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Versus de mensibus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 July 2016

John Hennig
John Hennig*
Affiliation:
Sutton, Co. Dublin
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Extract

In many medieval calendars the calendar proper for each month is preceded or followed by a verse (or several verses) treating of one (or one each) of the following subjects:

  1. (a) the zodiacal sign

  2. (b) the number of solar days

  3. (c) the number of lunar days

  4. (d) the position of the nones

  5. (e) the Greek, Hebrew, and Egyptian names

  6. (f) the Roman traditions of the name and significance of the month

  7. (g) the climatic conditions (aeris qualitates)

  8. (h) the evil days (dies Aegyptiaci).

The study of medieval calendars has been so much preoccupied with their chronological and heortological aspects that, to my knowledge, these verses have never been the subject of a comprehensive investigation. In many editions they have been omitted as extraneous matter.

Type
Articles
Information
Traditio , Volume 11 , 1955 , pp. 65 - 90
Copyright
Copyright © Fordham University Press 

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References

1 A typical case is Munding, E., Die Kalendarien von St. Gallen (Beuron 1948) 1; see Hennig, [e]. — Worthy of note in the other direction is Webster, J. C., The Labors of the Months (Princeton Monographs in Art and Archaeology 21; Princeton 1938) 104-116, where, in an appendix, fourteen sets of Latin verses on the months (A, B …N) are brought together from various sources; of these, only D (= AL 394) and E (= AL 639), both reprinted from Baehrens [a] I, are immediately relevant to the present study.Google Scholar

2 Hennig [b] 62f. and, for the date, 71f. A description of the MS with a photographic facsimile of the recto of the December leaf (fol. 14) of the calendar is given in the Catalogue of Ancient Manuscripts in the British Museum II (London 1884) 12f., Pl. 28; parts of the March leaf (fol. 5) are shown in an engraved facsimile, in color, forming the frontispiece of Hampson (for the disputed interpretation of the human figure there shown, see Webster, 56 n. *); the zodiac sign of Leo (fol. 10r) is reproduced for purposes of comparison by Dodwell, C. R., The Canterbury School of Illumination 1066-1200 (Cambridge 1954) Pl. 36c (cf. p. 63). The volume, which principally comprises a ninth-century Continental copy of the Psalter (cf. Fischer, B., Vetus Latina I [Verzeichnis der Sigel …; Freiburg 1949] 30, siglum 386 [‘um 850’]), has been held to have become the property of King Aethelstan (924-940). Later ownership at Winchester (Cathedral Priory) is affirmed, or at least held as probable, in some quarters — cf. Bishop, E., Liturgica Historica (Oxford 1918) 141 n. 1; A Guide to a Select Exhibition of Cottonian Manuscripts (London 1931) 19f. — but is neither affirmed nor denied in Ker, N. R., Medieval Libraries of Great Britain: A List of Surviving Books. (London 1941) 111-3; cf. also Dom L. Brou, O.S.B., in The Psalter Collects (HBS 83; London 1949) 46. For the four full-page miniatures (one now at Oxford), which are not directly relevant to the present study, see the Catalogue (cit. supra) 12f. with Pl. 28; Millar, E. C., English Illuminated MSS … (Paris-Brussels 1926) 70f., 107 (No. 1), Pl. 2; Boeckler, A., Abendländische Miniaturen … (Berlin-Leipzig 1930) 54.Google Scholar

3 Hampson, 397–420; cf. 393-6.Google Scholar

4 Hennig [b].Google Scholar

5 Baehrens [a] I 21; cf. below n. 24.Google Scholar

6 PL 94.637; on the authorship see Jones, C. W., Bedae Pseudepigrapha: Scientific Writings Falsely Attributed to Bede (Ithaca 1939) 93.Google Scholar

