Stella Insolita: The comet of 1114,a lost chronicle and the Empress Matilda

Abstract

From Halley to Nishimura, cometographies have attempted to compile a complete record of every comet seen through the centuries. This article seeks to remove one from that list. The comet of 1114 was always an unusual star. Although recorded in various English sources dating from the 12th to the 15th centuries, it is attested nowhere else. How could a ‘huge comet’ have been seen in England but not in China, Korea or Japan? In fact, the comet of 1114 was a textual accident, an account of the comet of 1110 that was inadvertently transposed as the result of a clerical error. By tracing the genealogies of the earliest chronicle sources for this comet the original mistake can be identified and a new record of the comet of 1110 uncovered.