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TheFlorentine calendar, also referred to as thestylus Florentinus ("Florentine style"), was thecalendar used in theRepublic of Florence inItaly during the Middle Ages. Unusually, both the beginning of the day and the beginning of the year differed from the traditionalJulian calendar.
The Florentine day began at sunset and ended at the following sunset, such that the whole day was shifted forwards by (up to) several hours when compared to the modern day (running from midnight to midnight). As such, a reference to an event at "two hours into the day" meant two hours after sunset, and occurred on the previous day by modern reckoning. By way of example, 10 August in the Florentine calendar covers the period from sunset on 9 August in the modern calendar until sunset on 10 August. Conversely, 10 August in the modern calendar runs from midnight (several hours into the day) on 10 August in the Florentine calendar until midnight on 11 August.
The Florentine year began on 25 March, and not on 1 January, with the apparent year lagging behind the traditional Julian calendar.[1] Thus, 31 December 1200 was followed by 1 January 1200 (not 1201, as it would become in the Julian calendar), and the year remained the same until 24 March 1200. This was then followed by 25 March 1201, the day on which the two calendars synchronised. This is the reason that some dates have an apparent discrepancy of one year. For example, a birth date of 10 March 1552 in Florentine reckoning translates to 10 March 1553 in the Julian calendar, setting aside any discrepancy due to the differing start of the day.
Beginning the year on a date other than 1 January was common during the mediaeval period. The first day of the year falling on 25 March meant that the Florentine calendar was in thestile dell'Annunciazione ("style of the Annunciation") orstile dell'Incarnazione ("style of the Incarnation") - also styled in Latin asab [Dominica] incarnatione ("from the [Lord's] Incarnation") - by reference to theSolemnity of the Annunciation, which also saw use in theSienese,English andScottish calendars. ThePisan calendar, as well as those ofCortona andPistoia, were also in this style, but confusingly ran ahead of the Julian calendar rather than behind, resulting in them lying exactly one year ahead of the Florentine calendar. By contrast, calendars in thestile della Natività ("style of the Nativity") as inArezzo,Assisi andPerugia began on theSolemnity of the Nativity of the Lord (Christmas) on 25 December, theVenetian calendar began on 1 March until theFall of the Venetian Republic, and theFrench year onEaster day until 1564. The traditional Julian calendar was sometimes said to be in thestile della Circoncisione ("style of the Circumcision"). Seebeginning of the year.
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Italy was one of the few regions to immediately convert from the Julian calendar to theGregorian: 4 October 1582 was followed by 15 October 1582, the latter being the first day of the new Gregorian calendar. Not until 1749, however, were the ancient calendars definitively outlawed inTuscany: in that year the recently appointed Grand Duke andHoly Roman Emperor,Francis I, ordered that, starting from 1750, the first of January should become the first day of the year, thus having the "peoples of Tuscia" conform to all the others. A plaque in Latin commemorating the grand ducal/imperial decree is affixed to the west wall of theLoggia dei Lanzi, inPiazza della Signoria.[a]
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