Bibliography
Immo
Warntjes s. xx–xxi
2017
edited work
Warntjes, Immo, and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds), Late antique calendrical thought and its reception in the early Middle Ages: proceedings from the 3rd International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe, Galway, 16-18 July, 2010, Studia Traditionis Theologiae, 26, Turnhout: Brepols, 2017.
abstract:
Late antique and early medieval science is commonly defined by the quadrivium, the four subjects of the seven liberal arts relating to natural science: astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, and music. The seven-fold division of learning was designed in Late Antiquity by authors such as Martianus Capella, and these authors were studied intensively from the Carolingian age onwards. Because these subjects still have currency today, this leads to the anachronistic view that the artes dominated intellectual thought in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Quite the contrary, the artes were an idealized curriculum with limited application in practice. Certainly, the artes do not help in our understanding of the intellectual endeavour between the early fifth and the late eighth centuries. This period was dominated by computus, a calendrical science with the calculation of Easter at its core. Only computus provides a traceable continuation of scientific thought from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The key questions were the mathematical modeling of the course of the sun through the zodiac (the Julian calendar) and of the moon phases (in various lunar calendars). This volume highlights key episodes in the transmission of calendrical ideas in this crucial period, and therewith helps explaining the transformation of intellectual culture into its new medieval Christian setting.
abstract:
Late antique and early medieval science is commonly defined by the quadrivium, the four subjects of the seven liberal arts relating to natural science: astronomy, geometry, arithmetic, and music. The seven-fold division of learning was designed in Late Antiquity by authors such as Martianus Capella, and these authors were studied intensively from the Carolingian age onwards. Because these subjects still have currency today, this leads to the anachronistic view that the artes dominated intellectual thought in Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages. Quite the contrary, the artes were an idealized curriculum with limited application in practice. Certainly, the artes do not help in our understanding of the intellectual endeavour between the early fifth and the late eighth centuries. This period was dominated by computus, a calendrical science with the calculation of Easter at its core. Only computus provides a traceable continuation of scientific thought from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages. The key questions were the mathematical modeling of the course of the sun through the zodiac (the Julian calendar) and of the moon phases (in various lunar calendars). This volume highlights key episodes in the transmission of calendrical ideas in this crucial period, and therewith helps explaining the transformation of intellectual culture into its new medieval Christian setting.
article
Warntjes, Immo, “Introduction: state of research on late antique and early medieval computus”, in: Immo Warntjes, and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds), Late antique calendrical thought and its reception in the early Middle Ages: proceedings from the 3rd International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe, Galway, 16-18 July, 2010, 26, Turnhout: Brepols, 2017. 1–42.
2016
article
2015
article
Warntjes, Immo, “Victorius vs. Dionysius: the Irish Easter controversy of AD 689”, in: Pádraic Moran, and Immo Warntjes (eds), Early medieval Ireland and Europe: chronology, contacts, scholarship. A Festschrift for Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, 14, Turnhout: Brepols, 2015. 33–97.
abstract:
Over the past few decades, the early medieval Easter controversy has increasingly been portrayed as a conflict between the ‘Celtic’ and the ‘Roman’ churches, limiting the geographical extent of this most vibrant debate to Britain and Ireland (with the exception of the disputes caused by Columbanus’ appearance on the Continent). Both are not the case. Before c.AD 800, there was no unanimity within the ‘Roman’ cause. Two ‘Roman’ Easter reckonings existed, which could not be reconciled, one invented by Victorius of Aquitaine in AD 457, the other being the Alexandrian system as translated into Latin by Dionysius Exiguus in AD 525. The conflict between followers of Victorius and adherents of Dionysius occurred in Visigothic Spain first, reached Ireland in the second half of the 7th century, and finally dominated the intellectual debate in Francia in the 8th century. This article will focus on the Irish dimension of this controversy. It is argued that the southern Irish clergy introduced the Victorian reckoning in the AD 630s and strictly adhered to that system until the end of the 7th century. When Adomnan, the abbot of Iona, converted to Dionysius in the late AD 680s and convinced most of the northern Irish churches to follow his example, this caused considerable tension with southern Irish followers of Victorius, as is impressively witnessed by the computistical literature of the time, especially the texts produced in AD 689. From this literature, the issues debated at the time are reconstructed. This analysis has serious consequences for how we read Irish history towards the end of the 7th century; rather than bringing the formerly ‘Celtic’ northern Irish clergy in line with southern Irish ‘Roman’ practise, Adomnan added a new dimension to the conflict.
