{"id":64,"date":"2020-01-15T17:49:52","date_gmt":"2020-01-15T16:49:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/?p=64"},"modified":"2022-09-15T15:06:42","modified_gmt":"2022-09-15T13:06:42","slug":"fragments-of-a-year-saints-feasts-in-swedish-and-finnish-medieval-calendars-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/blog\/finland\/fragments-of-a-year-saints-feasts-in-swedish-and-finnish-medieval-calendars-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Fragments of a Year: Saints\u2019 Feasts in Swedish and Finnish Medieval Calendars (Part I)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sara Ellis-Nilsson, Linnaeus University<\/em><\/h4>\n

Part I: the Sources<\/h3>\n

The start of another (Gregorian calendar) year provides a fitting opportunity to present an important source for the cults of saints in the medieval period: the Calendars. These perpetual timekeepers were full of information about, among other things, the months and days of the years, important liturgical celebrations, the \u201cgolden numbers<\/a>\u201d used to calculate Easter, and saints\u2019 feast days. Calendars were included in other works, such as liturgical books, chronicles, annals, and treatises.[1]<\/a> Regarding the cults of saints, they provided instructions as to the observation and liturgical rank of saints\u2019 feast days.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"January<\/a>

Fr 27557 (Mi 666, Mi753) \u2013 15th-century Calendar fragment for January in use in the Link\u00f6ping Diocese<\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

For the earliest period, that is from the 12th<\/sup> to the 14th<\/sup> centuries, the Swedish Calendar material is fragmentary. However, for the end of the medieval period, entire liturgical works, such as printed breviaries and missals, still survive and include complete calendars. This way of organizing the year was valid until just prior to the Reformation. In order to chart the development of saints\u2019 days, the early calendar fragments, in combination with the printed works, are important. Once a part of over 6000 manuscripts \u2013 from theological treatises to liturgical books \u2013 it is, in fact, lucky that these mutilated codices survived at all. These volumes were considered obsolete in the ecclesiastical reforms which occurred in the wake of Martin Luther\u2019s reformation and, in the Nordic countries, were collected in order to be re-purposed.<\/p>\n

Thus, as one of the consequences of the Reformation in the Nordic countries, these discarded manuscripts were re-used, among other things, as parchment covers on account books or binding reinforcements. In itself, re-using the parchment was not unusual in the medieval period as parchment, being costly and valuable, for worn-out books was often re-purposed in some way.[2]<\/a> In Sweden, it was King Gustav Vasa who made this particular decision to re-use the pages as wrappers for his accounts. The practice was then later continued by his sons. In fact, nearly all of the accounts of the Chamber Archives are bound in old church books.[3]<\/a> These included pages from liturgical books including their accompanying calendars.<\/p>\n

Before discussing the calendars further, it is important to give a brief overview of the work that has been done identifying and cataloguing the parchment fragments. The systematic collection and re-use of these parchment leaves meant that they were preserved in the Swedish National Archives (Riksarkivet<\/em> and Kammararkivet<\/em>) and, eventually, in Helsinki in the Senate Archives and then in the National Library of Finland (Helsinki University Library). In Sweden, by 1930, Antonie (Toni) Schmid (1897-1972) began cataloguing and collating the fragment material about which the National Librarian Isak Collijn (1875-1949) had originally written an account. Oloph Odenius was Schmids assistant in the cataloguing endeavour from the 1950s and he continued her work after she left the archives.[4]<\/a> Their project was re-vitalized in 1995 by Jan Brunius (Swedish National Archives), together with Gunilla Bj\u00f6rkvall (Stockholm University) and Anna Wolodarski (National Library of Sweden). Over the next decade, the MPO-project (Medeltida PergamentOmslag<\/em>, or medieval parchment covers) aimed to complete Schmids Catalogus Codicum Mutilorum <\/em>(CCM) \u2013 i.e. catalogue of mutilated manuscripts \u2013 and catalogue the fragments in a database that is now available online: the Database of Medieval Parchment Fragments<\/a>.<\/p>\n

