The Mail Online website has an article about a fourteenth century almanac that was an early gift to the Royal Society. Until now part of it has remained in code until that was understood by researchers.
The almanac posseses in part similarities to the calendar pages of Books of Hours, but also to portable devices such as those in the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford that are perpetual calendars as well as to the astrolabes in that collection and elsewhere. All of these are a reminder that the antique and medieval worlds were much more formed by mathematical and scientific formulations than is the current popular perception - but then you would need some maths in order to build cathedrals….
The illustrated article can be seen at Royal Society's medieval manuscript - can YOU crack the code?
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