Records of a ‘primitive building’ on this site date from C6. Subsequent monastic development followed. The present building dates from C11 (chancel, N transept); C12 (nave); C13 (expansion). Later in its long history the Abbey survived turbulent times during the many uprisings and downfalls in France. The Abbey was restored in the early C20. There is a saying ‘He who owns a house in Uzerche has a castle in the Limousin‘
This unusually large dial is cut on the SW buttress of the imposing entrance doorway. It is too grand to be given the normal designation ‘scratch dial’. The much less used description ‘Mass dial’ seems more appropriate in this case. It is accurately cut , and within the circle the 5 radials form 6 segments in the lower half of the dial. It is in remarkably good condition apart from the damage to the lower right quadrant. Further research is needed to find a plausible date-span for the dial’s construction.
Photography: Plaxy Arthur, with many thanks; Jacques Mossot os / cc
Corciano is an attractive small town 12km west of Perugia, walled and with much of its medieval origins still evident. In contrast, the Commune has commissioned interesting modern projects, for example a residential complex designed by Renzo Piano and inspired by Rubik’s cubes.
The town has initiated an ambitious project, financed by the municipality, to make an itinerary that combines culture, history, astronomy, landscape and science and can be used free of charge for everyone: citizens, schools and tourists.
BORGO del SOLE
The Sundial Trail links 3 different kinds of sundial at sites carefully chosen for each type. These are an Armillary Sphere (Equatorial Dial); an Analemmatic Sundial; and a Ptolemaic Plinth in the Gardens. Other types of dial are planned.
The area between Caen and Alençon contains a surprising number of churches with scratch dials. There are some rich pickings for scratch dial and church mark enthusiasts. It is not exactly a destination in itself, but is certainly vaut le voyage if you are in the region. Several churches have a plethora of designs and Urville is one of them. I gave up counting the dials and disentangling overlapping ones when the score reached twenty. 49° 01′ 31.44″ N, 0° 17′ 53.88″ W
There is no point in trying to analyse this amazing collection of dial art, nor guess its significance. It’s hard to find out much about the church at all except for the official write up to the effect This parish church, built in the village centre, replaced the former place of worship which had become too small. The present church is said to be C17. Using British churches as a guide, some of the dials & graffiti seem earlier. Presumably some of the original church’s stones were reused. It might make sense that the new church tempted the villagers to add to an existing display. Here is a varied selection.
DIALS
APOTROPAIC SYMBOLS, GRAFFITI and other designs
GSS Category: Scratch Dial (Normandy France); Mass Dial (Normandy France); Medieval Sundial (Normandy France); Church Graffiti; Apotropaic Symbols; Protection Marks
The oblong dial is located high up on the south side of the Basilica. Its modern design contrasts notably with its setting. I can imagine some debate over modern versus traditional styles. It was installed in 2020; a caption refers to renovation.
The dial’s height and size makes it very visible. John Renner, who took these photos, suggests convincingly that there must always have been a dial of some sort there, I’d have thought, to be visible to the friars from their cloister and help them say their hours on time. I have now managed to locate a photo taken from the cloister of an earlier dial with a much simpler day-marker. Probably it replaced an even earlier one.
The details of the new dial include 4 signs of the Zodiac; 2 midday roman numerals; 1/2 hours marked with pale arrowed lines; and a fairly traditional motto. The most interesting feature is the gnomon, which is tilted for accuracy and looks adjustable. As the photos clearly show, the sun’s rays are focused through a small hole onto the dial face – here, at exactly 9.30 am.
See HERE for the Scaphe Dial in the Padua Botanical Gardens (one of 3 dials there)
Basilica of St Anthony . Padua . Wiki
GSS Category: Modern Dial; Vertical Dial; Dials in Italy
All photos: John Renner, with thanks as always; Expedia for the old dial
This wonderful example of a scaphe dial is one of 3 dials in the Botanical Gardens of Padua. There is also a cube dial and a cylinder dial (separate post). This first-ever public garden* was created in 1545, and the original layout has been preserved. This is not the space for a short wander round, but there’s plenty of interesting material online. It has been an important centre for scientific research since its inception and, unsurprisingly, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
*Pisa’s botanical garden was actually completed a year earlier but disqualified on a technicality that I haven’t pursued.
GSS Category: Scaphe Dial; Botanical Garden Sundial; Europe Dials
EGNAZIO DANTI* 1536 – 1586 (also, Ignazio), Dominican monk and polymath, became renowned for his wide learning and intellectual precision. He was a mathematician, cartographer, astronomer (some say ‘cosmographer’) to Cosimo I, and much more. There’s plenty about him – and indeed about his 3 very different dials at SMN – online.
Recommended sites for an informed overview of the dial include that of the Basilica itself SMN.IT; also ARTELEONARDO and ACCADEMIAGALLERY
For those wishing to dig deep into the complex analysis and the historical context of the dial, you can do no better than study the lead article by Simone Bartolini & Marco Pierozzi in the BULLETIN OF THE BRITISH SUNDIAL SOCIETY VOLUME 22(iv) – December 2010. You can download it.
