From jmpfund@bgnet.bgsu.edu Sat Apr 1 23:35:20 2000 Received: from mxu3.u.washington.edu (mxu3.u.washington.edu [140.142.33.7]) by lists.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW99.09/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id XAA54546 for ; Sat, 1 Apr 2000 23:35:19 -0800 Received: from sp07.notesnet.bgsu.edu (sp07.notesnet.bgsu.edu [129.1.7.7]) by mxu3.u.washington.edu (8.9.3+UW00.02/8.9.3+UW99.09) with ESMTP id XAA29218 for ; Sat, 1 Apr 2000 23:35:18 -0800 Received: from [129.1.190.142] ([129.1.190.142]) by sp07.notesnet.bgsu.edu (Lotus Domino Release 5.0.2b) with ESMTP id 2000040203292412:6355 ; Sun, 2 Apr 2000 03:29:24 -0400 X-Sender: jmpfund@popj.bgsu.edu (Unverified) Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <40.23f91b1.2617a40c@aol.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Sun, 2 Apr 2000 02:39:23 -0500 To: classics@u.washington.edu From: "James M. Pfundstein" Subject: Re: Upping the Ante Christ (was: BC(E) etc.) X-MIMETrack: Itemize by SMTP Server on MAIL03/SERVER/BGSU(Release 5.0.2b |December 16, 1999) at 04/02/2000 03:29:25 AM, Serialize by Router on MAIL03/SERVER/BGSU(Release 5.0.2b |December 16, 1999) at 04/02/2000 03:29:33 AM, Serialize complete at 04/02/2000 03:29:33 AM Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" At 2:12 PM -0500 4/1/2000, AllenAmet@aol.com wrote: > I will try to find out what in Petavius' 1659 English edition ("The histo= ry >of the vvorld, or, An account of time") led me to this remarkable conclusio= n, >since its availability (and influence) for hundreds of years will apparentl= y >not suffice. > >Allen Koenigsberg >BC How about its influence? Evidence under that heading would go a lot farther to convince me of Petavius' crucial importance in this respect, but there would have to be a lot of it. The mere fact of availability or even influence doesn't conclusively support the assertion that Petavius "established" B.C. dating. For a parallel, consider the work of Allen and Greenough. Their work (some of it, anyway) has been available for more than a century, and it continues to be useful and influential. But it would be too much to say that these guys "established the study of Latin in the 20th century." Latin was already here, and would still be here if they had never been born. The Catholic Encyclopedia has a pretty lengthy entry on Petau/Petavius. They don't seem to credit him with the invention or "establishment" of the B.C. system, and it seems like they'd mention it if a Jesuit had had that kind of impact on such a fundamental European idea. There is some mention of his chronological works (I paste the quotes below) but the author of the article seems much more excited about him as a theologian and intellectual historian. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11743a.htm JMP Catholic Encyclopedia: PETAU, DENIS: =2E.. Among his previous writings, P=E9tau had inserted some masterly dissertation= s on chronology; in 1627 he brought out his "De doctrina temporum", and later the "Tabul=E6 chronologic=E6" (1628, 1629, 1633, 1657). It surpassed Scalige= r's "De Emendatione temporum" (Paris, 1583), and prepared the ground for the works of the Benedictines. A summary of it appeared in 1633 (1635, 1641, etc.) under the title of "Rationarium temporum", of which numerous reprints and translations into French, English, and Italian have been made. ... The reputation P=E9tau enjoyed during his lifetime was especially due to his work on chronology; numerous eulogies were pronounced on him by his contemporaries, such as Huet, Valois, Grotius, Isaac Voss, F. Clericus, Noris, etc. His chronological work has long since been surpassed, and a list of errors - inevitable at the period - could be drawn up even in the case of this man who boasted that he counted no less than eight thousand mistakes in the "Annals" of Baronius. But the great glory, which in the eyes of posterity surrounds the name of P=E9tau, is due to his patristic works and his importance in the history of dogma. With good reason he may be styled the "Father of the History of Dogma". .