SUNDAY LETTER. - Al fine di conoscere in quali giorni dell'anno cadevano le domeniche, fu immaginato dai cronologi medievali il sistema delle lettere feriali, che si aveva contrassegnando con le prime sette lettere dell'alfabeto i primi sette giorni dell'anno e ricominciando la serie per ogni sette giorni fino al 31 dic.The letter A therefore corresponded to January 1, B to the 2nd, C to the 3rd, and so on up to the letter G, which marked January 7, with the year being designated by the letter corresponding to its first Sunday, called the littera dominicalis, once which was known it was easy to deduce all the others. In leap years, however, there were two l. d., since, with a day being added after February 24, from that point on the l. d. differed from the one that had applied from January 1 to that date. Because of the presence of leap years, the series of l. d., which would otherwise repeat unchanged every seven years, instead becomes the same again every 28; this period was distinguished by the name solar cycle (v.), so called because Sunday was called dies solis.

Bibliography2 works

BIBL.: A. Giry, Manuel de diplomatique, new ed., Paris 1925, pp. 134-37; H. Grotefend, Taschenbuch der Zeitrechnung, 6th ed., Hannover 1928, p. 128.

Niccolò Del Re

@incollection{ec7_lettera_domenicale, author = {Del, Re Niccolò}, title = {Lettera Domenicale}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1210}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1951}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/lettera-domenicale} }

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Sunday Letter

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