US. V. JUKE 1,1912.]
NOTES AND QUERIES.
423
adequate in this matter, it is immaterial for
what year (since the New Style) the dates are
taken* The values given in the table have
been taken from ' Whitaker's Almanack '. for
1909, which was to hand at the time of
writing.
Sign.
Rune
Month
Possible Dates.
Present Date,
Aquarius
p,
January
2, 9, 16, 23, 30
20
Pisces
|>
February
1, 8, 15, 22
19
Aries
\>
March
3, 10, 17, 24, 31
21
Taurus
f
April
2, 9, 16, 23, 30
20
Gemini
May
3, 10, 17, 24, 31
21
Cancer
K
June
4, 11, 18, 25
22
Leo
p
July
5, 12, 19, 26
23
Virgo
August
5, 12, 19, 26
23
Libra
f>
September
5, 12, 19, 26
23
Scorpio
fc
October
5, 12, 19, 26
24
Sagittarius
1
November
4, 11, 18, 25
22
Capricornus
n
December
4, 11, 18, 25
22
Owing to the over-correction caused by
making every fourth year a leap year, under
the Old Style calendar the sun entered the
signs before the correct date, so that all
the values in the column" headed ' Possible
Dates ' that are greater than the corre-
sponding ' Present Date ' may be discarded.
This eliminates all but the first three vertical
columns of ' Possible Dates.' Subtract these
three columns from the corresponding
' Present Date,' and the anticipations will
be 18, 11, and 4 days respectively. In
the twentieth century the Old Style calendar
is only 13 days in error ; so that the first
column, which gives an anticipation of 18
days, may also be rejected. The choice is
now betwe?n the centuries in which the error
of the calendar was 11 and 4. The error
was 11 days during the period 1700-99,
and 4 days during the period 700-899.
The latter period is obviously out of the
question, so that the probable date, from
this information, is 1700-99. If the date
of the introduction of the New Style be
considered, this period can be materially
shortened. The change was made hi Nor-
way and Denmark in 1700, and in Sweden
in 1753. It is very unlikely, therefore,
that the calendar is later than 1753 ; and
the possible range is now 1700-53. The
fact that the original was prior to 1753 is
confirmed to some extent by the use of a
solar cycle of twenty-eight years.
The numerical values of the Golden Number and the epact enable the date to
be calculated somewhat roughly. This is
due to the fact that the errors of the Metonic
cycle necessitate an occasional revision of
the epacts after one, two, or three centimes,
On consulting .a table of epacts it will be
found that the epacts calculated corre-
sponded to the Golden Numbers assumed
from 1500 to 1799, if the Old Style were
retained during this period.
The evidence afforded by the saints who are commemorated on the calendar is not of much value. The latest one is St. Bur- git te, who was canonized in 1391. The calendar must therefore be subsequent to this date.
It will be observed that none of these sources of information contradicts any of the others. Taking them all into consideration, it is very probable that the original calendar was made between 1700 and 1753.
Before giving the full arrangement of the calendar, attention may be drawn to the errors which are to be found on it. In the first place, errors arise from the confusion of similar runes. The following groups con- tain runes which are frequently inter- changed :
1 1