Tempore

Tempore (abbreviated to temp.) in literature concerning history, denotes a period during which a person whose exact lifespan is unknown was known to have been alive or active, usually given as the reign of a monarch. The word is Latin, being the ablative case of the noun tempus, temporis, "time", thus meaning "in the time (of)". It should be followed by a name in the genitive case. The theoretical full form might be vixit tempore Regis Henrici Primi ("he lived in the time of King Henry the First") (i.e. 1100-1135). The best known occurrence is in the Domesday Book of 1086 where the phrase Tempore Regis Eduardi (nominative case Rex Eduardus), meaning "in the time of King Edward (the Confessor)" appears in the entry for almost every manor abbreviated as TRE". It thus signifies the date range 1042-1066. Its usefulness in literature concerning history is due to the names of many historical persons appearing in surviving documents nowhere else but in royal charters, possibly as witnesses, which are obviously dateable to the reign of the originating monarch.

The word tempore is generally used in its abbreviated form temp. It is used for similar purpose as floruit, which however is more appropriate for artists to denote not merely a period of life, but a particularly productive period within that lifespan.