¹ In the fifth century BC a Greek astronomer, Melon, observed that the new moon fell on the same day of the year every nineteenth year, and established this reckoning by nineteen-year cycles (the Metonic cycle) to offer corresponding measurements between the sun's and moon's orbits. The year 1 BC was the first year of a Metonic cycle, AD 18 the nineteenth year, and AD 19 the first year of the next Metonic cycle. The golden number, prime or primacio, for each year, as noted in this second column of Somer's chronicle, indicated the place of a year in its Metonic cycle. Somer also noted these golden numbers on his Table of Bisextiles for the years 1367–1462 (later extended to 1500) that accompanied his Kalendarium.

² 1 January of each year was assigned the letter A, 2 January the letter B, and so on to 7 January, assigned the letter G. Then the letters began their sequence again with A on 8 January, and so on to A once again on 31 December. The Dominical letter, or golden letter, for any year was the letter which fell on Sunday, the Lord's Day, in that year. A problem arose in leap years, because the leap day, added at 24 February, was assigned the same number in the Roman calendar — it was called the Bis vi Kalendae Marcii, and in those years the 25th was the vi Kalendae Marcii (thus the name ‘Bisextuis’ for leap year) — and the same Dominical leter (F) as the day it doubled, which caused a change in the letter which fell on Sunday. Thus it was that in a leap year there were two Dominical letters, one for 1 January—24 February, and another for 25 February—31 December. Both letters are given in the third column of the chronicle, the one for the first part of the year to the left, that for the second part to the right in the column of letters assigned to common years.

³ In the Cotton Dominan A.ii text, designated by ‘y’ for ides, ‘n’ for nones, and ‘k’ for kalends, and ‘m’ or ‘a’ for the months of March or April. Fuller spelling out of abbreviations is given in the Bodleian Digby 57 text.

⁴ This periodicity differs from the usual, which begins the first cycle from the birth of Christ.

⁵ The latter ed. Searle, Eleanor, The Chronicle of Battle Abbey (Oxford 1980).Google Scholar

⁶ This portion of the manuscript is briefly described by Searle, , pp. 25–26.Google Scholar

⁷ These tables and the canon are written by the main hand of the chronicle, C1. The table in the lower left, beside the canon, is described by Searle as ‘an astronomical table for the conversion of the transits of astronomical objects to time’ (p. 26).

⁸ It appears by signs of erasure and change of hand that some other words were originally written where ‘ffratris Johannis Somour’ are now, and were subsequently erased and replaced by the friar's name; and that Ordinis sancti' originally read, Ordinis istius', and was later changed by overwriting.

⁹ If this is Somer's hand, the note of inception as Doctor of Theology in Oxford in 1395 may refer to Somer's own inception; A. G. Little writes, ‘It does not appear whether [Somer] was a doctor either at this time [1380] or afterwards.’ (The Grey Friars of Oxford (OHS 1892), 244.)

¹⁰ Macray, William D., Catalog codicum manuscriptorum Bibliothecae Bodleianae … pars IX, Codices a … Kenelm Digby … anno 1634 donatos, complectens (Oxford 1883), cols. 59–62, esp. 59.Google Scholar

¹¹ See A. F. Leach's account in VCH: Gloucestershire, ii. 396–9.Google Scholar

¹² See Hanna, Ralph III, ‘Sir Thomas Berkeley and his Patronage’, Speculum 64 (1989), 888–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

¹³ One of the early copies of his Kalendarium, BL Add. MS 10,628, identifies the author as ‘quidam frater Minorum in Cornubia, Bodminne Gardianus’, or ‘A certain Franciscan friar in Cornwall, warden of Bodmin’ in the prologue to its canons (f. 10).

¹⁴ See The Kalendarium of John Somer, ed. Linne R. Mooney, Chaucer Library series (Athens Ga: University of Georgia Press, forthcoming). The earliest MSS of the Kalendarium, BL Add. 10,628 and Vatican Library, Regina Sueviae, Lat. 155, probably date from 1383 and 1384., respectively.

¹⁵ For Chaucer's reference, see Chaucer's The Treatise on the Astrolabe, Prologue, where Chaucer states that the third part is to contain various astronomical tables taken from ‘the kalenders of the reverent clerkes, Frere J. Somer and Frere N. Lenne’. For The Equatorie of the Planetis, see Price, D.J., The Equatorie of the Pianetis (Cambridge 1955)Google Scholar; Price argues for Chaucer's authorship, as does North, J. D., Chaucer's Universe (Oxford 1988), pp. 157–181Google Scholar. But see also Edwards, A. S. G. and Mooney, Linne R., ‘Is the Equatorie of the Pianetis a Chaucer Holograph?’ Chaucer Review 26 (1991), 31–42.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Emden, A.B., A Biographical Register of the University of Oxford to AD 1500, 3 vols. (Oxford 1957–1959), ii.1727.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Ibid.

¹⁸ The BL Sloane 282 copy of his Kalendarium, written ca. 1410, contains a table of moveable feasts revised since the 1380 writing of the Kalendarium, according to its heading: Ad honorem dei & virignis gloriose necnon sanctorum confessorum francisci, Anionii & episcopi lodowyci. [In hoc opusculo] tabularum festorum mobilium quam posui succincte in kalendario domine iohanne, principisse Wallie, matris domini nostri regis Ricardi secundi post conquestum iam per annos singulos usque annum domini millesimum quingentesimum excedere curavi ad solacium plurimorum … (To the honour of God and the glorious virgin and also of the Holy Confessors Francis, Anthony, and Bishop Louis. [In this little work] of the Tables of Moveable Feasts, which I set forth briefly in the Kalendar of the Lady Joan, Princess of Wales, mother of our lord King Richard the Second after the Conquest, I have now taken care to proceed year by year up to the year of Our Lord 1500, for the solace of many.)

