X-Nico

2 unusual facts about Dionysius Exiguus


Annunciation

When the calendar system of Anno Domini was first introduced by Dionysius Exiguus in AD 525, he assigned the beginning of the new year to March 25 since, according to Catholic theology, the era of grace began with the Incarnation of Christ.

Matthew 2:1

Rather it is attributed to Dionysius Exiguus who guessed incorrectly about when to start his calendar.


Giovanni Antoniano

Antoniano published (Cologne, 1537), the work of Gregory of Nyssa on the creation of man and the Hexameron of Basil of Caesarea, both in the Latin translation of Dionysius Exiguus.

Natural number

However, 0 had been used as a number in the medieval computus (the calculation of the date of Easter), beginning with Dionysius Exiguus in 525, without being denoted by a numeral (standard Roman numerals do not have a symbol for 0); instead nulla or nullae, genitive of nullus, the Latin word for "none", was employed to denote a 0 value.


see also