7. Night
THE RECKONING OF TIME
already the quadras,48 that is, the ¢rst of twelve parts [of the zodiac].
But this ¢rst small part out of twelve is the vernal equinox, and is itself the beginning of the months, the inauguration of the [zodiacal] circle and the completion of the course of the stars which are called planets
(that is, wanderers), and the end of the twelfth small part is also the completion of the whole circuit.49 Here he has understood perfectly correctly and explained in a very elegant manner that as far as nature is concerned the beginning of the zodiac is nowhere else but in the spring equinox, and that the 12 signs, which he calls ''small parts'', have their beginning and their termination there. [Both] the quarterday which we call the ''leap-year day'', and the ''leap of the Moon''50 start and ¢nish there, and there the great year, that is, the course of the planets has its appointed beginning and end.
7. NIGHT Night [nox] is so called because it detracts from [noceat] human a¡airs or vision,51 or else because thieves and robbers ¢nd occasion therein to injure [nocendi] others. Night is the absence of the Sun, when it is concealed by the Earth's shadow from the time it sets until the time it rises again. The poet describes its nature accordingly: /296/ night sank into the ocean, wrapping Earth and pole in a mighty shadow.52
48 This phrase ''also to have already the quadras'' is somewhat obscure. Bede, both in what follows and in the Letter to Wicthed, interprets it to mean that the calculation of the Sun's quarter-day, i.e. its leap-year increment, begins at this point. This may not have been what Anatolius meant: see n. 32 above. The Laon-Metz glossator thinks that it means that the equinox occurs when the Sun is in the fourth degree of Aries, i.e. 21 March (294 ad lineam 97; 298 ad lineam 98).
49 Ps.-Anatolius 2 (318), or the authentic text as cited in Ru¢nus' trans. of Eusebius, HE 7.32.15 (723.15); cf. Letter to Wicthed.
50 On the ''leap of the Moon'' (saltus lunae), see ch. 42.
51 Isidore, Etym. 5.31.1, cf. Dedivisionibustemporum 11 (658C),Cassiodorus, Expositio psalmorum 1.2, ed. M. Adraien, CCSL 97 (1958):232^233. Jones speculates that Bede may have found this etymology amongst the philological notes in an Irish computus manuscript, akin to the ''Bobbio computus'' (PL 129.1308A^B). It also surfaces in the ''Merovingian computus of 727'' (55) and elsewhere (e.g. Vatican MS Reg. lat. 123, fol.
10r): BOT 339.
52 The quotation from is Vergil, Aeneid 2.250^251, but the immediate source is Isidore Etym. 5.31 (see note 51 above). Cf. Isidore, DNR 2.1 (181), and Bede, On Times 3.
TRANSLATION
And Solomon in Holy Scripture said whofeeds amongst the lilies until the day breaks and the shadows give way,53 alluding to the departure of night, in an altogether elegant turn of phrase, as the giving way of the shadows.
However, because the interposition of the Earth's mass blocks the Sun's splendour from us according to the location of the regions through which his path passes, that shadow, which is the very essence of night [quae noctis natura est], is projected so far upwards that it appears to reach to the stars. Appropriately, [Solomon] signi¢ed that by the opposite change, that is, the rising of the light, the shadows give way, that is, night is suppressed and driven down. Philosophers say that this shadow of night extends upwards to the frontier between air and ether, and that the Moon, the lowest of planets, is occasionally touched and obscured by the shadow as it comes together into a point like a pyramid.
No other star undergoes an eclipse, that is, the loss of its light, in this fashion, because the sunlight, di¡used everywhere around the con¢nes of the Earth, shines without impediment on those [stars] which are at a great distance from the Earth. Therefore /297/ [the Sun] makes the tracts of ether which are beyond the Moon to be always full of daylight, either by his own brightness or by that which beams from the stars.54 If, on a dark night, you are positioned at a distance from some blazing torches, you see some of the surrounding area su¡used with their light, although the darkness of night is all about, and all you can see are the separate £ames of the torches themselves. By the same token, they say that the empty space which is purest and closest to heaven is always lit up by the light of the stars, scattered everywhere. But to our vision, impeded as it is by the thicker air, the stars themselves appear to be shining lights, while the brightness which they radiate is not obvious.
But they say that when the Moon is full and seeks its lowest point,55 it 53 Song of Solomon 2.16^17.
54 ''However, because the interposition . . . from the stars'': cf. Pliny, HN 2.8.51
(1.200); Ambrose, Hexaemeron 4.3.11 (117.26^118.11); Isidore, DNR 28 (277^279). ''Philosophers say . . . loss of light, in this fashion . . .'': cf. Isidore, DNR 21.1 (251); Etym. 3.59.
Note that Bede retracts his previous statement that the stars shine only with borrowed light; this is not in any of the sources listed above.
