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This is an old revision of this page, as edited by 156.61.19.39 (talk) at 11:06, 30 January 2008 (You're right that AD168 doesn't say exactly which day was intercalated so can be discounted.How do you square the fact that the church always intercalated on 24 February with your views?). The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

The Julian calendar was a reform of the Roman calendar which was introduced by Julius Caesar in 46 BC and came into force in 45 BC (709 ab urbe condita). It was chosen after consultation with the astronomer Sosigenes of Alexandria and was probably designed to approximate the tropical year, known at least since Hipparchus. It has a regular year of 365 days divided into 12 months, and a leap day is added to February every four years. Hence the Julian year is on average 365.25 days long.

The Julian calendar remained in use into the 20th century in some countries as a national calendar, but it has generally been replaced by the modern Gregorian calendar. It is still used by the Berber people of North Africa and by many national Orthodox churches. Orthodox Churches no longer using the Julian calendar typically use the Revised Julian calendar rather than the Gregorian calendar.

The notation "Old Style" (OS) is sometimes used to indicate a date in the Julian calendar, as opposed to "New Style" (NS), which either represents the Julian date with the start of the year as 1 January or a full mapping onto the Gregorian calendar.

Motivation

The ordinary year in the previous Roman calendar consisted of 12 months, for a total of 355 days. In addition, a 27 or 28-day intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, was sometimes inserted between February and March. This intercalary month was formed by inserting 22 or 23 days after the first 23 days of February, the last five days of February becoming the last five days of Intercalaris. The net effect was to add 22 or 23 days to the year, forming an intercalary year of 377 or 378 days.

According to the later writers Censorinus and Macrobius, the ideal intercalary cycle consisted of ordinary years of 355 days alternating with intercalary years, alternately 377 and 378 days long. On this system, the average Roman year would have had 366¼ days over four years, giving it an average drift of one day per year relative to any solstice or equinox. Macrobius describes a further refinement wherein, for 8 years out of 24, there were only three intercalary years, each of 377 days. This refinement averages the length of the year to 365¼ days over 24 years. In practice, intercalations did not occur schematically according to these ideal systems, but were determined by the pontifices. So far as can be determined from the historical evidence, they were much less regular than these ideal schemes suggest. They usually occurred every second or third year, but were sometimes omitted for much longer, and occasionally occurred in two consecutive years.

If managed correctly this system allowed the Roman year, on average, to stay roughly aligned to a tropical year. However, if too many intercalations were omitted, as happened after the Second Punic War and during the Civil Wars, the calendar would drift rapidly out of alignment with the tropical year. Moreover, since intercalations were often determined quite late, the average Roman citizen often did not know the date, particularly if he were some distance from the city. For these reasons, the last years of the pre-Julian calendar were later known as "years of confusion". The problems became particularly acute during the years of Julius Caesar's pontificate before the reform, 63 to 46 BC, when there were only five intercalary months, whereas there should have been eight, and none at all during the five Roman years before 46 BC.

Some modern authors claim that in addition to the intercalary month which was inserted into February there were also intercalary days. There is no agreement as to where these might have been positioned, and it should be noted that the Roman dating system makes it impossible for February to have more than 23 days in a year which includes Intercalaris. For an explanation of the Roman dating system see the article Roman calendar. In a normal February, dates after the Ides were expressed in the form "a.d. .. Kal. Mart." In an intercalary year dates in this form fell after the Ides of Intercalaris. Because of the communication problem referred to above Romans were in the habit of dating February dates after the Ides in the form "a.d. .. ." The latest festival used for the purpose was the Terminalia, which fell on 23 February.

Capriciously adding days to a calendar is a recipe for chaos, especially if its users are far flung and communication between them is poor. There is no evidence that anyone has ever done it. Isolated references in ancient authors appear to refer to the insertion of Intercalaris, mentioning the inclusion of this month or an intercalation on the day this month began. A possible alternative interpretation is that they relate to an interruption to the cycle of nundinae (see the article Roman calendar) designed to prevent a market day falling on a particular religious festival. If the latter explanation were correct, however, one would expect some of these intercalations to fall in months other than February.

Some modern authors claim that Intercalaris always had 27 days, i.e. the lengths of all the months were fixed. Such an arrangement would be unique in a calendar designed to keep pace with the sun. The claim is apparently based on the fact that the sole surviving pre-reform calendar depicts Intercalaris with 27 days. This is like deducing from a calendar for 2007, in which February has 28 days, that it is not going to have 29 in 2008. Also, the ancient writers say that Intercalaris did sometimes have 28 days.

