SOURCE: “The Universal Machine and Chronology in the Early Modern Period,” in The Ordering of Time: From the Ancient Computus to the Modern Computer, translated by Andrew Winnard, University of Chicago Press, 1993, pp. 101-12.

In the following essay, Borst highlights the relationship between calendar-making and advancements in computational mathematics in the sixteenth century.

The age of perfection began with Canon Nicholas Copernicus. In 1543 he reminded Pope Paul III of the last Lateran Council and his questio de emendando kalendario ecclesiastico. In doing so, he justified his ‘more precise computation of times [supputatio temporum], required to work out the movements of the planets [in motibus caelestibus calculandis]’. However, Copernicus did not rely solely on arithmetical calculations. He also used astronomical measurements like Hermann the Lame, the only difference being that he worked with more modern instruments than the astrolabe. He used these to compare the chronologies of the ancient...