Geoscience Reference
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aware of the figure 4004; not just those who could afford the expensive
topics, but the many citizens of London who wished to know the dates
of the feast days, the phases of the Moon and the hours of daylight in
1677, or who were simply curious to know the signs of the Zodiac or
learn some recent history. They would have learnt that in 1646 'The
treacherous Scots sold the King to the Parliament for 400,000 pounds'.
It is unlikely that Dove's almanac was distributed north of the River
Tweed and the Solway Firth.
However, not all chronologies were acceptable to scholars.
Unica vera et infallibilis chronologia biblica published in 1670 by
the Berlin scholar and oriental linguist Christian Ravis (1613-1677)
was mocked by all theological scholars who bothered to read it. Ravis
was widely travelled: having solicited support for travels in the east,
including the offer of a stipend of £24 granted by Ussher in return for
locating various manuscripts that the cleric wished to read, Ravis
ended up in modern-day Turkey. He returned to London with about
300 manuscripts, some (though not all) for Ussher, to seek a job as a
language teacher and made an unsuccessful attempt to gain the Chair
of Arabic at Oxford, although he was later to hold similar chairs in
Uppsala and Frankfurt where he died in 1677.
THE ARCHBISHOP FROMDUBLIN
Watching Charles I at his execution, from the roof of the Charing
Cross house of the Dowager Countess of Peterborough, was a cleric
who had been in enforced exile fromhis native land. This was the aged
and now frail Ussher, the Archbishop of Armagh, who having served
as chaplain to the King found the whole episode highly distressing and
would have collapsed but for the intervention of his servant and
chaplain. What was the cleric doing in London? He had had to flee
Ireland in 1641, but through considerable diplomatic skill managed
to stay on the right side of the royalists and subsequently Oliver
Cromwell.
The future archbishop was born at 57 High Street, Dublin, on
4 January 1580 to Aarland and Margaret (n
´
e Stanyhurst) Ussher,
