computus

noun

1. The calculation of the date of Easter in the Christian calendar.

   countable, uncountable

   An elaborate bundle of techniques called computus therefore developed around Easter calculations. Computus formed the centerpiece of “scientific” education in the monasteries.

2. A book of tables for calculating dates of astronomical events and moveable feasts.

   countable, historical, uncountable

   This computus also contains only one completed Plinian diagram, that for the planetary harmonic intervals.

   1987, Bruce Eastwood, 5: Plinian astronomical diagrams in the early Middle Ages, Edward Grant, John Emery Murdoch, Mathematics and Its Applications to Science and Natural Philosophy in the Middle Ages, page 149,

Where it comes from

Borrowed from Latin computus. Doublet of conto and count.

Adapted from the Wiktionary entry computus (CC BY-SA 4.0).

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