Anglo-Saxon prognostics: a study of the genre with a text edition
Chardonnens, L.S.
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Chardonnens, L. S. (2006, June 22). Anglo-Saxon prognostics: a study of the genre with a
text edition. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/1887/4439
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CO N CLUSIO N
When str uc k b y a thund er b olt it is unnec essar y to c onsult the B ook of Dates as to the p r ec ise m eaning of the om en.*
The Anglo-S axon prognostics studied here represent a brief but important phase in the history of the future. P rognostication is a practice which, in its codified form, dates back more than four thousand years. D espite their respectable age, the insular prognostics from before the thirteenth century have remained in relative obscurity.
In chapter 1, I survey the treatment of prognostics in the study of Anglo-S axon England. The Anglo-S axon prognostics have been actively studied for a period of roughly a century, from the second half of the nineteenth century to the first half of the twentieth, after which attention to these texts wavered. P rognostics have always been considered in the light of their status as either folkloric or learned texts. F ö rster viewed prognostication in Anglo-S axon England as an exponent of ‘V olkskunde’ (‘folklore’), whereas H enel regarded it ‘Mö nchsaberglaube’ (‘monkish superstition’). The opinions of modern scholarship are apparent through the place of prognostics in indices and bibliographies. K er relegated prognostics to the realm of folklore, as did G reenfield and R obinson, and, arguably more importantly, the makers of the Old E ng lish Cor p us and the Dic tionar y of Old E ng lish. The Anglo-S axon prognostics, therefore, run the risk of misrepresentation for at least another century, i.e. until the next dictionary of O ld English appears. Throughout this study, I have pointed at many indications that the prognostics are a form of science in Anglo-S axon England: prognostics were codified; they contained learned allusions and appeals to authority; they were brought from the continent in manuscripts of learning; they were translated into O ld English in manuscripts containing science such as the computus; they were gathered into prognostic sections in R eform manuscripts which may never have left the medieval scriptoria. In short, while F ö rster may be correct in assuming that prognostication moved into the field of folklore in the later Middle Ages and in the R enaissance, it was a form of learning of interest particularly to monks in the Anglo-S axon period.
In order to investigate the status of prognostication, it is necessary to know what prognostics are. Therefore, it is rather ironic that none of the scholars who busied themselves with prognostics provided a definition. The meaning of prognostication apparently is self-evident, which makes it understandable that scholars continue to misinterpret prognostication as a form of folklore. W ith the help of the characteristics of prognostics known in Anglo-S axon England, I have defined prognostics as ‘a codified means of predicting events in the life-time of an individual or identifiable group of individuals, using observation of signs and times, or mantic divination’.
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It is possible to categorise prognostic genres on the basis of their structure. Structural features have been used to organise genres into larger groups, but many of these systems are haphazard in being too inclusive, too vague, or by showing overlap in genre descriptions. Moreover, the categories proposed by Ker, Cameron, Hollis and Wright, and, most recently, Liuzza distinguish a core of prognostics and texts placed outside this group. This categorisation gives the misleading impression that some genres are more ‘prognostic’ than others. Of the many systems that categorise prognostics, Förster’s method is still most useful, because it merely lists the genres without trying to create an order of precedence or centrality. I have adopted his system and added the factor of (non-)temporality to each genre, which proves useful in explaining the manuscript context in which specific genres appeared.
Chapter 2 provides an account of the text corpus I have used. The corpus consists of 17 1 prognostics, attested in thirty-seven (fragments of) manuscripts. Fifty texts are in Old English, eleven in Latin with running glosses in Old English, and 110 in Latin. These texts date from the Anglo-Saxon and early post-Conquest period with the exception of the prognostic added by the Tremulous Worcester hand in CCCC 3 91. The texts in the vernacular are a closed group, but there are more Latin prognostics than the 110 I found, as the supplemental corpus attests to.
In chapter 3 , I devote considerable space to a description of the prognostic genres known in England before the thirteenth century. Each genre is described in view of its historical background, structure and purpose, and its transmission in medieval manuscripts. Furthermore, I have elucidated that some prognostic genres occur in fixed units in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts. These units consist of prognostics which share thematic or structural features.
