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A Few Sundials

When it comes to sundials, I'm the merest layman: if you want to delve into the arcana of gnomonology, see the excellent websites in the navigation bar at the foot of the page.

On the other hand, I like them, and keep my eyes peeled, especially when there's something odd about them. Here are some pages on dials that I've seen, all but one in Italy:

[image ALT: A detail view of the upper part of a stone building of regular courses of squared blocks of varying widths, on which an array of diagonal lines has been lightly carved, tagged with carved numbers running from 5 to 12, as well as the astronomical symbols for Aries, Cancer, Libra, and Capricorn. It is the astronomical sundial on the façade of the church of S. Vito in L'Aquila, Abruzzo (central Italy).]
L'Aquila 		[image ALT: A painted surface with a blazing sun in the center and above it, scrollwork with roses. From the center of the sun a stylus pokes out at an angle. It is a detail of a sundial in Cesi, Umbria (central Italy).]
Cesi 		[image ALT: A piece of inlaid stone pavement depicting a centaur. It is a detail of a meridian dial in the cathedral of Fossombrone in the Marche (central Italy).]
Fossombrone 		[image ALT: Three faces of a seven-sided stone boss, each face bearing a round sundial. It is a detail of the sundial at the top of the Seven Dials column in London.]
London
[image ALT: a blank space]
[image ALT: A stone inscription, 'AD OPVS NON AD OCIVM', with the incised figure of a bell or plumbline. It is a detail of a sundial in Pitigliano in Tuscany (central Italy).]
Pitigliano 		[image ALT: The last meter or so of the top of a stone obelisk, surmounted by a spiked ball. It is a detail of the Obelisk of Augustus in Rome.]
Rome 		[image ALT: A surface painted with half of a stylized sun and rays and arrows directed both to it and from it. It is a detail of an imitation sundial in Scheggino, Umbria (central Italy).]
Scheggino

A bit of background on sundials in Antiquity:

[image ALT: An engraving of a pyramidal structure topped by a four-horse chariot, with a 10‑column portico at its base. It is an imaginative reconstruction of the Mausoleum of Halicarnassus, serving as the icon on my site for the De Architectura of Vitruvius.]
Vitruvius:
Book IX 		[image ALT: A woodcut of a taurobolium: a Mithraic adept slaughtering a cow. It serves as the icon on my site for Smith's <I>Dictionary of Greek and Roman Antiquities</I>.]
Horologium

And then there's this object:

[image ALT: A round dial crudely etched on a stone wall, numbered clockwise I thru VI, and with a bent metal stylus projecting from the center. It is a sort of a game in the prison of the church of S. Domenico in Narni, Umbria (central Italy).]
Narni

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Site updated: 19 Dec 20

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