At 14.43 06/09/96 EDT, you wrote:
>9-06-96
>
>Dear List,
>
>I am familiar with temporal hours for which the period of time between sunrise
>and sunset is divided into 12 hours. I have recently come across octaval hours
>for which the period of time between sunrise and sunset is divided into 8
hours.
Octaval hours don't divide the day light in 8 parts but the entire cycle of
day and night in 8. So you will have four hours in the day and four in the
night.
>Based on Green's 1926 book "Sundials, Incised Dials or Mass-Clocks", this
system
>preceded the temporal system at least in England during Saxon times and in
>Ireland.
>
I wrote a complete and long article on Irish monastic sundials, for the
moment is in Italian language, but the B.S.S. accepted to publish in English
language, it will take a few time.
>Does anyone know of other information on octaval hours?
>
Dear Harold,
there are many ideas about the origin of the octaval system of
measurement of time, the most written is an Anglo-Saxon origin, but there
are people that suppose a Scandinavian one. This eight hours were called
also "tides" in ancient Saxon language, and what I know is that that word
doesn't mean tide like today, but simply something like "space of time". The
new maritime meaning came later maybe just because every tide come almost
every three hours. Today English still say "morning tide", "noon tide" and
"evening tide" to call the space of time around the morning (from sunrise to
nine a.m., almost), aroud midday and toward the sunset (from three p.m.,
almost, to sunset).
I said three hours, just because, as I wrote up here, with this system the
day was divided in four parts, not eight, and every part contains three
temporal hours. In time when monks were preaching in British Islands those
moments, that fell right in the third, sixth and ninth temporal hours of the
Romans, were used to mark the Office time of the monastery.
We have to say that this kind of division was known in Rome before Saxon's
invasion of Britain. Roman writers wrote about it, and many Roman sundials
demonstrates those scripts markin the third, sixth an ninth hours, or simply
putting them in evidence.
My convintion is that Roman empire had a great role in it. Monks made the rest.
Monks don't need the temporal hours between the zero (sunrise) and third
hourly line, and the same between third and sixth, and so on. They need to
pray at Prime, Terce, Sext, Non and Vesper; the octaval system was good for
them.
If we tolk about the day light divided into eight hours, than we face many
theorys again. I believe that this kind of division must consider the half
"tide". The fourth division of the day light are earlier than the eight.
We could write more about it but I think that's enough for now.
Regards
Mario Arnaldi
======================
MARIO ARNALDI
Viale Leonardo, 82
48020 Lido Adriano RA
ITALY
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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