Byrhtferth (Old English:Byrhtferð;c. 970 – c. 1020) was a priest andmonk who lived atRamsey Abbey inHuntingdonshire (now part ofCambridgeshire) in England.[1] He had a deep impact on the intellectual life of laterAnglo-Saxon England and wrote manycomputistic,hagiographic, andhistorical works.[2][3] He was a leading man of science and best known as the author of many different works (although he may not have written many of them).[4] HisManual (Enchiridion), a scientific textbook, is Byrhtferth's best known work.[5]
He studied withAbbo of Fleury, who was invited toRamsey Abbey byOswald of Worcester to help teach. Abbo was there during the period 985 to 987, and became a large influence on Byhrtferth who was interested in the same studies, such as history, logic, astronomy, and mathematics.[6] We do not have contemporary biographies of Byrhtferth, and the only information we have is that given in hisManual and hisPreface.[7]
Byrhtferth's signature appears on only two unpublished works, his Latin and Old EnglishManual, and LatinPreface. He also composed a Latin life of St.Egwin, compiled a chronicle ofNorthumbrian history in the 990s, wrote a Latin life ofOswald of Worcester (theVita Oswaldi) about the year 1000, and it is suggested that he is responsible for the early sections of theHistoria regum, orHistory of the Kings, attributed toSimeon of Durham. This last attribution is based on the similarity of the style between Simeon and Byrhtferth.[3][6] An unsigned fragment of Old English text oncomputus in the ManuscriptBL Cotton Caligula A.xv[8] is attributed to him because of the stylistic similarity to the Old English that he wrote in theManual.[3]Cyril Roy Hart also tentatively identifies him as the author of the verseMenologium preserved as a preface to a manuscript of theAnglo-Saxon Chronicle,[9][10] although Kazutomo Karasawa believes it more likely to have been written by an older contemporary.[11]
Byrhtferth has also been credited with Latin commentaries onBede'sDe natura rerum andDe temporum ratione (first attributed to him by John Herwagen) and aVita S. Dunstani signed "B" (first attributed to him byJean Mabillon).[4] However, many scholars argue that these works were not written by Byrhtferth, but instead were a compilation of material by several writers in the late ninth and early tenth centuries. This is argued because of the smooth, polished style of these works in comparison with the styles of the only signed works, theManual and thePreface.[4]
St John's College, Oxford MS 17[13] contains several computistical works by Bede and Helperic, and acomputus which includes the LatinEpilogus ("Preface") by Byrhtferth. He also constructed a full-page diagram showing the harmony of the universe, and suggesting correspondences among cosmological, numerological, and physiological aspects of the world. Other items in themanuscript may in fact have been written by Byrhtferth, but this cannot be proved. Also, he may have compiled most of this material from works thatAbbo of Fleury left behind atRamsey Abbey after his death.[3]
