Dear Phil and Giovanni If anyone is interested in seeing a photograph of the Rome chronogram, I have put one I took myself in 2005 in:
http://www.cl.cam.ac.uk/users/fhk1/JamesIII.jpg I am entirely happy to relinquish copyright :-) In my view, the spacing of the lettering could have been better! > This chronogram is particularly interesting because > it is dedicated to: > > JAMES III BY THE GRACE OF GOD KING OF GREAT BRITAIN... He is indeed one of the best-known kings we never had. > For his biography and why his dial is in Rome, click > on http://www.royal.gov.uk/output/Page144.asp This is an interesting biography but, alas, doesn't explain why the chronogram is about 10 metres from the punto perpendicolare of the meridiana. The key to the motivation for the plaque is partly in the chronogram and partly in the phrase in the centre of the plaque FELIX TEMPORUM REPARATIO, Blessed Restoration of the Times. This is partly a reference to the 10-day shift which Pope Gregory had ordered in 1582 along with the reform of the Calendar. As wishful thinking it was also a hope that King James III would be restored to the throne. This, and more, is given in: http://www.jacobite.ca/gazetteer/Rome/SMariaAngeli.htm The chronogram is also referred to in the splendid book about the meridiana, Il Cielo in Basilica, by Mario Catamo and Cesare Lucarini but they do not say more than is found in this web site. It makes some kind of sense to place a thank-you plaque near an instrument that monitored the instant of the Vernal Equinox but neither the web-site nor the book explicitly says so and various things don't quite add up... The meridiana was laid down by Bianchini in 1703, long after the Gregorian reform of 1582. This particular meridiana cannot have had anything to do with the reform of the Calendar. James III recognised the Gregorian reform in 1721 which is the subject of the chronogram of course. Great Britain adopted the Gregorian Calendar in 1752. James III died 14 years later in 1766. I cannot find out when the plaque was placed in the pavimento of the Basilica. If it was placed shortly after 1721, while James III was still alive, this would make much more sense than if it were placed after his death. It would be fun to know that King James III saw the plaque himself. By 1766, surely, any irritation by Rome over Britain having taken such a long time to adopt the new Calendar must have been very slight? Can anyone supply further information? Frank King Cambridge, U.K. --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
