat occurs in some manuscriptsconsists of disconnected "calendar
notes" containingconjecturesabout the constructionof the tables. Their disjointednature
is indicatedin one manuscript,where some of the materialappearsunderthe heading "The
Items Which Follow Should Be Added to the CalendarCanons."59
In some of the copies ascribedto Grossetesteit is suggested that the tables are based
on the Parismeridian.The suggestionis followed by "utcredo"-"as I believe"-a phrase
that Grossetesteuses in his Compotuscorrectoriusmore than once. But apropos of this
there is a pertinentmarginalcomment in one manuscript:we should note, it is pointed
out, that "Lincolniensis,"the authorof the calendar, did not write this canon; he knew
what meridianhe made his calendarfor, and thereforehe would not have said "Ibelieve."60
Certainly,Grossetestecould not have been responsiblefor both canon and tables, as the
commentatorsays: but it is the tables, as we have seen, ratherthanrthe canon, that could
pronuntiaturkalendiseiusdem mensis accendi repperihoravidelicet iii punctoqueii." Haskins,Studiesin History
of Medieval Science (cit. n. 1), pp. 114-115, printsthe first part of this passage.
57 S. H. Thomson, The
Writingsof Robert Grosseteste (Cambridge:CambridgeUniv. Press, 1940), p. 106.
Thomson was wrong in stating that the Kalendariumis referredto in the Compotuscorrectorius and the socalled Compotusminor of the same writer; see Jennifer Moreton, "RobertGrosseteste and the Calendar,"in
Robert Grosseteste:New Perspectives on His Thoughtand Scholarship,ed. James McEvoy (InstrumentaPatristica) (Dordrecht:Kluwer, forthcoming).
58 Lindhagen,ed., "Neumondtafeldes Lincolniensis"(cit. n. 3), p. 9.
59London, British LibraryMS Harleian3735, fol. 5v: "Istaque sequunturaddanturad canonem calendarii."
This materialprecedesthe Kalendariumand the Canones,which are headed "Arsistius kalendariiLincolniensis"
and occupy fols. 6r-12r.
60 Harleian3735, fol. 6rb: "Nota
quod Lincolniensis a[u]ctorkalendariinon fecit hunc canonem: scivit enim
ad quem meridiemsuum kalendariumfecit, et ideo non dixisset credo."