In chapter 4, the manuscript context is studied. It turns out that Anglo-Saxon prognostics were not written down at random, but confine themselves to a limited number of manuscript contexts, to wit in calendars, computi, medical sections, as filler texts, and in separate sections. Calendars have come to incorporate entries on Egyptian Days and Dog Days, i.e. temporal genres which are structured by a system of concrete dates. As has been pointed out by Wallis, early medieval ecclesiastical calendars included extra information in addition to saint’s days to fill up conspicuous gaps. Calendars from the Anglo-Saxon period and post-Conquest era, however, tended to include prognostics out of tradition rather than of necessity.
The medieval computus, a system of time reckoning for ecclesiastical purposes, gradually drew in text genres which were not central to time reckoning itself, but which testified to an interest in time keeping. This is certainly true for the Anglo-Saxon computus, because in this context no fewer than fifty-two prognostics are attested. Several types of computi were known in late Anglo-Saxon England, but it is striking that prognostics were not copied from one copy of a specific computus to the next. Instead, prognostics were transmitted vertically, i.e. between different types of computi. It is likely that this material was included in the computus if it came to hand during the production of a particular computus manuscript. N evertheless, a certain degree of selection is apparent in the preference for temporal over non-temporal prognostics.
position or purpose. In comparison with medical sections from continental medieval manuscripts, the insular medical context is a poor source of prognostics. Some genres which occur in a limited context in insular manuscripts, e.g. Apuleian Spheres in computi, are often attested in continental medical sections. Moreover, some genres are rare in Anglo-Saxon manuscripts but common in continental medical manuscripts, e.g. regimens. For these reasons, the origin of the medical manuscript Sloane 475, fols. 125-231, which has recently been posited as insular, should be referred to the continent.
It sometimes happened that a scribe had some blank space left after a certain part of a manuscript had been finished. These areas proved good environments for filler material, i.e. texts added at a later date with the aim to fill blank spaces. Filler texts need have no bearing upon the immediate context into which they are placed. Thus, prognostics may appear among homilies, in a psalter or a computus. There is no obvious contextual motivation which can sufficiently explain what type or genre of filler text was chosen, other than practical considerations such as the brevity of the text in view of the space available.
The fifth context is the prognostic section, a hitherto unnoticed gathering of prognostics. Prognostic sections are parts of manuscripts which are specifically designed to contain prognostics. These sections are an insular phenomenon and may be linked to the English Benedictine Reform. No continental representatives have been found, and prognostic sections were unknown in England before the eleventh century. The manuscripts containing prognostic sections were all produced in centres which played key roles in the Reform. The rationale behind the existence of prognostic sections is obscure, but there are strong indications that these sections were consciously intended as collections of prognostics. The range of prognostics that could be incorporated into prognostic sections is considerable, varying from temporal genres also present in computi, to (non-)temporal prognostics rarely encountered outside the sections. Prognostic sections often survive as independent units within a manuscript. Manuscripts such as CCCC 391 and Titus D.xxvi feature prognostic sections in separate quires, while the composite manuscript Hatton 115 features an entire booklet devoted to prognostics which is totally unrelated to the other booklets in the manuscript. Tiberius A.iii is an important manuscript because it has no fewer than two prognostic sections, the first of which contains a large number of prognostics in Old English, and in Latin with running glosses in the vernacular. Prognostic sections are the most important source of prognostics in the vernacular.
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follow the language of the context. Prognostics as filler texts generally adhere to the language of the context, although the Old English alphabet prognostic in a Latin context in Titus D.xxvii illustrates that this is not invariably the case. The language preferred in prognostic sections, finally, is independent of that of the immediate manuscript context. However, the language inside a prognostic section is closely followed, so that there is no mixing of prognostics with or without glosses, or in Latin or Old English. Prognostic sections are very important in that they are the only context in which prognostics in the vernacular and with glosses are more common than prognostics in Latin. Moreover, the majority of prognostics in the vernacular and with glosses hail from prognostic sections.
Most manuscripts containing prognostics can be placed in Canterbury, Winchester, Worcester and *Ramsey. Calendars and computi were mainly produced in Canterbury, Winchester and *Ramsey, medical sections and filler texts in Winchester, and prognostic sections in Canterbury, Winchester and Worcester. Prognostics in Latin were copied in all four places, glossed ones in Canterbury and Winchester, and vernacular texts in all places but *Ramsey. Prognostics were first incorporated into insular manuscripts in the ninth and tenth centuries. In the eleventh century, they were copied on a large scale. The twelfth century saw a moderate decline in the transmission of prognostics. The facts with regard to language, place of origin and date point to a correlation between the incorporation of prognostics in computi and prognostic sections in the eleventh century, the vernacularisation of prognostics in the same period, and the Benedictine Reform.
