[LEAPSECS] LEAPSECS Digest, Vol 88, Issue 31

[Kevin Birth]

Actually, Inter gravissimas does not assume that everyone already knows
how years are numbered because there were still a variety of ways of
numbering years when it was issued.   The AD convention seemed to first be
used in chapter IV of Bede's ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. In chapters 1-3 for
dates before the AD period, Bede used years since Rome's founding,
although in chapter 2 he relates such a date to "ante vero incarnations
Dominicae tempus anno sexagesimo" [60 years before the incarnation of the
Lord].  

Bede was a huge fan of Dionysius Exiguus, even writing a hymn in his
honor.   The AD/BC distinction as we know it seems to come into use with
Dominicus Petavius' OPUS DE DOCTRINA TEMPORUM in 1627--after the Gregorian
reform. Petavius seemed to set a trend that other chronologists of the
period, such as Bishop Ussher, adopted.

I find THE MEASURE OF TIMES PAST by Donald Wilcox very useful in
discussing the emergence of various chronologies.

C. R. Cheney's HANDBOOK OF DATES FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH HISTORY is useful
in getting  sense of the variety of chronological representations.

As an aside, Inter gravissimas only reset the calendar in reference to 325
AD (the Nicene Council) rather than 1 AD.  This is because the calculation
of Dionysius Exiguus on the date of Jesus' birth was doubted by serious
chronologists even as it was de facto accepted within the church.

Cheers,

Kevin


Kevin K. Birth, Professor
Department of Anthropology
Queens College, City University of New York
65-30 Kissena Boulevard
Flushing, NY 11367
telephone: 718/997-5518

"We may live longer but we may be subject to peculiar contagion and
spiritual torpor or illiteracies of the imagination" --Wilson Harris

"Tempus est mundi instabilis motus, rerumque labentium cursus." --Hrabanus
Maurus





On 1/15/14 5:38 AM, "Clive D.W. Feather" <clive at davros.org> wrote:


>Greg Hennessy said:

>> Dennis McCarthy once forwarded me an english translation of the

>> Inter gravissimas,

>

>

>http://www.bluewaterarts.com/calendar/NewInterGravissimas.htm

>

>> and it is utterly silent as to what to call the

>> year before 1 AD.

>

>Indeed, it says nothing about how years are numbered, but assumes everyone

>already knows.

>

>-- 

>Clive D.W. Feather          | If you lie to the compiler,

>Email: clive at davros.org     | it will get its revenge.

>Web: http://www.davros.org  |   - Henry Spencer

>Mobile: +44 7973 377646

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