JENNIFERMORETON
581
not have originatedwith him. It is possible that Grossetestewas responsiblefor this comment about the meridian,which might provide evidence that he spent some time in Paris.
If we accept Grosseteste's authorshipof some or all of the materialthat is to be found
in differentmanuscriptscontaining the Kalendarium,we must also accept that like later
commentatorshe assumed, incorrectly,that the tables were constructedon astronomical
principles.The referenceto the Paris meridianhas alreadybeen mentioned.Anotherobservationin this materialis thatlunationsof this length,with the differingnumberof hours
accountingfor the "precisefractions,"accordwith both Arab and Jewish reckoning(a not
unreasonableassumption,as examinationof the last book of Roger's treatise will show).
Yet anothersuggestion is that the time of the primationis "accordingto Alfraganus."61
The furtherhistory of the calendartables is beyond the scope of this article; but it is
worth noting that their association with the version ascribedto RobertGrossetesteseems
to have aided their dissemination.The calendarof Peter of Dacia contains a set of tables
that appearto have been modeled on the Kalendarium;but it is the formatthat seems to
have attractedhim, since his data are different. According to W. E. van Wijk, John of
Gamundia,Regiomontanus,and Joannes Stoeffler produced similar tables. We may add
Nicholas of Lynn, who produceda tablefor the years 1387-1462 for the Oxfordmeridian.62
ROGER OF HEREFORD AND THE ASTRONOMICAL COMPOTUS
I have attemptedto show that the tables that were attributedto RobertGrossetestein the
thirteenthcenturyandthatwere centralto the Compotusof Roger of Herefordin the twelfth
had their beginnings in the West Countryin the eleventh, where astronomical(the word
is interchangeablewith astrological) and computisticalinterestswere beginning to converge; for, as Walcher observes, accuratedating is essential if the phases of the moon
affect man's health and practicalaffairs.
In the last book of his treatise Roger examines what he calls the "astronomicalcompotus." He uses the tables to show that the golden numberof the ecclesiastical reckoning
is in the wrong position and explains how this can be rectifiedwithout causing offense. I
intendto discuss Roger's astronomicalexpertisein anotheressay, in the more appropriate
context of a detailed comparisonof his treatise with the Compotusof Constabularius.I
propose to conclude this articlewith a brief outline of his proposalfor reform.Aspects of
the text of book 5 will thereforebe touched on, ratherthan examinedin detail.
In markedcontrastto Constabularius,Roger is silent abouthis sources.In the whole of
61 Harleian3735, fol. 5va (Stockholm, Royal LibraryMS Stevens A XII, and Vienna, National LibraryMS
2367, printedby Lindhagen,are similar):"Namtempus lunationisequalis seu medie, videlicet tempus quod est
ab una coniunctione solis et lune usque ad aliam mediam eorum coniunctione est 29 dies 12 hore 44 minuta
hore secundum aliquos Arabes. Et hoc convenit cum positione HebreorumsecundumdoctrinamGamalielis et
aliorumantiquorumHebreorum,secundumquos mensis lunaris... est 29 dies 12 hore et due partesunius hore
et 73 minutahore."Lindhagen,ed. "Neumondtafeldes Lincolniensis"(cit. n. 3), p. 18: "In tanto enim tempore
post conjunctionemluna interdumpotest videre secundumAlfraganumdifferentia29a."
62 It should be noted that R. R.
Steele, in his Opera hactenus ineditafratris Rogeri, Vol. 6 (Oxford:Oxford
Univ. Press, 1926), prints an (inaccurate)version of the calendartables that immediatelyfollow the Compotus
of Roger Bacon in London, British LibraryMS Egerton2261. These, since they start,like the tables in Cotton
Vespasian A IX, in September,have a different origin. For Peter of Dacia's tables see Petri Philomenae de
Dacia et Petri de S. Audomaro,ed. F. Saaby Pedersen (CorpusPhilosophorumDanicorumMedii Aevi) (Copenhagen, 1983), pp. 336-360; see also Olaf Pedersen, "PetrusPhilomena de Dacia: A Problem of Identity,"
Cahiers de l'Institutedu Moyen Age Grec et Latin, 1976, 19:1-54, on p. 21. On the similar tables of John of
Gamundia,Regiomontanus,and Stoeffler see van Wijk, Nombred'or (cit. n. 3), p. 41. For Nicholas of Lynn see
The Kalendariumof Nicholas of Lynn,ed. SigmundEisner (London:Scolar, 1980).

582
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
his treatise he cites only one Arab author, Albumazar, by name.63Book 5 of Roger's treatise
begins with a discussion of lunar and solar movements that is not strictly part of compotus.
It is the sort of material covered in the treatises on the sphere that were later written by
Robert Grosseteste and John of Sacrobosco. Roger's sources may be more appropriately
investigated, as has been indicated, in connection with Constabularius. The latter names
Ptolemy (whom he probably knew through the Liber xxx differentiarum of Alfraganus);
Albategni, whose De scientia stellarum was translated by Robert of Chester; Arzachel,
whose lost Arabic treatise was the original of the Toledan Tables; and Thebit, to whom
the theory of trepidation was attributed.64We may assume that some or all of these texts
were available to his contemporary. Roger's statement that there are 360 degrees in the
astronomical zodiac, as compared with the 365 of the computists, finds a parallel in what
Petrus Alfonsi, the Jewish convert to Christianity, told Walcher.65
The most original part of the book is devoted to a comparison of astronomical, natural,
and vulgar (i.e., ecclesiastical) reckoning. Roger points out that the natural compotus ought
to coincide with mean astronomical motion. It is certain, he says, that the Latin computists
are wrong about lunar motion. It should be possible to collate vulgar and natural reckonings, since the former incorporate the latter: the discrepancy between them is most obvious
in the position of the primations, which the vulgar compotus inserts 3 or 4 days after the
actual new moon. This has caused the sort of controversy that Roger has described at the
beginning of his treatise. Different reasons have been put forward for the discrepancy, all
of which Roger dismisses. There are many who will accept none of these reasons; and
Roger, we may assume, is one of the dissenting voices.
Roger illustrates the discrepancy by referring to the primation discussed earlier, which
occurred, according to ecclesiastical reckoning, on 9 September 1176. It is characteristic
of Roger's exhaustive style that he gives most of his information twice. But data about
the time according to "the astronomers" and according to "certum" (the latter is perhaps
Roger himself), which are not used in his discussion of the inaccuracy of the vulgar
reckoning, are not repeated.66
From the repeated information we can elicit the following: The times are calculated
from the beginning of the night, that is, from 18:00 hours, according to modem reckoning.
If we convert his data to GMT we find that, according to Roger, the new moon that
ecclesiastical reckoning placed at 18:00 hours on Thursday, 9 September, was said by the
63
Digby 40, fol. 36r (Roger disagrees with Albumazarabout the cause of the tides): "Et quamvis Abumaisar
huius inundacioniscausam assigneturquod ubi fuerit initium oportetmaximamesse aquarumprofunditatemet
locum scopulosum ... nobis tamen aliter videtur."
64 Robert
Grosseteste,"De spera,"in Die philosophischenWerkedes RobertGrosseteste,ed. L. Baur (Beitrage
zur Geschichteder Philosphiedes Mittelalters)(Munich:Aschendorff,1912), pp. 10-32; and Johnof Sacrobosco,
"De spera,"in The Sphere of Sacrobosco and Its Commentators,ed. Lynn Thomdike (Chicago/London:Univ.
Chicago Press, 1949). Verbal parallels between Roger's treatise and the later works requireinvestigation. See
Olaf Pedersen, Early Physics and Astronomy,rev. ed. (Cambridge:CambridgeUniv. Press, 1993), p. 160. He
describes the work as "a systematic, but very introductorysketch of Ptolemiac astronomywith a few Oriental
additions"and adds, "In a Latin translationby John of Spain ... it spreadthroughthe universities of Europe."
See also pp. 315, 403, 394.
65 Sententia Petri
Ebrei, cognomentoAnphus,de Dracone, quam dominus Walcerusprior Malvernensisecclesie in latinamtranstulitlinguam,ed. J. M. Millas Vallicrosa,in "Laaportaci6nastron6micade PedroAlfonso,"
Sefarad, 1943, 3:63-105, on p. 87: "illa que unumquodquesignum in 30 gradus equaliter dividit et totum
zodiacum 360 gradibusclaudit, secundumsol in die unum gradumnon perficit."
66
Digby 40, fol. 48r: "secundumastrologos quantum ad medium motum secundum inceptionem a media
nocte, cum alii incipiant a prima noctis, et est a prima xxii, secundum autem certum hora ante ortum solis
eiusdem dominice."

JENNIFERMORETON
583
"Chaldeans" to occur on Sunday at 15:21 hours. Later this time is given as 17:00 hours,
but Roger's calculations show that the former is what he intended.67The "Hebrews" placed
it at 18:30 hours, the "natural compotus" at midnight on the same day.
Roger prefers the Chaldean reckoning, because this alone approximates to the mean
synodic period.68He uses it as a yardstick to measure the divergence of ecclesiastical from
astronomical reckoning. In 1093, the year of the eclipse, the Chaldean and Latin natural
primations must have been similarly placed on the calendar. It is now 1176: 83 years,
therefore, have elapsed since the eclipse; thus the difference of approximately 7 hours,
13.5 minutes, between the Chaldean and Latin natural primations (by the latter Roger
means the value given in the calendar tables) is the extent of the divergence of the ecclesiastical reckoning from the actual mean synodic motion since the solar eclipse of 1093.
Astute readers will have noticed that the difference according to the text is actually 8
hours, 39 minutes. The discrepancy is due to the fact that Roger has taken his data from
a chart that collates Chaldean, Hebrew, and Latin lunations, years, and cycles.69 But he
has not allowed for the embolisms: the years are lunar years of 354 days; the cycles are
of solar years of 365.25 days.
Roger goes on to consider the difference between the Chaldean and the vulgar primation
of the ecclesiastical reckoning. The discrepancy of 4 days, 2 hours, is evidence for Roger
that since the Latin cycle must have been constructed from "some eclipse," it has its roots
in antiquity, in the time of the early Church: that is, as Roger calculates, 1,124 years ago.
The result is that the vulgar compotus (allowing for its intrinsic defects) can sometimes
now be as much as 6 or 7 days out. How incongruous it is, Roger exclaims, foreshadowing
a better-known critic of the ecclesiastical calendar, that Latin men of the greatest discrimination should be so obviously wrong in such an important matter!70
Roger's suggested emendation has the virtue of simplicity: since the ecclesiastical new
moon now diverges from the true new moon by about 4 days, he says, all that is necessary
for reform is to move the golden number up by the same amount and to repeat the process
when necessary. Roger is at pains to placate the traditionalists: what he is proposing is
only a slight adjustment to the golden number, which can be easily performed. He is, he
insists, filled with admiration whenever he considers the workings of the ecclesiastical
calendar.7'
Although the starting point for Roger's investigations is an observed astronomical point,
he bases his data for 1176 not on observation but on calculation. Roger has arrived at these
67Digby 40, fol. 49v: "sumptoubique principiodiei a noctis initio."Ibid.: "post xxi horas et xiiii momenta";
fol. 48r: "horaxvii eiusdem dominice."
68
Digby 40, fol. 48v: "sola caldeorumratio remanereposse videtur,quia inter inequalitatemastronomicam
medium locum optinet."
69Digby 40, fol. 48v.
70Digby 40, fol. 49v: "palamest quod cum et ipse ab aliquo eclipsi inceperit,a remotis temporibusordinatus
fuerit, et circa primativamecclesiam." Fol. 48v: "Set tam incongruumest latinos viros summe discretionisin re
tam celebri adeo manifeste errare."Cf. Bacon, Opera majus, Vol. 1, ed. Bridges (cit. n. 30), p. 285: "Atque
philosophi infideles ... abhorentstultitiamquam conspiciuntin ordinationetemporumquibus utunturChristiani
in suis solemnitatibus."
71
Digby 40, fol. 50v: "Non enim oportet cum iam fere per quatuordies primatioa veritate discesserit nisi
eodem ordinequo omnia in kalendarioscriptasunt ordinareita tamenut omnis primatioquartadie ante scribatur
quam nunc scribatur.... Et sic kalendariumper multa secula durarepoterit;set et quotiens post spatia multa
anno discesserit, secundumquod discesserit eodem ordine poterit reperari."Fol. 49v: "Et ideo oportet sepe a
sapientibusaureumnumerumin kalendariomutari... quod et facile fieri posse videtur.... Ego vero, quotiens
hec considerando,inestimabiliafficioradmiratione."

