Re-thinking the chronological apparatus of the Annals of Tigernach and Chronicon Scotorum, AD 1 -AD 656 (original) (raw)

2022, Unpublished draft paper

The chronological apparatus under consideration here is preserved in three manuscripts of the 11 th or 12 th centuries, the 14 th century and the 17 th century; 1) The Annals of Tigernach, first fragment (henceforth AT1), Bodley MS. Rawlinson B. 502 (c. AD 1050-1150); 2) The Annals of Tigernach, second and third fragments (henceforth AT2, AT3), Bodley MS. Rawlinson B. 488 (c. AD 1350-1400); and 3) Chronicon Scotorum (CS), Trinity College Dublin MS. 1292 (c. AD 1640-1650). AT1 is acephalous, but now runs from c. 775 BC to AD 138; AT2 is also acephalous, but now runs from c. 325 BC to AD 361, and is a close parallel of AT1 from 325 BC to AD 138; AT3 runs from AD 489 to AD 766; the annals in CS, a severely redacted but still continuous parallel of the Annals of Tigernach, run from AD 336 to 1135 with a lacuna for 723 to 803 (Mc Carthy 2008, 25), thus filling the gap between AT2 and AT3. Each new year in the annals is shown by the letter K, indicating Kalendae Ianuarii, i.e. the kalends of January, the first day of January. Before the Christian era, this is shown as a bare K, but with the advent of Christ other chronological information starts to appear. A comprehensive chronological statement is given at AD 1, including including the Annus Mundi (AM), or the Age of the World, in both the Septuagint and Vulgate reckoning; the year of the current 19-year lunar-solar cycle (the annus decennouenalis); the era of Rome (Ab urbe condita), and the year of the Empire of Augustus Caesar. The year reckoned from the Incarnation (Ab incarnationem) is added to the Annus Mundi in some later statements.