Dear Nicola and all, Thanks to Jack Aubert I can respond to your posting. I often regret being unable to read Italian or Spanish, as so many important gnomonic publications appear in these languages!
The primary aim of my article on the sundial of emperor Augustus was to bring the important paper by Michael Schütz (published in 1990) to the attention of the gnomonic community. In addition, I reviewed the further goings of Buchners story. Around 1980, prof. Edmund Buchner excavated part of a meridian line constructed a century after Augustus erected an Egyptian obelisk in the Mars Field in Rome. He hypothesized that Augustus constructed a huge sundial and argued that a centimeter-precise topographical relationship existed between the sundial and the nearby Ara Pacis (peace altar). Schütz showed that Buchners assumptions on the height of the obelisk were mostly unjustified and that his calculations of the position of the obelisk and the sundial layout were incorrect. Schütz' paper (in German) apparently was unknown in gnomonics, so that Buchners speculative hypothesis was considered a proven fact. The only author who knew Schütz article (and agreed) was Karlheinz Schaldach. The "bird's eye perspective" argument comes from his book on Roman sundials. Schütz is is also missing from the bibliography in your 1997 article (which I downloaded but unfortunately cannot read). When I contacted you last November to get your opinion on Schütz' criticism, I was very sorry that the language problem prevented a fruitful communication. Still, I am looking forward to your evaluation of Schütz' - in my view convincing - arguments. Best regards, Frans Maes -