584
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
times by collating the Chaldean,Hebrew,and Latinnaturallunationsfor the 83 years (four

19-year cycles plus 7 years) since 1093.
The Latin naturallunation presents no difficulty: it is Gerland's lunation, calculated
from the collation of the years and lunations of the 19-year cycle. But how did Roger
come by his informationabout the Hebrew and Chaldeanvalues? A particulardifficulty
is thathe expressesthemin momentsand atoms.In Hebrewreckoningthe hourwas divided
into 1,080 parts.Roger's value is a reasonablyaccurateequivalent.It is interestingthat a
contemporarybut apparentlyunrelatedtreatise, Reiner of Paderborn'sCompotusemendatus, uses Jewish reckoningto correctthe errorsof the Dionysian cycle.72Roger quotes
no source for his Hebrew value, which, as has been noted, appearsto have been known
in the West Countrysince the previous century.
Roger's "Chaldeans"are, of course, the Babylonians.The "very accuratevalue" of the
Babylonian mean synodic month was known to Ptolemy, and Roger knows this value,
expressing it in sexagesimal terms. In his calculations,however, he expresses the length
of the lunation in moments and atoms. Two years later (1178) he adaptedthe Toledan
Tables for the meridianof Hereford.He did not use Arab years and months in this adapThe moments and atoms of his
tation, he says, because they are difficult and unfamiliar.73
Chaldeanlunationequate reasonablyaccuratelywith the sexagesimal version. The translation into more familiartermsdoes not involve fractions.Roger could have arrivedat the
same value by using a method similar to that used by Gerlandto establish his natural
lunation.74
How was Roger's treatisereceived? It does not seem to have been widely known. As
we have seen, even if Grosseteste knew the calendartables, he did not know Roger's
explanation of them, despite the fact that he had spent some years in Hereford at the
beginning of his career.A laterwidely disseminatedwork, the De anni ratione of John of
Sacrobosco, notes that the ecclesiastical golden numberis in the wrong place but makes
no mention of Roger's proposal.There is evidence only for three copies of Roger's treatise.75Conradof Strasbourg'sCompotus(ca. 1200?) contains a table detailing the lengths
of Latin, Hebrew, and Chaldeanlunationsthat might have originatedin Roger's treatise,
but there are no direct verbal parallels.The text mentionedearlierwith referenceto Gerland's Lotharingianorigins comparesthe benefit to be derived from compotus with that
of fire or water, in almost identical words; but defining the usefulness of a topic was a
technique frequentlyused in the schools, and this materialdid not necessarily originate
with Roger. On the other hand, the cataloguing of computisticalmaterialis notoriously
72
Le computemenddde Reinherusde Paderborn(1171), ed. W. E. van Wijk (Verhandelingender Koninklijke
NederlandseAkademi van Wetenschappen,afd Letterkunde,57) (1951).
73Digby 40, fol. 49v: "set et quantitatemlunationumfaciunt xxix dierumet xii horarumet xliiii ostentorum."
A. Pannekoek,A History of Astronomy(1961; rpt., New York: Dover, 1989), gives the value as 29 days, 12
hours, 44 minutes, 3 1/3 seconds (p. 95). For the 1178 manuscriptsee London, BritishLibraryMS Arundel377,
fol. 86b: "Maluimusenim hic quam annos arabumet eorummenses propterdifficultatemsequi eo quod inusitata
sint apud nostrates."
74
Digby 40, fol. 27r: "Caldei, qui tamen dies xi in xxx annis interponunt."If the 11 intercalarydays are
divided into the 12 X 30 lunationsof the Babylonian30-year cycle, the resultis 29 moments, 188 atoms (approx.
44 minutes).This is added on to each 29 1/2-day lunation.
75The threecopies of Roger's treatiseare accountedfor in note 2. On Grosseteste'stime in Herefordsee R. W.
Southern,RobertGrosseteste:The Growthof an English Mind in MedievalEurope(Oxford:OxfordUniv. Press,
1986), pp. 65 ff. For Sacrobosco's treatise see John of Sacrobosco, De anni ratione, ed. Philip Melanchthon
(Wittenberg,1538), [fol. 38r]: "Nuncigiturluna diciturprimaubi deberetdici tertia,vel potius quarta,ut aureus
numerustotaliterper 3 dies anticipetur."There is no modem edition of this treatise.