7 Ed. Dümmler, E., MGH Poetae 2 (1884) 615.Google Scholar

8 From datings recently put forward in Ker, , Medieval Libraries — T ‘s. x/xi,’ J ‘s. xi in.’ (pp. 5, 40) — it could be argued as possible that T is of the tenth century (cf. Mearns’ dating infra) and the older book. Still more recently, though taking no position as to the priority of one or the other MS, Dodwell, , Canterbury School 18 n. 4, gives a pre-Conquest date to both of the sets of drawings that stand at the foot of each page of the calendars in T and J. Webster, however, reasoning from the style of the same pictures (reduced facsimiles of both series complete in his Pls. XVII-XX; Millar, , English Illuminated MSS Pl. 24c for the April illustration in J), assigns J to ‘the first half of the century, before the Norman conquest’ (p. 134f.), T to ‘the late eleventh century’ (p. 53), and finds nothing to forbid the assumption that the scenes in T were copied from those in J (pp. 54, 135f.). M. R. James likewise regarded the scenes of the months in T as probably copied directly from those in J, but gives the script at least of the (original) codex T to the pre-Conquest years of the eleventh century: Marvels of the East … (Oxford 1929) 2f. (James was dealing primarily with quite another section of the highly diversified Tiberius codex, but regarded both this section and the calendar as parts of the volume as initially produced prior to 1066; see his fascinating account of the original constitution of the volume and of its later history [pp. 2-6].) Webster (p. 53) describes the calendar drawings of codex J as products of the Winchester school; the book — primarily a hymnarium (cf. Mearns, J., Early Latin Hymnaries [Cambridge 1913] xi: ‘of c. 980’) — was once owned by the Durham Cathedral Priory (Ker 40). Battle Abbey has been established as the provenance of the portion of codex T that contains the calendar (Ker 5; cf. James loc. cit.). — Complete microfilm copies of J are available for study (and further reproduction) in the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. (roll BMab 81/1), and in the National Library of Ireland, Dublin.Google Scholar

9 See Riese's app. crit. and Baehrens [c].Google Scholar

10 MGH, Auct. ant. 5.2 (1883) 13 (Egloga 9).Google Scholar

11 Readings from G to be added to, or coordinated with, the app. crit. of Riese (and, in the second case, of Schenkl also): Google Scholar

AL 394: do (Feb.), reduci (Mar.), Arte (June), Unde (Dec.).

AL 639 (Aus. Egl. 2, p. 10 Schenkl): Romanus ordinis (Jan.), Noetiferum … vendicat (Apr.), Maior (May), aestatis … titulus (June), pomatum September vegetal (Sept.), Mensis et (Oct.). The change in the September verse may have been due to a desire to efface the similarity between AL 640, ‘Sidere, Virgo, tuo Bacchum September opimat,’ and AL 639, ‘Autumnum, Pomona, tuum September opimat,’ and is foreshadowed by several MSS reading here vegitat for opimat. (Compare a verse in the De celebritate quatuor temporum ascribed to Bede [PL 94.607C]: ‘Autumnum simili September opimat amoeno;’ LaistnerM. L. W., A Hand-List of Bede MSS [Ithaca 1943] 125, definitely denies the poem to Bede.) — The December verse of AL 639, ‘Tu genialem hiemem feste, December, agis,’ was perhaps omitted because the verse of AL 394 already refers to genialis hiems. — There is no reason to be detected for the omission of the January verse of AL 394, ‘Dira patet Jani Romanis ianua belli,’ and of the November verse of AL 639, ‘Sidere praecipitas pelago, intempeste November.’

12 See ‘ardentis Cancri’ in AL 640.Google Scholar

13 Even more closely related to AL 640: ‘Augustum mensem Leo fervidus igne perurit.' Google Scholar

14 After this verse, G has the November verse of AL 640, which is found again in the terminal position.Google Scholar

15 Hennig [b] 71.Google Scholar

16 Above n. 7.Google Scholar

17 E.g., in the Merovingian calendar in a Zürich MS, published by H. Leclercq in his fundamental article in DACL 8.661-4. The Horologium de duodecim mensium punctis at the end of Wandalbert's Martyrologium deals with this subject in a metrical form — not month by month, however, but with verse 1 embracing January and December, verse 2 February and November etc., an arrangement also found in Bede's hymn De celebritate quatuor temporum (above n. 10). The same system is at present adopted in many countries in electricity tariffs for higher and lower rates for peak and valley hours.Google Scholar

