CAMPS: 8th International Conference on the Science of Computus in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, 17-19 June 2021

8th International Conference on the Science of Computus in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, Galway 17-19 June 2021

Since 2006, the Moore Institute of the National University of Ireland in Galway has hosted, under the direction of Dáibhí Ó Cróinín, a biannual conference on the science of computus in the Middle Ages. Computus – the mathematics required to calculate the date of Easter, and related topics – 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.

The core period covered by the Galway Conference stretches from the beginnings of Easter calculations in the third century to the introduction of Arabic and Greek science in the Latin West in the 12th century, but papers on the reckoning of time and its cultural context in the later Middle Ages have also always been welcome. Each conference has had a special theme (e.g., the formation of computus in Late Antiquity; the rise of prognostications in the early Middle Ages; the revolution of computus in the 11th and 12th centuries; computus in the Carolingian Age; computus and the vernacular; etc.).

The upcoming conference will start on 17 June with a special panel addressing the following fundamental conceptual question:

What is early medieval Latin science?

We are very happy to confirm that the following scholars have accepted to present in this panel: Faith Wallis (Montreal), John J. Contreni (Purdue), Philipp Nothaft (Dublin), James T. Palmer (St. Andrews).

18 June and 19 June will be devoted to thematic sessions covering topics of computistical interest from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern Period. The conference will end on 19 June with a show-case of three websites recently developed as part of the following three projects:

IFCE – The Irish Foundation of Carolingian Europe: the case of calendrical science (funded by the Irish Research Council Laureate Programme)

IRCABRITT – Ireland and Carolingian Brittany: Texts and Transmission (funded by the Irish Research Council Laureate Programme)

Innovating Knowledge – Isidore’s Etymologiae in the Carolingian Period (funded by the Nederlandse Wetenschapelijke Organisatie)

Registration:

This conference will be held digitally through Zoom. A link will be sent to all registered participants a day in advance, for each conference day. Please register here:
https://forms.gle/1CCaed7K1UhCsv5g8

If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact us at: computusgalway@gmail.com

Programme:

THURSDAY, 17 JUNE:

Session 1: ‘What is early medieval Latin science?’

15:00-15:25: James T. Palmer (St. Andrews)

15:25-15:50: Philipp Nothaft (Dublin)

16:00-16:25: Faith Wallis (Montreal)

16:25-16:50: John J. Contreni (Purdue)

16:50-18:00: Open discussion

18:30: Virtual Pub

FRIDAY, 18 JUNE:

Session 2: Eschatology

9:30-9:55: Tobit Loevenich (Dublin) – Usque ad mediam noctem: an eschatological passage in the Computus Einsidlensis

9:55-10:20: Elisa Ramazzina (Belfast) – Monsters at the end of time

10:20-10:45: Discussion

Session 3: The Carolingian Age

11:15-11:40: Christian Schweizer (Dublin) – Computus, quadrivium, and poetry in Dicuil’s Liber de astronomia

11:40-12:05: Mariken Teeuwen (Amsterdam) – Carolingian readers of Martianus and Boethius: How did they gloss the Ars arithmetica?

12:05-12:30: Discussion

Session 4: 9th and 10th – century Breton connections

14:00-14:25: Paula Harrison (Galway) – Seeing through a manuscript, darkly: illumination through computistical networks as witnessed in Laon Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 422

14:25-14:50: Jacopo Bisagni (Galway) / Immo Warntjes (Dublin) – Abbo of Fleury’s Breton lunar calendar

14:50-15:15: Discussion

Session 5: Later developments

15:45-16:10: Fathi Jarray (Tunis) – The distribution of water with timekeeping in the Islamic oasis: a shared knowledge from the Antiquity to the Modern epoch

16:10-16:35: Leofranc Holford-Strevens (Oxford) – Thomas Lydiat’s proposal for a new calendar

16:35-17:00: Discussion

18:00-19:00: Presentation of latest publications in the field

This session includes a discussion with editors of series that are interested in, or have a track record of, publishing monographs on matters computistical. We hope that this will give a sense of potential publication venues, especially to colleagues at the beginning of their careers.

19:00: Virtual Pub

SATURDAY, 19 JUNE:

Session 6: Late Antiquity

14:00-14:25: Sr. Maria Theotokos Adams, SSVM (Washington, DC) – Computus and exegesis in Eusebius of Caesarea

14:25-14:50: Daniel Mc Carthy (Dublin) – Sulpicius Severus’ construction of his 84-year paschal table

14:50-15:15: Discussion

Session 7: Websites / Databases

15:45-16:45: Presentation of the following websites:

Database of pre-AD 900 computistical manuscripts / texts / objects – Judith ter Horst (Dublin)

A descriptive handlist of Breton manuscripts, c. AD 780–1100 – Jacopo Bisagni (Galway)

Database of early medieval manuscripts of Isidore’s Etymologiae – Evina Steinová (Amsterdam)

16:45-17:15: Discussion