Egnazio Danti
ARMILLARY SPHERE
The armillary sphere consists of two perpendicular bronze circles with a diameter of 1.30 cm. The vertical one represents the meridian and indicates the exact moment when the sun is at its highest point, noon. On the equinox day, these two circles create a cross-shaped shadow, while elongated circle shadows are formed on other days. (AG)
REFORMATION OF THE CALENDAR
Danti’s sphere was installed on the S facade of the SMN in 1572. This device enabled him to determine the equinox precisely, and thus the true length of the year. Measurements the following spring confirmed the conjecture that the equinox was earlier than indicated by the Julian calendar, in fact by 11 days. As Wiki (always good on this sort of topic) puts it: The reforms of Julius Caesar in 45 BC put the Roman world on a solar calendar. This Julian calendar was faulty in that its intercalation still allowed the astronomical solstices and equinoxes to advance against it by about 11 minutes per year. Pope Gregory XIII introduced a correction in 1582; the Gregorian calendar was only slowly adopted by different nations over a period of centuries, but it is now by far the most commonly used calendar around the world.
MERIDIAN DIAL SMN Link to the article on Danti’s marvellous dial inside the Basilica
Chartreuse de Mélan . Taninges . France – Vertical Dial
Cat / Salamander Hunky Punk
The Chartreuse was founded in 1285 as a Carthusian nunnery and continued its religious functions until the French Revolution. Thereafter it became a school and in due course an orphanage. A disastrous fire in 1967 destroyed almost all the buildings on the site, with loss of life. Only the church and its cloister now remain. The church is an exhibition space and the lawns around it feature examples of modern art, from interesting via enjoyable to a few that are a matter of personal taste.
Chartreuse de Mélan . Taninges . France – Vertical Dial
The dial is included by MICHEL LALOS in his excellent French Cadrans Solaires site. Anyone who has in interest in sundials in France will benefit hugely by using this free resource. It is accessible, informative, and easy to use – not least because the dials are featured by Départment with a map for dial locations. The entry for Mélan is :
Cadran peu déclinant de l’après-midi, gravé et peint sur enduit, très dégradé, fines lignes, demies, plus de chiffres dans bandeaux, traces de blason et décor
Dial slightly declining in the afternoon, engraved, painted on rendering, very degraded, fine lines, half-hour lines, numbers within a frame, traces of coat of arms and decoration.
There are paint remnants at the top of the dial, where (presumably) it has been protected by the eaves. The gnomon hole at the top of the coat of arms is square. The dial is obviously old and I wondered if it might be dateable. Checking the apparent shape of the escutcheon, I discovered that it was first recorded as an armorial design in late C17 and (conveniently) turns out to be known as French-style. Overall, one might reasonably conclude that this dial is C18.
MEMORIAL STONE 1690
Chartreuse de Mélan . Taninges . France – Memorial Tablet 1690
GSS Category: Vertical Dial; France Sundial; Cadrans Solaires; Dials Abroad
All photos: Keith Salvesen; source used MICHEL LALOS
Santa Maria Novella, one of the most sublime churches in Tuscany, needs no general introduction. The Wiki articleSMV gives a very good overview. The focus of this article is on the amazing meridian dial inside the church itself.
First, I should mention the 2 famous dials on the facade, the subject of much interest, investigation, and analysis including detailed articles by BSS. I plan to feature both separately in due course. On the left is an armillary sphere; on the right is an astronomical quadrant. They are the work of Egnatzio Danti, astronomer to Cosimo I, and were installed c1570.
Armillary Sphere & Astronomical Quadrant on the Facade (Egnazio Danti c1570)cc os
The Museo Galileo has a comprehensive website here MG and is a superb resource for historical science. Exhibits include 2 of Galileo’s telescopes. In 2007 it held a remarkable dial-based exhibition called The Line of the Sun. The entry for SMN includes all 3 dials and gives a succinct account of their creation and significance. I am adapting / adopting some entries from the museum’s explanations.
MERIDIAN DIAL
Background: Between 1572 and 1575, the cosmographer Egnazio Danti (1536-1586) installed on the façade of Santa Maria Novella no less than three astronomical instruments: a great quadrant with sundials; an equinoctial armillary; and two ‘camera obscura gnomons’. These instruments were designed to be used for new astronomical calculations linked to the project for reforming the Julian calendar…
Meridian Dial: Although Danti designed the dials he was unable to complete the tracing of the meridian line on the floor of the church. He only opened gnomonic holes, first in the glass of the rose window, then on the church’s façade, much higher, and made two openings in the vaulting as well, through which rays of light would pass only during the equinoxes and the winter solstice.
Operation:The entrance of the sunbeam was through the two gnomonic holes. The pinhole on the rose-window would have allowed [the measurement of] time during the entire year. The pinhole on the façade would have allowed the same reading only in the days of the equinoxes and of the winter solstice (IMSS Multimedia Laboratory).
