Petrus Apianus Draws up a Calendar

For basic information on the Greek and Roman calendrical terms mentioned in this article, see Ginzel F. K. , Handbuch der mathematischen und technischen Chronologie: Das Zeitrechnungswesen der Völker (3 vols, Leipzig, 1906–14); Bickerman E. J. , Chronology of the ancient world , 2nd edn (Ithaca, NY, 1980); Samuel Alan , Greek and Roman chronology: Calendars and years in Classical Antiquity (Handbuch der Altertumswissenschaft, 1. Abt., 7. T.; Munich, 1972); Hannah Robert , Greek and Roman calendars: Constructions of time in the Classical world (London, 2005).

See in general Günther Siegmund , “Peter und Philipp Apian, zwei deutsche Mathematiker u. Kartographen: Ein Beitrag zur Gelehrten-Geschichte des XVI. Jahrhunderts”, Abhandlungen der Königl. Böhm. Gesellschaft der Wissenschaften , VI Folge, xi (Mathematische-naturwissenschaftliche Klasse, Nr. 4) (Prague, 1882); Peter Apian: Astronomie, Kosmographie und Mathematik am Beginn der Neuzeit, mit Ausstellungskatalog, ed. by Röttel Karl (Buxheim, 1995).

See e.g. Kusukawa Sachiko , “Leonhart Fuchs on the importance of pictures”, Journal of the history of ideas , lviii (1997), 403–27; Carlino Andrea , Books of the body: Anatomical ritual and Renaissance learning , transl. by Tedeschi John Tedeschi Anne (Chicago and London, 1999).

Apianus Petrus , Astronomicum Caesareum (Ingolstadt, 1540), K I verso: “Quicquid autem hucusque super mensibus annique Atthici principio dictum fuit, hoc totum insequenti diario Luce clarius oculi te docere possunt.”

Kemp Martin , “Temples of the body and temples of the cosmos: Vision and visualisation in the Vesalian and Copernican revolutions”, in Picturing knowledge: Historical and philosophical problems concerning the use of art in science, ed. by Baigrie Brian (Toronto, 1996), 40–85, p. 82, quoted and discussed by Sven Dupré, “Visualization in Renaissance optics: The function of geometrical diagrams and pictures in the transmission of practical knowledge”, in Transmitting knowledge: Words, images and instruments in early modern Europe, ed. by Kusukawa Sachiko Maclean Ian (Oxford, 2006), 11–39.

See Pantin Isabelle , “L'illustration des livres d'astronomie à la Renaissance: L'évolution d'une discipline à travers ses images”, in Immagini per conoscere: Dal Rinascimento alla Rivoluzione Scientifica , ed. by Meroi Fabrizio Pogliano Claudio (Florence, 2001), 3–41; and “Kepler's Epitome: New images for an innovative book”, in Transmitting knowledge, ed. by Kusukawa Maclean (ref. 5), 217–37. On the uses of diagrams see also The power of images in early modern science, ed. by Lefèvre Wolfgang Renn Jürgen Schoepflin Urs (Basel, Boston and Berlin, 2003); Adam Mosley, “Objects of knowledge: Mathematics and models in sixteenth-century cosmology and astronomy”, in Transmitting knowledge, ed. by Kusukawa Maclean (ref. 5), 193–216; and Lüthy Christoph Smets Alexis , “Words, lines, diagrams, images: Towards a history of scientific imagery”, Early science and medicine , xiv (2009), 398–439.

Thucydides also rebukes Nicias for being too given to superstition (7.50.4).

Plutarch , Nicias 23.2–4.

Cf. Grafton Anthony Swerdlow Noel , “Greek chronography in Roman epic: The calendrical date of the fall of Troy in the Aeneid”, Classical quarterly, n.s., xxxvi (1986), 212–18.

On the importance of being able to predict eclipses, see Gingerich Owen , “Astronomy in the age of Columbus”, Scientific American, no. 267 (November 1992), 100–5.

