An intriguing volume exploring eight medieval authors who each attempted to correct the date of Christ's incarnation according to the Easter tables of the Scythian monk Dionysius Exiguus (c. 540).
This volume discusses the controversy surrounding the dating of
the Christian Era in the Middle Ages and its effect on the
‘emergence’ of the individual in medieval society. It
focuses on eight medieval authors (Heriger of Lobbes, Abbo of
Fleury, Marianus Scottus, Gerland the Computist, Hezelo of Cluny,
an anonymous author in Limoges, Sigebert of Gembloux, and Heimo of
Bamberg), all of whom attempted to correct the date of
Christ’s incarnation according to the Easter tables of the
Scythian monk Dionysius Exiguus (c. 540). As this volume
argues, these authors entered into a duel with the past, attempting
to reassign the year of Christ’s birth and in the process
negotiating contradictory authoritative traditions. On a
superficial level these scholars appeared to be unsuccessful in
their attempts to reconstruct history, as none of their proposed
corrections replaced the existing (erroneous) Christian era that
had been established in the Latin West. On a practical level,
however, this defeat can be counterbalanced by the conclusion that
the corrections provided by these authors acted as an important
step in the increasing movement of medieval authors towards
intellectual autonomy. In Duelling with the Past,
Verbist’s analysis explores the links between computistical
sources and the ‘emergence’ of the individual in the
Middle Ages.
CONTENTS
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Chapter 1. Heriger of Lobbes (d. 1007)
Chapter 2. Abbo of Fleury (d. 1004)
Chapter 3. Marianus Scottus (d. 1082)
Chapter 4. Gerland the Computist (d. after 1093?)
Chapter 5. Sigebert of Gembloux (d. 1112)
Chapter 6. Hezelo of Cluny (d. 1123)
Chapter 7. Anonymous of Limoges
Chapter 8. Heimo of Bamberg (d. 1139)
Conclusion
Bibliography
"Die Arbeit ist klar und verständlich geschrieben." (E.-D. H., in: Deutsches Archiv für Erforschung des Mittelalters, Bd. 67-1, 2011, p. 261)
"Duelling with the Past will likely be most interesting to specialists in medieval computistics, though the book will also reward scholars who work on medieval theology, philosophy and historiography with many important insights in to how medieval scholars used time as a concept in pragmatic applications." (D. Defries, in: The Medieval Review, 11.02.19)
"Duelling with the Past is an innovative work that offers a valuable insight into the complex, technical world of computus studies in the central Middle Ages. (...) The value and implications of this timely work are profound." (George House, in: Early Medieval Europe, 2012, N° 20 (1), p. 108-110)
"L'ouvrage de Verbist ne manque pas de qualités et ouvre des perspectives sur l'histoire de la pensée critique et de la liberté de pensée." (Michel de Waha, dans: Revue Belgde de Philologie et d'Histoire, 88, 2010, p. 1325-1330)
"(...) cet ouvrage présente un intérêt qui dépasse de loin son propos technique et qui devrait retenir l'attention de tous les médiévistes." (Jean Meyers, dans: Le Moyen Âge, 120 (3-4), 2014, p.798-800)