1086 The Domesday Book
Events
- 1086: compilation of the Domesday Book by order of William I of England; it was similar to a modern-day government census, as it was used by William to thoroughly document all the landholdings within the kingdom that could be properly taxed.
- 1087: a new office at the Chinese international seaport of Quanzhou is established to handle and regulate taxes and tariffs on all mercantile transactions of foreign goods coming from Africa, Arabia, India, Sri Lanka, Persia, and South East Asia.
- King William the Conqueror calls for a meeting at Old Sarum, where he invites his major vassals and tenants-in-chief to swear allegiance to him. This is known as the Oath of Salisbury.
- 1087 – William the Conqueror dies in Rouen after a fall from his horse. He is succeeded as king of England by his third son William II.
- 1088: the renowned polymath Chinese scientist and official Shen Kuo made the world’s first reference to the magnetic compass in his book Dream Pool Essays, along with encyclopedic documentation and inquiry into scientific discoveries.
- The relics of Saint Nicholas, patron saint of seafarers, are stolen by Italian sailors from his church in Myra (modern Turkey) and transported to Bari in southern Italy
- The oldest extant university, the University of Bologna, is founded in Italy
- 1088: Rebellion of 1088 against William II of England led by Odo of Bayeux.
- The output of copper currency for the Chinese Song dynasty reaches 6 billion coins a year, prompting the Chinese government to adopt the world’s first paper-printed money later in the 1120s.
Arts
- The Dream Pool Essays is published by the Chinese polymath scientist and statesman Shen Kuo. His book represents the earliest known writing about the magnetic compass, movable type printing, experimentation with the camera obscura only decades after Hasan ibn al-Haytham, which includes many different fields of study in essay and encyclopedic form, including geology, astronomy, archaeology, mathematics, pharmacology, magnetism, geography, optics, hydraulics, economics, military strategy, philosophy, etc. Some of Shen’s most advanced theories include geomorphology and climate variability, while he improves Chinese astronomy, by fixing the position of the pole star and correcting the lunar error, by plotting its orbital course every night for a continuum of five years. Shen’s book is also the first to describe the drydock in China – and discusses the advantages of the recent invention of the canal pound lock, over the old flash lock.
- Su Song, Chinese polymath scientist and statesman, invents the pilot model for his astronomical clock tower constructed in Kaifeng. It features an escapement mechanism – and the world’s oldest known power-transmitting chain drive to operate the armillary sphere, opening doors, and mechanical-driven mannequins, that would rotate in shifts to announce the time on plaques.