A rich selection of eclipse illustrations appears in the classic work of Murdoch John , Album of science: Antiquity and the Middle Ages (New York, 1984).

Mnster Sebastian , Kalendarium hebraicum (Basel, 1527).

See in general Grafton Anthony Williams Megan , Christianity and the transformation of the book (Cambridge, MA, 2006), chaps. 3–4; and McKitterick Rosamund , Perceptions of the past in the early Middle Ages (Notre Dame, IN, 2006).

Cassiodorus , Institutiones 1.17.1: “Chronica vero, quae sunt imagines historiarum brevissimaeque commemorationes temporum, scripsit graece Eusebius.” See Croke Brian , “The originality of Eusebius's Chronicle”, American journal of philology, ciii (1982), 195–200.

See in general Rosenberg Daniel Grafton Anthony , Cartographies of time (New York, 2010).

Swerdlow Noel Neugebauer Otto , Mathematical astronomy in Copernicus's De revolutionibus (2 vols, New York, Berlin, Heidelberg and Tokyo, 1984), i, 183–8.

Apianus, Astronomicum (ref. 4), J III verso: “Quo videas penitus quidnam ecleipsium cognitio virtutis, praestantiae, utilitatisque in se complectatur, aliquot ante Christum exempla, unde certius quam ex prioribus commodum conspici quaeat, adiungere coactus sum. Nemo ignorat, rerum historiarumque traditores in enumerandis tum mundi, tum urbis conditae annis, tantum non, ut dicitur, coelo ipso excidere. Qui quidem error quantum tenebrarum, ignorantiae, dubii, confusionisque in omni alia historia iudicanda intelligendaque importet, doctorum esto iudicium. Inde enim fit, ut si cuiuspiam rei, memorabilis saltem, lectorem christianum commonefaciant, quae urbem conditam aut praecesserit aut non ita multo post, subsequuta sit, ipsis constare nullo modo possint. Quod quidem tam grande malum, sola ecleipsium cognitio emendare et in melius vertere potest. Per ecleipses enim omnia certos in annos reduci possunt, Christum praecedentes, non minus, quam sequentes. Historicus autem certum semel tempus rei gestae nactus, reliqua per se, tam ante quam retro elapsa gestorum spacia, colligere valet. Quae omnia exempla uberrime patebunt.”

Apianus , Astronomicum (ref. 4), A ii verso: “Inter quae omnia, non ultimum opere precium reor, monstratum a nobis, quo pacto historiarum mendae corrigi debeant, prius a nullo unquam dictum, neque animadversum, quae res quantum momenti habeat, ille demum videbit, qui quid historiarum ordo in rebus humanis queat, perpendet.”

Grafton Anthony Swerdlow Noel , “Technical chronology and astrological history in Varro, Censorinus and others”, Classical quarterly, n.s., xxxv (1985), 454–65.

North John , Horoscopes and history (London, 1986).

The notice in the Chronicle of Eusebius/Jerome (dated to AM 4782 = Ol. 90, 2 in the Paris editions of 1512 and 1518, 67 verso) reads: “Clades quae Atheniensibus accidit in Sicilia”.

Roger Bacon had called for a reform of chronology on the basis of astronomical data, which will be discussed by Philipp Nothaft in a forthcoming study. In a larger sense, the many astrologers who drew correlations between celestial portents, including great conjunctions of Jupiter and Saturn as well as eclipses, and events on earth also needed to be able to connect heavenly and earthly chronologies.

Eusebius Jerome , Chronici canones , ed. by Fotheringham John Knight (London, 1923), 253: “Defectio solis facta et Augustus LXXVI aetatis suae anno Atellae in Campania moritur sepeliturque Romae in campo Martio.”

