Month names collection / metastudy

[davidma]

A few other interesting finds. One from Cambrai, the other from Metz (both NE France).

Heures de Boussu: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., 1495

Mars Apuril May Jung Jullet Aoust Septembre Octembre Nouembre Decembre

Heures de Metz: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view., 1325

Mars Auris Mais Jung Julet Aous Septembres Octembres Nouembres Decembres
 

I must have gone through more than 120 lives d'heures and calendars from different places in France, and none come as close to the VM names as the Cambrai one. We have the consonant plus vowel in Apuril, we have J-u-ng and J-u-llet, and we have Octembre,  which to me is the strongest regional clue so far because it is completely absent from other dialects, no matter the century of reference. It is also not too far in time from our proposed timeline for the month names (i.e., added sometime after 1520/30 due to the circumflex but likely not after 1560). The only missing element is the g in Aoust. Other documents in Picard dialect do use the g in Aust, though. Picard was the spoken dialect in Cambrai at the time.