Dear Gianni,
It is always a pleasure to read your messages
to this list. As usual, your reply is full of
scholarly interest and invites more questions!
1. CHANGE FROM TEMPORARY HOURS TO EQUAL HOURS
You say that in classical times "The only system of
hours used was that of the temporary or seasonal hours:
12 hours from dawn to sunset (period of light) and
12 hours from sunset to dawn (night)."
An example is the great Horologium Solarium of
Augustus in Rome. This used Seasonal Hours.
You also say that there was a change to Equal Hours
(and the day could start at sunrise, sunset, noon or
midnight) but always 24 hours in total.
Question 1:
Do you know when Rome changed from Seasonal Hours
to Equal Hours?
2. ITALIAN HOURS AND ITALIC HOURS
Your explanation about the clocks is excellent. As
a "temperatore" myself, I would not like to wind a
clock that struck 300 times a day! 84 strikes from
4 x 6 hours is much better. The clock weight would
be much smaller!
I love the expression "ore ultramontane". This is
delightfully chauvinistic!
You say "In our language today there is a small
difference between the adjective "Italic" and the
adjective "Italian".
This is most interesting and also new information
for me, but I have a problem...
My translation of "Italian Hours" is "ore italiane"
but I would translate "Italic Hours" as "ore corsive"
which is clearly NOT right!!!
Question 2:
What is the Italian for "Italic Hours"?
3. EZANIC HOURS
> In my opinion the "Ezanic hours" are exactly equal
> to those that we call "Italic" and they are not a
> different system of time, also if they use 2 cycles
> of 12 hour each.
I agree with this opinion and I enjoy your question
about terminology:
> If we call "ezanic" the hours from sunset used in
> Turkey why not to call "gurubic" the same type of
> hours used in Arabia (from the transliterated Arabic
> "ghurub ashams" = sunset)?
I answer this with two further questions, first:
What is the capital of Italy?
Roma? Rome? Rom?
The answer depends on who asks the question and,
perhaps, in which language.
And secondly:
If you are a Canadian diallist, setting up a
Turkish-inspired sundial in the United States,
how do you describe hours that start at sunset?
A Turkish Muslim might be surprised to hear the
answer "Italic" so I agree, again, with your
answer:
> Perhaps the best and simpler thing (comprehensible
> also for the not experts) would be to call this
> kind of hours "hours from sunset"...
4. BYZANTINE HOURS
You say:
> Also the Byzantine hours... are new for me.
You also say:
> The Byzantine empire fell in 1453 and during
> the 1000 years of its life the usual "temporary
> hour" were used.
This is a big puzzle! But, on Mount Athos,
there are real communities who call their
time Byzantine Hours.
5. SUMMARY
I will, of course, agree that:
> ... "hours from sunset" ... are called "Italic "
> or "Italian" in all modern and ancient gnomonic
> books, all over the world : -)
So, I shall keep quiet about "Ezanic Hours" and
other "ore ultramontane" :-)
Please, though, tell me the Italian term for
"Italic Hours"!
Very best wishes
Frank
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