Dating Latin documents

Between 1086 and 1733, a variety of methods were used to date Latin documents. This page will give you a basic introduction to these methods.

We will look at

• Numbers
• Dates
• Roman numerals
• Months of the year
• Days of the week
• Feasts
• Octave

Remember that this is not a definitive guide.

If you would like to look at dating documents in more detail, ‘A Handbook of Dates: for students of British history’, C R Cheney and M Jones (eds) (Cambridge University Press, revd 2000) is the standard reference work.

Remember that a few numbers decline:

• unus, -a, -um
  
• duo, due, duo
  
• tres, tria
  
• ducenti, -ae, -a two hundred declines like novus, -a, -um
  

Dates

Dates are expressed using ‘first’, ‘second’, ‘third’, rather than ‘one’, ‘two’, ‘three’. These are always in the ablative case. Generally, the ‘us’ ending becomes an ‘o’.

secundo – on the second

centesimo primo die – on the hundred and first day

anno regni regis Johannis filii regis Henrici sexagesimo – in the sixtieth year of the reign of King John son of King Henry

anno domini millesimo ducentesimo quinto decimo – in the year of our Lord one thousand two hundred and fifteen (or, 1215 AD)

Roman numerals

Numbers were expressed in Roman numerals throughout the period covered by this tutorial.

Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3, etc) were also used in England from the 16th century onwards.

In Latin documents, Roman numerals were often written in lower case, rather than in capital letters. If a number ended in an ‘i’, this was often written as a ‘j’.

Months of the year

Days of the week

Feasts

As medieval England was a Catholic country, a large number of religious feast days were celebrated. Many feasts related to a particular saint. These feasts were often used to date events.

For example, a charter might have been granted

in festo sancti Edwardi martiris – on the feast of Saint Edward the Martyr

• festum, -i (n.) feast
• martir, martiris (m.) martyr

• vigilia, -e (f.) eve
• crastinum, -i (n.) morrow

For example

A list of the main feasts, with the calendar dates that they correspond to, is given in ‘A Handbook of Dates: for students of British history’, C R Cheney and M Jones (eds), (Cambridge University Press, revd 2000).

Octave

An octave is a period of eight days inclusive.

You will often see this term used in dates.

For example

in octava festi sancti Michaelis – on the octave of the feast of Saint Michael

• Michael, Michaelis (m.) Michael

The table below shows you how to calculate the octave of Saint Michael. You can use the same principle to calculate the octave of any feast.