The reform was intended to correct the problem permanently, by creating a calendar that remained aligned to the sun without any human intervention.

Julian reform

The first step of the reform was to realign the start of the calendar year (1 January) to the tropical year by making 46 BC 445 days long, compensating for the intercalations which had been missed during Caesar's pontificate. This year had already been extended from 355 to 378 days by the insertion of a regular intercalary month in February. When Caesar decreed the reform, probably shortly after his return from the African campaign in late Quintilis (July), he added 67 (= 22 + 23 + 22) more days by inserting two extraordinary intercalary months between November and December. These months are called Intercalaris Prior and Intercalaris Posterior in letters of Cicero written at the time; there is no basis for the statement sometimes seen that they were called "Unodecember" and "Duodecember". Their individual lengths are unknown, as is the position of the Nones and the Ides within them. Because 46 BC was the last of a series of irregular years, this extra-long year was, and is, referred to as the "last year of confusion". The first year of operation of the new calendar was 45 BC.

The Julian months were formed by adding ten days to a regular pre-Julian Roman year of 355 days, creating a regular Julian year of 365 days: Two extra days were added to Ianuarius, Sextilis (Augustus) and December, and one extra day was added to Aprilis, Iunius, September and November, setting the lengths of the months to the values they still hold today:

Macrobius states that the extra days were added immediately before the last day of each month to avoid disturbing the position of the established Roman fasti (days prescribed for certain events) relative to the start of the month. However, since Roman dates after the Ides of the month counted down towards the start of the next month, the extra days had the effect of raising the initial value of the count of the day after the Ides. Romans of the time born after the Ides of a month responded differently to the effect of this change on their birthdays. Mark Antony kept his birthday on the 14th day of Ianuarius, which changed its date from a.d. XVII Kal. Feb. to a.d. XIX Kal. Feb., a date that had previously not existed. Livia kept the date of her birthday unchanged at a.d. III Kal. Feb., which moved it from the 28th to the 30th day of Ianuarius, a day that had previously not existed. Augustus kept his on the 23rd day of September, but both the old date (a.d. VIII Kal. Oct.) and the new (a.d. IX Kal. Oct.) were celebrated in some places.

The old intercalary month was abolished. The new leap day was inserted, like the intercalary month it replaced, immediately after 23 February. The two days a.d. VI Kal. Mart. posteriorem and a.d. VI Kal. Mart. priorem were considered as two halves of a single 48-hour calendar day. During the late Middle Ages when days in the month came to be numbered in consecutive day order, the leap day was considered to be the last day in February in leap years, i.e. February 29.

In 2008 Bennett theorised that, at an unknown date after the Julian reform, the leap day was moved to immediately follow 24 February. At an unknown date not later than the second century it was moved back again. This story mirrors the one about Caesar reducing the length of October from 31 to 31 days and Augustus adding the day back 36 years later. This begs two questions: why would Caesar shorten October when he had ten extra days to distribute among the months, and why would Augustus change it again so soon. Remember, every calendar change causes massive disruption, because it causes days to appear and/or disappear. The story does not ring true, and after investigation it was indeed found to be false. Not only does Bennett's hypothesis not ring true, there is cogent evidence that it is wrong.

The church, which was founded within a century of the reform, intercalated immediately after 23 February from the start. It is inherently implausible that church and state would have intercalated on different days. Again, what would have been the point of changing twice within a very few years? As with the October story, the fact that things ended up as they started out suggests that there was never any change. Bennett's hypothesis probably stems from a misinterpretation of an inscription of the year AD 168, which states that a temple was dedicated on the fifth of the calends of March of that year, which followed the bissextum. The bissextum was 24 February, so dates up to and including 23 February preceded it and dates from and including 25 February followed it. The dedication took place on 26 February.

Leap year error

Although the new calendar was much simpler than the pre-Julian calendar, the pontifices apparently misunderstood the algorithm for leap years. They added a leap day every three years, instead of every four years. According to Macrobius, the error was the result of counting inclusively, so that the four-year cycle was considered as including both the first and fourth years. This resulted in too many leap days. Augustus remedied this discrepancy after 36 years by restoring the correct frequency. He also skipped several leap days in order to realign the year.