FACADE POSITIONS
Gnomon holes on the facade in the rose window (70′ high) and just below the pediment
tsettle
MERIDIAN DIAL IN DETAIL
Basilica of Santa Maria Novella . Firenze . Meridian Dial – Keith Salvesen
Basilica of Santa Maria Novella . Firenze . Meridian Dial – Keith Salvesen
Basilica of Santa Maria Novella . Firenze . Meridian Dial – Keith Salvesen
Basilica of Santa Maria Novella . Firenze . Meridian Dial – Keith Salvesen
Basilica of Santa Maria Novella . Firenze . Meridian Dial – Keith SalvesenBasilica of Santa Maria Novella . Firenze . Meridian Dial – Keith Salvesen
The attractive gardens of the Van Loon Museum contains 3 very different dials. In the centre is an armillary sphere (C19?). By the steps is a complicated early scaphe dial dated 1582. I have included B&W images, which can sometimes be useful for seeing details on multiple dials. The third dial with a weather vane is high up in the centre of the upper gallery overlooking the garden. I am trying to find out a date for it.
ARMILLARY SPHERE
SCAPHE / LECTERN DIAL 1578
Correctly know as a lectern dial because of its angle. Scotland in particular has many of these (eg Culzean), as it also has with obelisk dials (eg Kelburn Castle).
VERTICAL DIAL AND WEATHER VANE
GSS Categories: Armillary Sphere; Cube Dial; Multi Dial; Scaphe Dial; Modern Dial; Amsterdam Dial
Lizard / Viper Gnomon of Monumental Dial . Museo Galileo . Florence
MONUMENTAL SUNDIAL . MUSEO GALILEO . FLORENCE
The Museo Galileo‘s Monumental Sundial was built as a mathematical ornament in 2007. The slender bronze column (stele) is in fact formed from two matching columns closely aligned, symbolising day and night. The (mid)day stele faces south, with a vertical meridian line on which the shadow is cast by a lizard’s tail (actually, an imaginary half-lizard, half-viper). The night stele faces north and signifies the constellations Ursa Major and Ursa Minor that enable the Pole Star to be identified.
Monumental Dial . Museo Galileo . Florence
The encircled quadrant design on the pavement at the base of the bronze columns indicates the geographic orientation. This glass base of the gnomon, and also the Zodiac signs in the meridian line (below), are up-lit after dark.
Orientation dial . Monumental Dial . Museo Galileo . Florence
The Museo explains the meridian line in helpfully simple terms: A travertine and brass meridian line is drawn on the pavement, flanked with glass and marble signs of the Zodiac. The meridian line extends for about 15 metres from the museum entrance, where the winter solstice is marked, to the base of the gnomon, where the summer solstice is marked. The travertine curves crossing the meridian line indicate the date. The brass radial lines forming a grid with the two solstitial curves indicate the hours.
The seasons and the four elements are symbolised by the choice of materials: travertine for the earth and autumn; glass for the water and winter; grey stone for the air and spring; bronze for the fire and summer.
LIZARD / VIPER GNOMON ON THE SOUTH FACE OF THE COLUMN
This extraordinary sundial stands by the Arno with the Ponte Vecchio (which itself has a wonderful dial LINK) close by to the west. For anyone with even a minuscule interest in or curiosity about the gradual development of scientific instruments and techniques from medieval times onwards, pay a visit to the excellent online gallery LINK. Look in particular for the two astronomical telescopes made by Galileo himself.
The North American Sundial Society has very good online information about this unique dial. You can watch a short animation of how this gnomonic sundial works here LINK
For those interested in finer details of the way the dial works, the museum’s detailed account is included at the end of this article.
Museo Galileo – Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza
NASS (North American Sundial Society) Video: Filippo Camerota, Luise Schnabel, Giorgio Strano
How the Sundial works
The shadow cast by the glass polyhedron atop the large bronze gnomon indicates the date and time. The hours from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM are marked out by radial brass lines. The date is indicated by the travertine traversal lines which mark the Sun’s diurnal course for various periods of the year – precisely when the Star enters the signs of the Zodiac. The shadow cast by the gnomon changes in length during the course of the days and seasons, and indicates true solar time for the place where it is located, which is a different time than that of our wristwatches, known as mean time. In respect to mean time, true solar time has a periodic variation that can exceed a quarter of an hour.
Moreover, during daylight saving time, the hands of a clock are moved forward one hour. For example, true midday in the month of February would be indicated by the sundial around 12:28 AM while in the month of July it would be indicated around 1:20 PM daylight saving time.
To read the hour and date, you have to identify the hour lines and the calendrical lines closest to the gnomon’s shadow. When the shadow does not fall exactly on a hour line, you can read the half-hours and quarters with close approximation by ideally subdividing the space between two hour lines in two or four parts. The date can also be read by referring to the Zodiac signs and the start of the months marked out along the meridian line.
GAUDIUM SUB SOLE . SUNDIALS . MEDIEVAL TO MODERN 