Its contents include an abbreviated form of the Kalendarium composed by the English astronomer John Somer c. These “pocket almanacs” are portable, bound in such a way that they could be attached to a belt and consulted on the fly. 1455 folding almanac for use by a physician or perhaps a text for use in the field by an astronomer. Of all the manuscripts the students were looking at, I was fascinated by British Library, MS Sloane 807, a c. (Shout-out to the British Library Medieval Manuscript blog for laying the foundation for today’s assignment in three blog posts: one on a tenth-century diagram of the solar system, one on images of the cosmos in manuscripts, and one on almanacs.) Starting with some explanations of how medieval astronomers envisioned the geocentric universe to function, students went on to consider how the cosmos were depicted in manuscripts and, particularly, how astronomical calendars and diagrams affected the physical layout of some manuscripts. Because the eclipse was scheduled to be at its fullest shortly after our class ends, I gave everyone an out-of-class assignment on medieval astronomy and medieval manuscripts instead. It’s Eclipse Day across the US, and here at UGA we caught 99% coverage (which was, I learned by sitting in Sanford Stadium with 20,000 other people, a far cry from totality). 99% of totality, as captured by the low-tech combo of a cell phone and a pair of eclipse glasses.

Medieval illuminations eclipse