KALENDAR. 



KALENDAK. 



60 



kalendar in England as early as the reign of Queen Elizabeth. On the 

 16th of March, 27 Eliz., A.D. 1584-5, a bill was read the first, time in 

 the House of Lords, entitled " An Act giving Her Majesty authority 

 to alter and new make a Kalendar according to the Kalendar used in 

 other Countries." It was read a second time on the eighteenth of 

 that month, after which no notice occurs of the proposed measure. 



The formation of the Hebrew kalender is fixed by some to the same 

 year as the council of Nice, A.D. 325 : others have placed it in the year 

 360 : and others as late as A.D. 500. Lindo however assures us that 

 the Mishna compiled according to the Jewish account in the year A.D. 

 141, proves that the kalendar as used by the Jews in its present form, 

 with the intercalary month, was generally known and followed at that 

 time. 



For further information upon the Jewish kalendar the reader may 

 consult Dr. Adam Clarke's ' Commentary upon the Bible,' and Lindo's 

 ' Jewish Calendar.' 



Kalendars are in use in the Eastf: the Arabian, which is common 

 to all the Mohammedan countries ; and the Persian, the use of which 

 is peculiar to that country. This last is founded on the Persian era 

 called ' Yezdegird." 



Of the three parts into which the Romans divided their month, the 

 '<p, or kalends, have been already explained. They were so called 

 'iido vel vocando), from the pontifex calling out to the people 

 that it was new moon. The fifth day of the month was called A'ona, 

 the iiuneB, and the 13th /rfjajthe ides, from the verb iduare, to divide ; 

 because the ides nearly divided the month. The nones, from nomig, 

 the ninth, were so called because, counting inclusively, they were nine 

 days from the ides. In March, May, July, and October, the nones fell 

 on the 7th and the ides on the 15th of the month. The mode of 

 fixing any particular day was by saying that it was so many days before 

 the kalends, nones, or ides, next immediately following. Thus the 

 28th of April was the 4th day before the kalends of March ; the 4th of 

 March was the 4th day before the nones of March ; and the 9th of 

 March was the 7th day before the ides of March. 



The Attic year consisted of twelve lunar months of 30 and 29 days 

 alternately : an intercalary month of 29 or 30 days was inserted 

 every two years, but as this was 7J days too much, the intercalary 

 month was sometimes omitted. The full Attic month consisted of 30 

 days, and was divided into three decades. 



On the subject of the Greek Kalendar the reader may consult Ideler, 

 ' Haiidbuuh der Mathematischen und Technischen Chronologic.' 



(Adams's Raman A ntiqu.il ies ; Niebuhr, On the Secular Cycle, If 1st. of 

 Some; Brady's Clavii Ca.lmda.ria,; Sir Harris Nicolas' s Chronology of 

 / ; Hutton's Philoeopkieal and Mathematical Dictionary, v. 

 Calendar; Lindo's Jewish Calendar, 8vo. Lond. 1838.) 