abstract:
Over the past few decades, the early medieval Easter controversy has increasingly been portrayed as a conflict between the ‘Celtic’ and the ‘Roman’ churches, limiting the geographical extent of this most vibrant debate to Britain and Ireland (with the exception of the disputes caused by Columbanus’ appearance on the Continent). Both are not the case. Before c.AD 800, there was no unanimity within the ‘Roman’ cause. Two ‘Roman’ Easter reckonings existed, which could not be reconciled, one invented by Victorius of Aquitaine in AD 457, the other being the Alexandrian system as translated into Latin by Dionysius Exiguus in AD 525. The conflict between followers of Victorius and adherents of Dionysius occurred in Visigothic Spain first, reached Ireland in the second half of the 7th century, and finally dominated the intellectual debate in Francia in the 8th century. This article will focus on the Irish dimension of this controversy. It is argued that the southern Irish clergy introduced the Victorian reckoning in the AD 630s and strictly adhered to that system until the end of the 7th century. When Adomnan, the abbot of Iona, converted to Dionysius in the late AD 680s and convinced most of the northern Irish churches to follow his example, this caused considerable tension with southern Irish followers of Victorius, as is impressively witnessed by the computistical literature of the time, especially the texts produced in AD 689. From this literature, the issues debated at the time are reconstructed. This analysis has serious consequences for how we read Irish history towards the end of the 7th century; rather than bringing the formerly ‘Celtic’ northern Irish clergy in line with southern Irish ‘Roman’ practise, Adomnan added a new dimension to the conflict.
edited work
Moran, Pádraic, and Immo Warntjes (eds), Early medieval Ireland and Europe: chronology, contacts, scholarship. A Festschrift for Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, Studia Traditionis Theologiae, 14, Turnhout: Brepols, 2015.
abstract:
The pivotal role of Ireland in the development of a decidedly Christian culture in early medieval Europe has long been recognized. Still, Irish scholarship on early medieval Ireland has tended not to look beyond the Irish Sea, while continental scholars try to avoid Hibernica by reference to its special Celtic background. Following the lead of the honorand of this volume, Prof. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, this collection of 27 essays aims at contributing to a reversal of this general trend. By way of introduction to the period, the first section deals with chronological problems faced by modern scholars as well as the controversial issues relating to the reckoning of time discussed by contemporary intellectuals. The following three sections then focus on Ireland’s interaction with its neighbours, namely Ireland in the insular world, continental influences in Ireland, and Irish influences on the Continent. The concluding section is devoted to modern scholarship and the perception of the Middle Ages in modern literature.
abstract:
The pivotal role of Ireland in the development of a decidedly Christian culture in early medieval Europe has long been recognized. Still, Irish scholarship on early medieval Ireland has tended not to look beyond the Irish Sea, while continental scholars try to avoid Hibernica by reference to its special Celtic background. Following the lead of the honorand of this volume, Prof. Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, this collection of 27 essays aims at contributing to a reversal of this general trend. By way of introduction to the period, the first section deals with chronological problems faced by modern scholars as well as the controversial issues relating to the reckoning of time discussed by contemporary intellectuals. The following three sections then focus on Ireland’s interaction with its neighbours, namely Ireland in the insular world, continental influences in Ireland, and Irish influences on the Continent. The concluding section is devoted to modern scholarship and the perception of the Middle Ages in modern literature.
2014
article
Warntjes, Immo, “An Irish eclipse prediction of AD 754: the earliest in the Latin West”, Peritia 24–25 (2013–2014): 108–115.
abstract:
This note announces the discovery of a tract on eclipse prediction in Paris, BnF, lat. 6400b, composed by an Irish scholar in AD 754. It is the earliest such text in the early middle ages and it is here placed in its scientific context.
abstract:
This note announces the discovery of a tract on eclipse prediction in Paris, BnF, lat. 6400b, composed by an Irish scholar in AD 754. It is the earliest such text in the early middle ages and it is here placed in its scientific context.
2013
article
2011
edited work
Warntjes, Immo, and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds), The Easter controversy of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages: its manuscripts, texts, and tables. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe, Galway, 18–20 July, 2008, Studia Traditionis Theologiae, 10, Turnhout: Brepols, 2011.
article
Warntjes, Immo, “Irische Komputistik zwischen Isidor von Sevilla und Beda Venerabilis: Ursprung, karolingische Rezeption und generelle Forschungsperspektiven”, Viator 42 (2011): 1–32.
abstract:
Computistical studies of the past centuries have primarily focused on the works of well-known individuals, while anonymous texts have been widely left unconsidered, leading to an immense overrating of the scientific achievements of the scholars known by name. Only within the past few years have the intellectual milieus that produced and influenced the known authors received some attention. This article defines on a textual basis Irish and Anglo-Saxon scientific milieus between Isidore of Seville and the Venerable Bede by providing a survey of all known computistical works of this period. On this basis, the Irish scientific contribution to the Carolingian educational and intellectual renaissance is assessed before the more general desiderata in the modern study of early medieval computistica are outlined at the end of this paper.