As for the material preserved in Finland, it is estimated that the fragments once comprised 1500 volumes. After Finland was annexed by Russia in 1809, the documents related to Finnish and Russian territories formerly belonging to Sweden were moved to the Senate Archives. From the mid-19th<\/sup> century, a process of removing the medieval parchment fragments from the account books and tax records began. This collection was then moved to what was then called the Helsinki University Library, now the National Library of Finland. The first attempt to systematically catalogue the material was started in the early 20th<\/sup> century by Toivo Haapanen (a musicologist), who was interested in the liturgical material. A church historian, Aarno Maliniemi, studied the calendar fragments around the same time.[5]<\/a> However, it was first in the 1970s that Anja Inkeri Lehtinen commenced the next step in the cataloguing of the fragment material, in particular the theological and legal texts. After this, a number of scholars actively catalogued various categories of material in the 1980s and 1990s, for example Ilkka Taitto\u2019s research into the antiphonaries. Finally, in the early 21st<\/sup> century, Tuomas Heikkil\u00e4 led a project focussing on literary culture, rather than on specific book categories. One of the results of this project was a catalogue of previously uncatalogued fragments and the beginnings of a digital research database of the fragments.[6]<\/a> The resulting database was the first released in the Nordic countries. More recently, work on the fragments has also been published by, among others, Jaakko Tahkokallio, Ville Walta, and Jesse Keskiaho. The resulting catalogue and digital images of the Fragmenta Membranea Collection<\/em> are available online in the Fragmenta membranea <\/em>database: http:\/\/fragmenta.kansalliskirjasto.fi<\/a> .<\/p>\n

As part of this project, I am studying the development of saints\u2019 feasts in the Ecclesiastical Province of Uppsala by analyzing the addition and removal of feasts in the Calendar fragments. Using digital methods to compare and map the calendars, these results will be compared to the final version of the liturgical year that was established in the printed Calendars before the Reformation. More on this part of the project will be the subject of my next blog-post.<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Notes<\/h3>\n

