Where can I find more information on the Julius Work Calendar?

Question

I read about this cool Julius Work Calendar in a book called, The Year 1000. The calendar has illustrations of people ploughing fields, feasting, and other random stuff. It was made around 1020 AD. I seems cool, and I want to learn more about it. Where can I get more info?

Answer 1

Here is a pretty good translation by McGurk:
www.robertlacey.com/documents/calendertranslation.doc

here is also some info form History of Calendars:

" When Rome emerged as a world power, the difficulties of making a calendar were well known, but the Romans complicated their lives because of their superstition that even numbers were unlucky. Hence their months were 29 or 31 days long, with the exception of February, which had 28 days. However, four months of 31 days, seven months of 29 days, and one month of 28 days added up to only 355 days. Therefore the Romans invented an extra month called Mercedonius of 22 or 23 days. It was added every second year.

Even with Mercedonius, the Roman calendar eventually became so far off that Julius Caesar, advised by the astronomer Sosigenes, ordered a sweeping reform. 46 B.C. was made 445 days long by imperial decree, bringing the calendar back in step with the seasons. Then the solar year (with the value of 365 days and 6 hours) was made the basis of the calendar. The months were 30 or 31 days in length, and to take care of the 6 hours, every fourth year was made a 366-day year. Moreover, Caesar decreed the year began with the first of January, not with the vernal equinox in late March.

This calendar was named the Julian calendar, after Julius Caesar, and it continues to be used by Eastern Orthodox churches for holiday calculations to this day. However, despite the correction, the Julian calendar is still 111/2 minutes longer than the actual solar year, and after a number of centuries, even 111/2 minutes adds up. "

I hope it helps.

Answer 2

Julius Work Calendar

Answer 3

The original manuscript of the Julius Calendar and Hymnal is housed at the British Library, MS Cotton Julius A.VI. If you're interested in seeing what the real thing looks like, go to http://imagesonline.bl.uk/?service=page&action=show_home_page&language=en -- the British Library's image site -- and search "Julius Calendar."

You might also enjoy this page, a compendium of more medieval illustrations of rural life: http://imagesonline.bl.uk/imagemap/Industry%20and%20Agriculture/Farming.htm?level=2&cat_id=46&last_cat_id=5&page=1

The Wikipedia article "Labours of the Months" is slightly useful.

About medieval calendars and how they worked, see this video, from the J. Paul Getty Museum: http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/videoDetails?cat=3&segid=2021