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Chapter 7
Proleptic Calendar Functions |
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This section discusses the concepts behind a proleptic calendar and presents the necessary functions for interconverting Gregorian and Julian proleptic dates. |
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The word proleptic, when applied to a calendar, simply means that the rules of the calendar are being extended to dates when, historically, either the calendar did not exist or was no longer in use. In its original sense, proleptic is derived from "prolepsis," which has both the meaning of |
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taking of something future as already done |
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assigning of an event . . . to a too-early date. |
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Proleptic, then, in its original sense, implies anachronism, especially in the sense of prochronism. The term therefore implies error and has a negative connotation. |
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In calendric studies, however, the term has a neutral and technical meaning used to indicate both directions of time and refers to the application of calendric rules, rather than the correctness of a particular dating. |
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You may, for example, want to know today's date in the Julian calendar. You would need to extend the rules of the Julian calendar forward in time to do this. Likewise, any time you refer to a date prior to 46 B.C., you are using a proleptic Julian date, since the Julian calendar did not exist prior to that time. |
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