Daily entries from the 17th century London diary
If you would like to write a summary for this topic, email phil [at] gyford [dot] com
Annotations
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A couple of very informative postings on the calendar changes between Pepys’s time and ours. First why:
The calendar problem was Easter. In the 6th century, the current formula for scheduling Easter was determined
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A good site for calculating the phases of the moon for Pepys (also from David Quidnunc): http://sunearth.gsfc.nasa.gov/eclipse/phase/phases.1601-1700.html The nice thing about the calculations is that they’re in Greenwich Mean Time - which covers England. The website above doesn’t mention the old style/new style dating problem, so I assume it ignores it. Posted by David Quidnunc on Sat 25 Jan 2003, 9:29 pm
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Leap years
In the diary years, 1660, 1664 and 1668 were leap years. Two entries (for both 28 & 29 Feb.) were posted on 28 February 2003 in order to keep the entry dates the same as the modern calendar dates.
The reverse problem happens in the leap years of 2004, 2008 and 2012. In those years the daily diary entries would have to post no entry on 29 February if we’re to keep Pepys’s and our dates the same.
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Why UK financial year starts 6th April
An interesting explanation of this is linked to the change in calendar systems. The financial year traditonally started at the start of the calendar year - that is on 25th March. When we switched to the Gregorian calendar in 1750 (or there-abouts), we ‘lost’ about 12 days in order to make up for the shift that had occurred due to the leap year error (explained by Emilio above - although he/she suggests 10 days error). As accountants at that time didn’t want to deal with a financial year that was 12 days short, it was extended to the new 6th April (25th March plus 12 days) - and has stayed there ever since. -
For a frightening level of detail into calendars in general see:
http://www.tondering.dk/claus/calendar.html -
The ‘lost’ twelve days explain why you should not take down your Christmas decorations before Twelfth Night — “Old Christmas Day”.
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The lost days of the calendar
Also see:
http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1661/01/06/index.php#c1010415 “lost” days in stead of 11 …
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Calendar conversion
This site allows you to convert Julian (British) dates easily into Gregorian (continental) and vice versa.
I tested it with a couple of known dates, and it seems to work.
http://pdc.ro.nu/mjd.cgi
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Calendar conversion - cont’d
For this conversion engine, the year is taken to begin on Jan 1st.
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If you have access to a Unix or Linux system:
Try typing
cal 9 1752
you should see:
September 1752
Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
- - 1 2 14 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
Showing the 12 “lost” days as Britain went from Julian to Gregorian.
(but aligned correctly - the diary software removes extra spaces) -
Small point, Graham, but 3 through 13 inclusive is eleven days, as noted by the unhappy mobs in 1752 who chanted, we are told, “Give back our eleven days!”
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For the sake of completeness:
In Sam’s time there were - as yet - only 10 lost days. The additional 11th day, which people were so unhappy about in 1752, was the result of the leap day added to february 1700 in the British (Julian) calendar - and NOT in the (corrected) continental, Gregorian calendar.
This means that for example 11 March 1660/1661 was 11 + 10 = 21 March according to the continental calendar. The following day (Gregorian) would then be the 22 March. The difference between this 22 March and the previous day, 11 March (British), is 11 days - but only 10 of these are “lost”.
(Wow! Not quite sure that made things any clearer…)
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There are the Gregorian, Hebrew, Islamic, Indian, Chinese, and Julian Calendars.
leads to Easter and calcs:
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/calendars.html
http://aa.usno.navy.mil/faq/docs/easter.html
http://www.timeanddate.com/calendar/index.html?year=1661&cc
http://www.holiday-central.net/easter_paschal_moon.asp -
Its the Law:
http://www.urbanlegends.com/legal/calendar_act.html -
Another calendar converter:
http://www.fourmilab.ch/documents/calendar/
Forgive me if this has been posted before. It doth make my head spin.
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Notes on calculating sunrise and sunset times in Pepys’ era (example calculated for 26 May 1662, copied from http://www.pepysdiary.com/archive/1662/05/26/index.php#c31767 annotation):
Add 10 days to Pepys
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One of the best calendar convertors so far:
(also calculates Easter dates etc.)http://www.albion.edu/english/calendar/Welcome.html
Note: for this calculator the year is taken to begin on 1st January (old style and new style).
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Note: this is of course the link in Emilio’s first annotation to this page, but updated (Emilio’s original link doesn’t work any more.)
Neither does the link in Emilio’s second annotation (moon phases). Here’s an update to that one:
References in the diary
None