Scandalous Error : Calendar Reform and Calendrical Astronomy in Medieval Europe

The Gregorian calendar reform of 1582, which provided the basis for the civil and Western ecclesiastical calendars still in use today, has often been seen as a triumph of early modern scientific culture or an expression of papal ambition in the wake of the Counter-Reformation. Much less attention has been paid to reform's intellectual roots in the European Middle Ages, when the reckoning of time by means of calendrical cycles was a topic of central importance to learned culture, as impressively documented by the survival of relevant texts and tables in thousands of manuscripts copied before 1500. For centuries prior to the Gregorian reform, astronomers, mathematicians, theologians, and even Church councils had been debating the necessity of improving or emending the existing ecclesiastical calendar, which throughout the Middle Ages kept losing touch with the astronomical phenomena at an alarming pace. Scandalous Error is the first comprehensive study of the medieval literature devoted to the calendar problem and its cultural and scientific contexts. It examines how the importance of ordering liturgical time by means of a calendar that comprised both solar and lunar components posed a technical-astronomical problem to medieval society and details the often sophisticated ways in which computists and churchmen reacted to this challenge. By drawing attention to the numerous connecting paths that existed between calendars and mathematical astronomy between the Fall of Rome and the end of the fifteenth century, the volume offers substantial new insights on the place of exact science in medieval culture. The Gregorian calendar reform of 1582, which provides the basis for the present-day Western civil calendar, has often been portrayed as a triumph of early modern scientific culture and an expression of papal ambition in the wake of the Counter-Reformation. Much less attention has been paid to our calendar’s intellectual and material roots in the European Middle Ages, when the reckoning of time by means of calendrical cycles was a topic of central importance to education and learned culture. For centuries prior to the Gregorian reform, astronomers, mathematicians, theologians, and even Church councils had been debating the necessity of improving or emending the existing ecclesiastical calendar, which throughout the Middle Ages kept growing out of sync with the astronomical phenomena at an alarming pace. __Scandalous Error__ uses a broad base of sources, many of them unpublished or previously unknown, to paint the first full-scale survey of the medieval debate surrounding the calendar and its astronomical underpinnings. The First Comprehensive Study On The History Of Calendar Reform And Calendrical Astronomy In Medieval Europe, This Volume Draws On A Range Of Sources Over A Period Of More Than 1600 Years, From The Julian Calendar Of 46/45 Bc To The Gregorian Calendar Reform Of 1582, To Shed New Light On The Place Of Astronomy In Medieval Intellectual Culture. The Julian Calendar And The Problem Of The Equinoxes In The Early Middle Ages -- The Ecclesiastical Lunar Calendar And Its Critics, 300-1100 -- Calendrical Astronomy In The Twelfth Century -- The Consolidation Of A Calendar-reform Debate In The Thirteenth Century -- Astronomers And The Calendar, 1290-1500 -- The Papal Reform Project Of 1344/5 And Its Protagonists -- Church Councils And The Question Of Easter In The Fifteenth Century -- The Harvest Of Medieval Calendar Reform. C. Philipp E. Nothaft. Includes Bibliographical References (pages 305-347) And Index. A comprehensive study on the history of calendar reform and calendrical astronomy in medieval Europe, this volume draws on a range of sources over a period of more than 1600 years, from the Julian calendar of 46/45 BC to the Gregorian calendar reform of 1582, to shed new light on the place of astronomy in medieval intellectual culture