Hi all, I had the same question three years ago. After consulting some Italian sundial contacts, Gianni Ferrari provided the solution:
...... The strange "dial" is one of five works that the municipality has ordered in 1994 to five artists in the intent to give life to a project of museum of modern art, open air. The quadrant has been realized by the artist Giulio Paolini and, according to the words of the author: "The project intends to propose the realization of a sundial of the dimensions and in the place (the external wall of the church of Sant'Agostino) where an ancient sundial was. A geometric motive (the profiles of the planets or their orbits) and a sketch are engraved on the surface to plaster. There is also the sentence TOUT SE TIENT [everything hangs together, FM] that signals the four cardinal points with four of the letters that compose it. A pencil, in bronze, is fixed in the central point perpendicularly and it projects its shadow on the whole sketch." It is a pity that the new quadrant is completely false and wrong as sundial, doesn't have anything to do with gnomonics and has been superimposed to an authentic old solar clock. ...... In addition to Gianni's complaint, the title of the artwork is also quite peculiar: "Meridiana". On request I can send you a picture of the work, and an enlargement of the 'dial face' (some 20 KB each). Best regards, Frans Maes ----- Original Message ----- From: "Frank Evans" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, August 08, 2004 2:37 PM Subject: italian dial > Greetings fellow dialists, > Can anyone please help me to decipher this: I have been sent a picture, > by a friend, of an Italian presumed dial on the wall of Sant' Agostino > church in San Gimignano, Tuscany. It has a horizontal gnomon which is a > simple shaft. Around it are drawn eight circles which are not concentric > but each touching the next circle outwards at one point, mostly > horizontally, alternatively left and right but the inner circles > touching at 45 degrees to the horizontal. Additionally there are two > rather flat ellipses drawn obliquely round the centre point. What I take > to be cardinal points, the letters N, S, E and O are marked as well as > the intercardinals E, T and C (nothing for south-east). > > My friend writes that the dial faces roughly south south east. There are > no hour marks. My picture is a close-up and I am unable to guess a > scale. I am totally baffled. Any suggestions? > Frank 55N 1W > -- > Frank Evans > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > - > -
