VMs: Re: Astrological volvelles in VMS

[Rene Zandbergen <r_zandbergen@xxxxxxxxx>]

--- GC <glenclaston@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> As for February with 29 days, Askham says that under
> the Roman
> system, February had 29 days and August 30, until
> the Senate,
> wishing to honor Emperor August, took a day from
> February and
> added it to August.  True or not, this is the first
> I'd ever read
> of this.

It is indeed true. 
The Month August was originally known as Sextilis
(sixth month). To give Augustus an equal honour to
Julius Caesar, after whom the month July was named,
they renamed it to August. Of course, this month
could not have fewer days than July ....
Yes, there also was a month Tiberius later, and
even months named after further emperors, but
these decrees were later reversed. Only Julius
and Augustus were considered worthy enough by
posterity.

In any case, there is a vast literature about
calendars (and how it is the link between agriculture
and astronomy) from  the ancient Babylonian days
through Egypt, Greece, the Arabic world, Medieval
Europe and the Renaissance down to us. Also, much
of what has been written during any of these 
periods about the periods before ('historical 
history') is still available - of course it gets
sparse as one gets further back in time.

The precession of the equinoxes should not be
ignored when coupling dates to astronomical
events (such as the rising of stars, which marks
seasons and other agricultural events).
In fact, if the VMs contains astronomical information,
this feature will help dating it. The accuracy 
of astronomical information was of the order
of 10 arcminutes, which is equivalent with 12
years of precession. Since the days of Ptolemy,
this straightwordward rule was applied consistently,
i.e. there were hardly any attempts to make new
catalogues until the days of Tycho Brahe (i.e.
post-VMs).

Cheers, Rene

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