To the casual observer, the
Argumenta titulorum paschalium on fols. 156r-157r might seem to belong to the materials presented here, rather than to the letter of Dionysius to Petronius and the Paschal tables, for no page break or display rubric separates them from the preceding texts. A medieval computist might have thought so too, for argumenta in computus manuscripts frequently travel in convoy with other types of notes and extracts, including lists of weights and measures, extracts from cosmographical literature, and prognostica. In many respects, this section of MS 17 resembles the first miscellany of computus-related materials on fols. 3r-7v. Both are composed of short, disconnected texts linked by the common theme of number — number which organizes time, human society, and human destinies. This resemblance is all the more striking when one notes that the first miscellany is preceded by medical materials, and this second one is followed by a second medical anthology. The structure of the second half of MS 17, whose pole is the Paschal table, seems to be a consciously contrived mirror image of that of the first half, whose focus is the calendar.
12. MATERIALS LARGELY RELATING TO PROGNOSTICATION, fols. 157r-159r: OVERVIEW
This section of MS 17 comprises the following:
To the casual observer, the Argumenta titulorum paschalium on fols. 156r-157r might seem to belong to the materials presented here, rather than to the letter of Dionysius to Petronius and the Paschal tables, for no page break or display rubric separates them from the preceding texts. A medieval computist might have thought so too, for argumenta in computus manuscripts frequently travel in convoy with other types of notes and extracts, including lists of weights and measures, extracts from cosmographical literature, and prognostica. In many respects, this section of MS 17 resembles the first miscellany of computus-related materials on fols. 3r-7v. Both are composed of short, disconnected texts linked by the common theme of number — number which organizes time, human society, and human destinies. This resemblance is all the more striking when one notes that the first miscellany is preceded by medical materials, and this second one is followed by a second medical anthology. The structure of the second half of MS 17, whose pole is the Paschal table, seems to be a consciously contrived mirror image of that of the first half, whose focus is the calendar.