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SOMER. Friar John Somer, fl. 1383, was a Minorite of the Franciscan Order at Bridgewater. The provincial Master of the Order encouraged him to write a calendar with astronomical tables for Joan, Princess of Wales, Richard II's mother. This calendar is dated 1380; there are many copies with varying dates, two of which are in the Vatican Collection: the manuscript belonging to the queen of Sweden, dated 1384, and that of Alexander Peteu, dated 1372, ascribed to John Semur.

Chaucer says that he intends to add a third part to his Treatise on the Astrolabe, using the tables of longitudes, latitudes, and declinations of the sun after the calendars of Frere J. Somer and Frere N. Lenne, Astr Prol 80-85. [Lenne]


R.T. Gunther, Early Science in Oxford, II: 60-63; Nicholas of Lynne, The Kalendarium of Nicholas of Lynne, ed. and trans. G. MacEoin and S. Eisner, 8-9.
From CHAUCER NAME DICTIONARY
Copyright © 1988, 1996 Jacqueline de Weever
Published by Garland Publishing, Inc., New York and London.

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