Editing Bede (section)

=== Historical and astronomical chronology ===
[[File:Beda - De natura rerum, 1529 - 4784142.tif|thumb|upright|''De natura rerum'', 1529]]
''De temporibus'', or ''On Time'', written in about 703, provides an introduction to the principles of Easter computus.<ref name="BedeVen37">{{harvnb|Brown|1987|p=37}}</ref> This was based on parts of [[Isidore of Seville]]'s ''[[Etymologiae|Etymologies]]'', and Bede also included a chronology of the world which was derived from Eusebius, with some revisions based on Jerome's translation of the Bible.<ref name="ODNB" /> In about 723,<ref name="ODNB" /> Bede wrote a longer work on the same subject, ''[[The Reckoning of Time|On the Reckoning of Time]]'', which was influential throughout the Middle Ages.<ref name="BedeVen38">{{harvnb|Brown|1987|pp=38–41}}</ref> He also wrote several shorter letters and essays discussing specific aspects of computus.

''On the Reckoning of Time'' (''De temporum ratione'') included an introduction to the traditional ancient and medieval view of the [[cosmos]], including an explanation of how the [[spherical Earth]] influenced the changing [[length of day]]light, of how the [[season]]al motion of the Sun and Moon influenced the changing appearance of the [[New Moon|new moon]] at evening twilight.<ref name="Bede2004pp82-85">{{harvnb|Bede|2004|pp=82–85, 307–312}}</ref> Bede also records the effect of the moon on [[tide]]s. He shows that the twice-daily timing of tides is related to the Moon and that the lunar monthly cycle of spring and neap tides is also related to the Moon's position.{{sfn|Bede|2004|pp=64–65}} He goes on to note that the times of tides vary along the same coast and that the water movements cause low tide at one place when there is high tide elsewhere.{{sfn|Bede|2004|p=65}} Since the focus of his book was the computus, Bede gave instructions for [[Easter controversy#Synod of Whitby in 664|computing the date of Easter]] from the date of the [[Paschal full moon]], for calculating the motion of the Sun and Moon through the [[zodiac]], and for many other calculations related to the calendar. He gives some information about the months of the [[Anglo-Saxon calendar]].<ref name="Bede2004pp53-4">{{harvnb|Bede|2004|pp=53–54, 285–287}}; see also [http://www.nabkal.de/beda/beda_15.html]</ref>

Any codex of Bede's Easter table is normally found together with a codex of his ''De temporum ratione''. His Easter table, being an exact extension of [[Dionysius Exiguus]]' Paschal table and covering the time interval AD 532–1063,<ref>Zuidhoek (2019) 103-120</ref> contains a 532-year Paschal cycle based on the so-called classical Alexandrian 19-year lunar cycle,<ref>Zuidhoek (2019) 70</ref> being the close variant of bishop [[Theophilus I of Alexandria|Theophilus]]' 19-year lunar cycle proposed by [[Annianus of Alexandria|Annianus]] and adopted by bishop [[Cyril of Alexandria]] around AD 425.<ref>Mosshammer (2008) 190-203</ref> The ultimate similar (but rather different) predecessor of this Metonic 19-year lunar cycle is the one invented by [[Anatolius of Laodicea|Anatolius]] around AD 260.<ref>Declercq (2000) 65-66</ref>

For calendric purposes, Bede made a new calculation of the [[Dating creation|age of the world]] since the [[Genesis creation narrative|creation]], which he dated as 3952 BC. Because of his innovations in computing the age of the world, he was accused of heresy at the table of Bishop Wilfrid, his chronology being contrary to accepted calculations. Once informed of the accusations of these "lewd rustics", Bede refuted them in his Letter to Plegwin.<ref name="Bede2004ppxxx">{{harvnb|Bede|2004|pp=xxx, 405–415}}</ref>

In addition to these works on astronomical timekeeping, he also wrote ''[[De natura rerum (Bede)|De natura rerum]]'', or ''On the Nature of Things'', modelled in part after the work of the same title by Isidore of Seville.<ref name="BedeVen36">{{harvnb|Brown|1987|p=36}}</ref> His works were so influential that late in the ninth century [[Notker the Stammerer]], a monk of the [[Abbey of Saint Gall|Monastery of St Gall]] in Switzerland, wrote that "God, the orderer of natures, who raised the Sun from the East on the fourth day of Creation, in the sixth day of the world has made Bede rise from the West as a new Sun to illuminate the whole Earth".<ref name="Bede2004plxxxv">{{harvnb|Bede|2004|p=lxxxv}}</ref>