Almanac of Philocalus

The ''Chronograph of 354'' (or "Chronography"), also known as the ''Calendar of 354'', is a compilation of chronological and calendrical texts produced in 354 AD for a wealthy Roman Christian named Valentinus by the calligrapher and illustrator Furius Dionysius Filocalus. The original illustrated manuscript is lost, but several copies have survived. It is the earliest dated codex to have full page illustrations. The term ''Calendar of Filocalus'' is sometimes used to describe the whole collection, and sometimes just the sixth part, which is the Calendar itself. Other versions of the names ("Philocalus", "Codex-Calendar of 354", "Chronography of 354") are occasionally used. The text and illustrations are available online.Tertullian.org:Chronography of 354
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Amongst other historically significant information, the work contains the earliest reference to the celebration of Christmas as an annual holiday or feast, on , although unique historical dates had been mentioned much earlier by Hippolytus of Rome during 202–211.

Transmission from antiquity

The original volume has not survived, but it is thought that it still existed in Carolingian times, by the 8th–9th centuries. A number of copies were made at that time, with and without illustrations, which in turn were copied during the Renaissance.

The most complete and faithful copies of the illustrations are the pen drawings in a 17th-century manuscript from the Barberini collection (Vatican Library, cod. Barberini lat. 2154). This was carefully copied, under the supervision of the great antiquary Nicholas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc, from a Carolingian copy, a ''Codex Luxemburgensis'', which was itself lost in the 17th century. These drawings, although they are twice removed from the originals, show the variety of sources that the earliest illuminators used as models for manuscript illustration, including metalwork, frescoes, and floor mosaics. The Roman originals were probably fully painted miniatures.

Various partial copies or adaptations survive from the Carolingian renaissance and Renaissance periods. Botticelli adapted a figure of the city of ''Treberis'' (Trier) who grasps a bound barbarian by the hair for his painting, traditionally called '' Pallas and the Centaur''.

The Vatican Barberini manuscript, made in 1620 for Peiresc, who had the Carolingian ''Codex Luxemburgensis'' on long-term loan, is clearly the most faithful. After Peiresc's death in 1637 the manuscript disappeared. However some folios had already been lost from the ''Codex Luxemburgensis'' before Peiresc received it, and other copies have some of these. The suggestion of Carl Nordenfalk that the Codex Luxemburgensis copied by Peiresc was actually the Roman original has not been accepted. Peiresc himself thought the manuscript was seven or eight hundred years old when he had it, and, though Mabillon had not yet published his ''De re diplomatica'' (1681), the first systematic work of paleography, most scholars, following Meyer Schapiro, believe Peiresc would have been able to make a correct judgement on its age. For a full list of manuscripts with copies after the originals, see the external link.

Contents

Furius Dionysius Filocalus was the leading scribe or calligrapher of the period, and possibly also executed the original miniatures. His name is on the dedication page. He was also a Christian, living in a moment that lay on the cusp between a pagan and a Christian Roman Empire.

The Chronography, like all Roman calendars, is as much an almanac as a calendar; it includes various texts and lists, including elegant allegorical depictions of the months. It also includes the important Liberian Catalogue, a list of Popes, and the Calendar of Filocalus or Philocalus, also known as the Philocalian Calendar, from which copies of eleven miniatures survive. Among other information, it contains the earliest reference to Christmas (see Part 12 below) and the dates of Roman Games, with their number of chariot-races.

The contents are as follows (from the Barberini Ms. unless stated). All surviving miniatures are full-page, often combined with some text in various ways:

*Part 1: title page and dedication - 1 miniature
*Part 2: images of the personifications of the cities of Rome, Alexandria, Constantinople and Trier - 4 miniatures
*Part 3: images of the emperors and the birthdays of the Caesars - 2 miniatures
*Part 4: images of the seven planets with a calendar of the hours - 5 surviving miniatures. Copies of the emblematic drawings appear in a Carolingian text that portrays Mercury and Venus in heliocentric orbits.
*Part 5: the signs of the Zodiac – no miniatures surviving in this manuscript; four in other copies
*Part 6: the Philocalian calendar – seven miniatures of personifications of the Months in this MS; the full set appears in other copies
On December 25: "·INVICTI··XXX" – "Birthday of the unconquered, games ordered, thirty races" – is the oldest literary reference to the pagan feast of Sol Invictus
*Part 7: consular portraits of the emperors – 2 miniatures (the last in the MS)
*Part 8: list (fasti) of the Roman consuls to AD 354
At AD 1: "Hoc cons. dominus Iesus Christus natus est VIII kal. Ian. d. Ven. luna xv." – "When these aesare and Paulowere consuls, Lord Jesus Christ was born 8 days before the kalends of January ecember 25on the day of Venus Moon 15" – is a historical reference
*Part 9: the dates of Easter from AD 312 to 411
*Part 10: list of the prefects of the city of Rome from 254 to 354 AD
*Part 11: commemoration dates of past popes from AD 255 to 352
*Part 12: commemoration dates of the martyrs
Line 1: "VIII kal. Ian. natus Christus in Betleem Iudeae" – "Eighth day before the kalends of January ecember 25Birth of Christ in Bethlehem of Judea" – is the oldest reference to Jesus' birth as an annual feast day
*Part 13: bishops of Rome, the Liberian Catalogue
*Part 14: The 14 regions of the City f Rome*Part 15: Chronicle of the Bible
*Part 16: Chronicle of the City of Rome (a list of rulers with short comments)

