LUNAR LETTER. - In medieval calendars, among other elements, the age of the moon is also indicated. To determine the beginning of the new moon, the Middle Ages had recourse to the so-called system of lunar letters, analogous to that of the ferial letters.

This system comprised 59 letters distributed in three groups: 20 letters in the first (from A to V, called litterae nudae), 20 in the second (from A to V, called litterae postpunctatae or subnotatae), and 19 in the third (from A to T, called litterae praepunctatae or supernotatae), by which the days of two consecutive lunations were indicated. By means of these letters one could know, besides the beginning of the new moons, also the age of the moon for each day of the year; in leap years the added day bore the same number as the preceding day. The lunar letter sometimes entered into the dating of medieval documents to designate the year (littera annalis); in that case the letter indicated corresponded to the day of the March full moon (terminus paschalis). The system of lunar letters fell into disuse in the 11th century.

Niccolò Del Re

@incollection{ec7_lettera_lunare, author = {Del, Re Niccolò}, title = {Lettera Lunare}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {VII}, pages = {1210--1211}, 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-lunare} }

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Lunar Letter

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