THE CALENDAR - The 5000-year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens - and What Happened to the Missing Ten Days

Duncan, David Ewing

ISBN 10: 1857029798 / ISBN 13: 9781857029796

Published by Fourth Estate, London, 1999

About this Item

(xviii) 360 pp. Trade paperback format. Light edge and corner wear with a flat uncreased spine; no interior markings. Cover art by Andy Bridge. The Contents are: A Net Cast Over Time; A Chronology of Events; A Lone Genius Proclaims the Truth About Time; Luna: Temptress of Time; Caesar Embraces the Sun; A Flaming Cross of Gold; Time Stands Still; Monks Dream While Counting on Their Fingers; Charlemagne's Sandglass; The Strange Journey of 365.242199; From the House of Wisdom to Darkest Europe; Latinorum Penuria - The Poverty of the Latins; The Battle Over Time; From the Black Death to Copernicus; Solving the Riddle of Time; Ten Days Lost For Ever; and Living on Atomic Time; followed by an index. Size: 12mo.

Seller Inventory # 229262

Bibliographic Details

• Title: THE CALENDAR - The 5000-year Struggle to Align the Clock and the Heavens - and What Happened to the Missing Ten Days
• Publisher: Fourth Estate, London
• Publication Date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1857029798
• ISBN 13: 9781857029796
• Binding: Soft cover
• Illustrator: Andy Bridge
• Edition: First Printing - First Thus.
• Condition: Very Good+
• Book Type: Book
• Seller catalogs:
  • History - General
  • General Interest

About this title

Synopsis

The 5,000-year struggle to align the heavens with the clock and what happened to the missing ten days.

Measuring the daily and yearly cycle of the cosmos has never been entirely straightforward.The year 2000 is alternatively the year 2544 (Buddhist), 6236 (Ancient Egyptian), 5761 (Jewish) or simply the year of the Dragon (Chinese). The story of the creation of the Western calendar is a story of emperors and popes, mathematicians and monks, and the growth of scientific calculation to the point where, bizarrely, our measurement of time by atomic pulses is now more acurate than Time itself: the Earth is an elderly lady and slightly eccentric – she loses half a second a century. Days have been invented (Julius Caesar needed an extra 80 days in 46BC), lost (Pope Gregory XIII ditched ten days in 1582) and moved (because Julius Caesar had thirty-one in his month, Augustus determined that he should have the same, so he pinched one from February). The Calendar links politics and religion, astronomy and mathematics, Cleopatra and Stephen Hawking. And it is published as millions of computer users wonder what will happen when, after 31 December 1999, their dates run out…

About the Author

David Ewing Duncan, the author of five books, including the international bestseller ‘Calendar’, writes for Wired, Discover, and the Atlantic Monthly. He is a freelance producer and correspondent for ABC's Nightline, and a commentator on NPR's Morning Edition. He lives in San Francisco, CA.