Calendar: January 21

Year: Day to Day Men: January 21

The Small Silver Medallion

The twenty-first of January in 1598 marks the birth date of Matsudaira Tadamasa (松平忠昌), an early to mid-Edo period Japanese samurai and daimyō, a feudal lord. He was noted for his skill in the martial arts and distinguished himself in combat by his prowess with the spear.

Matsudaira Tadamasa was born in Osaka as the second son of Yūki Hideyasu (結城秀康), a respected samurai and daimyō of the Fukui Domain in Echizen. In 1607, he was received in an audience by his grandfather Tokugawa Ieyasu (徳川家康), the First Shōgun of the Tokugawa Shogunate of Japan, and his uncle Tokugawa Hidetada (徳川秀忠), Second Shōgun of the Tokugawa Shogunate. Hidetada arranged to raise the nine-year old Tadamasa in the Tokugawa household with Ieyasu’s tenth son Tokugawa Yorinobu (徳川頼宣), who was four years older.

In 1607, Tadamasa was assigned a fief of ten-thousand koku, and became First Daimyō of the Kazusa-Anegasaki Domain. He accompanied his uncle Hidetada during the 1614 Siege of Osaka; however, he was frustrated that, due to his youth, he was not allowed to participate in the battle. Tadamasa petitioned his uncle to perform his genpuku ceremony, a classical coming of age ceremony, before the start of the Osaka military campaign in the summer. Hidetada agreed and granted him a kanji, which is a script character for his name, and the court rank of Senior Fifth Rank, Lower Grade as well as the courtesy title of lyo-no-kami.

At the 1615 Battle of Osaka, Matsudaira Tadmasa proved his prowess with the spear; his weapon from that battle became an heirloom of the Echizen-Matsudaira clan. As a reward for his service in battle, he was given in 1615 a fief of thirty-thousand koku and transferred as Seventh Daimyō to the Shimotsuma Dormain in Hitachi Province. When Shōgun Matsudaira Tadateru (松平忠輝) was relieved of command and exiled, Tadamasa became Daimyō of the Matsushiro Domain in Fukui with a fief of five hundred-thousand koku.

In 1626, Tadamas’s rank was raised to Senior Fourth Rank, Lower Grade. He accompanied Shōgun Tokugawa Iemitsu (徳川家光), the Third Shōgun of the Tokugawa Shogunate, to Kyoto in 1634. During the Shimabara Rebellion in 1637, he was disappointed that he did not receive orders to lead his troops into battle; he visited the battle as a private citizen with twelve retainers. Tadamasa ordered construction work in 1643 for the rebuilding of the Mikuni Harbor as the main port for shipping in the Fukui Domain.

Matsudaira Tadamasa died at the age of forty-seven in September of 1648 at the domain’s residence in the city of Edo. Upon his death, seven of his senior retainers committed junshi, a honorific suicide ritual for the death of their lord. Matasudaira Tadamasa is buried at the Temple of Eihei-ji in Fukui.

Notes: The koku, a Chinese-based Japanese unit of volume, is equal to about one hundred-eighty liters or one hundred-fifty kilograms of rice. In the Edo period, one koku of rice was considered a sufficient quantity of rice to feed one person for a year.

Calendar: January 20

Year: Day to Day Men: January 20

The Passageway

The twentieth of January in 1929 marks the general release of Raoul Walsh and Irving Cumming’s pre-Code talkie “In Old Arizona”. This film was a major innovation for Hollywood as it was the first major Western to employ the newly developed sound technology and the first “talkie” to be filmed outdoors.

The 1928 film “In Old Arizona” was based on the character of the Cisco Kid in the 1907 story “The Cabellero’s Way” written by William Sydney Porter, better known by his pen name O. Henry. Originally a murderous criminal in O. Henry’s story, the Cisco Kid was depicted as a heroic Mexican caballero or horseman for radio, film and television adaptations.

