C. Philipp E. Nothaft
- Published in print:
- 2018
- Published Online:
- March 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780198799559
- eISBN:
- 9780191839818
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/oso/9780198799559.003.0008
- Subject:
- History, European Medieval History
This chapter begins with an account of the calendar-reform initiative spearheaded in 1411–17 by Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly at the Councils of Rome and Constance, followed by an in-depth look at the ...
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This chapter begins with an account of the calendar-reform initiative spearheaded in 1411–17 by Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly at the Councils of Rome and Constance, followed by an in-depth look at the repeated efforts towards a new calendrical legislation made at the Council of Basel in the years 1434–40, which saw the matter debated by a specially created commission or task force. The final part continues the story into the second half of the fifteenth century, highlighting in particular the role of print technology in the dissemination of calendrical and astronomical knowledge. Special attention is given to the activities of the astronomer Johannes Regiomontanus, whose premature death in 1476 prevented him from assisting Pope Sixtus IV in preparing a reform of the ecclesiastical calendar.Less
This chapter begins with an account of the calendar-reform initiative spearheaded in 1411–17 by Cardinal Pierre d’Ailly at the Councils of Rome and Constance, followed by an in-depth look at the repeated efforts towards a new calendrical legislation made at the Council of Basel in the years 1434–40, which saw the matter debated by a specially created commission or task force. The final part continues the story into the second half of the fifteenth century, highlighting in particular the role of print technology in the dissemination of calendrical and astronomical knowledge. Special attention is given to the activities of the astronomer Johannes Regiomontanus, whose premature death in 1476 prevented him from assisting Pope Sixtus IV in preparing a reform of the ecclesiastical calendar.