Paul of Middleburg , Paulina de recta paschae celebratione: Et de die passionis domini nostri Jesu Christi (Fossombrone, 1513), T ii verso: “sed si iuxta usitatam annorum domini computationem ad transacta tempora retrocedere velimus, nullam solis eclipsim Romae factam inveniemus eo anno quo chronographus praefatus Augustum vita functum meminit, neque sequenti anno eclipsim aliquam factam comperiemus, neque praecedentibus annis eclipsis aliqua insignis facta fuit, sed tertio anno sequente videlicet anno domini salvatoris iuxta consuetam supputationem. 17. maximam solis eclipsim factam inveniemus, in qua totus sol Romae et in plurimis Italiae regionibus visus fuit obscurari die Februarii quintadecima, hora fere meridiana.”

Paul of Middelburg , Paulina (ref. 24), T ii verso: “constat certe Eusebium et historiographos de hac duntaxat eclipsi scripsisse, cum maxima extiterit, adeo quod sole prope meridianum existente tenebrae obortae fuerint, neque proximis annis eclipsis aliqua insignis facta fuit, quae a chronographis memoriae commendari meruerit. mos enim historiographis atque chronographis esse solet illas duntaxat eclipses solares in annales referre et annotare, in quibus totus sol a visu nostro occultatur et absconditur, adeo ut interdiu astra caeli stellati videri et numerari possint, quales raro admodum contingunt.”

For a refutation of an earlier version see de Rivo Petrus , Tractatus III de anno die et feria dominice passionis et resurrectionis (Louvain, 1492), III.8, e 3 recto – e 4 recto.

See Inscriptiones sacrosanctae vetustatis , ed. by Apianus P. Amantius B. (Ingolstadt, 1534), p. ccxiv: “Obeliscus in Vaticano iuxta Basilicam B. Petri non Iulia vocitatur, sed ex Aegypto Caii Principis iussu abductus, ut scribit Ioan. Tor. in altitudine brachia habet 45. latitudine in fundo cuiuslibet quadri brach. 4. cum dimidio, in summitate vero brach. 2. cum dimidio.” Cf. Epigrammata antiquae urbis, ed. by Mazzocchi Jacopo (Rome, 1521), X verso: “In Obelisco qui nunc dicitur Iulia. S. Petri in Vaticano.” For Apianus's and Amantius's antiquarian work and its context see Wood Christopher , Forgery, replica, fiction: Temporalities of German Renaissance art (Chicago, 2008).

Inscriptiones , ed. by Apianus Amantius (ref. 27), [cccccxviii], commenting on a statue of a bearded and tattooed barbarian wearing a shawl over his shoulders, and a loincloth: “Cuius haec sit effigies, ne divinare quidem licuit, et quamvis diu ad hanc rem cogitaverimus, quapropter tuo iudicio o Lector subiicimus, etsi ignoremus tamen apposuisse nihil nocet, quod gratum sit videre et intelligere morem vetustae vestis et indumenti germanorum, quibuscunque hominibus, qui saltem veterum monumentis oblectari solent.”

Reinhold Erasmus , Prutenicae tabulae coelestium motuum (Tübingen, 1551), I, includes a discussion of the Egyptian, Julian and Muslim calendars, 20 verso − 22 verso; of how to convert any given day in a Julian year, b.c. or a.d., to a day in an Egyptian year, 22 verso − 23 verso; how to convert any given day in an Egyptian year to a Julian date, 23 verso − 24 recto; and how to identify the weekday of any given day in a Julian year, 24 recto − 25 verso. Part II includes tables for converting Julian into Egyptian dates and vice versa. The British Library copy (C.113.c.7) contains notes taken at Reinhold's lectures, beginning, according to a note on the title page, on 19 October 1551.

Wilken Robert , The Christians as the Romans saw them , 2nd edn (New Haven, 2003), 41–4.

See Grafton Anthony Swerdlow Noel , “Calendar dates and ominous days in ancient historiography”, Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, li (1988), 14–42.

