Dear friends, a new issue of the Italian magazine Orologi Solari is available for download from the usual site http://www.orologisolari.eu/.
Here is the list of articles together with a short abstract: 1. "A meridian line to free Napoleon" by Albèri Auber Paolo This article expands the topic already presented in November 2009 in Gnomonica Italiana n. 19. A careful research on some details, also technical, of the meridian line itself (autumn equinox) and on the ephemeris "Norie", as well as several precise clues concerning the presence and projects of Gerolamo Bonaparte in Trieste, lead to formulate, without too many risks, a new hypothesis. Behind the Meridian Line there was a context not only purely technological. An important revolutionary (then failed) project of Napoleon supporters for South America had to finish with the liberation of Napoleon at that time prisoner in the island of Saint Elena. 2. "A 'hat' sundial now missing" by Casalegno Gianpiero A sundial, now missing, in the revolving restaurant housed in the Olympic Tower in Munich is described. The article illustrates the working principle together with a possible method for its calculation. 3. "Transits and sun heights" by Caviglia Francesco The article analyzes which is the time instant of maximum daily height of the Sun, not corresponding to that of the transit on the meridian. Then the symmetry of the time-height curve of the Sun with respect to the moment of transit on the meridian is discussed, a question which for the dialist is more important than the previous one. Finally, the symmetry of the azimuth-height curve of the Sun with respect to the South is analyzed. 4. "Equatorial or cylindrical polar sundial?" by Clarà Francesc The author wonders how an equatorial sundial, sometimes called cylindrical polar, should be called. After a brief explanation, he describes how to build a model. 5. "A sundial in the desert. A 'balatā' in a 'casba' in Sahara." by Martínez Almirón Esteban The article examines an ancient horizontal sundial situated in a location in Morocco, at the edge of the desert. The dial has Islamic characteristics and it was probably used for resolving the hours of prayers and the direction of Mecca. 6. "A blade of light in an ancient oratory" by Ferrari Gianni The article describes the blade of light produced by a small window in an old oratory in Abano Terme and its behavior is studied. 7. "Proposals to graphically deal with a sundial on a declining inclined plane" by Gunella Alessandro The proposed text wants to examine, with criterions of a 16th –17th century Dialist, the construction of a dial on a declining plane, "nearly vertical." It’s hence about an exclusively graphic method, in use at that time. A subject some centuries late, as it’s usual for me. Ideas of the School of Clavius are quoted, together with proposals from the french Hérigone, with some references to criterions used by Desargues in building sites (according to the book by Bosse). 8. "Nordic solar instruments in the Viking Age" by Langer Johnni e Sterza Lorenzo The article presents a bibliographic organization of the knowledge of solar astronomy among the Nordics in the Viking Age, in particular through the description of instruments findings discovered by archaeologists. 9. "The roman sundials of the ancient Praeneste (second part)" by Severino Nicola The measure of time in Roman Praeneste, illustrated through the myth of the Varrone Horologium and the Roman period sundials of great importance, among which two recently found in archaeological excavations. 10. "Altitude sundials from the notebook by Daniele Barbaro" by Stocco Elsa Two altitude sundials are describes, that Daniele Barbaro considers in his manuscript "De horologiis describendis libellus", a notebook of preparatory notes to commentaries on the Ten Books of Vitruvian Architecture. A digital bonus can also be downloaded for additional reference material. Hope you will enjoy the reading, although in Italian only. Ciao. Gian Casalegno
--------------------------------------------------- https://lists.uni-koeln.de/mailman/listinfo/sundial
