Sundial: Dies nostri quasi umbra

Inspired by the tradition of the zodiac that is part of this week's focus on ancient astronomy, I chose to write about a sundial that is decorated with the signs of the zodiac! See the Bestiaria blog post for details.

Bestiaria Latina:

Dies nostri quasi umbra

Sundial: SOLI DEO GLORIA

I just added a new sundial to my tiny but growing collection! See the Bestiaria Latina blog post for details about the Latin motto and its meaning.

Bestiaria Latina Sundials:

SOLI DEO GLORIA

I am also really enjoying Pinterest for this, especially the widgets! To make an individual pin widget, just click "share" on the pin page. For a board widget, use the Widget Builder.

Sundial: VOLAT IRREVOCABILIS · ULTIMA LATET

I am clearly going to have too much fun with this sundial project. For the second post, I picked a really beautiful sundial from the southern Tyrol, and then I realized that the transcription of the motto at Wikimedia is surely incorrect! So, I explain in the blog post what the transcription must surely be.

Bestiaria Blog Post:

VOLAT IRREVOCABILIS · ULTIMA LATET

Plus... that gave me an excuse to write to Michel Lalos. He has the single most amazing website of sundial photographs — Albums de cadrans solaires — that I have found anywhere, and he also repeats the incorrect transcription. I am hoping that he will be interested in having a corrected transcription, and perhaps he might also let me include his photograph of this sundial in my blog post because his photo is really lovely.

Fingers crossed: I will be so excited if I hear back from him! Meanwhile, I already heard from ManfredK at Wikimedia, who alerted me to this lovely photograph which he contributed:

Day 6: A New Sundial Series at Bestiaria

I decided to take a break from the Janux software this evening and work on sundials since I had so much fun with the sundial item that I wrote about in my second assignment for class. In fact, I've decided to start a new series on sundials with Latin inscriptions over at my Bestiaria Latina blog. Here's the one I wrote up tonight... something that would not have happened without this class to prompt me! :-)

See the blog post for details about the image and the inscription, including an English translation:

Pereunt et Imputantur

Week 1 Discussion: Stonehenge

Unfortunately I was not able to view the video (timing out on me, argh!), but I was able to read the transcript (does everybody know how to access the transcript? it sure saved me tonight since the video kept timing out) - so my contribution to the discussion will be based on just reading the transcript. I was so excited that Kerry focused on one of my favorite topics: the constellations as stories! In the mythology course I teach, in fact, students have done some great class projects where they work with the stories traditionally associated with the named constellations. Here are some free public domain books at Google Books about the constellations and their stories if you are interested in that kind of thing!

As Kerry described the way that Stonehenge might have been used to "read" the motion of the sky, it immediately made me think of sun dials and how they work. I am really fascinated by sun dials as works of art and even as works of literature! I don't know if that is a topic we will be addressing in this class, but it is something that I enjoy. I'm intimidated by the armillary sphere (the idea of imagining the motion of the earth against the backdrop of the constellations in three-dimensional space over time is so confusing to me!), but a sun dial is somewhat easier to understand because for that I only have to understand the earth and the sun... which is still a stretch for me, but I can do that more easily!

As a contribution today, let me share a beautiful sun dial and inscription from Prinsenhof (Prince's Court) in Groningen. Here is a webpage about the sundial, and it is also the source of the image below:

If you Google the Latin inscription (iambic), it is a good way to find lots of pictures of the sun dial and to learn more about it. Here is the Latin:

TEMPUS PRAETERITUM NIHIL, FUTURUM INCERTUM,
PRAESENS INSTABILE, CAVE NE PERDAS HOC TUUM

Here is what it means:

Time past (is) nothing, the future (is) uncertain, the present (is) unstable, take care so that you do not lose this (time which is) yours.

Isn't that cool? Sun dial inscriptions are one of my favorite genres of Latin poetry. It is a shame that Stonehenge did not come with an inscription! :-)