Phylacteries, the Archive, and Byrhtferth's Enchiridion

Byrhtferth of Ramsey's Enchiridion, itself a curious text, contains a remarkable reference to phylacteries that, though only briefly mentioned in passing, opens a window into medieval understandings of archives and their place in the structure of divine learning. Completed in 1011, the Enchiridion preserves a compendium of knowledge written in alternating hermeneutic Latin and Old English and operates as a manual for computistical study as well as a commentary supplementing Byrhtferth's own computus.¹ In Book I.3, Byrhtferth provides three mnemonic verses, which he attributes to Bede, intended to guide clerics in the calculation of Easter.² He prefaces these verses with an admonition of the clerics who incorrectly calculate Easter's date because they do not keep their "phylacteries" with them. Byrhtferth writes:

Exermina[n]t huismodi mensuras nonnulli [clerici] imperiti (heu, pro dolor!) qui non habere desiderant philacteria sua; uerbi gratia, ordinem quem susceperunt in gremio matris ecclesie non seruant, nec in doctrina sancta meditationis persistunt. Intuend[a] est soller[ter] uia phariseorum et saduceorum, et respuenda uelet peripsima doctrina eorum. Procurator clericus anime sue fieri debet, et sicut primas subicit pullum subiuagalem, animum suum debet seruituti subicere, implendo alabastrum pretioso unguento, hoc est intus esse diatim debet, diuinis legibus obtemperando [et] monitis redemptoris. Hic dictis, redeamus uenusto animo unde discesseramus mediocri alloquio.³

(Some ignorant clerics [alas!] who do not want to keep their phylacteries with them, make a mess of calculations of this sort; in a word, they do not preserve the discipline they received in the bosom of Mother Church, nor do they persevere in the pursuit of holy wisdom. One should shrewdly consider the paths of the Pharisees and Sadducees and reject their doctrine like filth. A cleric ought to be the superintendent of his own soul, and just as a nobleman subjects a young foal to the yoke, the cleric ought to subject his spirit to servitude, thus filling the alabaster box with precious ointment, that is, he ought to daily dwell within himself, obeying the divine laws and the admonitions of the redeemer. Having said these things, let us return in agreeable spirits and in plain language to the point from which we digressed.)

Typically phylacteries are understood as the Hebrew tefillin—small boxes housing portions of the Torah that are worn strapped to the forehead or upper arm. They were fairly well-known objects that medieval authors loosely associated with Jewish tradition, though they were more often understood as Christian reliquaries, particularly in the later Middle Ages. Byrhtferth's own interest in the Hebrew language and the potential theological and historical links between the Christian present and Jewish past are attested throughout the Enchiridion, and no doubt the image of the phylactery would have had great appeal for him.⁴ However, Byrhtferth's allusion is peculiar because it frames phylacteries as desirable devotional objects and educational tools in contrast to their more typical characterization in medieval Christian writing as a symbol that highlighted the shortcomings of the Jewish faith, particularly its investment in the worldly and material over the spiritual. Instead, Byrhtferth uses phylacteries to comment on the close relationship between academic and spiritual growth, as well as the necessity of exemplifying good devotional practices within communities of teachers and learners. He presents phylacteries as both material and mnemonic archives, vessels through which one can access and contemplate knowledge of God, a function that closely mirrors the intended uses of tefillin. Crucially, however, the image of the phylactery also reminds the reader that knowledge must be internalized within the spirit, and not just retained within the mind, in order to be truly useful to the individual and beneficial to the community.

As Mary Carruthers has shown, the organization, storage, and retrieval of memory is dependent on a mental visualization of information, typically involving a detailed scene that can be traversed or a physical structure with spaces designated to housing information.⁵ The Enchiridion and other similar computistical texts employ such mnemonic visualizations to aid in the storage and retrieval of divine data. Computi are noted for their use of architectural illustrations which...