abstract:
Computistical studies of the past centuries have primarily focused on the works of well-known individuals, while anonymous texts have been widely left unconsidered, leading to an immense overrating of the scientific achievements of the scholars known by name. Only within the past few years have the intellectual milieus that produced and influenced the known authors received some attention. This article defines on a textual basis Irish and Anglo-Saxon scientific milieus between Isidore of Seville and the Venerable Bede by providing a survey of all known computistical works of this period. On this basis, the Irish scientific contribution to the Carolingian educational and intellectual renaissance is assessed before the more general desiderata in the modern study of early medieval computistica are outlined at the end of this paper.
article
article
Warntjes, Immo, “The Computus Cottonianus of AD 689: a computistical formulary written for Willibrord’s Frisian mission”, in: Immo Warntjes, and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds), The Easter controversy of Late Antiquity and the early Middle Ages: its manuscripts, texts, and tables. Proceedings of the 2nd International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe, Galway, 18–20 July, 2008, 10, Turnhout: Brepols, 2011. 173–212.
article
Immo Warntjes, “Het getal 84: conflicten om de paascyclus”, in: Kelten: Mededelingen van de Stichting A. G. van Hamel voor Keltische Studies 50 (2011): 17–20.
2010
article
Warntjes, Immo, “A newly discovered prologue of AD 699 to the Easter table of Victorius of Aquitaine in an unknown Sirmond manuscript”, Peritia 21 (2010): 255–284.
abstract:
A computistical manuscript from St Gall of c. AD 900, in the Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek, Bremen, is identified as one of a group (the Sirmond group) which contain material collected and studied in seventh- and early eighth-century Ireland. Intriguingly, this codex contains an unknown treatise of ad 699 which originally served as prologue to an altered version of the Easter table of Victorius of Aquitaine. This article presents arguments for an Irish provenance of this prologue, a critical edition, and a translation. It discusses its significance for the study of Irish intellectual culture at the turn from the seventh to the eighth century. Additionally, the Bremen codex transmits fragments of a prologue to the Supputatio Romana, the Easter reckoning followed in Rome between the third and the fifth centuries, some being identical with a passage in the fourth-century Cologne Prologue.
abstract:
A computistical manuscript from St Gall of c. AD 900, in the Staats- und Universitatsbibliothek, Bremen, is identified as one of a group (the Sirmond group) which contain material collected and studied in seventh- and early eighth-century Ireland. Intriguingly, this codex contains an unknown treatise of ad 699 which originally served as prologue to an altered version of the Easter table of Victorius of Aquitaine. This article presents arguments for an Irish provenance of this prologue, a critical edition, and a translation. It discusses its significance for the study of Irish intellectual culture at the turn from the seventh to the eighth century. Additionally, the Bremen codex transmits fragments of a prologue to the Supputatio Romana, the Easter reckoning followed in Rome between the third and the fifth centuries, some being identical with a passage in the fourth-century Cologne Prologue.
article
Warntjes, Immo, “The argumenta of Dionysius Exiguus and their early recensions”, in: Immo Warntjes, and Dáibhí Ó Cróinín (eds), Computus and its cultural context in the Latin West, AD 300–1200: Proceedings of the 1st International Conference on the Science of Computus in Ireland and Europe, 5, Turnhout: Brepols, 2010. 40–111.
abstract:
Dionysius Exiguus composed the earliest known computistical formulary written in Latin in 525. However, this formulary has not survived in its original form. The editors of Dionysius’ computistical writings, Wilhelm Jan and Bruno Krusch, published a corpus of 16 argumenta from a single manuscript, namely MS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 63 under Dionysius’ name, since this was the only manuscript known to them that preserved the original 525 dating. Some of these 16 argumenta, however, contain dating clauses as late as 675, which immediately cast doubt on their ascription to Dionysius. In fact, the 16 argumenta edited by Jan and Krusch should more precisely be defined as a computistical formulary of 675, to be termed the Computus Digbaeanus of 675, which includes the original Dionysiac argumenta. This article, then, reconstructs the original Dionysiac corpus on the basis of new manuscript evidence. Moreover, the different stages of interpolations and additions that eventually led to the composition of the Computus Digbaeanus are analyzed, and with this the development of computistical formularies written in Latin in the 150 years from 525 to 675.