Chronology of Rome

Kings of Rome 53–509 BCref name=tert/>

# '' Romulus'' son of Mars and Ilia reigned for 38 ... ''with'' Titus Tatius for 5 years.
# '' Numa Pompilius'' reigned for
# '' Tullus Hostilius'' reigned 32 years
# reigned for
# '' L. Tarquinius Priscus'' reigned
# ''Servius Tullius'' reigned 46
# ''Tarquinius Superbus'' reigned 25 years

The Dictators:

# Publius Cornelius Scipio Africanus
# uintusFabius Maximus
# Apulius Claudius aecus# ublius Valerius P licola
# ucius Cornelius Sulla Felix
# ublius Cornelius Scipio Barbatus
# ucius Quinctius Cincinnatus
# Quintus Fabius (?)
# arcus Lu us Salinator
# aius Iu us Brutus

Rulership of the Caesars 8 BC–AD 324ref name=tert/>

# '' C. Julius Caesar'' ruled 3 years, 7 months, 6 days.
# ''Octavian Augustus'' ruled 56 years, 4 months, .
# '' Tiberius Caesar'' ruled 22 years, , 28 days.
# '' C. Gallicula'' ruled 3 years,
# '' Tiberius Claudius'' ruled 13 years, 8 months,
# ''Nero'' ruled , 28 days.
# '' Galba'' ruled
# ''Otho'' ruled 90 days
# ''Vitellius'' ruled 8 months and
# ''The deified Vespasian'' ruled
# ''The deified Titus'' ruled The inclusion of Titus may have been a later addition, as Domitian's reign seems to be reckoned from Vespasian's death.
# ''Domitian'' ruled
# '' Nerva'' ruled , 4 months,
# ''Trajan'' ruled 19 years,
# '' Hadrian'' ruled 20 years, 10 months,
# ''Antoninus Pius'' ruled 22 years,
# ''The deified Verus'' ruled 7 years,
# ''Marcus Antoninus'' ruled
# '' Commodus'' ruled 16 years,
# '' Pertinax'' ruled
# '' Julianus'' ruled 65 days
# ''The deified Severus'' ruled 17 years,
# ''Geta'' ruled 10 months and 12 days
# ''Antoninus'' aracalla''the Great'' ruled 6 years,
# ''Macrinus'' rule 1 year,
# '' Antoninus Elagaballus'' ruled
# ''Alexander'' ruled 13 years, and 9 days
# '' Maximinus'' ruled 3 years, 4 months and 2 daysThe chronology of the Crisis of the Third Century is largely speculative and unknown. No primary source collaborates any of these lengths.
# '' The two Gordians'' ruled for 20 days
# ''Pupienus and Balbinus'' ruled 99 days
# ''Gordian'' IIruled 5 years, 5 months and 5 days
# '' The two Philips'' ruled 5 years, 5 months and 29 days
# ''Decius'' ruled 1 year, 11 months and 18 days
# '' Gallus and Volusianus'' ruled 2 years, 4 months and 9 days
# '' Aemilianus'' ruled 88 days
# ''Gallienus with Valerian'' ruled 14 years, 4 months and 28 days
# '' Claudius'' ruled 1 year, 4 months and 14 days
# ''Quintillus'' ruled 77 days
# '' Aurelian'' ruled 5 years, 4 months and 20 days
# ''Tacitus'' ruled 8 months, 12 days
# '' Florian'' ruled 88 days
# '' Probus'' ruled 6 years, 2 months, 12 days
# '' Carus'' ruled 10 months and 5 days
# '' Carinus and Numerian'' ruled 2 years, 11 months, 2 days
# '' Diocletian and'' ruled , 12 daysThe names of Maximian, Galerius, and Maximinus Daza are all mixed.
# '' Constantius and'' ruled Reckoning from their appointment as ''caesar''.
# '' Severus'' ruled , 4 months and 15 days
# '' Maxentius'' ruled 6 years
# ruled , 6 days.
# '' Licinius'' ruled 15 years, The original manuscript may have been written around 330, as there is no mention of Constantine I (r. 306–334).

Notes

See also

* '' On Weights and Measures''

References

*Salzman, Michele Renee. ''On Roman Time: The Codex-Calendar of 354 and the Rhythms of Urban Life in Late Antiquity'' (The Transformation of the Classical Heritage 17). Berkeley: University of California Press, 1991.
*Weitzmann, Kurt. ''Late Antique and Early Christian Book Illumination''. New York: George Braziller, 1977.

Further reading

*Burgess, R. W
"The Chronograph of 354: its Manuscripts, Contents, and History"
''Journal of Late Antiquity'' 5 (2012) 345–396.
*Burgess, R. W
"The New Edition of the Chronograph of 354: A Detailed Critique"
''Zeitschrift für Antikes Christentum'' 21 (2017): 383–415.
* Weitzmann, Kurt, ed.,
Age of spirituality : late antique and early Christian art, third to seventh century
', no. 67, pp. 78–79, 1979, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, ; full text available online from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries

External links

*Online text and images, full introduction and bibliography a
Tertullian.org: Chronography of 354

{{DEFAULTSORT:Chronography Of 354
4th-century illuminated manuscripts
4th-century history books
354
Ancient Roman culture
Late Roman Empire art
Specific calendars
Early Christian art