Year, Beginning of the

YEAR, Beginning of the. - The practice of beginning the years of the common era with January 1, according to the modern or Circumcision style (mos), today commonly adopted among all Christian peoples, was not immediate, as one might believe, but was imposed gradually and at different times until it completely replaced the other styles in European countries. Nevertheless, previously, even in many of those places where another system for the beginning of the legal year prevailed, January 1 was considered the first day of the current year. The process of replacing the modern style in Italy began to take shape after 1450 (we find it, however, already in use at Reggio Emilia as early as 1379); from the 16th century onward in the rest of Europe. The constant practice of this style begins for Italy in 1459 at Milan in the ducal chancery; in 1476 at Alessandria, Como, Crema, Genoa and Liguria, Novara, Pavia; in 1486 at Modena, but only among certain notaries; in 1510 at Lucca; in 1582 at Rome under the pontificate of Gregory XIII, the reformer of the calendar; in the early years of the 1600s in Sicily; in 1750 in all the Tuscan cities by virtue of an edict promulgated on November 20, 1749 by Grand Duke Francis I of Lorraine to remedy the confusion caused by the use of different styles in public acts, as Zobi explains in his Storia Civile della Toscana dal MDCCXXXVII al MDCCCXLVIII (I, Florence 1850, pp. 294-95). For France the use began in 1568 by virtue of the edict of Paris (art. 39) of 1563, issued by Charles IX: interrupted in 1793 when the republican calendar came into force, it was restored by Napoleon I on December 31, 1805; for Germany after 1560 during the reign of Ferdinand I; for England and Ireland in 1752, introduced there by Lord Chesterfield; for Spain and Portugal at the end of the 1500s; for Holland from 1576 with a decree of the Duke of Requesens of June 16, 1575; for Russia in 1725; for Sweden in 1559; for Switzerland in 1575; for Denmark in 1700, definitively supplanting the custom established among many of beginning the year on August 11, the feast of St. Tiburtius.

However, before the Circumcision style was universally accepted in Europe, various styles were used in the individual European countries and cities, to which corresponded different ways of beginning the year. The best known are:

1. Venetian style (more veneto or simply indicated by the abbreviations m. v.), so called because it was officially adopted for the legal year in the documents of the republic of Venice until its fall in 1797. It computed the year beginning with March 1, for which reason it remained two months behind the modern one; indeed, all those acts dated from January 1 to February 28 or 29 must be assigned to the following year. Outside Venice this system is encountered in France, a first time under the Merovingians and perhaps still in the 10th century during the reign of Henry I; at Benevento in the 12th century and in Sicily during the Arab domination.

2. Style of the Incarnation or of the Annunciation ("anno dominicae incarnationis" or "ab incarnatione Domini", "anno trabeationis"), very widespread in the Middle Ages, placed the beginning of the year on March 25, the feast of the Annunciation, according to the computation of Dionysius the Little. It was customary to calculate it in two different ways, which correspond to the two systems then current, the Florentine and the Pisan: the first (calculus florentinus), considering March 25 as posterior to Christmas, lags behind the modern by two months and twenty-five days; the second (calculus pisanus), on the other hand, starting from March 25 anterior to Christmas, anticipates by nine months and seven days, for which reason a year of difference comes to be established between the two systems. The style of the Incarnation according to the Florentine calculation was widely employed in Italy at Florence, Parma,

Piacenza, Siena as early as the 10th century; at Bobbio from the 12th century; at Cortona from 1411; at Rome, in the pontifical chancery from 1145, made obligatory for bulls in 1445 by Eugene IV; at Bologna from 1025; at Naples from 1270; at Prato from the 12th century; at Ravenna in the 12th and 13th centuries; at Verona from the 9th century; it is found still used at Borgonovo, at Colle Valdelsa, at Cremona, at Fiesole, at Lucca, at Mantua, at Reggio Emilia, at Salerno, at S. Gimignano, at Turin. Outside Italy the use was widely extended in very many cities of France, alone or in conjunction with other styles, until the 16th century; in Germany in the electorate of Trier and in the suffragan dioceses of its archbishopric from 1307, where it was also characterized by the name of stilus trevirensis; in Portugal until 1420; in England (known as mos anglicus), especially, sporadically from 1066, then constantly and exclusively from 1200 to 1752; in Spain from the 12th to the 14th century; in Hungary and in several cantons of Switzerland. Much more restricted, on the other hand, was the employment of the style of the Incarnation according to the Pisan calculation; it is encountered, besides at Pisa systematically until the whole of 1749, at Bergamo in the 11th century, at Corneto until 1234, at Lodi until the 10th century, at Milan sporadically in the 9th-10th centuries, at Padua until the 12th century, at Piombino in the 14th century; at Rome in the chancery of the popes from Urban II (1088-99) to Innocent II (1130-43) promiscuously with the Florentine calculation; at S. Miniato al Tedesco until 1369.