Reinhold , Tabulae (ref. 29), 22 recto, writes: “Olympiadum anni sunt Lunares ad Solis tamen cursum utcunque accommodati, quorum initium Attico more semper a meridie primi diei Hecatombaeonis et conversione Solis aestiva proficiscitur.” A marginal note in British Library C.113.c.7, probably recording a comment from his lectures, explains that “Olympiadum anni” are “Graeci vel Atheniensium”. Beyond that he does not seem to have gone.

Anastos Milton , “Pletho's calendar and liturgy”, Dumbarton Oaks papers, iv (1948), 183–305.

Botley Paul , “Renaissance scholarship and the Athenian calendar”, Greek, Roman and Byzantine studies, xlvi (2006), 395–431.

Grafton Swerdlow , “Calendar days” (ref. 31), 38.

Aristotle , Historia animalium 579a25; Pliny , Naturalis historia 8.54.126.

Verderame Lorenzo Polcaro V. F. Valsecchi G. B. , “The Gaugamela battle eclipse: An archaeoastronomical analysis”, Mediterranean archaeology, viii/2 (2008), 55–64.

Reinhold , Tabulae (ref. 29), II, 142 recto, offers a “Catalogus in quo insignium et memorabilium rerum gestarum intervalla, Iulianis annis descripta, proponuntur”. The eras of the Alfonsine tables follow on 142 verso −143 recto, but Reinhold warns, on 142 recto: “Sequitur Canon aerarum Alphonsi ex ipsius sententia correctus, etsi a vera historia multis in partibus plurimum discrepat” — A warning that, had it been made just over a decade earlier, could have saved Apianus considerable time and effort.

Apianus , Astronomicum (ref. 4), [J IV recto]: “Sed quaeso cuinam horum potius fidas? Alfonso ne? verum hic suae computationis rationem nullibi manifestam producit. Eusebio ne? qui historias tam accurata sequela connectit, ut incredibile sit eum posse tot annis, nimirum 12 falli, tribus tamen annis idem Eusebius quoque excidit, quos per incuriam omissos, ut veri simile est, ego dubio procul omni recte cognovi.”

Apianus , Astronomicum (ref. 4), [J IV recto]: “Verum rem utut se habeat, iudicare longius desino, cum instituti praesentis non sit, historias ad plenum emendare, sed viam tantummodo aliquam ad illud conficiendum indicare et praestruere. Olim, si Deus vitam concesserit, historias ex integro retractaturi, ecleipsiumque rationibus vere firmaturi sumus, ubi et hanc et alias iterabimus.”

See Grafton Anthony , Joseph Scaliger (2 vols, Oxford 1983–93), ii.

Eber Paul , Calendarium historicum conscriptum a Paulo Ebero Kitthingensi (Wittenberg, 1550).

For an example see Tolosani Giovanni Maria , Opusculum de emendationibus temporum (Venice, 1537), 112 recto – verso. Tolosani wrote under the pseudonym Johannes Lucidus Samotheus, which was exposed by Rosen Edward , “Was Copernicus's Revolutions approved by the Pope?”, Journal of the history of ideas , xxxvi (1975), 531–42.

Reinhold , Tabulae (ref. 29), 23 recto: “Supra autem dixi retro ante Christum et C. Caesarem cogitandum esse usum anni Iuliani, ita ut omnium temporum historias ad eum referamus, propterea quod inter civiles annos videtur huic negocio potissimum convenire.” A comment ad loc. in the British Library copy, C.113.c.7, underlines his statement: “Vsus anni Iuliani retro etiam ante Christum et Caesarem cogitandus est.”

See Roeck Bernd , Eine Stadt in Krieg und Frieden: Studien zur Geschichte der Reichsstadt Augsburg zwischen Kalenderstreit und Parität (Göttingen, 1989); Cressy David , Bonfires and bells: National memory and the Protestant calendar in Elizabethan and Stuart England (London, 1989); and Engammare Max , L'ordre du temps: L'invention de la ponctualité au XVIe siècle (Geneva, 2004).

E.g. Smail Daniel , On deep history and the brain (Berkeley, 2008).