Raoul Walsh was originally scheduled to play the role of the Cisco Kid; however, an accident on location caused the loss of one eye. Silent film actor Warner Baxter took on the lead role of the film with Edmund Lowe as Sergeant Dunn and Dorothy Burgess as Tonia Maria.

The cinematographers Arthur Edeson and Alfred Hansen extensively used authentic locations for the sets. Filming took place in Utah’s Zion National Park, Bryce Canyon National Park, the Mojave Desert area of California, and at the colonial Mission San Juan Capistrano. “In Old Arizona” was the film that began the iconic image of the singing cowboy as its star Warner Baxter does some incidental singing in this first Western talkie.

“In Old Arizona” premiered in Los Angeles on Christmas Day, December 25th of 1928. At the 2nd Academy Awards in 1930, the film was nominated for five awards: Outstanding Picture, Best Actor, Best Director, Best Writing, and Best Cinematography. Warner Baxter won the Best Actor Award for his performance. In 2004, Walsh and Cumming’s “In Old Arizona” was preserved in the Academy Film Archive at the Pickford Center for Motion Picture Study.

Calendar: January 17

Year: Day to Day Men: January 17

A Sunny Day

The seventeenth of January in the year 1761 marks the birth date of Sir James Hall of Dunglass, 4th Baronet, who was a Scottish geologist and geophysicist. He was the first to use an analogue modeling synthesizer to investigate the formation of folds in the earth’s layers. Hall’s discoveries in this field were published in 1815.

Born at Dunglass Castle in East Lothian, James Hall was the only son and heir of Sir John Hall, 3rd Baronet who had served on the Grand Jury for the 1748 Edinburgh trial of those involved in the 1745 Jacobite uprising. James Hall studied at Christ’s College, Cambridge, and the University of Edinburgh during the 1780s. At Edinburgh, he studied under Professor of Medicine and Chemistry Joseph Black and Regius Professor of Natural History John Walker, one of the main scientific consultants of his day.

From attending Walker’s courses, Hall learned how to use the chemical compositions of minerals to determine the relative age of the earth’s layers. Walker also emphasized in his classes the importance of chemistry to the study of geology. After his studies, Hall travelled Europe to seek book dealers who dealt in works on mineralogy, geology and chemistry. His travels to France brought him into contact with nobleman and chemist Antoine-Laurant de Lavoisier who wrote the first extensive list of elements. Lavoisier was also instrumental in the development of the metric system as well as the reformation of chemical nomenclature through a set of rules for the generation of systematic names.

Upon his return to his home in Scotland, Sir James Hall continued his studies in the fields of chemistry and geology. During the 1780s and 1790s, he was interested in geologist James Hutton’s ‘Theory of the Earth” which suggested that the strata of the planet was continually being worn or melted down, thus making the planet a giant system of circulating material. Hall traveled with Hutton and professor John Playfair in the spring of 1788 on a boat trip to Siccar Point on Scotland’s Berwickshire coast. At Siccar Point, they discovered a rock formation that became known as Hutton’s Unconformity. This geological phenomenon marked the location where rock formations, created at different times and by different forces, joined together. Other locations in Scotland were later identified by Hutton.

Initially skeptical of the chemical viability of Hutton’s theory, Hall soon published several papers on the chemical composition of the strata. He experimented on granite to prove that it was possible for molten rock to form a continuous sequence of deposits, typically in parallel layers. By melting basalt in an iron furnace, Hall demonstrated its return to the original form when cooled; his melted limestone proved that, melted under pressure, limestone did not decompose. These findings were published by Hall in the Royal Society of Edinburgh’s scientific journal “Transactions”.

Sir John Hall traveled throughout Europe to examine the geological formations of Mount Etna and the Alps mountain range, both areas formed from the collision of the planet’s tectonic plates. He also studied the similarity of lava flows in Italy to geological sites in Scotland. Hall, in addition to his works in the field of science, was also the author of various works on architecture among which was his 1797 “Essay on the Origins and Principles of Gothic Architecture”. Sir John Hall, 4th Baronet, died at home in the central area of Edinburgh survived by a wife and six children. He is buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard in central Edinburgh.

