Hi Frank and all,
Yes, the Portuguese National flag has an armillary sphere hidden behind the
crest. The national flag for Brazil also incorporates an armillary sphere, the
mother of all sundials. Interpret or project the armillary as you wish to
create many forms of sundials. The armillary sphere represents the celestial
sphere, the sun and stars above you in relation to your time and location on
earth. The epitome of Renaissance astronomy is the armillary sphere.
The Portuguese armillary represents the royal symbol adopted by Dom (King)
Manuel 1, an acknowledgement of the role of celestial navigation in the voyages
of discovery that put Portugal on the world map. Unfortunately the Manueline
armillary symbol was distorted with an exaggerated ecliptic angle and the
latest version of the flag replaces the rings with silly ribbons. As usual, the
science has been distorted to make it "look good".
This concept is reviewed in the presentation "Armillary Spheres" on my website
www.walkingshadow.info, number 19 on the list of publications. The direct link
is http://tinyurl.com/armillaryspheres for the 1.4MB PowerPoint presentation.
Slides 32 and following on focus on the Portuguese flag and the armillary in
Manueline architecture
I found the website for the Whipple Museum at Cambridge very useful for
learning about armillary spheres and there role in astronomy and sundials. See
http://www.hps.cam.ac.uk/starry/armillary.html and follow the links.
Regards, Roger Bailey
--------------------------------------------------
From: "Frank King" <[email protected]>
Sent: Sunday, January 23, 2011 11:30 PM
To: "Richard Mallett" <[email protected]>
Cc: "Sundial Mailing List" <[email protected]>
Subject: Re: Fwd: [Flags] (pt) Canedo Commune (Ribeira de Pena Municipality,
Portugal)
> Dear Richard,
>
> You refer to a Portuguese communal flag...
>
>> This is the only example I have seen of a
>> sundial on a flag (combining two of my
>> interests) - are there any others ?
>
> You might look at the Portuguese National
> Flag which has an armillary sphere as its
> background. See:
>
> http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flag_of_Portugal
>
> It isn't a very well drawn armillary sphere but
> it is convincing enough.
>
> I am the proud owner of a Portuguese flag and
> when I take groups on sundial walks I sometimes
> bring it out and wave it with a flourish when I
> get to the first armillary sphere!
>
> Members of the group can then compare the flag
> version with an example of the real thing!
>
> Frank H. King
> Cambridge, U.K.
>
>
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>
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