Re: duomo di Milano
The volume on the sundial in the Cathedral of Milan, very complete and with a lot of technical and historical news, described by Giovanni Barbi and published in 1976, is now out of print. A small volume, with a short description of the sundial, has been published in 2001 and is in sale in the cathedral. The cost is 5 euro (around 5 US $) Probably it can be asked also at the address [EMAIL PROTECTED] Publisher VENERANDA FABBRICA DEL DUOMO - 2001 Carlo Ferrari dal Passano - Carlo Monti - Luigi Mussio La meridiana solare del Duomo di Milano - 25 pag. - 10 photos Some data on the sundial. Since the Milan cathedral has the direction East-West (entry in the West side), the meridian line crosses the naves of the church and it is traced at few meters from the principal entry. Design and construction: Giovanni Angelo De Cesaris (astronomer of the Observatory of Brera) -1786 Height of the Hole 23.82 m Diameter of the hole 25.2 mm (1/945 of the height) Since the meridian line is longer than the width of the cathedral it is developed on the floor for 53.85m and then it climbs on the North wall for around 2.90 m The dimensions of the image of the Sun change from around 0.26 x 0.26m on summer Solstice to around 1.27 x 0.55m on November 20. The speed of the movement of the image on the floor is between 4 mm/sec (winter) and 1.7 mm (summer) The sundial has been verified and restored in 1827, in 1921 and in 1976, Originally, plates of marble with the zodiacal signs were present but they have been removed in the 1827 restauration: only the plate of the Capricorn sign remains. Some sundials in other Italian churches (as. that in the church of S. Petronio in Bologna - see Heilbron volume) were built mainly as astronomical instruments to determine the ecliptic inclination, the dates of the equinoxes, etc. On the contrary, the sundial in Milan was built as official clock to determine the instant of the noon with which to regulate the city clocks. On October 23rd 1786 the authority emanated a decree in which it was established that from December 1st 1786 in Lombardy (the italian region in which Milan is) the ancient system of the italic hours had to have abandoned and replaced from the system of the French hours (the modern hours with the beginning of the day at midnight) In 1786, Lombardy belonged, from 1713, to the Austrian Empire. Gianni Ferrari 44° 39' N 10° 55' E Mailto : [EMAIL PROTECTED] -
Re: duomo di Milano
Title: Message Guess we'll need to do a webpage of meridian dials too. (Just kidding Dave!) John John L. Carmichael Jr.Sundial Sculptures925 E. Foothills Dr.Tucson Arizona 85718USA Tel: 520-696-1709Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]Website: http://www.sundialsculptures.com - Original Message - From: Robert Terwilliger To: sundial@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Friday, July 04, 2003 2:21 PM Subject: RE: duomo di Milano There is one excellent site on the NASS links page whichhas photographsof pinholeprojections of the sun on various meridiansduring the solar eclipse of 1996.http://www.nauticoartiglio.lu.it/almanacco/Aa_ecli_13.ht There used to beanother excellent page on meridians but itvanished in September of 2002. The title was: The great meridian of Santa Maria degli Angeli The site was hosted by geocities. Does anyone know whowas responsible forthis site? Or how it might be recovered? Best, Bob -Original Message-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of heiner thiessenSent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 3:32 PMTo: Sundials Mail ListSubject: duomo di MilanoMany yers ago I witnessed in thecathedral of Milan the spectacle ofa small circle of light, projected by a ray ofsunshine onto the marble floor andtravelling at some considerable speed acrossthe vast floor space.I suppose this would have been a meridian dialbut I was not into dialling at the time and failed to askall the right questions.Is there anybody out there who knows aboutthis dial in the cathedral of Milan?I also understand there are several of these in Italy andone in the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul.Who has knowledge about the Hagia Sofia one?Are there any in the UK?Heiner Thiessen51N01W-
RE: duomo di Milano