18 App. crit. to AL 640; Baehrens [a] 352 and [c] 96-8; cf. Jones, , Bedae Pseudep. 72, 93, 103, and below, n. 42.Google Scholar

19 PL 90.358; cf. Jones 93.Google Scholar

20 PL 107.691.Google Scholar

21 See also the late medieval notes on Bede's De temporum ratione in PL 90.347f., and Leclercq in DACL 9.1625f.Google Scholar

22 See also the Anglo-Saxon Menologium (Hennig [a]) and the calendar in MS Brit. Mus. Cotton Cleopatra B. IX (Wormald [b] 2-13).Google Scholar

23 Baehrens [b] 21; cf. [c] 97: ‘Diese Handschriften gehen insgesammt auf einen Archetypus, welcher nicht nur manche Wortverderbnisse, sondern auch in der Reihenfolge der Gedichte starke Verwirrungen aufzuweisen hatte.’ Google Scholar

24 See above, nn. 5 and 6. That, so far as I can see, this point was not noted before is due to the fact that Bede changed the words of Aratea 329 from ‘Quis comes est Aries’ into ‘Primus stat Aries.’ Also the following differences may be noted (Cicero's reading is given first, then Bede's): 320 cancer] cancri 321 cedit] serpit 324 Ipsaque] Ipsas 326 ore fero] cornifero: vadere] lumine 327 inde loci] at lato 328 Exim squamigeri serpentes ludere] Squammiferi rectoque natant tunc ordine 330 Inflexusque genus] Proximat inde sequens 331 Et] Sic: clarum] fulgent: lucibus] orbibus.Google Scholar

25 Baehrens [c] 97.Google Scholar

26 This distinction was apparently based on considerations of style rather than of the contents (see below).Google Scholar

27 MGH, Auct. ant. 5.2.11 (Egloga 5) Schenkl, ,Google Scholar

28 As does also AL 640 in several instances.Google Scholar

29 Compare Ausonius’ Quo mense quotae nonae vel idus sint and Quotae kalendae sint mensuum singulorum (Schenkl p. 12) and Félire Oengusso prol. 305ff. (ed. Stokes, W., HBS 29 [1905]). — The traditional ascription of AL 680 to the grammarian Priscian is here retained, as a convenience, in spite of the high probability that it is false; Schanz, M. et al., Geschichte der römischen Literatur … IV 2 (Munich 1920) 237 and Dekkers, E., Clavis patrum latinorum (Sacris erudiri 3 [1951]) pp. 258f. admit only two extant poems as Priscian's — the Carmen in laudem Anastasii imperatoris and the Periegesis. Google Scholar

30 In MS Oxford St. John 18, where AL 680 is found together with AL 639, AL 394 and 395, it is followed by the verses, ‘Edidit hos famulus gnaro meditamine versus / Perspicuos summi Beda sacer domini.’ Bede's authorship of the Poeticum was still assumed by Munding, E. in his contribution on MS Vindob. 1815 in Colligere fragmenta (Festschrift A. Dold; Beuron 1952) 237 and 242; see Hennig [c]. Baehrens and Riese did not know that other manuscripts of the Poeticum (Quentin 120ff.: OSRMC) also have AL 680 as preface. When supporting, on the grounds of versification, the rejection of Bede's authorship of the Poeticum , Laistner, , Hand-List 124f., illustrated his point in the first instance by a verse from AL 680, apparently considering it as part of the Poeticum. On the manuscript tradition of AL 680 see also Silvestre, H. in Scriptorium 6 (1952) 291; Jones, , Bedae Pseudep., does not refer to AL 680.Google Scholar

31 The verses on the zodiacal signs were inserted in the calendar at the same time as the Poeticum verses (Delisle, , op. cit. [infra n. 68] 325 ff.).Google Scholar

