Perpetual calendar
One of the oldest and most striking calendars in the KB collection is a fourteenth-century perpetual calendar. A unique feature of this calendar is that it consists of two strips of sheep parchment, fastened together, totalling 130 cm in length. This is to be rolled up so that the user can carry it in his pocket. Only in the eighteenth century was a suitable binding fashioned for the work.
Symbols
Although the calendar seems simple at first glance, it is not so easy to interpret because of all the symbols and codes. At the beginning of the month one can read how many hours are in each day and night during that month. A long strip stands for 10 hours, a half strip for 1 and a curve for 5 hours. For January that comes to 8 and 16 hours respectively. The next feature to attract attention are the saints, with their names at the top. The most important saints are depicted in red. The calendar contains a total of 85 saints. The illustrations in January are Three Kings ('Dortien-dagh', 6 January), St Pontianus (14 January), St Fabian and St Sebastian (20 January), St Agnes (21 January), St Vincent (22 January) and finally the conversion of the apostle Paul on 25 January. Red dots over the days indicate the so-called 'dies aegyptiaci' or Egyptian days, which in the Middle Ages were regarded as dangerous days on which one should never perform any important activities. In January these were the first and the twenty-fifth days of the month.
Day letters
Beneath the illustrations are the day letters, by which the day of the week for a particular date for each year can be determined. The Sunday letter indicates on which date the first Sunday of the new year will fall. Beneath the Sunday letters is the Golden Number, indicated with strips on a vertical line. The Golden Number (Numerus Aureus) is an ordinal number in a cycle of 19 years that indicates when the new moon will occur. This was important for determining the date of Easter, which always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the beginning of spring. Thanks to this system of signs, symbolic calendars like this one are suitable for use by people with limited reading skills.
Provenance
Many such calendars were produced in Germany, where they were called Mandl calendars because of the representation of the little male figures (Männlein = Mandl). The exact provenance of this calendar is unknown. The fact that St Olof is celebrated on 29 July points in the direction of Amsterdam, since St Olof was the patron saint of the first chapel in Amsterdam.
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| Fourteenth-century perpetual calendar |