RE: A sundial motto query

[reto ambrosini]

Hello James!

IO NON ebro {about 30-35 letters missing}ans LANgU{about 10 
missing}cARE
LA CAMPANO IL FERRO MA RISPLENDE SOLE

There is a motto that is often used in Ticino (italian speaking area, 
south of Switzerland). It goes

Puo' ben errar della campana il ferro
Ma quando splende il sole io non erro.

or
Ma se risplende il sole io non erro

That means 

The "ferro" of a bell can do errors
but when the sun shines I don't 

The "ferro" is the iron part that moves inside the bell, I don't 
know the english word for it.

I can't figure out the comlete motto of yours but it shold be 
something similar to this one.
I'll let you know if I find some better information.


Reto Ambrosini

A sundial motto query

[Andrew James]

I am trying to decide what may have been the original of a sundial motto
of which about half is missing.  It is in Italian and as far as I can
read it is

IO NON ebro {about 30-35 letters missing}ans LANgU{about 10 missing}cARE
LA CAMPANO IL FERRO MA RISPLENDE SOLE

where lower case is uncertain (generally the top part of the letters
remains).  I have photographs which show enough of a few other letters
to prove or disprove a suggestion, perhaps, but not to add much certain
information to the phrase.

I get a general idea of "I'm not a drunken feeble thing dependent on the
iron clock but on the majestic Sun" but not the detail.  It is written
in a circle around a stone base which has weathered badly since 1908, so
the starting point might of course be wrong (and possibly missing)
though there is the suspicion of a dot after SOLE.  Inside it are two
easy enough mottoes in Latin and Greek

HORA DIEM DEPASCIT EUNDO, and
(P)ANTA ANAPHEREI CHRONOS (transliterating from Greek)

I guess the Italian may be a well-known phrase somewhere, but not to me!
Can anyone help, please?

Andrew James
BSS member 629.

I found out about the mailing list from "sundials on the Internet"