I agree with Jack. The moon is a common feature on sundials in France, often as the radiant arc for the hour lines. I have see it as a useful style feature like the sun face or "Beausoleil". Many of Zarbula's sundials use the crescent moon, more as a style feature than a symbolic one. Islamic symbol? Not in this case. Symbol of Mary? Perhaps but this is a a weak association. In my experience the sun / moon symbol is more common in other cultures like in Spain and Mexico than in France.
Zarbula also includes as options the sun, often inscribed with the religious IHS Christogram, the name of Jesus, iota-eta-sigma, or ???. Zarbula often included Masonic symbols like the compass and square. Strange exotic animals, birds? Whatever the customer wanted, Zarbula delivered. Whatever looked good and pleased the customer. His sundials were gnomonically correct, the rest was his exuberant folk art. All of Zarbula's existing dials are available on this Google Map. http://goo.gl/maps/QIF8n. Regards, Roger Bailey "Everything I need to know, I learned from sundials." From: Jack Aubert Sent: Sunday, June 09, 2013 2:19 PM To: 'Steve Lelievre' ; [email protected] Subject: RE: sundial spotting As we learned on a BSS tour of the Perche region in northwestern France two years ago there are many sundials in that area that use the crescent moon as a decorative element. Here are a few more of them: http://michel.lalos.free.fr/cadrans_solaires/autres_depts/orne/perche_ornais/cs_de_mortagne.html A booklet on local sundials published by the Perche tourism office asserts that the role of these decorative elements, including a few other shapes, is to stop the hour lines so that they don't converge to a point and lose definition, either by having the stone break up or the painted lines run together. The crescent may just be something that became locally fashionable in that region of France when the dials were being constructed. I think that is probably a more plausible explanation than looking too deeply for religious symbolism. Jack Aubert From: sundial [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Steve Lelievre Sent: Sunday, June 09, 2013 10:53 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: sundial spotting Hi all, What, if any, is the significance of the recumbant crescent in this dial? Wikipedia describes crescents in art and symbolism, but its description relates mostly to the crescent as a symbol of Islam and in Christianity (Roman Catholic) as a symbol for Mary. Is there any other or more specific meaning when used to furnish a dial? Specifically, a fully recumbant crescent as shown in this dial? Steve On 09/06/2013 9:11 AM, Fred Sawyer wrote: Karin, See a photo of the dial at http://michel.lalos.free.fr/cadrans_solaires/autres_depts/orne/pays_d_alencon/cs_pays_d_alencon.html Fred Sawyer On Sunday, June 9, 2013, Karin ten Kleij-Meij <[email protected]> wrote: > > Dear sundial people, > Does the cadran solaire on this piece of art look familiar to you? :-) > http://en.artscad.com/A.nsf/OPRA/SRVV-6D4TP2 > Best regards and wishing you a sunny day, > Karin. ---------------------------------------------------https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. -- This message has been scanned for viruses and dangerous content by MailScanner, and is believed to be clean. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3343 / Virus Database: 3199/6396 - Release Date: 06/09/13 ----- No virus found in this message. Checked by AVG - www.avg.com Version: 2013.0.3343 / Virus Database: 3199/6397 - Release Date: 06/09/13
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