Anno Domini
The Origins of the Christian Era
By (author) G. Declercq
The most successful dating system the world has ever known is that based on the ‘Year of the Lord’ (Anno Domini) – the Christian era. It was created in AD 525 by a Scythian monk, Dionysius Exiguus, primarily as a means of numbering Easters. Today, this system for reckoning time is used globally and is by no means restricted to adherents of Christianity. The present essay aims to describe not only the origins and the early development of the Dionysian system, from its invention until its adoption throughout Western Europe in the course of the eleventh century, but also its antecedents in Late Antiquity and the general context in which this era was conceived. The result is a broad chronological and geographical survey, encompassing developments over a period of a thousand years in both Latin Christendom and the Byzantine East. Georges Declercq takes the reader through the emergence of the Alexandrian and Byzantine ears of creation, the vexed question of the Easter or Paschal controversy, the computistical works of Victorius of Aquitaine and Dionysius Exiguus, and the role of the Anglo-Saxons in the manner in which Dionysius came to fix the incarnation of Christ in AD 1. This comprehensive survey is directed to both specialists and non-specialists and will be indispensable for any reader interested in early Christian chronology.
- By (author) G. Declercq
Other Titles in this Series
Similar Books
‘For You I Study, For You I Work, For You I Live, For You I Am Ready To Even Give My Life’
Essays in Honour of Francis (Frank) J Moloney, SDB
A Late Antique Harrowing of Hell and Its Medieval Reception
Eusebius of Alexandria's Sermons 15 and 17 (CPG 5524; 5526) and their Latin Rewritings
Volume 99
Behind the Scenes of Medieval Roofs
An Overview of the Roofing Systems of Italian Churches
Volume 90
Crossroads of Cultures
Multilingual Diversity in Dutch Literature from Late Medieval Flanders
Volume 41
Drunk the Potion, No Whit Charmed
The Doctrine of Pure and Perfect Souls from Iamblichus to Damascius
Extracanonical Traditions and the Holy Land
Texts, Rituals, and Material Culture in Late Antique Palestine
Fear, Fear of God, God-Fearers
Philological and Historical Perspectives on the World of Ancient Judaism and Christianity
Innovation and Medieval Communities
The Circulation of Ideas and Practices in and out of the Town (1200-1500)
Volume 63
Legal Visuality
Exegesis, Ambiguity, and Dissimulation of the Donation of Constantine in the Early Modern Period
Linguistic and Cultural Dynamics in a Frontier Society
New Perspectives on Northeastern Bavaria and Western Bohemia in the Early Middle Ages
Volume 9
Liturgia semper reformanda
Adaptations and accommodations in the liturgy in light of canon 838 of the Code of Canon Law
Medieval Debates on Foreknowledge: Future Contingents, Prophecy, and Divination
Acts of the XXVII Annual Colloquium of the SIEPM, Trento 12-15 September 2023
Volume 31
Medieval Yeghegis, Armenia
History, Archaeology, Society. Local Multiplicities and Global Connections of a Rural Centre on the Silk Road(s)
