Star-Shoioe?'s of Former Times. 357 



(24.) A. D. 1095. April 4. " This year Easter was on the 8th 

 of the Kalends of April. And, after Easter, on the festival of St. 

 Ambrose, that is on the 2d of the Nones [4th day,] of April, over 

 almost all this land and for nearly the whole of the night, stars 

 were seen falling from heaven in manifold ways, not one or two 

 at a time, but so thickly that no man could count them." 



''MXCV. On thisum geare wasron Eastron on viii Id. Apr. 

 And tha uppon Eastron on see Ambrosins massse-niht, that is ii 

 Non. Apr., wa3s gesewen for-neah ofer eall this land swilce for- 

 neah ealle tha niht swithe mseni-fealdlice steorran of heofenau 

 feollan, naht be anan oththe twam, ac swa thiclice thaet hit nan 

 mann ateallan ne mihte." — Chron. Sax. ed. Gibson. Oxon. 1692. 

 4to. p. 202. 



This instance was first c[uoted, anonymously, from Wilken's 

 History of the Crusades, ( Geschichte der Kreuzzuge^ Leipzig, 

 1807,) in Comptes Rendus Acad. Sci. (1836, 11, 145.) Wilken 

 (th. 1, s. 75,) quotes Baldric's Chronicle, which states that the 

 shooting stars were on that occasion so numerous, "utgrando, 

 nisi lucerent, pro densitate pntarentur." The date is erroneously 

 given, April tiDe7ity jiftli, in Wilken. It is thus copied into the 

 Comptes Rendus, from which work the false date has been ex- 

 tensively propagated. Calvisius (Opus Chronolog., etc. fol. Franc, 

 ad Moen. 1685, p. 743,) also gives the subjoined quotation from 

 Baldric, which shows the origin of the mistake. The moon was 

 in fact in the twenty fifth day of the lunation, on the 4th day of 

 the month of April of that year. Notices of this great meteoric 

 shower are found in many different authors, some of which are 

 given below. Its exact date is most satisfactorily determined. 



'' 1095. Stellee in cceIo die 4. April, fer. 4, Luna 25, visae sunt 

 inter se pugnare, in tanta frequentia, ut numerari non possent." — • 

 Baldricus. 



" Anno autem Dominicae Incarnationis millesimo nonagesimo 

 quinto, Indictione tertia, pridie Nonas Aprilis, quarta feria, post oc- 

 tavas Paschse, a quarta ferme vigilia noctis, usque in crepusculum, 

 stellse innumerabiles de cobIo, versus occidentalem plagam, ubiq. 

 terrarum cadere visas sunt." — Chron. Sac. Mojiast. Casin. ; in 

 Muratori Re?. Ital. Scr. t. iv, p. 497. 



1094 [" verius 1095"] Ind. ii. mense Aprilis Urbanus Papa Pla- 

 centise Synodum celebravit et iv Nonas ejusdem mensis Aprilis fuit 

 terribile signum in stellis, ita quod a medise noctis tempore usque 



Vol. XL, No. a.— Jan.-March, 1841. 46 



