Renée TrillingCAS Associate 2015-16

Oxford, St. John’s College MS 17, a computus attributed to Byrhtferth of Ramsey, contains a cosmological diagram that, in the words of its author, expresses “the harmony of the months and the elements.… This diagram contains the twelve signs and also the two equinoxes and the twice-two seasons of the year, within which are inscribed the names of the four elements and the designations of the twelve winds, and also the four ages of man. The twice-two letters of the name of Adam, the first-created man, are also added.”

Byrhtferth’s diagram vividly depicts the literal material interconnectedness of various parts of the created world, from the moon, sun and stars through the elements down to the human body itself—all encompassed within the ambit of the eternal circuit of the zodiac, the passage of time. It is evidence of a belief in the deep imbrication of the human body within the natural world. This paper surveys the Anglo-Saxon evidence for the idea of a divinely-ordered cosmos in which all created beings, humans included, are individual parts of a larger system, subject to the same forces that control the movement of the planets and the change of the seasons. It will be argued that early medieval notions of the relationship between human bodies and their environments differed radically from the traditional modern view of bodies as bounded, distinct, and separate. Attention to the Anglo-Saxon corpus (both literal and literary) will illuminate contemporary discussions about the nature of materiality.