Medici

The Medici family was a powerful and influential Florentine family from the 13th to 17th century. The family produced three popes, numerous rulers of Florence, and later members of the French royalty.

Florentine reckoning

The Florentine calendar was used in Italy in the middle ages. In this system, the new day begins at sunset. When the reference of a birth was, for example, "two hours into the day", this meant two hours after sunset. This means a birth date of August 12th would, by modern reckoning, be considered to be August 11th.

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The year also began not on January 1st but rather on March 25th, which is why some dates are in apparent one-year discrepancy. For example, a birth date of March 10, 1552 in Florentine reckoning translates to March 10, 1553 in modern reckoning. This was not unusual; before the conversion to the Gregorian calendar in 1583, the French year began on Easter day, the Venetian year on March 1st, and the English year on March 25th (until 1752). Italy was one of the few nations to immediately convert from the Julian calendar to the Gregorian: October 4, 1582 was followed by October 15, 1582 (Gregorian).

Related Topics:
March 10 - 1552 - 1553 - Gregorian calendar - 1583 - Easter - 1752 - Julian calendar - October 4 - 1582 - October 15

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