Luke Coletti wrote: > ..... > This perhaps, brings up another issue, one that I've wondered > about for sometime and which I have corresponded with a few of you > about. Namely who, when and by what means was the analemma 'discovered'. > Surely some form of regular timepiece must have been used, was it indeed > some form of water clock? Mario Arnaldi has sent me information > mentioning that the analemma was well known by the fifth century B.C.! > He also mentioned > that Vitruvius explains it precisely in his ninth book of 'De > Architectura'. > > I think it would be quite interesting to have a full historical > account of the analemma, does anyone have it or know where I can get it? > > Regards, > > Luke
Luke, What do you mean with analemma in your question? As Vituvius describes in his book De Architectura it is a construction by which it is possible to find the suns height and azimuth and by which you can lay out sundials. But for that no regular timepiece it needed as you write. In English nowadyas analemma is used for the equation of time curve but that has nothing to do with the analemma of Vitruvius. Fer J. de Vries, Netherlands.