The historic sequence of leap years in this period is not given explicitly by any ancient source, although the existence of the triennial leap year cycle is confirmed by an inscription that dates from 9 or 8 BC. The chronologist Joseph Scaliger established in 1583 that the Augustan reform was instituted in 8 BC, and inferred that the sequence of leap years was 42, 39, 36, 33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12, 9 BC, AD 8, 12 etc. This proposal is still the most widely accepted solution. It has sometimes been suggested that there was an additional bissextile day in the first year of the Julian reform, i.e. that 45 BC was also a leap year.

Other solutions have been proposed from time to time. Kepler proposed in 1614 that the correct sequence of leap years was 43, 40, 37, 34, 31, 28, 25, 22, 19, 16, 13, 10 BC, AD 8, 12 etc. In 1883 the German chronologist Matzat proposed 44, 41, 38, 35, 32, 29, 26, 23, 20, 17, 14, 11 BC, AD 4, 8, 12 etc., based on a passage in Dio Cassius that mentions a leap day in 41 BC that was said to be contrary to (Caesar's) rule. In the 1960s Radke argued the reform was actually instituted when Augustus became pontifex maximus in 12 BC, suggesting the sequence 45, 42, 39, 36, 33, 30, 27, 24, 21, 18, 15, 12 BC, AD 4, 8, 12 etc. With all these solutions, except that of Radke, the Roman calendar was not finally aligned to the Julian calendar of later times until 26 February (a.d. V Kal. Mar.) AD 4. On Radke's solution, the two calendars were aligned on 26 February 1 BC.

In 1999, an Egyptian papyrus was published that gives an ephemeris table for 24 BC with both Roman and Egyptian dates. From this it can be shown that the most likely sequence was in fact 44, 41, 38, 35, 32, 29, 26, 23, 20, 17, 14, 11, 8 BC, AD 4, 8, 12 etc, very close to that proposed by Matzat. This sequence shows that the standard Julian leap year sequence began in AD 4, the 12th year of the Augustan reform, and that the Roman calendar was finally aligned to the Julian calendar in 1 BC, as in Radke's model. The Roman year also coincided with the proleptic Julian year between 32 and 26 BC. This suggests that one aim of the realignment portion of the Augustan reform was to ensure that key dates of his career, notably the fall of Alexandria on 1 August 30 BC, were unaffected by his correction.

Roman dates before 32 BC were typically a day or two before the day with the same Julian date, so 1 January in the Roman calendar of the first year of the Julian reform was 31 December 46 BC (Julian date). A curious effect of this is that Caesar's assassination on the Ides (15th day) of March fell on 14 March 44 BC in the Julian calendar.

Month names

Immediately after the Julian reform, the twelve months of the Roman calendar were named Ianuarius, Februarius, Martius, Aprilis, Maius, Iunius, Quintilis, Sextilis, September, October, November, and December, just as they were before the reform. The old intercalary month, the Mensis Intercalaris, was abolished and replaced with a single intercalary day at the same point (i.e. five days before the end of Februarius). The first month of the year continued to be Ianuarius, as it had been since 153 BC.

The Romans later renamed months after Julius Caesar and Augustus, renaming Quintilis (originally, "the fifth month", with March = month 1) as Iulius (July) in 44 BC and Sextilis ("sixth month") as Augustus (August) in 8 BC. Quintilis was renamed to honour Caesar because it was the month of his birth. According to a senatus consultum quoted by Macrobius, Sextilis was renamed to honour Augustus because several of the most significant events in his rise to power, culminating in the fall of Alexandria, fell in that month.

Other months were renamed by other emperors, but apparently none of the later changes survived their deaths. Caligula renamed September ("seventh month") as Germanicus; Nero renamed Aprilis (April) as Neroneus, Maius (May) as Claudius and Iunius (June) as Germanicus; and Domitian renamed September as Germanicus and October ("eighth month") as Domitianus. At other times, September was also renamed as Antoninus and Tacitus, and November ("ninth month") was renamed as Faustina and Romanus. Commodus was unique in renaming all twelve months after his own adopted names (January to December): Amazonius, Invictus, Felix, Pius, Lucius, Aelius, Aurelius, Commodus, Augustus, Herculeus, Romanus, and Exsuperatorius.

Much more lasting than the ephemeral month names of the post-Augustan Roman emperors were the names introduced by Charlemagne. He renamed all of the months agriculturally into Old High German. They were used until the 15th century, and with some modifications until the late 18th century in Germany and in the Netherlands (January through December): Wintarmanoth (winter month), Hornung (the month when the male red deer sheds its antlers), Lentzinmanoth (Lent month), Ostarmanoth (Easter month), Wonnemanoth (love-making month), Brachmanoth (plowing month), Heuvimanoth (hay month), Aranmanoth (harvest month), Witumanoth (wood month), Windumemanoth (vintage month), Herbistmanoth (autumn/harvest month), and Heilagmanoth (holy month).

