Chronicles (1 of 6): The Description of Britaine

by Raphael Holinshed; William Harrison; John Hooker

Sex Maius nonas, October, Iulius, & Mars,
Quatuor at reliqui, dabit idus quilibet octo.

To Iulie, Mars, October, Maie,
six nones I hight,
The rest but foure, and as for ides
they keepe still eight.

Againe touching the number of daies in euerie moneth:

Iunius, Aprilis, Septémq; Nouémq; tricenos,
Vnum plus reliqui, Februs tenet octo vicenos,
At si bissextus fuerit superadditur vnus.

Thirtie daies hath Nouember,
Aprill, Iune, and September,
Twentie and eight hath Februarie alone,
and all the rest thirtie and one,
but in the leape you must ad one.

Our yeare is counted after the course of the sunne, and although the church hath some vse of that of the moone for obseruation of certeine mooueable feasts, yet it is reducible to that of the sunne, which in our ciuill dealings is chieflie had in vse. Herein onelie I find a scruple, that the beginning thereof is not vniforme and certeine, for most of our records beare date the 25 of March, and our calenders the first of Ianuarie; so that with vs Christ is borne before he be conceiued. Our sundrie officers also haue sundrie entrances into their charges of custome, which bréedeth great confusion, whereas if all these might be referred to one originall (and that to be the first of Ianuarie) I doo not thinke but that there would be more certeintie, and lesse trouble for our historiographers, notaries, & other officers in their account of the yere. In old time the Atheniens began their yeare with the change of the moone that fell néerest to the enterance of the sunne into the crab, the Latines at the winter solstice, or his going into the goat, the Iewes in ciuill case at the latter equinoctiall, and in ecclesiasticall with the first. They of Calecute begin their yeare somewhere in September, but vpon no daie certeine, sith they first consult with their wisards, who pronounce one day or other thereof to be most happie (as the yeare goeth about) and therewith they make their entrance, as Osorius dooth remember, who addeth that vpon the eleuenth calends of September, they haue solemne plaies, much like to the idoll games, & that they write in leaues of tree with a pencill, in stead of paper, which is not found among them. Some of the old Grecians began their yere also in September: but sith we seeke herein but for the custome of our countrie onelie, it shall be enough to affirme that we make our account from the calends or first of Ianuarie, and from the middest of the night which is Limes betweene that and the last of December, whereof this maie suffice. I might speake of the Cynike yeare also in this place (for the ease of our English readers) sometime in vse amongst the Egyptians, which conteineth 1460 common yeares, whose beginning is alwaies reckoned from the rising of the lesser dog. The first vse thereof entered the selfe yeare wherin the Olimpiads were restored. And forsomuch as this nation hath no vse of intercalation, at the end of euerie 1460 yeares, they added an whole yeare of intercalation, because there are 365 leape yeers in the period, so that 1460 Iulian yéers doo conteine 1461 after the Egyptians account, wherby their common yeare is found to be lesse than ours. Furthermore, wheras our intercalation for the leape yere is somewhat too much by certeine minuts, which in 115 yeares amount vnto about an whole day, if one intercalation in so manie were omitted, our calender would be the more perfect: and I would wish that the same yeare wherein the said intercalation trulie found out should be ouerpassed, might be obserued and called Annus magnus Elizabethæ, in perpetuall remembrance of our noble and souereigne princesse now reigning amongst vs.

I might here saie somewhat also of the prime and hir alteration, which is risen higher by fiue daies in our common calender than it was placed by Iulius Cæsar: and in seauen thousand yeares some writer would grow to an error of an whole, if the world should last so long. But for somuch as in some calenders of ours it is reduced againe to the daie of euerie change, it shall suffice to saie no more therof. The pope also hath made a generall correction of the calender, wherein he hath reduced it to the same that it was or should haue beene at the councell of Nice. Howbeit as he hath abolished the vse of the golden number, so hath he continued the epact, applieng it vnto such generall vse, as dooth now serue both the turnes, whose reformation had also yer this time béene admitted into England, if it had not procéeded from him, against whom and all whose ordinances we haue so faithfullie sworne and set our hands.

Certes the next omission is to be performed if all princes would agrée thereto in the leape yeare that shall be about the yeare of Grace 1668: if it shall please God that the world may last so long, and then may our calender also stand without anie alteration as it dooth alreadie. By this also it appeareth how the defect of our calender may be supplied from the creation, wherein the first equinoctiall is séene higher toward the beginning of March than Cæsars calender now extant dooth yéeld vnto by seauen daies. For as in Cæsars time the true equinoctiall was pointed out to happen (as Stadius also noteth) either vpon or about the sixtéenth or seauentéenth of March, albeit the manifest apperance thereof was not found vntill the fiue and twentith of that moneth in their dials or by eie-sight: so at the beginning of the world the said entrance of the sunne into the ram, must néeds fall out to be about the twentith or one & twentith of Aprill, as the calender now standeth, if I faile not in my numbers. Aboue the yeare we haue no more parts of time, that carie anie seuerall names with them, except you will affirme the word age to be one, which is taken for a hundred yeares, and signifieth in English so much as Seculum or Æuum dooth in Latine; neither is it néedfull to remember that some of my countrimen doo reckon their times not by years but by summers and winters, which is verie common among vs. Wherefore to shut vp this chapiter withall, you shall haue a table of the names of the daies of the wéeke, after the old Saxon and Scotish maner, which I haue borowed from amongst our ancient writers, as I haue perused their volumes.

The present names.
Monday. Tuesday.	Wednesday. Thursday.	Fridaie. Saturdaie.	Sunday, or the Lords daie.
The old Saxon names.
Monendeg. Tuesdeg.	Wodnesdeg. Thunresdeg.	Frigesdeg. Saterdeg.	Sunnandeg.
The Scotish vsage.
Diu Luna. Diu Mart.	Diu Yath. Diu Ethamon.	Diu Friach. Diu Satur.	Diu Seroll.