A Complicated Calendar
The Taymouth Hours (British Library, Yates Thompson MS 13) is famous mainly for its extensive illumination. Folio 4r, above, is a perfect example of that. It’s part of the illustrated calendar at the beginning of the manuscript and shows July.
The medieval calendar looks quite a bit different from our modern one. Where we refer to the dates by number, in the Middle Ages people referred to dates by their specific religious significance. Almost every day commemorates a saint or an event in the life of Christ; this can be seen in the column on the right.
The dates are ordered according to the extremely confusing ancient Roman system of counting back from named reference days: Kalendae, the first day, Nonae, the fifth or seventh, and Idus, the thirteenth or fifteenth. The reference day itself counted as the first day. For example, July 2 would be VI Nonae Julius: the sixth day before Nonae of July.
On the left is a column of Roman numerals (the Golden Numbers), and a column of letters (the Dominical Letters). These were used to locate Sundays and the date of Easter using complicated formulas. The two illustrations indicate the Labour of the Month (reaping) and the zodiac sign of July (Leo).
- Sanne Boomsma