Month lengths

The Julian reform set the lengths of the months to their modern values. A wall painting of a Roman calendar predating the Julian reform has survived, which confirms that the lengths of the months were precisely as the ancient writers describe them. The lengths of the months as Julius Caesar set them are corroborated by seasonal lengths given by Varro, writing in 37 BC, before the Augustan reform, with the 31-day Sextilis given by the new Egyptian papyrus from 24 BC, and with the 28-day February shown in the Fasti Caeretani, which is dated before 12 BC.

Year numbering

The dominant method that the Romans used to identify a year for dating purposes was to name it after the two consuls who took office in it. Since 153 BC, they had taken office on 1 January, and Julius Caesar did not change the beginning of the year. Thus this consular year was an eponymous or named year. In addition to consular years, the Romans sometimes used the regnal year of the emperor, and by the late fourth century documents were also being dated according to the 15-year cycle of the indiction. In 537, Justinian required that henceforth the date must include the name of the emperor and his regnal year, in addition to the indiction and the consul, while also allowing the use of local eras.

In 309 and 310, and from time to time thereafter, no consuls were appointed. When this happened, the consular date was given a count of years since the last consul (so-called "post-consular" dating). After 541, only the reigning emperor held the consulate, typically for only one year in his reign, and so post-consular dating became the norm. Similar post-consular dates were also known in the West in the early 6th century. The system of consular dating, long obsolete, was formally abolished in the law code of Leo VI, issued in 888.

Only rarely did the Romans number the year from the founding of the city (of Rome), ab urbe condita (AUC). This method was used by Roman historians to determine the number of years from one event to another, not to date a year. Different historians had several different dates for the founding. The Fasti Capitolini, an inscription containing an official list of the consuls which was published by Augustus, used an epoch of 752 BC. The epoch used by Varro, 753 BC, has been adopted by modern historians. Indeed, Renaissance editors often added it to the manuscripts that they published, giving the false impression that the Romans numbered their years. Most modern historians tacitly assume that it began on the day the consuls took office, and ancient documents such as the Fasti Capitolini which use other AUC systems do so in the same way. However, Censorinus, writing in the 3rd century AD, states that, in his time, the AUC year began with the Parilia, celebrated on 21 April, which was regarded as the actual anniversary of the foundation of Rome. Because the festivities associated with the Parilia conflicted with the solemnity of Lent, which was observed until the Saturday before Easter Sunday, the early Roman church did not celebrate Easter after 21 April.

While the Julian reform applied originally to the Roman calendar, many of the other calendars then used in the Roman Empire were aligned with the reformed calendar under Augustus. This led to the adoption of several local eras for the Julian calendar, such as the Era of Actium and the Spanish Era, some of which were used for a considerable time. Perhaps the best known is the Era of Martyrs, sometimes also called Anno Diocletiani (after Diocletian), which was often used by the Alexandrian Christians to number their Easters during the 4th and 5th centuries and continued to be used by the Coptic and Abyssinian churches.

In the Eastern Mediterranean, the efforts of Christian chronographers such as Annianus of Alexandria to date the Biblical creation of the world led to the introduction of Anno Mundi eras based on this event. The most important of these was the Aetos Kosmou, used throughout the Byzantine world from the 10th century and in Russia till 1700. In the West, Dionysius Exiguus proposed the system of Anno Domini in 525. This era gradually spread through the western Christian world, once the system was adopted by Bede.

New Year's Day

The Roman calendar began the year on 1 January, and this remained the start of the year after the Julian reform. However, even after local calendars were aligned to the Julian calendar, they started the new year on different dates. The Alexandrian calendar in Egypt started on 29 August (30 August after an Alexandrian leap year). Several local provincial calendars were aligned to start on the birthday of Augustus, 23 September. The indiction caused the Byzantine year, which used the Julian calendar, to begin on 1 September; this date is still used in the Eastern Orthodox Church for the beginning of the liturgical year. When the Julian calendar was adopted in AD 988 by Vladimir I of Kiev, the year was numbered Anno Mundi 6496, beginning on 1 March, six months after the start of the Byzantine Anno Mundi year with the same number. In 1492 (AM 7000), Ivan III, according to church tradition, realigned the start of the year to 1 September, so that AM 7000 only lasted for six months in Russia, from 1 March to 31 August 1492.