In chapter 6, I focus on the position of prognostics within the field of superstition. It has generally been assumed that prognostication went against orthodox Christianity in Anglo-Saxon England, but there are strong indications that this is not the case. First, several prognostics include references to classical and medieval authorities, which was intended to sanction the texts from a medical or religious perspective. In addition to authorities, verbal echoes were employed to link prognostics to a tradition of learning present in the Wonders of the East, for instance, but also to Æ lfric’s homilies.
In chapter 7, the intended use of the Anglo-Saxon prognostics is explored. Aside from incidental additions and corrections, there are no physical signs that the prognostics have ever been used. The intended use of prognostics can be linked to the context in which the texts are found. Thus, the medical context attracted prognostics which are overtly medical in intent. Nevertheless, most prognostics with a medical status, such as bloodletting texts, are encountered in contexts other than medical sections. This might indicate that the medical status of such prognostics was of secondary importance in view of other features, e.g. the structure of the texts (in calendars and computi), or a general concern with the future (in prognostic sections). Calendars and computi proved attractive contexts for prognostics. The incorporation into a time reckoning context may have come about by a concern with the often tabular structure of prognostics, or the temporal aspects which are prominent in most prognostics. The filler context does not reveal anything about the intended use of prognostics other than that prognostics were useful as filler material on account of their briefness. Prognostic sections reveal a concern with texts dealing with the future. Here, prognostics were not necessarily valued for their tabular or temporal aspects, because prognostic sections include a wealth of genres which are not structured by time and are not as rigidly tabular as lunaries. Prognostic sections are probably the work of collectors.
The shape of a prognostic may be an indication that the function of the text in question was not invariably the same. Information on the Dog Days, for instance, was first embedded in a medical context in larger tracts on the humours and bloodletting. After this, the Dog Days were stripped of all information but their start and finish, in order for the genre to be included in calendars. At the same time, the Dog Days were taken out of the context of medical tracts and incorporated into computi, and later into prognostic sections. This example reveals that a prognostic could be lifted from its original context to other contexts, and that the demands of these other contexts actually changed the shape of the text depending upon what is considered relevant.
My study of the Anglo-Saxon and early post-Conquest prognostics adds new perspectives to what had already been discovered many decades ago by Cockayne, Förster and Henel. From the first substantial edition of prognostics by Cockayne in the mid-nineteenth century, knowledge of the prognostics took a flight in the writings of Förster. Förster’s idea of the Anglo-Saxon prognostics as a form of folklore was countered by Henel’s view of the genre as a form of monkish superstition. Regrettably, Henel’s observations went unheeded. My study has revealed that the Anglo-Saxon prognostics are indeed a form of ‘Mönchsaberglaube’ which gained an audience as a result of the Benedictine Reform. Moreover, the newly developed division of the manuscript context has proved its worth in analysing the placement of the prognostics, the language in which they were written, and the date and place of origin of the manuscripts in which they were transmitted.
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shows that prognostics were not gathered on the basis of their structure only, but that the compilers of prognostic sections knew that an alphabetical dreambook and a year prognosis, for instance, belonged to the same group of texts.
There are some issues which I have not fully addressed in this study, but which offer good opportunities for further research, some of which are beyond the immediate scope of the Anglo-Saxonist:
(1) the transition from prognostication in pre-classical to classical times, notably the move from Mesopotamian and Egyptian texts to Byzantine and Latin ones. A good starting point would be an investigation of the alphabetical dreambooks and meteorological prognostics in the works of J astrow and Oppenheim;
(2) the influence of the context on the choice of prognostics in continental manuscripts of the early and high Middle Ages. Having studied the insular manuscript evidence I found that prognostics are treated differently as compared to those in continental manuscripts. The most notable difference lies in the medical status that prognostics seem to have enjoyed on the continent, but not in Anglo-Saxon England. The catalogues of medical manuscripts by Beccaria and Wickersheimer will prove useful; (3) the process of vernacularisation of prognostics in languages other than Old English. This topic has rarely been dealt with, but see Hellmann and Weiß er. The position of prognostication in insular post-Conquest manuscripts, particularly in Anglo-Norman medical manuscripts and miscellanies, might yield some results, see Digby 86 and the work of Hunt;