55 Lunam uero aiunt cum in¢mas sui circuli apsidas plena petierit . . . (297.33^34).
Normally Bede uses the term apsida to signify a planet's apogee: cf.TheNatureofThings 14, an excerpt from Pliny, HN 2.13.63^4 (1.210^212). Here, however, he apparently uses the term to mean the maximum distance of the Moon from the plane of the ecliptic. The path
THE RECKONING OF TIME
sometimes is obscured by a visible shadow until, having removed itself a little bit from the centre [i.e. plane] of the Earth, it is again exposed to the Sun. So that this does not happen at every full Moon, [the Moon's] orbit runs at variable altitudes through the width of the zodiac, which is
12 degrees [partes] wide.56 For three things must occur together to make a shadow: light, a body, /298/ and a place on which the shadow is cast.
And where the light is equal [in magnitude] to the body, a shadow of constant [diameter] is thrown; where the light is smaller than the body, the shadow increases inde¢nitely; where the light is greater than the body, the shadow gradually diminishes and dies away.
They maintain that the Sun is larger than the Earth, though it seems small because it is so far away. Hence, because the shadow of night gradually decreases, it fades out before it reaches the ether.57 Blessed
Ambrose calls to mind this shadow or night in the sixth book of the Hexaemeron in the following words: But he ^ that is, Moses ^ did not think it necessary to discuss how far Earth's shadow extends into the air when the Sun retreats from us and takes away the day, illuminating the lower pole, or how the Moon, climbing into the region of [Earth's] shadow, is eclipsed.58
The shadow of night was given to mortals for the body's repose lest mankind perish because of unendingly immoderate exertion at its work.
It was given as well to certain animals who cannot bear the light of the Sun, and likewise to those beasts who fear the presence of human beings, in order that they may have an opportunity to go about and seek their food. As the Psalmist sings in praise of God: The Sun knew its of the Moon is inclined at about 5 degrees and 9 minutes to the ecliptic, or path of the Sun. It therefore intersects the ecliptic twice during its monthly course; once as it is ascending towards the northern side of the ecliptic (its ''ascending node''), and once as it is descending towards the southern side (its ''descending node''). The highest and lowest points of its ascent and descent are its apsidae, at least in this context. Lunar and solar eclipses occur only at the nodes, which are where the paths of the Sun and Moon cross, and they can only take place when the Moon is full or new at one of the nodes. Bede implies that lunar eclipses occur only at the descending node, but in fact they can occur when the Moon is full at either node.
56 ''But they say that when the Moon . . . 12 degrees wide'': cf. Pliny, HN 2.16.66
(1.212^214).
57 Cf. Pliny, HN 2.7.51 (1.200); see ch. 27 below.
58 Ambrose, Hexaemeron 6.2.8 (209.1^4).
TRANSLATION
setting;You set out the shadows and made the night, in which all the beasts of the wood go forth, and so on.59
A wonderful forethought on the part of the Creator has so balanced matters [temperavit] that where [the climate] is colder because of the distance of the Sun, there the night is longer, in order that labour might be shortened and limbs kept warm.60 For winter [nights] are longer than summer [nights] everywhere throughout the world, and much longer in Scythia than in Africa. Likewise, the day shines much longer in summer in Scythia than in Africa, /299/ for were the day which scorches Libya not briefer in proportion as it is hotter, it would surely have consumed the whole country long ago.61
There are, in fact, seven parts of the night: dusk, eventide, the ¢rst part of the night, dead of night, cock-crow, early morning, and daybreak.
Dusk[crepusculum]isuncertainlight,forwesaythat somethingdoubtful is ''murky'' [creperum], that is, between light and darkness. Eventide
[vesperum] is when the star of the same name appears, of which the poet says:
The evening star [vesper] would close the gates of Olympus against the day . . .
The ¢rst part of night [conticinium] is when everything is hushed [conticescunt], that is, silent. Dead of night [intempestum] is midnight, when, in the deep sleep of peace, there is no time [tempus] for activity for any creature. Cock-crow is when the rooster lifts up its song. Early morning
[matutinum] is between the departure of darkness and the arrival of dawn. Daybreak is when a bit of light ¢rst appears. Dawn lasts until sunrise.62
59 ''The shadow of night . . . and so on'': cf. Isidore, DNR 17.3 (235), which makes an analogous argument about the alternation of the seasons, quoting ps.-Clement, Recognitiones 8.45 (1393A). The quotation from the Psalms is Psalm 104.19^20 (103.19^20).
60 This idea is expressed in Macrobius, Commentarium in Somnium Scipionis 2.7, ed. J. Willis (Stuttgart & Leipzig: Teubner, 1994):161^162, which Bede apparently did not know directly.
61 Isidore, Etym. 5.31.
62 Isidore, Etym. 5.31.4^14, from which the quotation fromVergil, Aeneid 1.374 is also derived. Cf. Bede, The Nature of Things 2.