5th International Conference on the Science of Computus July 11 – 13, 2014

http://www.nuigalway.ie/history/Computus_Conference/computusconference2014.html

The Science of Computistics – the mathematics required to calculate the date of Easter, and related topics (incl. astronomical observations and calculations) – straddles the fields of mathematics and astronomy, biblical interpretation and cosmology, empirical astronomical observation, and the perennial quest to understand the concepts of Time and Time-Reckoning. ‘Since in the 7^th century the leading experts on the computus were the Irish’ (the verdict of Leofranc Holford-Strevens, The History of Time, a very short introduction [Oxford 2005] 56) it was entirely appropriate that the first landmark conference devoted to this topic should have taken place in Galway, as it did in 2006. It brought together, for the first time, the leading scholars in this field from all over the world, and the conference papersprovided a panorama of Early Medieval scientific knowledge, both in Ireland and in the rest of Western Europe, during the period of the so-called ‘Dark Ages’. That first Conference was an outstanding success, and the proof is in the fact that we have had four others since, and are now looking forward to the fifth this coming July. In fact, the study of computistics has become synonymous with Galway, with the result that NUIG has become the permanent home for the Conference

The previous Science of Computus conferences in Galway highlighted

The transmission of Late Antique Mathematical Knowledge in Ireland & Europe The Development of Astronomy in Early Medieval Ireland & Europe The Irish role in the development of Computistical Mathematics The use of computistics for purposes of prognostication

The Proceedings of the 1st (2006) Conference and of the 2^nd (2008) have already been published, while those of the 3^rd (2010) Conference will shortly go to press. The papers, as a rule, appeal equally to those interested in the history of science in Ireland and Europe, and in the origins of present-day mathematical and astronomical ideas, specialist scholars and the wider public.

This year’s image is the zodiac from the Aratea manuscript in Boulogne, Boulogne Ms 188, f. 30v.

Friday, July 11

16:00 -16:30 Welcome to the Conference

16:30-18:00 Session 1

Charles Burnett: The Abacista, companion to the Computista

Susan Rankin: Remembering the calendar: singing Nonae Aprilis

Michal Choptiany: Late-17th-century Cracow manuscripts of computes: Cracow, Jagiellonian Libr., MS. 3377, and Warsaw, Nat. Libr., MS. 9102 II

18:15 Book Launches

Saturday, July 12

9:30 – 11:00 Session 2

Immo Warntjes: Hermannus Contractus and the revolution of computes in the 12th century

Alfred Lohr: Computus und computer. Prinzipien und Methoden bei der Editon er Computi von Abbo, Gerland, Roger von Hereford und Constabularius

C.P.E. Nothaft: Arabic Science and Natural Computus in 12th-century England. Computus Constabularii and its context

11:00 – 11:30 Tea / Coffee

11:30 – 13:00 Session 3

Leofranc Holford-Strevens: The computistical fragment in Brussels, KBR, MS. 10127-44 (s. VIII ex), fols 80r-82r

Ivana Dobcheva: Were computistae stargazers? The shared readership of computistics and star-catalogues, with a special emphasis on Aratea manuscripts

Jacopo Bisagni: A newly-discovered Irish (?) copy of the Sphere of Life and Death

13:00 – 15:00 Lunch

15:00 – 16:30 Session 4

Michael Norris: Digital resources and the classification of the manuscripts of Bede’s De natura rerum

MÌÁirÌ_n Mc Carron: The origins of Bede’s Anno Mundi dating

Ulirch Voigt: Did the Venerable Bede understand the 532-year cycle? 16:30 – 17:00 Tea / Coffee

17:00 – 18:30 Session 5

Robert Gallagher: The intellectual context of the ‘Metrical Calendar of Hampson’

Tony Harris: The language of medieval ocmputus and the surprising vocabulary of Aelfric’s De temporibus anni

Christian Etheridge: The venerable Bede in a 12thcentury Icelandic context: from discoverer of Iceland to computistical authority

Sunday, July 13

9:30 – 11:00 Session 6

Dan Mac Carthy: Changing perspectives upon the Paschal tract of Anatolius, Bishop of Laodicea

Luciani Cuppo: Something old, something new. An Insular twist on the Roman Easter prologue of AD 395

Alden Mosshammer: A neglected Iberian Computus: Paris, BNF, MS lat. 609

11:00 – 11:30 Tea / Coffee

11:30 – 13:00 Session 7

James Palmer: Irish computistics in 8th-century Lombardy

David Ganz: Milan, Bibl. Ambr., MS. f 60 sup.: an 8th-century Irish compendium

David Howlett: Dicuill on Astronomy