A tool for many purposes: Hermann Zoest and the medieval Christian appropriation of the Jewish calendar

Abstract

During the later Middle Ages, a surprising number of Latin Christian scholars wrote texts dealing with or specifically dedicated to the Jewish calendar, an interest already exhibited in the pioneering Computus emendatus of Reinher of Paderborn ( c. 1171). One late-medieval author influenced by Reinher in this regard was Hermann Zoest (d. 1445), a Cistercian monk from Westphalia who participated in the Council of Basel’s unsuccessful efforts to reform the ecclesiastical calendar. Drawing on unpublished and previously unknown material, this article explores medieval Christian attitudes towards the Jewish calendar by outlining the different ways in which this calendar was appropriated and employed by Hermann Zoest in his writings: as a guide in reforming the ecclesiastical calendar, as an aid for biblical exegesis, and as an instrument to determine the date of Creation.