1088

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Events

Europe

• March 12—Pope Urban II succeeds Pope Victor III as the 159th pope.
• Work begins on the third and largest church at Cluny.
• The Rebellion of 1088 against William II of England is led by Odo of Bayeux.
• The oldest extant university, the University of Bologna, is founded.

China

• The Dream Pool Essays is published in this year by the polymath Chinese 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 Ibn al-Haytham, and includes many different fields of study in essay and encyclopedic form, including geology, astronomy, botany, zoology, mineralogy, anatomy, pharmacology, geography, optics, economics, military strategy, philosophy, etc. Some of Shen's most advanced theories include geomorphology and gradual climate change, 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 relatively recent invention of the canal pound lock over the old flash lock.
• The Chinese polymath statesman and scientist Su Song has the successful pilot model for his astronomical clock tower constructed in Kaifeng, China. It features an escapement mechanism and the world's oldest known endless power-transmitting chain drive to operate the armillary sphere, opening doors, and mechanical-driven manikins that would rotate in shifts to announce the time on plaques.

North Africa

• Mansur ibn Nasir succeeds Nasir ibn Alnas as ruler of the Hammadid Dynasty.

Births

Deaths

• January 6—Berengar of Tours, French theologian
• July 3—Robert of Rhuddlan, Norman ruler of most of North Wales
• Naser Khosrow, Persian theologian
• William de Warenne, 1st Earl of Surrey, Norman aristocrat