abstract:
Dionysius Exiguus composed the earliest known computistical formulary written in Latin in 525. However, this formulary has not survived in its original form. The editors of Dionysius’ computistical writings, Wilhelm Jan and Bruno Krusch, published a corpus of 16 argumenta from a single manuscript, namely MS Oxford, Bodleian Library, Digby 63 under Dionysius’ name, since this was the only manuscript known to them that preserved the original 525 dating. Some of these 16 argumenta, however, contain dating clauses as late as 675, which immediately cast doubt on their ascription to Dionysius. In fact, the 16 argumenta edited by Jan and Krusch should more precisely be defined as a computistical formulary of 675, to be termed the Computus Digbaeanus of 675, which includes the original Dionysiac argumenta. This article, then, reconstructs the original Dionysiac corpus on the basis of new manuscript evidence. Moreover, the different stages of interpolations and additions that eventually led to the composition of the Computus Digbaeanus are analyzed, and with this the development of computistical formularies written in Latin in the 150 years from 525 to 675.
work
edited work
2008
article
2007
article
Bisagni, Jacopo, and Immo Warntjes, “Latin and Old Irish in the Munich computus: a reassessment and further evidence”, Ériu 57 (2007): 1–33.
abstract:
This article analyses the relatively rare phenomenon of code-switching and code-mixing from Latin to Old Irish in the Munich Computus. All (including previously unnoticed) instances of Old Irish in this Latin text are discussed, both from the linguistic point of view and as regards the reasons for their application. The author of the Munich Computus, writing in AD 719 and consequently being one of the earliest compilers of a comprehensive computistical textbook, faced the difficult task of transferring classroom teaching into writing without a model for this task at hand. In this context, it is argued that the shift to an informal register (Old Irish) was employed to serve specific didactical purposes, to facilitate the understanding of complicated technical material. Additionally, this analysis sheds more light on the function and nature of the Munich Computus itself.
abstract:
This article analyses the relatively rare phenomenon of code-switching and code-mixing from Latin to Old Irish in the Munich Computus. All (including previously unnoticed) instances of Old Irish in this Latin text are discussed, both from the linguistic point of view and as regards the reasons for their application. The author of the Munich Computus, writing in AD 719 and consequently being one of the earliest compilers of a comprehensive computistical textbook, faced the difficult task of transferring classroom teaching into writing without a model for this task at hand. In this context, it is argued that the shift to an informal register (Old Irish) was employed to serve specific didactical purposes, to facilitate the understanding of complicated technical material. Additionally, this analysis sheds more light on the function and nature of the Munich Computus itself.
article
Warntjes, Immo, “The Munich Computus and the 84 (14)-year Easter reckoning”, Proceedings of the Royal Irish Academy 107 C (2007): 31–85.
abstract:
The construction, and especially the assignment of the Easter dates, of the Easter reckoning used in the British Isles from the fifth to the eighth century, here called the 84 (14), has been a matter of scholarly debate for the past 400 years. Since the discovery of the Munich Computus in AD 1878, the text that became the primary source for this Easter reckoning, the debate has centred almost exclusively on it. This changed with the discovery of an Easter table of this reckoning in AD 1985, which provided reliable Easter dates as well as a most valuable insight into the construction of the table itself. However, these primary sources have never been compared thoroughly. Such a comparison is provided in the present article, which leads to an analysis of its implications for the 84 (14) in general, and for the Munich Computus in particular.
abstract:
The construction, and especially the assignment of the Easter dates, of the Easter reckoning used in the British Isles from the fifth to the eighth century, here called the 84 (14), has been a matter of scholarly debate for the past 400 years. Since the discovery of the Munich Computus in AD 1878, the text that became the primary source for this Easter reckoning, the debate has centred almost exclusively on it. This changed with the discovery of an Easter table of this reckoning in AD 1985, which provided reliable Easter dates as well as a most valuable insight into the construction of the table itself. However, these primary sources have never been compared thoroughly. Such a comparison is provided in the present article, which leads to an analysis of its implications for the 84 (14) in general, and for the Munich Computus in particular.
2005
article
2004
article
Warntjes, Immo, “Regnal succession in early medieval Ireland”, Journal of Medieval History 30 (2004): 377–410.
abstract:
Regnal succession in early medieval Ireland has been the centre of scholarly debate for the past eighty-five years. This paper contributes to the debate with an investigation of the early Irish law texts. It is argued that these law texts, especially the tracts on inheritance, reveal a certain pattern of regnal succession, which can be divided into an early and a later phase. Moreover, they allow us to define necessary criteria for eligibility for Irish kingship. The results of this examination are illustrated in the summary by the historical example of the early Síl nÁedo Sláine.
abstract:
Regnal succession in early medieval Ireland has been the centre of scholarly debate for the past eighty-five years. This paper contributes to the debate with an investigation of the early Irish law texts. It is argued that these law texts, especially the tracts on inheritance, reveal a certain pattern of regnal succession, which can be divided into an early and a later phase. Moreover, they allow us to define necessary criteria for eligibility for Irish kingship. The results of this examination are illustrated in the summary by the historical example of the early Síl nÁedo Sláine.
article