32 Ed. cit. (supra n. 29) xviiif.Google Scholar

33 Quentin 396 and Hennig [a] and [b].Google Scholar

34 ‘Gähnende Oede und Leere’ is the verdict passed by F. Marx, RE 2.2363, on Ausonius; compare Hennig [a] no. 39. According to Baehrens [c] the calendaric verses were ‘mittelalterliche Spielerei.’ A poem on the works of the months similar to and combined with Wandalbert's De mensium duodecim nominibus is in MS Munich Lat. 210 (Leclercq, DACL 11.1639f.), where, as in AL 640, May is referred to as Agenoreus (i.e., belonging to Jupiter who in the form of a bull carried off Europa). The June verse contains a zodiacal line.Google Scholar

35 Hennig [a] 102f.Google Scholar

36 Hesiod is at least faintly reflected in Ausonius’ ‘De aetatibus. Hesiodion’ (AL 647; p. 152 SchenKl), Google Scholar

37 Hennig [a] and [d].Google Scholar

38 The verb rutilare ‘to shine with a red glow,’ gains interest from the familiar use of red for certain calendar entries. Cf. below, n. 41.Google Scholar

38a So, at Jan. 2, PL 121.585 and Dümmler's MS R; Dümmler prints dedicat ortum. Google Scholar

39 Ed. Forbes, G. H. (Burntisland 1882), for March 1.Google Scholar

40 Hennig [a] 103 and [b] 64f. The verse for June 5 (as printed by Hampson): ‘Hic prepides temptant avida concludere rostra.’ Google Scholar

41 Wormald [a] ixf.Google Scholar

42 Ed. E. Dümmler, MGH Poetae 2.578-602; also PL 121.585-623. In the edition in PL the zodiacal verses are printed in parenthesis; the reason for this is doubtless to be found in Dümmler's remark (p. 568): ‘Codices C G R in eo consentiunt, quod versus omnes, qui non de sanctorum memoria, sed de stellis ac de temporum vicibus agunt, ad marginem relegant.’ Furnishing another example of the use of Ausonius’ verses, ‘Principium Iani …,’ Dümmler notes (ibid.) that in a tenth-century Reginensis of the Vatican (MS 438, olim 255) ‘mensibus singulis librarius versus [AL 640] adiecit.’ Cf. PL 90.759ff., where also, for March to December, a set of verses on the peasants’ activities, our subject (g), is added.Google Scholar

43 For the February, July and August verses Dümmler refers, for phraseological parallels, to AL 640.Google Scholar

44 Missing in PL.Google Scholar

45 Also missing in PL. In the edition of Dümmler is a second verse (580) dealing with the sign Libra: ‘Libra pares lucis somnique hic efficit horas.’ This verse does appear in PL — in parenthesis, with the annotation: ‘Hunc versum addidimus e codd. Regio et Bigot.’ (col. 611-612 note a).Google Scholar

43 Ed. Dümmler, , ibid. 604-616; also PL 121.625-32. See also Pl. 94.642 f.Google Scholar

47 A point not mentioned before is that in G and T the two entries for the beginning of spring seem to have been bungled: 22 February: J: Ver oritur, G and T: Verontus; 3 March: J: Veriferum, G and T: Viri ferunt. For veriferum compare similar formations with -fer or -ger in Aratea 326 and 328 and parallels (above nn. 5, 6, 7, 24), also flammiger in AL 394, which in turn may be related to the verb ferre in Wandalbert's De mensium duodecim nominibus (above at n. 7).Google Scholar

48 The various geographical (and mental) climates reflected in December verses are worthy of closer study.Google Scholar

49 G. Wissowa in RE 6.2023, where also the dates of the sun's entry into the zodiacal signs are mentioned.Google Scholar

50 Jones, , Bedae Pseudep. 21-38 and in Medium Aevum 7 (1938) 81–97. PL 90.357, also including (369D) six lines De ortu et occasu xii signorum, again starting with Aries.Google Scholar

51 Ginzel I 29; Grimaldi, A. B., A Catalogue of Zodiacs (London 1905) 130f.Google Scholar

52 PL 90.357C (on De temp. rat. 16).Google Scholar

53 See supra, at n. 6.Google Scholar

54 See also n. 50 and my paper ‘The liturgical and financial year,’ Irish Ecclesiastical Record 5 70 (1948) 332–46.Google Scholar