at least), through the Archive. If you use the Wayback Machine ( http://archive.org ) and search for http://www.teklab.it/utenti/vaccaro/DefaultE.htm you will find the top level, in English. The major subpages have live links to Archive files, and the one Bill referenced above is the first of them. The question is whether one wants a living page or a piracy. The point of Archive.org, which I've been watching for about a year now, is a good one -- to save what is ephemeral, for future generations -- but copyright laws do hold, and this is not legal anywhere. A hundred years from now, it will be very valuable, if they survive; but for now, I just wonder what the real agenda is, and refuse to go to archived pages. -- B -
Re: duomo di Milano
The book The sun in the church Cathedrals as solar observatories by Dr. J. L. Heilbron is available from half.com for only $9.95. Excellent value for the technical and historical background to the meridians in the medieval cathedrals. http://half.ebay.com/search/search.jsp?nthTime=1product=bookskeyword=the+sun+in+the+churchx=13y=17 Fred Jaggi -
RE: duomo di Milano
Title: Message There is one excellent site on the NASS links page whichhas photographsof pinholeprojections of the sun on various meridiansduring the solar eclipse of 1996.http://www.nauticoartiglio.lu.it/almanacco/Aa_ecli_13.ht There used to beanother excellent page on meridians but itvanished in September of 2002. The title was: The great meridian of Santa Maria degli Angeli The site was hosted by geocities. Does anyone know whowas responsible forthis site? Or how it might be recovered? Best, Bob -Original Message-From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] On Behalf Of heiner thiessenSent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 3:32 PMTo: Sundials Mail ListSubject: duomo di MilanoMany yers ago I witnessed in thecathedral of Milan the spectacle ofa small circle of light, projected by a ray ofsunshine onto the marble floor andtravelling at some considerable speed acrossthe vast floor space.I suppose this would have been a meridian dialbut I was not into dialling at the time and failed to askall the right questions.Is there anybody out there who knows aboutthis dial in the cathedral of Milan?I also understand there are several of these in Italy andone in the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul.Who has knowledge about the Hagia Sofia one?Are there any in the UK?Heiner Thiessen51N01W-
Re: duomo di Milano
There is an excellent book by J. L. Heilbron published by Harvard University Press in 1999 titled: The Sun in the Church - Cathedrals as Solar Observatories That gives a very full description of Meridian lines in Cathedrals, their location and the technical and historical background. Fred Jaggi - Original Message - From: heiner thiessen [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: Sundials Mail List sundial@rrz.uni-koeln.de Sent: Thursday, July 03, 2003 3:32 PM Subject: duomo di Milano Many yers ago I witnessed in the cathedral of Milan the spectacle of a small circle of light, projected by a ray of sunshine onto the marble floor and travelling at some considerable speed across the vast floor space. I suppose this would have been a meridian dial but I was not into dialling at the time and failed to ask all the right questions. Is there anybody out there who knows about this dial in the cathedral of Milan? I also understand there are several of these in Italy and one in the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul. Who has knowledge about the Hagia Sofia one? Are there any in the UK? Heiner Thiessen 51N 01W - -
re: duomo di Milano
If I read Heilbron's book correctly, pages 266 to 272, the meridiane was designed by Giovanni Angelo Cesaris in the 1780's. His superiors wanted to be able to fix the time of noon and supress the old custom of telling time by Italian hours which depended on the time of sunset, and the length of the day. Fred Jaggi -
duomo di Milano
Many yers ago I witnessed in the cathedral of Milan the spectacle of a small circle of light, projected by a ray of sunshine onto the marble floor and travelling at some considerable speed across the vast floor space. I suppose this would have been a meridian dial but I was not into dialling at the time and failed to ask all the right questions. Is there anybody out there who knows about this dial in the cathedral of Milan? I also understand there are several of these in Italy and one in the Hagia Sofia in Istanbul. Who has knowledge about the Hagia Sofia one? Are there any in the UK? Heiner Thiessen 51N 01W -
