3. COMPUTUS TEXTS AND TABLES I fols.8r-15v: OVERVIEW
This section of MS 17 contains the following:
- 1. Tidal rota: fol. 8v
- 2. Sphere of Life and Death 1: fol. 8v
- 3. Feria table: fol. 8r
- 4. Lunar-zodiac table: fol. 8r
- 5. Table of moveable feasts 1: fol. 8v-9r
- 6. Table of moveable feasts 2: fol. 9v
- 7. Litterae punctatae: fol. 10r
- 8. Lunar letters A-V table: fol. 10v
- 9. Jewish months: fol. 11r
- 10. Full and hollow months 1: fol. 11r
- 11. Age of the moon on moveable feasts: fol. 11r
- 12. Full and hollow months 2: fol. 11r
- 13. ANGELVS table 1: fol. 11v
- 14. Perpetual calendar 1: fol. 11v
- 15. Categorical propositions: fol. 11v
- 16. Greek alphabetic numerals: fol. 11v
- 17. ANGELVS table 2: fol. 12r
- 18. Perpetual calendar 2: fol. 12r
- 19. Computus mnemonics: fol. 12r
- 20. Byrhtferth's Proemium: fol. 12v-13r
- 21. Elements schema: fol. 13r
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22. Computus Graecorum: fol. 13v
- 1. Rubric
- 2. Divisions of the months
- 3a-b. Ferial regulars
- 3c. Concurrents
- 3d-e. Lunar regulars
- 3f. Epacts
- 3g. Lunar letters
- 4a. Claves terminorum
- 4b. Lunar and decenovennal cycles
- 4c. How to find the termini of moveable feasts
- 4d. Ultimi termini of moveable feasts
- 5a-b. Days in the decenovennal cycle
- 5c. Months and seasons
- 23. Computus poetry: fol. 14r
- 24. Lectio on the embolisms: fol. 14v-15r.
- 25. Lectioon the saltus: fol. 15r-v
- 26. Poem on the months: fol. 15v
As the reader approaches the Calendar (fols. 16r-22v) in MS 17, computistical materials gradually come to dominate its pages. These materials present a paradox. Either they are duplicates or virtual duplicates of materials found after the Calendar in Computus Texts and Tables II, or they are isolated items, many apparently unique to MS 17. While the tables following the Calendar reflect Abbo of Fleury's model of a computus compilation, most of the materials included here are not found in Abbonian manuscripts. The post-Calendar tables are carefully and logically organized, while this section seems to have no structure at all. The first part in particular (fols. 8b-12r) resembles the "text-less" or "album" style of Carolingian de cyclo paschali compilation, as found, for example, in Paris, B.N. lat. 5239 or Cologne 83(II). 1 This suggests that MS 17's planners were drawing on a number of exemplars, representing different traditions in the design of computus manuscripts: for further discussion, see the background essay "St John's 17 as a computus Manuscript."
1 Kühnel 2003, 73.