During the Middle Ages 1 January retained the name New Year's Day (or an equivalent name) in all Western European countries (affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church), since the medieval calendar continued to display the months from January to December (in twelve columns containing 28 to 31 days each), just as the Romans had. However, most of those countries began their numbered year on 25 December (the Nativity of Jesus), 25 March (the Incarnation of Jesus), or even Easter, as in France (see the Liturgical year article for more details).

In England before 1752, 1 January was celebrated as the New Year festival, but the "year starting 25th March was called the Civil or Legal Year, although the phrase Old Style was more commonly used". To reduce misunderstandings on the date, it was not uncommon in parish registers for a new year heading after 24 March, for example 1661, to have another heading at the end of the following December indicating "1661/62". This was to explain to the reader that the year was 1661 Old Style and 1662 New Style.

Most Western European countries shifted the first day of their numbered year to 1 January while they were still using the Julian calendar, before they adopted the Gregorian calendar, many during the 16th century. The following table shows the years in which various countries adopted 1 January as the start of the year. Eastern European countries, with populations showing allegiance to the Orthodox Church, began the year on 1 September from about 988.

From Julian to Gregorian

The Julian calendar was in general use in Europe and Northern Africa from the times of the Roman Empire until 1582, when Pope Gregory XIII promulgated the Gregorian Calendar. Reform was required because too many leap days are added with respect to the astronomical seasons on the Julian scheme. On average, the astronomical solstices and the equinoxes advance by about 11 minutes per year against the Julian year. As a result, the calculated date of Easter gradually moved out of phase with the moon. While Hipparchus and presumably Sosigenes were aware of the discrepancy, although not of its correct value, it was evidently felt to be of little importance at the time of the Julian reform. However, it accumulated significantly over time: the Julian calendar gained a day about every 134 years. By 1582, it was ten days out of alignment.

The Gregorian Calendar was soon adopted by most Catholic countries (e.g. Spain, Portugal, Poland, most of Italy). Protestant countries followed later, and the countries of Eastern Europe even later. In the British Empire (including the American colonies), Wednesday 2 September 1752 was followed by Thursday 14 September 1752. For 12 years from 1700 Sweden used a modified Julian Calendar, and adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1753, but Russia remained on the Julian calendar until 1917, after the Russian Revolution (which is thus called the "October Revolution" though it occurred in Gregorian November), while Greece continued to use it until 1923. During this time the Julian calendar continued to diverge from the Gregorian. In 1700 the difference became 11 days; in 1800, 12; and in 1900, 13, where it will stay till 2100.

Although all Eastern Orthodox countries (most of them in Eastern or Southeastern Europe) had adopted the Gregorian calendar by 1927, their national churches had not. A revised Julian calendar was proposed during a synod in Constantinople in May 1923, consisting of a solar part which was and will be identical to the Gregorian calendar until the year 2800, and a lunar part which calculated Easter astronomically at Jerusalem. All Orthodox churches refused to accept the lunar part, so almost all Orthodox churches continue to celebrate Easter according to the Julian calendar (the Finnish Orthodox Church uses the Gregorian Easter).

The solar part of the revised Julian calendar was accepted by only some Orthodox churches. Those that did accept it, with hope for improved dialogue and negotiations with the Western denominations, were the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, the Orthodox Churches of Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Poland, Bulgaria (the last in 1963), and the Orthodox Church in America (although some OCA parishes are permitted to use the Julian calendar). Thus these churches celebrate the Nativity on the same day that Western Christians do, 25 December Gregorian until 2800. The Orthodox Churches of Jerusalem, Russia, Macedonia, Serbia, Georgia, Ukraine, and the Greek Old Calendarists continue to use the Julian calendar for their fixed dates, thus they celebrate the Nativity on 25 December Julian (which is 7 January Gregorian until 2100). The Russian Orthodox Church has some parishes in the West which celebrate the Nativity on 25 December. Parishes of the Orthodox Church in America Bulgarian Diocese, both before and after the 1976 transfer of that diocese from the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia to the Orthodox Church in America, were permitted to use the December 25 date.

In Northern Africa, the Julian calendar (the Berber calendar) is still in use for agricultural purposes, and is called فلاحي fellāhī "peasant" or sاﻋﺠﻤﻲ ajamī "not Arabic". The first of yennayer currently corresponds to January 14 and will do so until 2100.