The last we shall mention is the French Revolutionary Kalendar. In 

 September, 1793, the French nation resolved that the republic should 

 form a new era, and that a kalendar should be adopted on what were 

 termed philosophical principles. The Convention therefore decreed, on 

 the 24th of November, 1793, that the common era should be abolished 

 in all civil affairs : that the new French era should commence from the 

 foundation of the republic, namely, on the 22nd of September, 1792, 

 on the day of the true autumnal equinox, when the sun entered Libra 

 at 9 b 18 m 30* in the morning, according to the meridian of Paris ; that 

 each year should begin at the midnight of the day on which the true 

 autumnal equinox falls; and that the first year of the French republic 

 had begun on the midnight of the 22nd of September, and terminated 

 on the midnight between the 21st and 22nd of September, 1793. To 

 priKluce a correspondence between the seasons and the civil year, it 

 was decreed, that the fourth year of the republic should be the first 

 aextile, or leap-year ; that a sixth complementary day should be .-idil. .1 

 to it, and that it should terminate the first Franciade ; that the sextilu 

 or leap-year, which they called an Olympic year, should take place every 

 four years, and should mark the close of each Franciade; that the first, 

 second, and third centurial years, namely, 100, 200, and 300 of the 

 republic, should be common, and that the fourth centurial year, 

 y, 400, should be sextile ; and that this should be the case every 

 fourth century until the 40th, which should terminate with a common 

 year. The year was divided into twelve months of thirty days each, 

 with five additional days at the end, which were celebrated as festivals, 

 and which obtained the absurd name of " Sansculottides." Instead of 

 ' >nths being divided into weeks, they consisted of three parts, 

 called Decades, of ten days each. It i however to be observed that 

 the French republicans rarely adopted the decades in dating their 

 letters, or in conversation, but used the number of the day of each 

 month of their kalendar. 



The republican kalendar was first used on the 26th of November, 

 \~t'J'-f, and was discontinued on the 31st of December, 1806, when the 

 Gregorian was resumed. 



On examination we find that many works give an account of this 



kalendar which is more or less incorrect. The decrees of the National 



which fixed the new mode of reckoning, were both vague 



and insufficient, so that it a no wonder that many detailed accounts 



r agree with each other nor with the truth. To learn what the 



truth was, we have recourse to a French work, in its sixth edition : 



i s Republican! ct Grc?gorien,' par L. Ron- 



donneau, I'aris (Oicme edition), 1812, 8vo. This work puts every day 

 of every year, from An II. to An XXII. both inclusive, opposite to its 



ABIS ASD SCI. DIV. VOL. V. 



day of the Gregorian calendar; it also gives the decrees of the National 

 Convention. The account we have already given is stated in the common 

 way : we leave it for the reader to compare with the more accurate 

 version. 



By these decrees it appears that the year is to begin at the midnight 

 of Paris Observatory which precedes the true autumnal equinox. It 

 is to consist of 365 days, with 12 months of 30 days each (the 30 days 

 being 3 decades of 10 days each), and 5 complementary days, which 

 were tastefully called sansculotides (a name afterwards repealed). A 

 sixth complementary day was to be added, not according to any rule, 

 but selon quc la position dc Vequinoxe le comporte ; and although it was 

 stated that it would be ordinaircmcnt nfcessairc to add this 366th day 

 once in four years, yet it is not even stated in what particular coming 

 years the necessity would arise. The first decree, dated October 5, 

 1793 (the new month not having been introduced), declares the year 

 then current to be the second year of the French republic, and enacts 

 that An I. began with September 22, 1792, and An II. with Septem- 

 ber 22, 1793. The second decree, fixing the months, is dated the 4th 

 of Frimaire, An II. (November 24th, 1793). The Gregorian reckoning 

 was restored from and after January 1, 1806, by an imperial ordonnance, 

 dated 22 Fructidor, An XIII. (September 9, 1805). 



It isto actual usage, then, that we must appeal to know what the 

 decrees do not prescribe namely, the position of the leap-years. For 

 though every period of four years was a Frantiad, and the last year of 

 the Franciad was called Sextile (having six complementary days), yet, 

 in fact, An IV., An VIII., &c., are not leap-years. The following list, 

 actually made from the work above mentioned, must be used as a 

 correction of the usual accounts. For various matters connected 

 with the public debt, &c., it was necessary to construct the table up to 

 An XXII. 



Sept. 



AD I. begins 22, 1792 



II. 22, 1793 



Scxt. III. 22, 1794 



IV. 23, 1795 



V. 22, 1790 



VI. 22, 1797 

 Scxt. VII. , 22, 1798 



VIII. , 23, 1799 



IX. , 23, 1800 



X. , 23, 1801 

 Scxt. XI. , 23, 1802 



When the Gregorian year is not leap-year the beginnings of the 

 months are as follows, according as the republican year begins on Sep- 

 -r 22, 23, or 34 : 



But when the Gregorian year is leap-year the beginnings of the 

 months are as follows, according as the republican year begins on 

 September 22, 23, or 24 : 



