Only one combination per century
We are at the beginning of 2020 and the numerology linked to this year's numerical composition is of interest. We are facing a “numerically twin year”. By changing the decimals, in both cases we will always get the same number. There is only one combination in a century. Which makes it quite a unique year. One wonders what the twin years that followed in the first millennium were like.
2020 will be the year of the XXXII Summer Olympic Games in Tokyo and the United Kingdom will leave the European Union. There were also, on a literary and television level, books or TV series set in 2020. Sergio Rizzo set his dystopian story 02.02.2020. The night we left the euro just in this year as well as the second season of the television series SeaQuest – Odyssey in the abyss is set in the same year.
Fast or bad?
It would be curious to know if the new year is fast or bad. For the Romans, the two nouns described the particularity of a day "dies", to put it in Latin. In its intrinsic meaning "fas" means "what is lawful", "nefas" instead is its opposite. But inherently to what is licit to do or not we need to highlight the divine component in the actions performed by man.
It is precisely from this point that we must start to understand what the two terms mean, every action is "propitious" or "nefarious" for the divine will. Today we use the terms to indicate a whole year, while the Romans used expressions such as "annus horribilis" or "annus mirabilis".
Given the singularity that characterizes the numerology of this number, 2020, it is interesting to take a journey back in time, analyzing how essentially mirror years can be considered glories or nefarious. For each year we have selected a couple of events that have marked it more than others from a historical, cultural or everyday life point of view.
Have a good trip!
1010
We begin our discussion from 1010, in the Late Middle Ages. The sources available for this year inform us that the winter was so harsh that the Bosphorus, the Nile and Cairo froze, as well as being characterized by famines and even an eclipse. Does it remind you of anything?
1111
Henry V, to legitimize the imperial privileges that characterized the investiture controversy, captured Pope Paschal II in February 1111, making him his prisoner. The climax of the conflict, reached in the same year, ended with the Peace of Sutri, according to which the emperor renounced his investitures. Given the role played by Matilda of Canossa in the pacification of her parts, Henry V decided to crown her Imperial Vicar. Long live Matilde who broke the “glass ceiling“!”
1212
1212 is characterized by the foundation, on March 18, of one of the most famous religious orders, the Poor Clares of Santa Chiara. On the religious level, the year opens with the foundation of a new religious order, but is marked by the so-called "children's crusades". The church between renewal and crusades. We are not that far apart today.
1313
The year 1313 saw the birth of Giovanni Boccaccio in Certaldo. Boccaccio is one of the fathers of the literary canon of European prose. Writers such as Geoffrey Chaucer, Miguel de Cervantes and Lope de Vega have used him as a model. How beautiful is the literature of the time of Dante, Boccaccio and Petrarch?
1414
The Council of Constance begins, an ecumenical council of the Catholic Church convened in Constance at the request of King Sigismund to put an end to the Eastern Schism. Schisms always loom.
1515
We are in the middle of the Renaissance, Francis I of Valois ascends the throne of France, Martin Luther begins lessons on theEpistle ai Romans and Michelangelo Buonarroti sculpts the tomb of Pope Julian II, lo Dying Slave and the Rebellious Slave. What times!
1616
The famous astronomical treatise by Nicolaus Copernicus is banned in theIndex of prohibited books and William Harvey discovers blood circulation. Will science and faith ever be able to reconcile?
1717
One of the most important centuries is the Enlightenment. Just in 1717 Voltaire will be locked up in prison for the first time. In London, the first great Masonic lodge in history was born, the Grand Lodge of London. We still need Voltaire, maybe less than the lodges.
1818
Among the main events is the Congress of Aachen, wanted by the four victorious powers over Napoleon to cement their alliance. Much better literary: Mary Shelley publishes the novel Frankenstein and Arthur Schopenhauer The world as will and representation. Great that year!
1919
It is an eventful year around the world. On 11 January Romania annexes Transylvania, on 15 January in Berlin Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Liebknecht are arrested and killed. With the passage of the XNUMXth amendment to the United States Constitution the era of “prohibition” begins. On January 18, the Peace Conference to end the First World War opens in Paris. The Third Communist International is inaugurated in Moscow at the behest of Lenin and Trotsky. The Italian Combat Fasci led by Benito Mussolini are formed, Germany signs the Treaty of Versailles and Gabriele D'Annunzio at the head of 2.500 legionaries occupies the city of Fiume. My goodness what a year!
We draw conclusions
The sums drawn from each single year allow us to define very roughly whether each of these years has been good or bad.
Given the scarcity of sources to be able to analyze 1010, we could dwell on the weight that the climate already had on human life at the time and to what extent it influenced development. Defining it a priori nefarious for this would be incorrect.
1111, 1212 are the turbulent years due to the investiture controversy. If we wanted to analyze both from above, we certainly couldn't consider them peaceful years.
Also for the following years, due to wars, religious struggles (which have characterized most of the wars fought in history and are still one of the main causes today) the judgment is similar.
It is certainly clear that everything that has occurred over time has contributed to determining who we are. Perhaps if we looked at history we would find a few more answers to the questions of 2020. In their essentiality they are not very different from those of the man of 1010.
Many words, as always, for shit