Calendar: January 16

Year: Day to Day Men: January 16

The Farm in Early Autumn

The sixteenth of January in 1962 marks the first day of filming for Terence Young’s “Dr. No”, the first film in the James Bond series. Set in London, Jamaica and the fictional Jamaican island of Crab Key, the filming for Ian Fleming’s novel began on location at the Palisaodes Airport in Kingston, Jamaica. The primary scenes shot at that location included the exterior shots of Crab Key and and the city of Kingston.

Fleming had originally written “Dr. No” as a television outline for film producer and author Henry Morgenthau III who wanted to promote the Jamaican tourism industry. When that project did not develop, Fleming met with film producer Harry Saltzman to discuss a screen adaptation. Having reached an agreement with Saltzman, Fleming sold him the rights to all the James Bond novels except “Casino Royale” and “Thunderball” for fifty thousand dollars.

In order to finance the filming of the novels, Harry Saltzman formed a partnership with film producer Albert R. Broccoli. This partnership created two companies: Danjaq which held the rights to the Bond films, and Eon Productions which would handle their production. EON Productions had originally chosen the ninth volume of Fleming’s Bond series, the 1961 “Thunderball”, to be the first adaptation of the Bond films. However , due to a legal battle with the novel’s co-author Kevin McClory, EON Productions decided to film Fleming’s sixth Bond novel, the 1958 “Dr. No”.

After several Hollywood studios passed on the project, United Artists gave Saltzman and Broccoli authorization to produce “Dr. No” with a release date in 1962. Although United Artists agreed to finance “Dr. No”, the studio felt the film was on the same level as Hammer Films productions and was not willing to spend more than one million dollars for the film. United Artist had previously financed British films only to have them fail in U. S. theaters. For the climax scene of the explosion of Dr. No’s base, the producers managed to secure an extra one-hundred thousand dollars from the United Kingdom’s branch of United Artists.

The final choice for director was Terence Young who had previously directed several films for Albert Broccoli’s Warwick Films. In addition to his directorial work, Young made pivotal choices in the development of the James Bond character. Many actors were considered for the role of Bond before Saltzman and Broccoli decided thirty-one year-old Sean Connery would play Bond for first five films of the series. After he was chosen, Connery was taken by Terence Young to Young’s tailor and introduced to the casinos and high life of London. Connery’s role as Jame Bond was officially announced to the media on the third of November in 1961.

Principal photography was completed at the end of March in 1962. Editor Peter R. Hunt used innovative editing techniques of extensive quick cuts, fast motion and exaggerated sound effects on the action scenes to push the fast pacing of the film. Title artist Maurice Binder created the credits which became a signature of all subsequent James Bond films. His highly stylized main title sequence, filmed in sepia by putting a pinhole camera inside the barrel of a .38 calibre gun, and the opening’s music scores became a instantly recognizable symbols of the EON-produced series.

“Dr. No” premiered at the London Pavilion in the northeast side of Piccadilly Circus on the fifth of October in 1962; it was released across the United Kingdom two days later. Although the film did well in the United Kingdom, United Artists were still hesitant to premiere the film in New York City. The first commercial showing in the United States was at Atlanta, Georgia, where it ran successfully for twelve weeks in May of 1963. Despite the successful test run, United Artists did not consider shifting its release strategy. “Dr. No” was next launched in four hundred-fifty theaters in the Midwest and Southwest. The film finally opened in eighteen New York City theaters in June of 1963, nine months after its original premiere.

