Editing French Republican calendar (section)

=== Development and usage ===
[[File:Musee-historique-lausanne-img 0143.jpg|thumb|A copy of the French Republican Calendar in the Historical Museum of Lausanne]]
The days of the [[French Revolution]] and First French Republic saw many efforts to sweep away various trappings of the [[Ancien régime|''ancien régime'']] (the old [[Feudalism|feudal]] monarchy); some of these were more successful than others. The new Republican government sought to institute, among other reforms, a new social and legal system, a new system of weights and measures (which became the [[metric system]]), and a new calendar. 

Amid nostalgia for the ancient [[Roman Republic]], the theories of the [[Age of Enlightenment]] were at their peak, and the devisers of the new systems looked to nature for their inspiration. Natural constants, multiples of ten, and [[Latin]] as well as [[Ancient Greek]] derivations formed the fundamental blocks from which the systems were built.

The calendar was created by a commission under the direction of the politician [[Gilbert Romme]] seconded by {{Interlanguage link|Claude Joseph Ferry|fr}} and [[Charles-François Dupuis]]. They associated with their work chemist [[Louis-Bernard Guyton de Morveau]], mathematician and astronomer [[Joseph-Louis Lagrange]], astronomer [[Jérôme Lalande]], mathematician [[Gaspard Monge]], astronomer and naval geographer [[Alexandre Guy Pingré]], and poet, actor and playwright [[Fabre d'Églantine]] (who invented the names of the months) with the help of [[André Thouin]] (gardener at the [[Jardin des plantes]] of the [[Muséum National d'Histoire Naturelle]] in Paris). As the [[rapporteur]] of the commission, Romme presented the calendar to the [[Jacobin]]-controlled National Convention on 23 September 1793, which adopted it on 24 October 1793 and also extended it [[wikt:proleptic|proleptically]] to its [[epoch]] of 22 September 1792. It is because of his position as rapporteur of the commission that the creation of the republican calendar is attributed to Romme.<ref>[[James Guillaume]], ''Procès-verbaux du Comité d'instruction publique de la Convention nationale'', t. I, pp. 227–228 et t. II, pp. 440–448; Michel Froechlé, " Le calendrier républicain correspondait-il à une nécessité scientifique ? ", Congrès national des sociétés savantes : scientifiques et sociétés, Paris, 1989, pp. 453–465.</ref>

French coins of the period used the calendar. Many show the year ({{langx|fr|an}}) in [[Arabic numerals]], although [[Roman numerals]] were used on some issues. Year 11 coins typically have a "XI" date to avoid confusion with the Roman "II".