Actually, Inter gravissimas does not assume that everyone already knows how years are numbered because there were still a variety of ways of numbering years when it was issued. The AD convention seemed to first be used in chapter IV of Bede's ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. In chapters 1-3 for dates before the AD period, Bede used years since Rome's founding, although in chapter 2 he relates such a date to "ante vero incarnations Dominicae tempus anno sexagesimo" [60 years before the incarnation of the Lord].
Bede was a huge fan of Dionysius Exiguus, even writing a hymn in his honor. The AD/BC distinction as we know it seems to come into use with Dominicus Petavius' OPUS DE DOCTRINA TEMPORUM in 1627--after the Gregorian reform. Petavius seemed to set a trend that other chronologists of the period, such as Bishop Ussher, adopted. I find THE MEASURE OF TIMES PAST by Donald Wilcox very useful in discussing the emergence of various chronologies. C. R. Cheney's HANDBOOK OF DATES FOR STUDENTS OF ENGLISH HISTORY is useful in getting sense of the variety of chronological representations. As an aside, Inter gravissimas only reset the calendar in reference to 325 AD (the Nicene Council) rather than 1 AD. This is because the calculation of Dionysius Exiguus on the date of Jesus' birth was doubted by serious chronologists even as it was de facto accepted within the church. Cheers, Kevin Kevin K. Birth, Professor Department of Anthropology Queens College, City University of New York 65-30 Kissena Boulevard Flushing, NY 11367 telephone: 718/997-5518 "We may live longer but we may be subject to peculiar contagion and spiritual torpor or illiteracies of the imagination" --Wilson Harris "Tempus est mundi instabilis motus, rerumque labentium cursus." --Hrabanus Maurus On 1/15/14 5:38 AM, "Clive D.W. Feather" <[email protected]> wrote: >Greg Hennessy said: >> Dennis McCarthy once forwarded me an english translation of the >> Inter gravissimas, > > >http://www.bluewaterarts.com/calendar/NewInterGravissimas.htm > >> and it is utterly silent as to what to call the >> year before 1 AD. > >Indeed, it says nothing about how years are numbered, but assumes everyone >already knows. > >-- >Clive D.W. Feather | If you lie to the compiler, >Email: [email protected] | it will get its revenge. >Web: http://www.davros.org | - Henry Spencer >Mobile: +44 7973 377646 >_______________________________________________ >LEAPSECS mailing list >[email protected] >http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs _______________________________________________ LEAPSECS mailing list [email protected] http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/leapsecs
