Cipher seals

  1. 42
  2. 69
  3. 420
  4. 690

Quiet field

1342

The year was full. This aperture was quiet.

The surviving record for 1342 is not blank. It does not, under the categories declared before this sweep, resemble a cluster of instruments, laws, or named firsts that would promote the year. Quiet is a description of the aperture, not of the century.

  • Edward III’s England; Hundred Years’ War already begun
  • Yuan China in decline
  • Black Death still five years off in Europe

The aperture

Quiet under the declared categories. Retained as a denominator year.

Regions checked

  • Europe
  • Middle East and North Africa
  • East Asia
  • South Asia
  • Africa
  • the Americas
  • Central Asia

Included / excluded

  • Excluded: Black Death as a 1342 event. 1347 in the Mediterranean and 1348 in much of Europe.

41 | 42 | 43

Same century. Same research threshold. Matched frames. Neither pane brighter except that the middle year is the selected aperture.

1341

Neighbor

1341: war and harvest continue. Not empty.

1342

Aperture

Quiet under the declared categories. Retained as a denominator year.

1343

Neighbor

1343: not empty. The plague’s European arrival is 1347, not a neighbor.