"Ffor as moche as yche man may not haue Þe astrolabe": Popular Middle English Variations on the Computus

Abstract

The medieval computus was intended primarily for literate and numerate ecclesiastical users; reading the Latin computus required a good knowledge of technical Latin, while understanding its calculations presupposed some formal education in arithmetic and astronomy. By the mid-thirteenth century, users would have included a small group of literate and numerate laymen; by the mid-fifteenth century, users would have included the less educated and even semiliterate, as a consequence of a more extensive range of computus material made available for the purpose in the vernacular. The history of the computus begins in the early sixth century with Dionysius Exiguus's Epistolae duae de ratione Paschae and Liber de Paschale (PL 67:453-514). Its various technical formats must be the subject of a much more extensive study, one well beyond the scope of the present discussion.' The present article is concerned with the more popular forms of computation in the English vernacular which appeared from the late fourteenth to the late fifteenth centuries. These adaptations of the technical versions were designed for the literate or semiliterate layman and depended less upon written form than upon fingers and memory. Nevertheless, it is essential to consider briefly some lines of development in order to establish a historical context for the computus in this period. The computus played a significant role in most areas of medieval English life, providing explanations for all divisions of time, whether liturgical or calendrical, and instructions for its measurement and applications. Precise establishment of liturgical dates and seasons of the year was crucial to any number of agricultural, medical, legal, and household activities. While agricultural practices might be obvious in this context, it is perhaps less well recognized that even butlers and chamberlains organized service and menus according