On Fri, May 1, 2009 at 4:21 AM, Palmen, KEV (Karl)
<
karl.palmen@...> wrote:
> Why the difference between the 9 and 11 days? This is because an
> inaccurate equinox date of 21 March Julian Calendar (from Ptolemy) was
> used at the Council of Nicea.
This reminds me of a related issue...
I've read that Caesar/Sisogenes intended the equinoxes and solstices
to fall on the 25th of their respective months, but that seems to be
an inference from Christmas (and Lady Day, but that's not a separate
data point since it's derived from Christmas...). It also implies
that someone was bad at math, since the calendar as implemented had
the spring equinox falling usually on March 23rd for the first century
of its inception...
So what was the goal of the calendar's design? Given the Year of
Confusion, there was obviously a concerted effort to bring the Julian
calendar into alignment with the seasons, but what were the reference
points?
--
Mark J. Reed <
markjreed@...>
