116 APPENDIX. 



1450, but so much damaged by the fire that the nature of it 

 cannot be seen. In Trinity College, Cambridge, there is 

 a MS., said to have been composed in 1347, and entitled, 

 An Almanak, translated in perpetuite, out of Arabike 

 into Latin ; and in the same library I find The Effe- 

 merides of John of Mounte Riol, a German Prince of 

 Astronomy ers. Professor Leslie mentions a very beautiful 

 calendar in the library of the university of Edinburgh, with 

 the date of 1 482 : he does not appear to be aware that they 

 were common in MS. libraries, and he greatly overrates its 

 value. 



There was printed at Hackney, in 1812, a small octavo 

 volume, containing an account of an English almanac for 

 the year 1386 : it contains a very large portion of astrono- 

 mical and medical matter, but appears to be of little 

 interest, save that it is the earliest one in English I have 

 ever heard of. The contents of this calendar are as 

 follow : — 



1 . The houses of the planets and their properties. 



2. The exposition of the signs. 



3. Chronicle of events from the birth of Cain. 



In 1325 there was a grete hungur in England ; in 1333 

 a great tempest ; in 1349 the first, in 1361 the second, and 

 in 1369 the third pestilence. It is curious to remark the 

 clumsy method of expressing numbers consisting of more 

 than two figures: for instance, we have 52mcc20 put for 

 52,220. This shows that the Arabic notation was even 

 then but imperfectly understood among the common people. 



4. To find the prime numbers. 



5. Short notes on medicine. 



6. On blood-letting. 



7. A description of the table of the signs, and moveable 

 feasts. 



8. Quantitates diei artificialis. 



