Jeffro
The sound of desperation as ‘scholar’s’ cognitive dissonance gnaws at him. Newton’s claims about Ptolemy’s supposed unreliability, including when the new year started, aren’t widely accepted. And your cherry picked source is made redundant by Parker and Dubberstein’s tables anyway.
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The said scholar is quite relaxed and Newton's observation does make the possibility of a New Year beginning in May as shown by means of the lunar eclipse in VAT 4956. PD does not discuss VAT 4956 but Newton does use PD as part of his thesis. The solstice was not observed but calculated thus rendering such an event redundant.
scholar JW