Pope Gregory XIII
1502 CE–1585 CE · Italy (Soncino/Bologna)
Born Ugo Boncompagni, Gregory XIII trained as a jurist at Bologna and served as a papal diplomat before his election. He is remembered above all for the Gregorian calendar, introduced by the 1582 bull Inter gravissimas, which corrected the drift of the Julian system and remains the global civil standard. A vigorous promoter of the Counter-Reformation, he founded numerous colleges and seminaries, including the Roman College's expansion and national colleges for training clergy. His pontificate also drew controversy: he celebrated news of the St. Bartholomew's Day massacre of French Huguenots, a reaction historians widely note as a stain on his record.
Did you know?
The pope who deleted ten days from the calendar
In 1582 Pope Gregory XIII reformed the calendar to correct the drift the old Julian system had let build up in the seasons. Under the new Gregorian calendar, Thursday 4 October 1582 was followed directly by Friday 15 October 1582 — so ten dates, the 5th through the 14th, simply never existed. That calendar is the civil standard used worldwide today.
How we know
Papal bull Inter gravissimas (1582); Thursday 4 October 1582 was followed by Friday 15 October 1582, dropping ten days while keeping the weekday cycle unbroken.
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Italy (Soncino/Bologna)איטליהItaly
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About Italy (Soncino/Bologna)
Renaissance-era Italian Jewish printing and exegesis; Sforno and Abarbanel both lived in Italy.
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