Bede : the reckoning of time / translated, with introduction, notes and commentary by Faith Wallis.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bede, the Venerable, Saint, 673-735.

Contributor:

Wallis, Faith

Series:

Translated texts for historians ; v. 29.

Translated texts for historians ; v. 29

Standardized Title:

De temporibus. English. 1999

Language:

English

Latin

Subjects (All):

Bede, the Venerable, Saint, 673-735. De temporibus.

Bede.

Time measurements--Early works to 1800.

Time measurements.

Calendar--Early works to 1800.

Calendar.

Time--Religious aspects--Christianity.

Moon--Early works to 1800.

Moon.

Time--Religious aspects--Christianity--Early works to 1800.

Time.

Chronology--History--To 1500.

Calendar reform--History--To 1500.

Church calendar--History--To 1500.

Local Subjects:

Chronology--History--To 1500.

Calendar reform--History--To 1500.

Church calendar--History--To 1500.

Physical Description:

ci, 479 pages : illustrations ; 22 cm.

Other Title:

Reckoning of time

Place of Publication:

Liverpool : Liverpool University Press, 1999.

Summary:

From the patristic age until the Gregorian calendar reform of 1582, computus -- the science of time reckoning and art of calendar construction -- was a matter of intense concern. Bede's The Reckoning of Time (De temporum ratione) was the first comprehensive treatise on this subject and the model and reference for all subsequent teaching discussion and criticism of the Christian calendar. It is a systematic exposition of the Julian solar calendar and the Paschal table of Dionysius Exiguus, with their related formulae for calculating dates. But it is more than a technical handbook. Bede sets calendar lore within a broad scientific framework and a coherent Christian concept of time, and incorporates themes as diverse as the theory of tides and the doctrine of the millennium.

This translation of the full text of The Reckoning of Time includes an extensive historical introduction and a chapter-by-chapter commentary. It will interest historians of medieval science, theology, and education, Bede scholars and Anglo-Saxonists, liturgists, and Church historians. It will also serve as an accessible introduction to computus itself. Generations of medieval computists nourished their expertise in Bede's orderly presentation; modern scholars in quest of safe passage through this complex terrain can hope for no better guide.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [430]-444) and indexes.

ISBN:

0853236933

OCLC:

41943682