55 Félire Oengusso most conspicuously so, in contrast to the Martyrology of Tallaght (HBS 68; 1931).Google Scholar

56 PL 90.357D.Google Scholar

57 This arrangement is found in G and in MS Voss. Q. 75 (Hennig [c] 220).Google Scholar

58 E.g., before the entries for each month in the MSS of Florus’ martyrology in Bibl. Nat. lat. 10158 and 10018 (Quentin 233 and 237). See below, n. 64.Google Scholar

59 Namely in January the Aratea verse (above, at n. 5) and in April, June, August, September, and November the AL 394 verses.Google Scholar

60 Hennig [a].Google Scholar

61 Th. Mommsen, CIL 1 (Berlin 1863) 411: ‘Versus de mensibus, de diebus aegyptiacis etc.’; Schmitz, W. in Rheinisches Museum 23 (1868) 520, 665; 29 (1874) 167; 31 (1876) 295. Also Wordsworth, C., The Ancient Kalendars of the University of Oxford (Oxford 1904) xxviiff., 189ff., 235ff.; Thompson, H. W. B., ‘An Ancient Dublin Calendar,’ Irish Times 12 March 1928, p. 4. The classical investigation is Loiseleur, J., ‘Les jours égyptiens,’ Mémoires de la Société Nationale des Antiquaires de France 33 (1872) 198-253.Google Scholar

62 See below, notes 64 and 78.Google Scholar

63 Thorndike, L., A History of Magic and Experimental Science I (London 1923) 520. For the Biblical symbolism of the zodiac see Quentin 40 and Wormald [b] 117f.Google Scholar

64 Thorndike 685f. and 695f., incl. MS Munich Lat. 23390 (s. xii/xiii) Versus de duodecim signis et de diebus Egyptiacis. In the thirteenth century, Bartholomew, an English Franciscan, said that the Egyptian days were inserted into the ecclesiastical calendars. Thorndike discussed the references made to the Egyptian days by Honorius Augustodunensis, Vincentius Bellovacensis, and Gilbertus Porretanus. The connection between the zodiacal sign and the evil days is expressed in the November verse of set III on the Egyptian days (see below). See the notes to the calendar of the Quignon Breviary (Antwerp 1537: HBS 35; 1908) xxxiiif.: ‘Aquarius calidum et humidum, signum bonum. Ungere crura malum, Phebe cum cernit aquosum: Insere tunc sepes, excelsas erigere turres. Quod si carpis iter, tutum tibi non fore semper. In Jano Claris calidisque cibis potiaris’ etc. — the prototype of a modern horoscope. Aquarius is the sign of January, Pisces of February etc.Google Scholar

65 See n. 61; another such list appears in De minutione sanguinis ascribed to Bede PL 90.960f.; for authorship cf. Jones, , Bedae Pseudep. 88f.Google Scholar

66 See nn. 29 and 79.Google Scholar

67 PL 90.955f.; cf. Jones 87.Google Scholar

68 Wormald [a] 142: Brit. Mus. Arundel 60 (Winchester 1060), and below nn. 70ff. For Continental calendars see Martène, E., Veterum Scriptorum Amplissima Collectio VI (Paris 1729) 679f., 686f.; Delisle, L., ‘Mémoire sur d'anciens sacramentaires,’ Mémoires de l'Institut National de France, Académie des Inscriptions et Belles Lettres 32 (1886) 345f. (Bibl. nat. lat. 12052); cf. 395 (a 9/10th-cent. Arras calendar, with the remark (fol. 10v): ‘Diebus egyptiacis oportet medicinam suspendere’). — The text given below is that of AL 680a.Google Scholar

69 cuspis Haupt. In the following line the MSS are divided between pullus and gladius. Google Scholar

