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

This article examines the historical record of the so-called comet of 1114, demonstrating that it was a mistaken duplication of the genuine comet observed in 1110. Medieval English chronicles, particularly the Winchester Chronicle and the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, contain accounts of a comet in 1114 that originated from a clerical error transposing the 1110 comet's observation to a later date. The absence of any East Asian records for a comet in 1114, contrasted with multiple detailed observations of the 1110 comet in China, Korea, Japan, and the Middle East, supports this conclusion. The article traces how this error propagated through various medieval manuscripts and suggests that the conflation of significant political events in 1110 and 1114 in England may have contributed to the misdating. Ultimately, the comet of 1114 is identified as a textual accident rather than an actual astronomical event.