3. Easter style ("anno a Paschate, a Resurrectione"), or French style (mos gallicus), makes the year begin with the feast of Easter or more frequently from Holy Saturday, in any case in a very unstable manner, since this solemnity can fall variably between March 21 and April 25. According to such a system, every year presents inequalities with respect to the others because of the different length of each, for which reason there can sometimes be years of eleven months, at other times even of thirteen, the annual duration playing between three hundred and thirty and four hundred days. Difficult, therefore, is the relation of this style to the modern one, which can be obtained only through elaborate research; to this let it be added further that the inconvenience of seeing the last ten days of March and the first twenty-four of April appear twice in certain years, or of seeing them altogether excluded, thus making comprehension more difficult, because not always did the person affixing the date take care to distinguish such a repetition with the formulas ante Pascham or post Pascham. The practice of this style found wide diffusion in France from very ancient times, being employed later, perhaps in the 11th century, also in the royal chancery; in French Flanders, for example, and in Artois they encounter it already from the second half of the 9th century. Outside France it is found used mainly in Holland and Belgium; in Germany it was limited to the single city of Cologne; in the apostolic chancery it was adopted only under the pontificate of Nicholas IV (1288-92). Isolated traces appear toward the end of the 12th century also in England and Ireland.

4. Byzantine style, so called from Byzantium, where it began to be used, established the beginning of the year on September 1, for which reason it anticipated the modern computation by four months. Much used in the countries of southern Italy, in that part known by the name of Magna Graecia, especially in Apulia, in Calabria and in Sicily, for all documents in the Greek language and also for Latin documents dealing with questions with the East.

5. Style of the Nativity (= anno a Nativitate or anno a Nativitatis Domini) was the most widespread style during the Middle Ages, especially in Italy, though in competition with the styles already mentioned. The year began on 25 December, the feast of Christmas, anticipating by seven days. Because of its extensive use in Rome, both by notaries and by private individuals, and in the chancery of the pontiffs, though not continuously, from John XIII (965-72) onward it is also known by the twofold designation of Roman style (nos romano) or pontifical style (stiles romane curiae). It is found in general at Alessandria, Crema, Gallarate, Genoa and the Ligurian cities, at Vercelli until 1476, at Bergamo from 1310, at Bologna from 1073, at Brescia, Modena, Padua, Novara, Pavia from the 12th century, at Chiavenna, Mantua, Naples, Reggio Emilia, Rimini, Turin, Voghera from the middle of the 13th century, at Como in the 14th century, at Ferrara until the 15th century, at Milan from the 11th century, in many Tuscan cities, in southern Italy itself, introduced there by the Swabian emperors, and in Sicily. Outside Italy it was very widespread in France and especially in Provence from the 11th to the 13th century, at Foix in the 12th, at Avignon and at Soissons in the 13th, in Languedoc in the 13th and 14th, in the Dauphiné from 1292; in England and Ireland it was used exclusively until 1066, less frequently until the 13th century; in Germany, already adopted in the chancery of the Carolingian emperors, it had wide following until around 1550; in Spain and Portugal from the end of the 14th century; in Switzerland from about 1550; in Hungary from the middle of the 13th century; in Denmark and Holland until around 1559.

In other eras the beginning of the year presents itself in a more absolute manner, that is, not divided into different styles or systems as in the vulgar or Christian era, which nevertheless sought thereby to honor the most salient dates of the life of Our Lord, with the exception of the Byzantine era, which only accidentally falls under this heading. Thus for the West there is the era of Spain or of the Caesars, which begins on 1 January, the Masonic era or era of the true light on 1 March, the Olympiad era on 1 July, the era of the founding of Rome on 21 April, the era of Diocletian or of the Martyrs on 29 August; for the East there is the Byzantine or Constantinopolitan era, which begins the year on 1 September, and the Muhammadan era (Hegira) on 16 July.

For the rites of the beginning of the year see CAPODANNO.

Niccolò Del Re