The Calendar: The 5000-year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens - and what Happened to the Missing Ten DaysMeasuring the daily and yearly cycle of the cosmos has never been entirely straightforward. The year 2000 is alternatively the year 2544 (Buddhist), 6236 (Ancient Egyptian), 5761 (Jewish) or simply the Year of the Dragon (Chinese). The story of the creation of the Western calendar, which is related in this book, is a story of emperors and popes, mathematicians and monks, and the growth of scientific calculation to the point where, bizarrely, our measurement of time by atomic pulses is now more accurate than time itself: the Earth is an elderly lady and slightly eccentric - she loses half a second a century. Days have been invented (Julius Caesar needed an extra 80 days in 46BC), lost (Pope Gregory XIII ditched ten days in 1582) and moved (because Julius Caesar had 31 in his month, Augustus determined that he should have the same, so he pinched one from February). |
Contents
A Lone Genius Proclaims the Truth About Time I | 1 |
Temptress of Time | 10 |
Caesar Embraces the Sun | 29 |
Copyright | |
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The Calendar: The 5000-year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens ... David Ewing Duncan No preview available - 1999 |
Common terms and phrases
according accurate al-Battani al-Khwarizmi Alexandria Aloysius Lilius ancient Arab Aryabhata astronomer Augustine Baghdad became Bede Bede's began bishop Brahmagupta Britain Caesar Caesar's calendar calculations calen calendar commission calendar reform called Cassiodorus Catholic celebrate century Charlemagne Christ Christian Christopher Clavius Church Clavius computus Constantine Copernicus council culture cycle Dionysius drift earlier early earth Easter Egypt Egyptian emperor empire equinox error Europe Europeans feast Greek Gregorian calendar Gregory Hindu holy ideas Indian intellectual Islamic Italy Julian calendar kalends king later Latin leap learning length Lilius Lilius's lived lunar calendar March mathematician mathematics Maya measure medieval Middle Ages minutes monastery monks months moon Moslem named Nicaea pagan political pope positional notation priests Ptolemy reason reckoning religious Roger Bacon Roman Rome Rome's rules saints scholars solar Spain stars Sunday sundial symbols tropical true universe water clock writing wrote zero