Notes: Due to the low budget for production, only one sound editor, Norman Wanstall, was hired instead of the usual three or four editors; sets had to be constructed in less-costly ways. The office of M, Chief of the Secret Intelligence Service, contained cardboard paintings and a door covered in leather-like plastic. Scenes involving Dr. No’s aquarium were accomplished by using a rear-projection screen and magnified stock film footage of goldfish-sized fish.

Sound editor Norman Wanstall worked on the first five Bond films and won an Oscar for his sound effects on “Goldfinger”. He created the sound effects for the spinning hat of Goldfinger’s servant Oddjob and for Dr. No’s crushing metal hand.

Calendar: January 15

Year: Day to Day Men: January 15

Southern Edge of the Lake

On the fifteenth of January in 1962, the Derveni papyrus was found at a site in Derveni, Macedonia, northern Greece. Discovered among the remnants of a funeral pyre in the necropolis that belonged to the ancient city of Lete, it is the oldest surviving manuscript in the Western tradition and possibly the oldest surviving papyrus written in Greek regardless of provenance.

The papyrus dates to approximately 340 BC, making it Europe’s oldest surviving manuscript. Composed near the end of the fifth-century BC, its text is a mix of dialects, mainly Attic and Ionic Greek with a few Doric forms. Occasionally the same word appears written in different dialectic forms.

The content of the Derveni papyrus is divided between religious instructions on sacrifices to gods and souls, and an allegorical commentary of a genealogical poem of the gods, ascribed to Orpheus. The identification of the papyrus’s author is a matter of dispute among scholars. Names like Euthyphron of Prospalta, Diagoras of Melos, and Stesimbrotus of Thasos have been proposed with varying degrees of likelihood.

The reconstruction of the papyrus involved the exacting job of unrolling and separating the layers of the charred papyrus roll. The surviving two hundred and sixty-six fragments of the papyrus were conserved under glass in descending order of size; however, due to the existence of unplaced smaller fragments, reconstruction is exceptionally challenging. Modern multispectral imaging techniques were used to take digital microphotographs of the papyrus fragments. From this work, twenty-six columns of text were recovered, all with their bottom parts missing, as they had perished on the pyre.

The Derveni papyrus is now included in the UNESCO Memory of the World Register, a compendium of the world’s documentary heritage, such as manuscripts, oral traditions, audio-visual materials and library and archive holdings. The papyrus is noted in this register as being the oldest known European book.

Note: The Center for Hellenic Studies in Washington DC is the location of the Interdisciplinary Research Project for the Derveni Papyrus. Over the last forty-five years, the text of the papyrus has undergone extensive reconstruction and study. Among the leaders of the Imouseion Project have been Theokritos Kouremenos, George M. Parássoglou, and Kyriakos Tsantsanoglou. A user-friendly copy of the latest reconstruction of the papyrus is now available online at: https://chs.harvard.edu/derveni-papyrus-introduction/

An extensive and informative review written by Patricia Curd of Purdue University on the 2004 publication “The Derveni Papyrus: Cosmology, Theology and Interpretation” written by Hungarian academic Gábor Betegh, the eighth Laurence Professor of Ancient Philosophy at Cambridge University, can be found in the University of Notre Dame’s “Philosophical Reviews” located at: https://ndpr.nd.edu/reviews/the-derveni-papyrus-cosmology-theology-and-interpretation/

Calendar: January 14

Year: Day to Day Men: January 14

Shades of Black and Green

The fourteenth of January in 83 BC marks the birth date of Marcus Antonius who played a critical role in the transformation of the Roman Republic from a constitutional republic into the autocratic Roman Empire.

Born in Rome, Marcus Antonius was the son of Marcus Antonius Creticus and Julia, the daughter of Consul Lucius Julius Caesar and the third-cousin of Gaius Julius Caesar, dictator of the Empire until his assassination in 44 BC. Antonius was a relative and supporter of Julius Caesar and served as a general during the conquest of Gaul and the Civil War of the late Roman Republic. He was appointed administrator to Italy while Caesar eliminated his political opponents in Spain, North Africa and Greece.