JENNIFERMORETON
585
unsatisfactory.Roger's treatiseis quoted in one collection of calendarnotes; there could

very well be more referencesin other collections of this kind.76
An interestingpassage in the Compotusof Constabulariusmight have some bearingon
how Roger's contemporariesregardedhim. I have already referredto Constabularius's
ambivalentattitudetowardGerland.The opening words of his treatiseare a gracefulecho
of the earlierwriter;but he then inveighs, in a familiarconvention,againstcertainyounger
writers(iuniores) with considerableskills in the art of calculatingwho have opposed the
venerabletraditionof the Church.Certainmodem writers(moderni),he says, who applaud
these younger writers,have lately daredto inscribe their own innovationsin the paschal
charts.77The former, who are skilled in calculating,would include Gerland.Perhapsthe
latterrefers to Roger.
The Compotusof Constabulariusis notable for the scope of its reference:the writer's
appeal that those with more skill and more access to books study the subject furtheris
surely ironic.78Particularlyinterestingis his acquaintancewith Jewish practices.He tells
us that he obtainedhis information,which includes knowledge of the writingsof Ibn Ezra
andMar-Samuel,"by askingthe Jews themselves."Constabulariusquotes, withoutnaming
his sources, from an astronomicaltract by Abrahamibn Ezra and cites Mar-Samuel(ca.
165-254) on the mean length of the seasons. The formerwork was availablein Latin, but
his informationabout the latterpresumablycame from Jewish scholars, althoughthe earliest evidence of a Jewish community in Herefordis from 1178-1179. It is tempting to
surmise that Constabularius,like Alexander Nequam and Richardof St. Victor, was an
Augustinian.Richardrecords that he "consultedthe Jews" before drawing up his chronological tables.79
Roger of Herefordwas concernedwith the problems of the 19-year cycle. There were
difficulties, as has been said, with the solar cycle too; and Constabulariusmakes use of
his sourcesin a lengthy examinationof these, coming to the conclusion thatthe retrograde
movement of the equinoxes is caused by an overestimationof the length of the tropical
year.80
The Gregorianreformof 1582 soughtto correctthe inaccuraciesof both lunarand solar

