120 APPENDIX. 



The early history of ecclesiastical computation is inti- 

 mately connected with that of calendars. Dionysius Exiguus 

 was one of the first who wrote on the subject : after him, 

 Bede, Gerlandus, Alexander de Villa Dei, and Johannes 

 de Sacro-Bosco, were the most celebrated. The Massa 

 Compoti of Alexander de Villa Dei, so common in MS., 

 is perhaps the most singular tract on the subject that 

 has come down to us : his reason for the title of the 

 book is exceedingly curious : Sicut de multis laminis 

 ceris in conflatorio massa una efficitur, ideo librum istum 

 vocari volui massam compoti. 



I cannot conclude without mentioning the ' Almanac 

 and Prognostication' of Leonard Digges, which was so 

 often reprinted in the latter half of the sixteenth century: 

 it is filled with the most extravagant astrological absur- 

 dities, and a table of weather predictions. With respect 

 to the latter, however, I have had the curiosity to test 

 its accuracy for some months in comparison with our two 

 celebrated weather almanacs, and, on the average, have 

 found it to be quite as " neare the marke " as either of 

 them. 



THE END. 



CAMBRIDGE : 

 PRINTED BY METCALFE AND PALMER, TRINITY STREET. 



