... My question then is: is there a general name for the hours
> shown on a canonical dial?
>
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Yes, of course. The word is simply "hours". There are no other names because
in medieval time they used the same latin language, there are some sundials
that have the standard division (12, 8, 6, 4) and marked the canonical hours
(times) between them. In medieval England they used the word "tided" or
"tid", but the meaning of that word, readind old manuscripts, seems to be
sometime generic (as "time") sometime specifical (as "hour"). There is
another way to call that kind of hours in 12th century France, and is
"Demures", there is only one manuscript that uses this word and is written
in old French language as Anglo-saxon dialet. in this case too, the word is
used in two way, to understand an amout of time or an hour.

Mario
P.S. For those interested, I changed house, down here is my new address
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Mario Arnaldi
Via Cavour, 57c
I-48100 - Ravenna
Lat. 44° 25' N - Lon. 12° 12' E
Italy

E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Web Site: http://digilander.iol.it/McArdal
Shop: http://web.tiscalinet.it/McArdal
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