Talk:Johannes de Sacrobosco

halifax

halifax page says it means holy face or holy field , not holy hair. Aleichem 16:05, 9 February 2007 (UTC)

Epitaph, Epigraph

The article states, accurately enough, that the inscription marking his burial place in the monastery of Saint-Mathurin in Paris described him as a computist, one who was an expert on the calculation of Easter. Then follows the three lines:

M. Christi bis C. quarto deno quarter anno

De Sacro Bosco discrevit tempora ramus,

Gratia cui dederat nomen divina Johannes:

Problem is, those three lines are from an Epigraph in some manuscripts of De Sphaera, and not from the inscription on his monument. According to the cited source (Pedersen), his tombstone said,

De Sacrobosco qui computista Joannes

Tempora discrevit, iacet hic a tempore raptus.

Tempora qui sequeris, memor esto quod morieris.

Si miser es, plora: miserans pro me procor ora.

which I interpret to mean,

From Holybush, the computist John, who

determined the times, lies here taken by Time.

Thou who followest the times, be mindful that thou wilt die.

If thou art sad, weep: I pray thee, mercifully pray for me.

The epigraphs in his manuscripts vary quite a bit, but here is the example cited in the source:

O qui perpetua mundum ratione gubernat

Terrarum celique sator qui tempus ab evo

Ire iubes, stabilisque manens das cuncta moveri

Tu stabilire velis opus hoc per temporis evum.

.M. Christi bis .CC. quarto deno quater anno

De sager busco discrevit tempora ramus

Gratia cui nomen dederat divina iohannes

Annuat hoc nobis huius sic carpere fructum

Ecclesiae Christi quod nos hinc fructicemus.

which I interpret to mean

O He who governs the cosmos with continual reason

Sower of earth and sky, thou who of old

biddest time to go, who immovably givest all things to be moved

Thou wouldst make immobile this work throughout the era of time.

The one thousandth, twice two hundredth, fourth and four times tenth year of the Christ

From the holy bush (i.e. Sacroboscus) a branch determined the times

to which branch divine grace gave the name John

May it permit us so to pluck his fruit by this

which we may yield as fruit hence to the Church of Christ.

In the last two lines I assume that huius refers to John, and the hoc ... quod refers to "the work". It sounds like an afterword by the copyist, perhaps in the year 1444.

At any rate, I think the article should be clarified as to the source of the verses, as well as the text of the epitaph. Rwflammang (talk) 03:02, 5 July 2012 (UTC)