At 08:56 AM 10/26/98 EST5EDT, you wrote:
>Dear listmembers,
>
>We are all familiar with Dionysius Exiguus, who in the sixth century
>calculated the year of Christ's birth, and was at least 4 years off.
>Since then, the "real" Anno Domini is actually 4 BC, or even earlier.
>When i discussed this with my class this week, I received a question
>I could not answer:
>When did people discover the mistake ?
>My guess is in the Renaissance, but does anyone know for sure ??
i shd know this and don't. but let me point out a couple of things.
first, contemporaries already knew the DE's AD was two years off from
eusebius-jerome's date for the incarnation (so whitby in 664 is really 666
by the world chronicle that prevailed before bede). second, no one seems
to have objected to DE or Bede's AD until the late 10th cn, when Abbo
claimed a 21-year error (based on calendrical concerns about the passion
having to happen on friday march 25 = date of man's creation), which, in
983 when Abbo published his finding made it 1004; or Heriger of Lobbes
objections that he was 7 years off earlier (something like our current
"corrections".
this 4-year problem is partly due to roman chronology, partly to
identifying the 'star of bethlehem" with some astronomical activity
(conjunction). but none of this carries any serious weight. we just don't
know about the date of the central event in the memory system of the modern
west. almost enuf to give one pomo shivers, no?
rlandes
Richard Landes
Department of History Center for Millennial Studies at Boston University
Boston University Boston University
226 Bay State Road 704 Commonwealth Ave. Suite 205
Boston MA 02215 Boston MA 02215
617-353-2558 (of) 617-358-0226 (tel)
617-353-2781 (fax) 617-358-0225 (fax)
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http://www.mille.org
"Every millennium has the Apocalypse it deserves." -- Umberto Eco in
Keynote Address to the "Apocalyptic Year 1000" Conference (11-96)
"Every generation gets the millennium it deserves." -- Richard Landes
remembering Umberto Eco's address (8-98)
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