70 On the Egyptian hours see Schmitz, , Rhein. Mus. 23.667, 29.170 f., and also below.Google Scholar

71 On the description of the Egyptian days as dies tenebrosi see Schmitz, , Rhein. Mus. 31.296.Google Scholar

72 Wormald [a] 155-67 (Winchester about 1060).Google Scholar

73 Wormald [b] 161, 168-79 (Durham Cathedral Priory before 1170).Google Scholar

74 Wormald [a] 253-65 (Croyland mid-eleventh century).Google Scholar

75 Wormald [c] 91-103 (Muchelney about 1300).Google Scholar

76 Wormald [b] 95, 100-11 (Chester after 1185); see also Hennig [f] 101. The Tanner verses are set out at VIII below.Google Scholar

77 PL 94.619D-620A (firmly rejected as Bede's by Laistner, , Hand-List 125). However, the parallelism of the January and February verses and of the September and October verses suggests that use verse by verse rather than in sequence was envisaged.Google Scholar

78 Apart from the calendars listed in the subsequent notes, Wormald [b] 15, 19-30: Cambr. Univ. Libr. Kk I.22 (Abingdon late s. xiii); 31, 34-45: Oxford New College 358 (St. Albans early second half s.xiii); 63, 68-79: Brit. Mus. Cotton Tib. B. III (Canterbury before 1220; the earliest calendar to use set III); 81, 84-93: Oxf. Bodl. Lat. Lit. e. 6 (Chertsey first half s. xiv; October: ‘Tercia cum dena clamat sis integra vena’ [as Westminster Missal, see below]; Nov. and Dec. verses missing); 113, 117-28: Lond. Lambeth 873 (Croyland fifteenth century); Sarum Breviary (ed. F. Procter; Cambridge 1886); Hereford Breviary (HBS 26; 1904); Oxford University calendars ed. cit. (above note 61) 46f.,66f.; Westminster Missal (HBS 1; 1891) from February joined with AL 640.Google Scholar

79 CIL 1.411; preceded by a copy of set I from Vat. lat. 9135, fol. 243 and verses on the Roman traditions and the climates of the months from Barb. lat. 2154 (XXXI. 39).Google Scholar

80 Wormald [b] 129, 133-44 (Deeping 1332; no verses appear for July and Oct.) Google Scholar

81 Wormald [c] 21, 27-38 (Evesham third quarter s. xiv).Google Scholar

82 Ed. Crosthwaite, J. C. (Dublin 1844) 61.Google Scholar

83 Wormald [b] 47, 51-62 (Canterbury early s. xiv).Google Scholar

84 Wormald [c] 75, 79-90 (Malmesbury 1521).Google Scholar

85 The correct reading, quam terna, appears in set V, that of Cott. Cleop. B. IX; cf. nn. 22 and 86.Google Scholar

86 Wormald [b] 1-13 (Abbotsbury about 1300).Google Scholar

87 S. xi: Schmitz, , Rhein. Mus. 23.520.Google Scholar

88 HBS 17 (1899) xiiif. — [A variant of set VI as found in MR was transcribed in the eighteenth century from a fifteenth-century Verona calendar; this set is reported below by Lynn Thorndike in his article ‘Unde Versus’ (at. n. 44). In the verses for May, September, November, and December the Verona set corresponds not with VI but with I. — Edd.] Google Scholar

89 See above, n. 84.Google Scholar

90 So printed by Wormald; doubtless incomplete in the MS.Google Scholar

91 See above, n. 76.Google Scholar

92 See above at nn. 87 and 88.Google Scholar

93 On the systems of numbering the days see Ginzel III 115f.Google Scholar

94 Ibid. 122f. For an example in an English calendar (MS Brit. Mus. Harl. 863), see Hampson, 449 and, in an Irish text, O'Grady, S., Catalogue of Irish Manuscripts in the British Museum I (London 1926) 320ff. The Computus Manualis ad usum Oxoniensem (Wordsworth, , Ancient Kalendars 116ff.) has such verses on subjects (b), (e), (f), (g) and (a) (starting with Aries) and of course on the names of the feasts.Google Scholar

95 Hennig [c] 200ff.Google Scholar

96 Ed. cit. (note 82) 62. See also the verses by which AL 680 and 639 are prefaced in the Computus prefixed to the Missal of Robert of Jumièges (HBS 11 [1896] 35).Google Scholar

97 Hennig [c] 198, also 207.Google Scholar

98 Ibid, 199.Google Scholar