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Aloysius Lilius

A portrait of Aloysius Lilius, a Calabrian physician and astronomer, wearing a red robe with a white ruffled collar, set against a dark background.

Calabrian physician and astronomer, born Luigi Lilio around 1510 and dead by 1576. He submitted the mathematical proposal for the Gregorian reform to the papal commission and did not live to see it adopted. His century-leap rule — drop three leap days every four hundred years — is the engine of the modern calendar. His original manuscript has not survived; we know the scheme from a summary his brother Antonio handed to the Vatican.

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