Bruges, Bibliotheque Municipale MS 528, fol. 6r (Conrad's Compotus).See J. D. North, "The Western
Calendar-intolerabilis, horribilis, et derisibilis: Four Centuries of Discontent," in Gregorian Reform of the
Calendar,ed. G. V. Coyne, M. A. Hoskin, and Olaf Pedersen(Vatican:PontificaAcademia Scientiarum,1983),
pp. 75-113, on p. 80. For the benefits to be derived from compotus see Digby 193, fols. 27va, 22v; for the
collection of calendarnotes that quotes Roger's treatise see Oxford, Bodleian LibraryMS Ashmole 1796, fol.
172v.
77 Cotton Vitellius A
XII, fol. 87ra: "Sepe autorumvolumina qui de compoto vel principalitervel incidentur
egerunt.... Interquos invenio quosdamiunioresin artecalculatorianon mediocritereruditoslongo usui ecclesie
rationibusvehementurut videtur acutis obviare. His quidam nostrorummodernorumapplaudentesnuper ausi
sunt cartulispascalibussuas novitates inscribere."
78
Cotton Vitellius A XII, fol. 87ra: "Esto utinamlabor iste meus contempnaturet conculcetur,dum modo hi
quibus fuerintclarioraingenia et maioralibrorumcopia excitenturad cogitandumcirca hec."
79 Cotton Vitellius A XII, fol. 91va: "In omni enim ciclo lune, sive Romano teste Beda, sive Pascali teste
Dionisio, sive ludeorumipsos interrogate... secundum omnes .xvii. annus embolismalis est." For ibn Ezra's
treatisesee J. M. Millas Vallicrosa, El libro de los fundamentosde las tablas astron6micasde R. AbrahamIbn
Ezra (Madrid/Barcelona:Consejo Superiorde InvestigacionesCientificas, 1947); see also RaphaelLoewe, "Alexander'sKnowledge of Hebrew,"Medievaland RenaissanceStudies, 1988, 4:17-34. On the Jewish community
in Hereford see Joe Hillaby, "A Magnate among the Marchers:Hamo of Hereford, His Family and Clients,
1218-1253," Jewish Historical Studies, 1988-1990, 31:25; on Richard of St. Victor see Beryl Smailey, The
Studyof the Bible in the Middle Ages, 3rd ed. (Oxford:Blackwell, 1984), p. 110.
80 CottonVitellius A
XII, fol. 95rb:"Hoc autemideo fit quod reversio solis ad equinoctiafit in minoretempore
quam ccclxv diebus et iiiia; et retrograderetur
equinoctiumin perpetuum."
76

586
BEFOREGROSSETESTE
cycles by the applicationof the new astronomyto the calendar;but time measurementwas
still tied to planetarymotion. Accordingto the authorityof Scripture,the sun andthe moon
had been placed in the heavens to be "for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for
years" (Genesis 1:14). Roger's studies, 400 years before the Gregorianreform, had led
him to conclude that lunarand solar motions are in practicalterms incommensurable.8'
81
Digby 40, fol. 50r: "non potest sine dubio horum motuumconcordianisi difficillime et in magno temporis
spatio reperire."


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Before Grosseteste: Roger of Hereford and Calendar Reform in Eleventh- and TwelfthCentury England

Author(s): Jennifer Moreton

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Roger of Herefordand CalendarReform in

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222v-239r (unascribed);a third manuscript-Oxford, Corpus ChristiCollege 233-appears to have contained

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widely disseminatedmaterialthat appearsto have been part of the stock-in-tradeof the

Thereis no traceof the "new science"in Gerland'sCompotus,which is insteadnoteworthy

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Table 1. The Paschal Cycle

Dionysius's main contributionto calendarreformwas his introductionof the era of the

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Council did not, as was thought,promulgatea specific method of calculatingEaster,it did

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Digby 40, fol. 48r: "nihil in lunationibusvulgaris compoti mutareaudemus."

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Table 2. The Golden Number

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or artificialcompotusfrom the natural;the two ways of expoundingthe subject,in writing

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In their original form the tables presumablystartedfrom September,as they do in the

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A version of the calendar tables, which survives in "many ascribed thirteenthcentury

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This content downloaded from 188.72.96.189 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 07:06:44 AM

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times by collating the Chaldean,Hebrew,and Latinnaturallunationsfor the 83 years (four

This content downloaded from 188.72.96.189 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 07:06:44 AM

unsatisfactory.Roger's treatiseis quoted in one collection of calendarnotes; there could

The Gregorianreformof 1582 soughtto correctthe inaccuraciesof both lunarand solar

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This content downloaded from 188.72.96.189 on Tue, 17 Jun 2014 07:06:44 AM

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