[1]<\/a> See also, Kathleen Doyle and Cristian Ispir, \u201cMedieval Calendars\u201d (British Library, 2019), https:\/\/www.bl.uk\/medieval-english-french-manuscripts\/articles\/medieval-calendars<\/a>, Accessed 2020-01-04.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> This occurred in all three kingdoms Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. An overview of research on the fragments in Norway and a digitized catalogue can now be found online, here: https:\/\/fragment.uib.no\/<\/a> . For Denmark, see, e.g. \u00c5slaug Ommundsen & Tuomas Heikkil\u00e4 (eds.), Nordic Latin Manuscript Fragments: The Destruction and Reconstruction of Medieval Books<\/em> (Routledge, 2017).<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Jan Brunius, \u201cMedieval manuscript fragments in the National Archvies \u2013 a survey\u201d, in Jan Brunius (ed.), Medieval Book Fragments in Sweden <\/em>(The Royal Academy of Letters, History and Antiquities, 2005).<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> For more info see, \u201cAntonie (Toni) E M Schmid\u201d (by Jan Brunius) in Svenskt biografiskt lexikon <\/em>(1917-): https:\/\/sok.riksarkivet.se\/Sbl\/Mobil\/Artikel\/6390<\/a> \u00a0and Jan Brunius, \u201cForeword\u201d in Jan Brunius, From Manuscripts to Wrappers: Medieval Book Fragments in Swedish National Archives<\/em> (Skrifter utgivna av Riksarkivet 35, 2013).<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Tuomas Heikkil\u00e4, \u201cResearch on parchment fragments\u201d, The National Library of Finland Bulletin 2012. <\/em>2012. https:\/\/www.kansalliskirjasto.fi\/extra\/vanhat_bulletinit\/bulletin12\/article1.html<\/a> Accessed: 2020-01-14. See also, the collection description: https:\/\/www.kansalliskirjasto.fi\/en\/collections\/fragmenta-membranea-collection<\/a><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Heikkil\u00e4, \u201cResearch on parchment fragments\u201d, https:\/\/www.kansalliskirjasto.fi\/extra\/vanhat_bulletinit\/bulletin12\/article1.html<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sara Ellis-Nilsson, Linnaeus University Part I: the Sources The start of another (Gregorian calendar) year provides a fitting opportunity to present an important source for the cults of saints in the medieval period: the Calendars. These perpetual timekeepers were full of information about, among other things, the months and days of the years, important liturgical […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6031,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32126,32123,32125,6327,32121,32124,32110,24840],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-64","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","category-calendars","category-feast-days","category-finland","category-fragmentology","category-liturgy","category-saints","category-sweden"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\r\nFragments of a Year: Saints\u2019 Feasts in Swedish and Finnish Medieval Calendars (Part I) - Mapping Saints<\/title>\r\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fragments of a Year: Saints\u2019 Feasts in Swedish and Finnish Medieval Calendars (Part I) - Mapping Saints\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Sara Ellis-Nilsson, Linnaeus University Part I: the Sources The start of another (Gregorian calendar) year provides a fitting opportunity to present an important source for the cults of saints in the medieval period: the Calendars. These perpetual timekeepers were full of information about, among other things, the months and days of the years, important liturgical […]\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/blog\/finland\/fragments-of-a-year-saints-feasts-in-swedish-and-finnish-medieval-calendars-part-i\/\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Mapping Saints\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-01-15T16:49:52+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-15T13:06:42+00:00\" \/>\r\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/files\/2020\/01\/R1027557_00003-246x300.jpg\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Sara Ellis Nilsson\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\r\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Sara Ellis Nilsson\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"6 minutes\" \/>\r\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/blog\/finland\/fragments-of-a-year-saints-feasts-in-swedish-and-finnish-medieval-calendars-part-i\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/blog\/finland\/fragments-of-a-year-saints-feasts-in-swedish-and-finnish-medieval-calendars-part-i\/\",\"name\":\"Fragments of a Year: Saints\u2019 Feasts in Swedish and Finnish Medieval Calendars (Part I) - Mapping Saints\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2020-01-15T16:49:52+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-15T13:06:42+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/#\/schema\/person\/b01231cc2abb43a29538d81230146007\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/blog\/finland\/fragments-of-a-year-saints-feasts-in-swedish-and-finnish-medieval-calendars-part-i\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/\",\"name\":\"Mapping Saints\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/#\/schema\/person\/b01231cc2abb43a29538d81230146007\",\"name\":\"Sara Ellis Nilsson\",\"description\":\"Sara Ellis Nilsson has a Ph.D. in (medieval) history from the University of Gothenburg and is the project leader of the Swedish Research Council funded, digital humanities project 'Mapping Lived Religion: Medieval Cults of Saints in Sweden and Finland' at Linnaeus University. Currently, as one part of the project on lived religion, she will be examining special feast days and their connection to lay piety. In addition, Ellis Nilsson is also involved in research on the use and communication of history together with colleagues at Malm\u00f6 University. In particular she is studying how Viking ships and their reconstructions are used in the formation of narratives and the transmission of knowledge in museum contexts.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/lnu.se\/en\/staff\/sara.ellisnilsson\/\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/blog\/author\/saelab\/\"}]}<\/script>\r\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Fragments of a Year: Saints\u2019 Feasts in Swedish and Finnish Medieval Calendars (Part I) - Mapping Saints","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Fragments of a Year: Saints\u2019 Feasts in Swedish and Finnish Medieval Calendars (Part I) - Mapping Saints","og_description":"Sara Ellis-Nilsson, Linnaeus University Part I: the Sources The start of another (Gregorian calendar) year provides a fitting opportunity to present an important source for the cults of saints in the medieval period: the Calendars. These perpetual timekeepers were full of information about, among other things, the months and days of the years, important liturgical […]","og_url":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/blog\/finland\/fragments-of-a-year-saints-feasts-in-swedish-and-finnish-medieval-calendars-part-i\/","og_site_name":"Mapping Saints","article_published_time":"2020-01-15T16:49:52+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-09-15T13:06:42+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/files\/2020\/01\/R1027557_00003-246x300.jpg"}],"author":"Sara Ellis Nilsson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Sara Ellis Nilsson","Est. reading time":"6 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/blog\/finland\/fragments-of-a-year-saints-feasts-in-swedish-and-finnish-medieval-calendars-part-i\/","url":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/blog\/finland\/fragments-of-a-year-saints-feasts-in-swedish-and-finnish-medieval-calendars-part-i\/","name":"Fragments of a Year: Saints\u2019 Feasts in Swedish and Finnish Medieval Calendars (Part I) - Mapping Saints","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-01-15T16:49:52+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-15T13:06:42+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/#\/schema\/person\/b01231cc2abb43a29538d81230146007"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/blog\/finland\/fragments-of-a-year-saints-feasts-in-swedish-and-finnish-medieval-calendars-part-i\/"]}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/#website","url":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/","name":"Mapping Saints","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/#\/schema\/person\/b01231cc2abb43a29538d81230146007","name":"Sara Ellis Nilsson","description":"Sara Ellis Nilsson has a Ph.D. in (medieval) history from the University of Gothenburg and is the project leader of the Swedish Research Council funded, digital humanities project 'Mapping Lived Religion: Medieval Cults of Saints in Sweden and Finland' at Linnaeus University. Currently, as one part of the project on lived religion, she will be examining special feast days and their connection to lay piety. In addition, Ellis Nilsson is also involved in research on the use and communication of history together with colleagues at Malm\u00f6 University. In particular she is studying how Viking ships and their reconstructions are used in the formation of narratives and the transmission of knowledge in museum contexts.","sameAs":["https:\/\/lnu.se\/en\/staff\/sara.ellisnilsson\/"],"url":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/blog\/author\/saelab\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6031"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=64"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":289,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/64\/revisions\/289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=64"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=64"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogg.lnu.se\/mapping-saints\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=64"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}