{"id":17086,"date":"2017-05-26T15:30:19","date_gmt":"2017-05-26T14:30:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/?p=17086"},"modified":"2017-05-26T15:30:19","modified_gmt":"2017-05-26T14:30:19","slug":"a-fragment-of-bedes-de-ratione-temporum-from-his-own-lifetime","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/2017\/05\/26\/a-fragment-of-bedes-de-ratione-temporum-from-his-own-lifetime\/","title":{"rendered":"A fragment of Bede’s “De ratione temporum” from his own lifetime?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here’s a fun item!\u00a0 Inside the binding of a book, somebody found a really early fragment of a manuscript of Bede’s De ratione temporum<\/em>.\u00a0 (This is the only work which mentions “Eostre”, and includes all his calculations of dates and events.)<\/p>\n

Even more fun – it’s online in a nice high-resolution image at Darmstadt!\u00a0 It can be found here,<\/a> where it is manuscript 4262.\u00a0 The piece originates at Wearmouth – i.e. in Bede’s own monastery – around 725, in his own lifetime.<\/p>\n

It’s amazing to consider that Bede may have seen this being copied!<\/p>\n

But there is more.\u00a0 This is a chunk of chapter 27, De magnitudine, vel defectu solis et lunae<\/em>, as you may verify from this old edition here<\/a>.\u00a0 In this passage, he quotes Pliny the Elder book 37.\u00a0 You can see the red heading of Bede’s chapter in the left hand column; and the name of “Plinius” on the third line underneath.<\/p>\n

Here’s one side of the folium:<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

And here’s the other (which plainly needs a bit of work with a graphics tool):<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Here’s some of the Latin text:<\/p>\n

\n

CAPUT XXVII.\u3000DE MAGNITUDINE, VEL DEFECTU SOLIS ET LUNAE.
\nDe magnitudine, vel defectu solis, sive lunae, Plinius\u00a0secundus in opere pulcherrimo naturalis historiae ita\u00a0describit: Manifestum est solem interventu lunas occultari, lunamque terrae objectu, ac vices reddi, eosdem solis radios luna<\/strong> interpositu suo auferente terrae, terraeque lunae.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The “eosdem solis radios luna” is particularly clear in the right-hand column, two lines down.<\/p>\n

Here’s the same bit in the Liverpool University translation by Faith Wallis,\u00a0p.78-79:<\/p>\n

\n

27. ON THE SIZE,OR ECLIPSE,OF THE SUN AND MOON
\nPliny relates the following information concerning the size or eclipse of the Sun and Moon in that most delightful book, the Natural History: “It is obvious that the Sun is obscured by the intervention of the Moon, and\u00a0the Moon by the interposition of the Earth, and each affects the other. The Moon takes away by its interposition the very same rays of the Sun which the Earth takes away from the Moon.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Isn’t it amazing that a page of a copy contemporary with the author, and from the same monastery, is still extant?\u00a0 It does demonstrate the importance of looking in these 16th century bindings.<\/p>\n

Well done Darmstadt, for making that accessible online!\u00a0 (They ask that I mention their\u00a0reference of urn:nbn:de:tuda-tudigit-51806)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here’s a fun item!\u00a0 Inside the binding of a book, somebody found a really early fragment of a manuscript of Bede’s De ratione temporum.\u00a0 (This is the only work which mentions “Eostre”, and includes all his calculations of dates and events.) Even more fun – it’s online in a nice high-resolution image at Darmstadt!\u00a0 It […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_hide_featured_image":false,"_jetpack_featured_image_duplicate_dismissed":0,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[19],"tags":[284,1074,1075],"class_list":["post-17086","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-from-my-diary-announcements","tag-bede","tag-manuscript-bindings","tag-manuscripts"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17086","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17086"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17086\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17086"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17086"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/roger-pearse.com\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17086"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}