Sciences and learning
Computus, computistics
The second part of the paper considers the dissemination of the Dionysiac computus in the insular world. The main witness is MS Digby 63 of the Bodleian Library, Oxford. Written in its present from in AD 867, the manuscript includes various blocks of computistical material derived from earlier sources. They include a dossier with the letters of Dionysius Exiguus and others on the computation of Easter. The dossier ends with the prologue and preface to the cycles of Felix of Squillace (AD 616).
Certain palaeographical traits betray the Roman provenance of the Dionysiac dossier. While it is not possible to establish a definite date for the arrival of the Dionysiac collection in England, there is a strong possibility that the dossier was sent from Rome in the time of Pope Vitalian (AD 672-76) in the context of his support for the Dionysiac computus and its adoption in Rome.
This paper offers new readings and translations of the Old Irish glosses on the fragment of Bede's De Temporum Ratione found in the Austrian National Library Codex 15298 (olim Suppl. 2698) in Vienna. In addition to the updated readings, a newly found gloss is discussed at the end of the paper.
The fragment of Felix in the Bobbio Computus shows a recension independent from that known from the manuscripts Digby 63, 67r–v and 70v–71r, and Ambrosiana H 150 inf., 50v. It is inserted in the Etymologiae of Isidore (VI 17), but neither the arrangement of Isidore’s work nor the cycles in Etymologiae VI 17 resemble the standard edition. They may reflect the early organization of the work in fifteen books as arranged by Braulio, rather than the later division in twenty books attributed to Theodulf of Orléans.
The 95-year cycle also shows independent features. Though inserted in the Etymologiae and thus presumably Isidorian, it is quite unlike other known cycles from AD 627 to 721 (Ambrosiana L 99 sup., Digby 63). But there are also discrepancies between the contemporary cycles from 798 to 892 (Ambrosiana H 150 inf., 93v–98r) and those in the Felix/Isidore section of the same codex. Without further study we cannot determine when the texts of Isidore and Felix became known at Bobbio, but the evidence, such as it is, suggests that the Bobbio computist was not merely copying, but elaborating this material, and this fact may be indicative of a school of computistics at Bobbio in the seventh and eighth century.