¹⁹ See Emden, 1.1727 for date of last collection of his grant. Cf. Worcester, William, Itineraries, ed. Harvey, John H. (Oxford 1969), pp. 78–80 and 124–6Google Scholar for references to his death in 1419. If he left money at his death for the building of the new friary church at Bridgewater, begun in 1411 (see below), it seems more likely that he died in 1409–10, shortly before the building began, than that he died eight or nine years after it began.

²⁰ Quoted by Harvey in his edition of Worcester's Itineraries, p. 125Google Scholar, n. 4, from Worcester's medical collection, BL Sloane 4, f. 57. This date seems much too late for a man who had served Somer before 1409.

²¹ Worcester, William, Itineraries, ed. Harvey, pp. 78–80.Google Scholar

²² Folios 24^v 42^v, and 100; e.g. on f. 100 is a star catalogue, adjacent to which is the marginal note, ‘1438. 25 die Octobri. Has Stellas extraxi de libro ac manu Johannis Somour’, literally, ‘I have extracted these stars from the book and hand of John Somer’.

²³ ‘Canones Johannis Somour pro veris motibus habendis planetarum was copied by Thomas Cory of Muchelney Abbey in 1440, in Oxford, Magdalen College 182, folio 37, column b; and a ‘Tabula proportionis diversitatis aspectus extracta de copia manus proprie ffratris Sommour’ was copied by Lewis Caerleon in 1482 in CUL Ee.3.61, f. 152.

²⁴ Cambridge, Corpus Christi College 420, f. 57, dating from the sixteenth century. In the centre of the horoscope figure the original scribe notes, ‘figura fratris Johannis Somer’. The figure is referred to, also with attribution to ‘ffryer John Samer’, at the end of an English summary of the Latin explanation of the horoscope figures, at the bottom of the facing page, f. 56^v.

²⁵ See explanatory note for the year 1396.

²⁶ See explanatory notes for these years.

²⁷ The Kalendarium is written at the front of the Tiverton Horae, now at St. Peter's Church, Tiverton, Devon. Worcester's note reads, ‘Explicit kalendarium secundum laborem fratris Johannis Somour scriptum Bristollie per manum Willelmi Wercestre ad instanciam Ricardi Roper anno domini 1438 inconpleto et anno regni Regis Henrici 6 post conquestum 16° 14° die Augusti in meridie. Deo gracias.’ See Ker, N. R., Medieval Manuscripts in British Libraries, 4 vols. (Oxford 1969–1992), iv.494–5.Google Scholar

²⁸ Although we believe Somer wrote the Cotton copy of the chronicle, Talbot may have had other information about Pollard, and Pollard, a friar of Bridgewater who outlived Somer by at least 20 years, may be responsible for some of the post-1409 entries in the chronicle.

²⁹ See British Museum Catalogue of Western Manuscripts in the Old Royal and King's Collections, ed. Warner, G. F. and Gilson, J. R. (London 1921), ii.101–2Google Scholar. On Worcester see McFarlane, K. B., ‘William Worcester: a preliminary survey’ in Essays in Memory of Sir Hilary Jenkinson, ed. Hollaender, A. E. J. (Oxford 1957), 196–221Google Scholar, reprinted in his England in the Fifteenth Century (London 1981), 199–224.Google Scholar

³⁰ The passages on Roman history were compiled in November and December 1453, according to Worcester's marginal note, f. 143.

³¹ Flores Historiarum, ed. H. R. Luard (RS 1890).Google Scholar

³² Paris, Matthew, Chronica Majora, ed. Luard (RS 1872–1983).Google Scholar

³³ Bede, , Historia Ecclesiastica Gentis Anglorum, ed. Plummer, C. (Oxford 1896)Google Scholar; Henry of Huntingdon, Historia Anglorum, ed. T. Arnold (RS 1859)Google Scholar; Annales Londonenses, ed. W. Stubbs in Chronicles of the Reigns of Edward I and Edward II (RS 1882)Google Scholar; Ranulf Higden, Polychronicon, ed. C. Babbington and J. R. Lumby, 9 vols (RS 1865–1886).Google Scholar

³⁴ Geoffrey of Monmouth, Historia Regum Britanniae, ed. Griscom, A. (London 1929)Google Scholar. Since there are numerous editions of this text reference is made only to book and chapter.

³⁵ de Nangis, Guillaume, Chronique latine de Guillaume de Nangis avec les continuateurs, ed. H. Géraud (SHF 1843)Google Scholar; Grandes Chroniques de Francee, ed. J. Viard (SHF 1920–1953)Google Scholar; Chronique des règnes de Jean II et de Charles V, ed. R. Delachenal (SHF 1910–1920)Google Scholar; Chronique du Religieux de Saint-Denys, ed. Bellaguet, L., Documents inédits relatifs à l'histoire de France (Paris 1839–1853).Google Scholar

³⁶ Vincent of Beauvais, Speculum Historiale (Venice 1591 and Douai 1624). The chapter divisions vary in these editions; we have used the former.

³⁷ Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale de France, MS nouvelles acquisitions françaises 1409.

³⁸ See d'Arcq, L. Douët, Inventaire de la bibliothèque du roi Charles VI, fait au Louvre en 1423 (Paris 1867)Google Scholar; Stratford, J., The Bedford Inventories (London 1991), 96–99, 119–123Google Scholar, and McFarlane, ‘William Worcester’ repr. 1981, 208.

³⁹ The rich collection of deeds in the archive of the Marquess of Ormonde, calendared by Curtis, E., Calendar of Ormond Deeds (Dublin 1932–1943)Google Scholar do not include household accounts or other material which could help to identify possible authors of the annals.