There is little reliable information on his younger years. It is known, however, that he was an associate of Publius Clodius Pulcher, a populist Roman politician and street agitator during the First Triumvirate. By the age of twenty, Antonius had accumulated enormous debt and fled to Greece to escape his creditors; during his stay in Greece, he studied philosophy and rhetoric at Athens. Antonius began his military career in 57 BC by joining the military staff of the Proconsul of Syria, Aulus Gabinius, as commander of the calvary. He achieved his first military honors after securing important victories at Alexandrium and Machaerus, both in Jordan.

Antonius’s association with Publius Clodius Pulcher enabled him to achieve prominence in his career. Clodius secured Antonius a position on Caesar’s military staff in 54 BC. Demonstrating military leadership under Caesar, Antonius and Caesar developed a friendship that would last until Caesar’s assassination. It was Antonius who persuaded Proconsul Aulus Gabinius to restore the Ptolemaic pharaoh Ptolemy XII Auletes to the throne of Egypt after Ptolemy’s defeat in a rebellion. With Ptolemy restored as Rome’s client king, Rome exercised considerable power over the kingdom’s affairs. It was during this campaign that Antonius met Ptolemy’s then fourteen year-old daughter Cleopatra.

After a year of military service in Gaul, Caesar sent Antonius to Rome to formally begin his political career as a quaester, or public official, in 52 BC. After a year in office, Antonius was promoted by Caesar to the rank of Legate and was given command of two legions, about seventy-five hundred soldiers. After Caesar’s assassination in 44 BC, Antonius joined with General Marcus Aemilius Lepidus and Galus Octavius, Caesar’s great-nephew, to form the three-man dictatorship known as the Second Triumvirate. This group defeated Caesar’s killers in 42 BC and divided the Republic’s government between themselves. Antonius was assigned Rome’s eastern provinces which included the kingdom of Egypt, ruled then by Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator.

As the members of the Triumvirate sought individual power, relations became strained. Octavius and Antonius averted war in 40 BC when Antonius married Octavia, Octavius’s sister. However despite this marriage, relations were further strained as Antonius continued his love affair with Cleopatra. In 36 BC, Lepidus was expelled from the Triumvirate and a split developed between Antonius and Octavius. This hostility erupted into civil war in 31 BC as the Roman Senate under Octavius declared war on Egypt and proclaimed Antonius a traitor. Later that year, Octavius’s forces defeated Antonius at the Battle of Actium. Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius fled to Egypt where, after losing the Battle at Alexandria in 30 BC, these two historic figures committed suicide.

Roman statesman and orator Cicero Minor, a leading figure of the Roman Republic, announced Antonius’s death to the Senate. Antonius’s honors were revoked and his statues removed; however he was not subject to a complete condemnation of memory, damnatio memoriae. A decree was made that no member of the Antonii family would ever bear the name of Marcus again. Married four times, Marcus Antonius had many descendants and was ancestor to several famous Roman statesmen. Through his lover, Cleopatra VII, he had two sons and a daughter Cleopatra Selene II through whom Antonius was ancestor to the royal family of Mauretania, another Roman client kingdom.

Notes:Cleopatra VII Thea Philopator was Queen of the Ptolemaic Kingdom of Egypt from 51 to 30 BC and its last active ruler. She was a descendant of its founder Ptolemy I Soter, a Macedonian Greek general and companion of Alexander the Great. The Ptolemaic pharaohs, crowned by the Egyptian high priest of Ptah at Memphis, resided in the multicultural and largely Greek city of Alexandria founded by Alexander the Great. Previous Ptolemaic pharaohs spoke only Greek and ruled as Hellenistic monarchs. Cleopatra could speak multiple languages by adulthood and was the first Ptolemaic ruler known to have learned the Egyptian language. Contrary to popular belief, Cleopatra VII did not commit suicide by a bite from an asp but rather through poison.