A theoretical exploration of a sundial of the franciscan friary in Dubrovnik (Croatia)
Abstract
The Franciscan friary in Dubrovnik (Croatia) has two old wall sundials mounted in the small and large monastery cloisters. Both indicate equinoctial hours according to the apparent solar time. It is known for one who made it and the year it was made in - Pasko Baletin in 1770, and for the other, there are no data. The second sundial has two scales; on the upper scale, the direction of the shadow indicates hours counted from midnight (Ore francese), whereas on the lower scale, the hours counted from the previous sunset are indicated by the tip of the shadow i.e. its "sunlet" (Ore italiche) as it has been believed so far. In order to check this, we calculated both scales, made drafts and compared them with the existing sundial scales: hour lines on the upper scale coincide, while on the lower scale all calculated hour lines deviate from the existing lines towards the west. However, when the calculations for the lower scale are done in accordance to the hours counted from the end of the c...ivil twilight (Ore italiche da campanile) there is complete compatibility. This was confirmed by on-site observation of the sundial. It remains to search through Dubrovnik archives to discover when the two-scale sundial was made. The last-mentioned variant could have been brought to Dubrovnik in the second half of the 18th century, and since then there was a need to construct a two-scale sundial.
Keywords:
gnomonics / sundial / Ore italiche / Ore italiche da campanile / mathematical geographySource:
Zbornik radova Geografskog instituta "Jovan Cvijić", SANU, 2018, 68, 3, 307-320Publisher:
- Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti SANU - Geografski institut 'Jovan Cvijić', Beograd
Collections
Institution/Community
Geografski fakultetTY - JOUR AU - Tadić, Milutin AU - Prnjat, Zorica PY - 2018 UR - https://gery.gef.bg.ac.rs/handle/123456789/895 AB - The Franciscan friary in Dubrovnik (Croatia) has two old wall sundials mounted in the small and large monastery cloisters. Both indicate equinoctial hours according to the apparent solar time. It is known for one who made it and the year it was made in - Pasko Baletin in 1770, and for the other, there are no data. The second sundial has two scales; on the upper scale, the direction of the shadow indicates hours counted from midnight (Ore francese), whereas on the lower scale, the hours counted from the previous sunset are indicated by the tip of the shadow i.e. its "sunlet" (Ore italiche) as it has been believed so far. In order to check this, we calculated both scales, made drafts and compared them with the existing sundial scales: hour lines on the upper scale coincide, while on the lower scale all calculated hour lines deviate from the existing lines towards the west. However, when the calculations for the lower scale are done in accordance to the hours counted from the end of the civil twilight (Ore italiche da campanile) there is complete compatibility. This was confirmed by on-site observation of the sundial. It remains to search through Dubrovnik archives to discover when the two-scale sundial was made. The last-mentioned variant could have been brought to Dubrovnik in the second half of the 18th century, and since then there was a need to construct a two-scale sundial. PB - Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti SANU - Geografski institut 'Jovan Cvijić', Beograd T2 - Zbornik radova Geografskog instituta "Jovan Cvijić", SANU T1 - A theoretical exploration of a sundial of the franciscan friary in Dubrovnik (Croatia) VL - 68 IS - 3 SP - 307 EP - 320 DO - 10.2298/IJGI180718001T UR - https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_gery_895 ER -
@article{ author = "Tadić, Milutin and Prnjat, Zorica", year = "2018", abstract = "The Franciscan friary in Dubrovnik (Croatia) has two old wall sundials mounted in the small and large monastery cloisters. Both indicate equinoctial hours according to the apparent solar time. It is known for one who made it and the year it was made in - Pasko Baletin in 1770, and for the other, there are no data. The second sundial has two scales; on the upper scale, the direction of the shadow indicates hours counted from midnight (Ore francese), whereas on the lower scale, the hours counted from the previous sunset are indicated by the tip of the shadow i.e. its "sunlet" (Ore italiche) as it has been believed so far. In order to check this, we calculated both scales, made drafts and compared them with the existing sundial scales: hour lines on the upper scale coincide, while on the lower scale all calculated hour lines deviate from the existing lines towards the west. However, when the calculations for the lower scale are done in accordance to the hours counted from the end of the civil twilight (Ore italiche da campanile) there is complete compatibility. This was confirmed by on-site observation of the sundial. It remains to search through Dubrovnik archives to discover when the two-scale sundial was made. The last-mentioned variant could have been brought to Dubrovnik in the second half of the 18th century, and since then there was a need to construct a two-scale sundial.", publisher = "Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti SANU - Geografski institut 'Jovan Cvijić', Beograd", journal = "Zbornik radova Geografskog instituta "Jovan Cvijić", SANU", title = "A theoretical exploration of a sundial of the franciscan friary in Dubrovnik (Croatia)", volume = "68", number = "3", pages = "307-320", doi = "10.2298/IJGI180718001T", url = "https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_gery_895" }
Tadić, M.,& Prnjat, Z.. (2018). A theoretical exploration of a sundial of the franciscan friary in Dubrovnik (Croatia). in Zbornik radova Geografskog instituta "Jovan Cvijić", SANU Srpska akademija nauka i umetnosti SANU - Geografski institut 'Jovan Cvijić', Beograd., 68(3), 307-320. https://doi.org/10.2298/IJGI180718001T https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_gery_895
Tadić M, Prnjat Z. A theoretical exploration of a sundial of the franciscan friary in Dubrovnik (Croatia). in Zbornik radova Geografskog instituta "Jovan Cvijić", SANU. 2018;68(3):307-320. doi:10.2298/IJGI180718001T https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_gery_895 .
Tadić, Milutin, Prnjat, Zorica, "A theoretical exploration of a sundial of the franciscan friary in Dubrovnik (Croatia)" in Zbornik radova Geografskog instituta "Jovan Cvijić", SANU, 68, no. 3 (2018):307-320, https://doi.org/10.2298/IJGI180718001T ., https://hdl.handle.net/21.15107/rcub_gery_895 .