See also

• Julian day
• Julian year (astronomy)

Notes

1. ^ "Lastly, in consideration of the quarter of a day, which he regarded as completing the true year, he established the rule that, at the end of every four years, a single day should be intercalated where the month had been hitherto inserted, that is, immediately after the terminalia; which day is now called the bissextum". Censorinus: The Natal Day.
2. ^ "Julius Caesar added ten days to the former number in order to complete the 365 days which the sun takes to pass through the zodiac; and to take account of the quarter of a day, he directed the pontiffs, who were entrusted with the months and days, to intercalate one day every four years in the same month and in the same place the ancients had intercalated, that is, before the last five days of February, hence this day was called bissextile." Macrobius: Saturnalia.
3. Livy 45.44.33.
4. "The twelfth month was February; and when intercalations take place, the five last days of this month are removed." Varro: De Ling. Lat. VI.55.
5. Celsus 39, cited in the Digest of Justinian 50.16.98 (2) (http://webu2.upmf-grenoble.fr/Haiti/Cours/Ak/Anglica/D50_Scott.htm#XVI).
6. ^ The letter J was not invented until the 16th century.
7. This had some surprising consequences. For example, in leap year the sequence 23-26 February was a.d. VII Kal. Mart., a.d. VI Kal. Mart. posteriorem (or bis), a.d. VI Kal. Mart. (priorem), a.d. V Kal. Mart.). Thus in point of time posteriore came before priore.
8. Celsus 39, cited in the Digest of Justinian 50.16.98., op. cit. The same work reports a decision of the Roman judges that posteriorem was the intercalated day.
9. Roscoe Lamont: The Roman Calendar and its reformation by Julius Caesar, Popular Astronomy, 27 (1919) pp 583-595 (at p. 590). (http://adsabs.harvard.edu.abs/1919PA.....27..579P). This is the second article in the hyperlink: its last page is here.
10. "... the bissextile day sits on its throne on the first sixth kalends of March , and on the second sixth kalends one must hold the feast of the mass-day of St Matthias." Byrhtferth: Enchiridion (AD 1016). (Ed. Peter S Baker & Michael Lapidge, (1995), II.1, pp 61-63). The Roman church continued the practice of observing the feast of St Matthias on 24 February in ordinary years and 25 February in leap years until the late twentieth century, when it moved the festival and also moved the leap day to the end of the month.
11. Roman Republican calendar
12. Chronography of AD 354, see
13. Charles W. Jones, "Development of the Latin Ecclesiastical calendar", Bedae Opera de Temporibus (1943), 1-122, p.28.
14. История календаря в России и в СССР (Calendar history in Russia and in the USSR)
15. http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1661/12/31/index.php, Pepys Diary "I sat down to end my journell for this year, ..."
16. Spathaky, Mike Old Style New Style dates and the change to the Gregorian calendar.
17. Spathaky, Mike Old Style New Style dates and the change to the Gregorian calendar. "An oblique stroke is by far the most usual indicator, but sometimes the alternative final figures of the year are written above and below a horizontal line, as in a fraction (a form which cannot easily be reproduced here in ASCII text). Very occasionally a hyphen is used, as 1733-34."
18. John J. Bond, "Commencement of the Year", Handy-book of rules and tables for verifying dates with the Christian era, (London: 1875), 91-101.
19. Mike Spathaky Old Style and New Style Dates and the change to the Gregorian Calendar: A summary for genealogists
20. The source has Germany, whose current area during the sixteenth century was a major part of the Holy Roman Empire, a religiously divided confederation. The source is unclear as to whether all or only parts of the country made the change. In general, Roman Catholic countries made the change a few decades before Protestant countries did.
21. Sweden's conversion is complicated and took much of the first half of the 18th century. See Swedish calendar.
22. Per decree of 16 June 1575. Hermann Grotefend, "Osteranfang" (Easter beginning), Zeitrechnung de Deutschen Mittelalters und der Neuzeit (Chronology of the German Middle Ages and modern times) (1891-1898)
23. 1751 in England only lasted from 25 March to 31 December. The following dates 1 January to 24 March which would have concluded 1751 became part of 1752 when the beginning of the numbered year was changed from 25 March to 1 January.

External links

• Calendars through the ages on WebExhibits.
• Calendar FAQ
• Roman Dates
• The Roman Calendar
• Synoptical Julian-Gregorian Calendar - compare the Julian and Gregorian calendars for any date between 1582 and 2100 using this side-by-side reference.
• Date Conversion
• Calendar Converter — converts between several calendars, for example Gregorian, Julian, Mayan, Persian, Hebrew

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