The Calendar (42 page)
To recount Britain’s reform of the calendar I used a number of primary sources, including British state papers from the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, and for the 1750s; and several newspapers and pamphlets from England and the American colonies from 1751-1753
The Gentleman’s Magazine
also provides detailed and entertaining accounts of the reform effort in the 1580s and in 1752. See the issues from March 1751; April 1751; and September 1752. Also see an informative little booklet by H. Dagnall, ‘Give Us Back Our Eleven Days: An Account of the Change from the Old Style to the New Style Calendar in Great Britain in 1752,’ (published by the author, Queensbury, UK, 1991).
For profiles of major characters I read each subject’s original works, plus biographies, articles and biographic citations from encyclopedias and biographical dictionaries. For Roger Bacon the secondary sources included Stewart C. Easton,
Roger Bacon and His Search for Universal Science
(Russel and Russel, 1971); Winthrop F. Woodruff,
Roger Bacon, A Biography
(James Clark & Co., 1938); and Lynn Thorndike, ‘The True Roger Bacon’,
The American Historical Review,
vol. XXI no. 3, January and February, 1916. On Copernicus I read Angus Armitage’s
The World of Copernicus
(E.P. Publishing, Ltd., 1972). On Lord Chesterfield: Colin Franklin,
Lord Chesterfield: His Character and Characters
(Scholar Press, 1993). On Christopher Clavius and sixteenth century Roman intellectual life: Janies M. Lattis,
Between Copernicus and Galileo: Christoph Clavius and the Collapse of Ptolemaic Cosmology
(University of Chicago Press, 1994). Onjohn Dee: Richard Deacon,
John Dee: Scientist, Astrologer, and Secret Agent to Elizabeth I
(Frederick Muller, 1968) and William H. Sherman,
John Dee, The Politics of Reading and Writing in the English Renaissance
(University of Massachusetts Press, 1995). On Julius Caesar: J.F.C. Fuller,
Julius Caesar
(Da Capo Press, 1965) and Christian Meier,
Caesar
(Basic Books, 1982). On Constantine: Michael Grant,
Constantine the Great
(Scribner’s, 1993). On Bede: Charles Jones,
Bede, the Schools and the Computus
(Variorium, 1994).
Acknowledgements
Words cannot express my thanks to my family for putting up with me for months on end working late at night and on weekends to write this book: my beautiful and understanding wife Laura; my children Sander, Danielle and Alex. My dad, who read the manuscript and was a great help and inspiration. And my mother, who has always been my most enthusiastic supporter.
A warm thanks to Stephen Power, an extraordinary editor who asked me to write this book, somehow knowing it would be a delight for me and a wondrous learning experience. To Mel Berger, who has always believed in me and encouraged me: he is the greatest agent I know of. Thanks to Marcie Posner, globetrotting agent at William Morris, and Claudia Cross. And also to Sue Warga, copy editor with no peer, and master of a thousand details. In Britain, thanks to my agent Stephanie Cabot.
Thanks to Polly Bart, an extraordinary researcher and friend; and my assistant Tanya Vlach, who leapt into the fray at the end to help get the book out the door.
A number of scholars and advisers helped me attempt to understand and get right the history and facts represented in this text. Thanks to my old friend Steve Vicchio and other expert readers: Anthony Aveni, Richard Landes, Tom Settle, Rick McCarty and Steve Dick. I also appreciate the help of the librarians and researchers at the Library of Congress, the British Library in London, the Vatican Library in Rome and the Milton S. Eisenhower Library at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore. Also thanks to Richard Hansen, David Joyce, Clive Priddle, Brett Robertson, the US Naval Observatory and the Royal Observatory in Greenwich. And to Richard Harris, Tom Bettag and the staff at ABC Nightline, and the staff in the Washington and Rome bureaux of ABC News.
Table of Contents
1 A Lone Genius Proclaims The Truth About Time
6 Monks Dream While Counting on Their Fingers
8 The Strange Journey of 365.242199
9 From the House of Wisdom to Darkest Europe
10 Latinorum Penuria (The Poverty of the Latins)
