What time was it?

Kristen Lippincott29 Jan 2013

William BlakeUrizen, 1793Manchester, City Art Gallery

India (Bengal)Kali striding over the corpse of Shivapainted clay, late 19th centuryThe British Museum

India (Madurai)Krishna as the Supreme Creator and Destroyer of the UniverseGouache on canvas, late 18th centuryThe British Library

AztecXipe Totecc. 1500, bronze

AztecXipe Totecc. 1500, terracotta

BabylonianCreation tablet10th century BC, baked clayBritish Museum

Fred Stevens (‘Grey Squirrel’)The Whirling Log1966, sand paingingLondon, Horniman Museum

BininywuiRivers, Palms and stoones20 th century Paris, Quai Branley

Unknown artistTurtle dreaming20th centuryParis, Quai Branley

Venus cycles of the Mayan calendar from The Dresden Codex

Netsuke group of zodiac animalsivory, 9th centuryThe British Museum

James Ussher,The Annals of the World deduced from the Origins of Time…,London 1658

Abrecht Dürer,The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypsec. 1497-98

Gustave DoréIllustrations to Dante’s Paradiso, Canto 5

Either there is civil strife in heaven,

Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,

Incenses them to send destruction …

For I believe, they are portentous things,

Unto the climate that they point upon.

Julius Caesar, Act I, scene iii

Edward John PoyntonThe Ides of March, 1883Manchester, City Art Gallery

Raphael,Crucifixion, c. 1503London, National Gallery

Gentile da FabrianoAdoration of the Magi, 1423Florence, Gallerie degli Uffizi

Les Échecs amoureuxParis, BN, fr.143fol. 20 r

Conjunction of Saturn, Jupiter, Mars and the Moon – 6 April 2000

Sandro BotticelliS Augustine, c. 1480Florence, Chiesa dell’Ognissanti

[SLIDE]

St Lambert of OmerLiber Floridus, 13th centuryParis BN, lat 8865, fol. 59r

The heliacal (dawn) rising of Sirius (α CMa)

BabylonianCreation tablet10th century BC, baked clayThe British Museum

Babylonian (Ninevah)Celestial planisphere650 BC, baked clayThe British Museum

Macrobius, Commentarii in somnium Sciponis …

Ascendant =eastern horizon

mid-heaven

Biblia Vulgare IstoriataVenice 1471Manchester, John Rylands Library

Aries

Sun

Paris, BN, fr 757, fol. 41rPontificale secundum ritum sacrosanctae Romanae ecclesiae,Venice 1520

Vatican, BAV, Vat lat 681, fol. 96r The Hamilton Bible’Berlin, KupferstichkabinettMs 78 E 83, fol. 96r‘

Aries

Sun

Bartolo di Fredi,Come Dio creò il mundo, 1367San Gimignano, Chiesa della Collegiata

Aries

Sun

Giusto de’MenabuoiCreation of the world, 1376-78Padua, Duomo Baptistery

Maffiolo da Cremona,The Fourth Day of Creation, c. 1420Milan, Duomo

Pellegrino da Mariano,Creation of the WorldCambridge, Fitzwilliam, Ms no 197

Aries

Sun

Giovanni di Paolo,Creation of the World and Expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise, 1445New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Pietro di Pucci da OrvietoCreation of the world, 1389-90Pisa, Camposanto

St Augustine:

‘The angels are included amongst the works of God and they are the Light, which received the word ‘Day’.

St Thomas Aquinas:

The order of things created by God demonstrates the unity of the universe, the universe itself being ‘the one’, united by and order following that by which everything is ordered.

12 hrs

12 hrs

12 hrs

12 hrs

12 hrs

12 hrs

day

day

day

night

night

night

SUMMER

WINTER

Japanese30-hour Pillar clock, c. 1860Faversham, Harris (Belmont) Charity

moveable hour scale

month pointer

June December

Humfrey ColeAltitude dial, c. 1570London, British Museum

12 midday

12 midnight

Common hours =

French hoursGerman hourszodiac of hours

12

3

2

3

1

midday

midnight

Italian hoursBohemian hours

Welsch hours

sunset

3

2

1

23

22

midday

midnight

Babylonian hoursGreek hours

sunrise

1

23

23

midday

midnight

Nuremberg hours

sunrise

sunset

1

2

3

1

23

Antonio CanalePiazza S Giacometto di Rialto, 1726-30Dresden, Gemälgegalerie

XVIII

I

midday

midnight

Italian hoursBohemian hours

Welsch hours

3

23

22

1

sunset

2

William HogarthAn Election Entertainment, 1754-55London, Sir John Soane Museum

Pope Gregory XVIII being addressed by the Commission for Calendar ReformJuly 1582-June 1583Siena, Archivio di Stato

Wencelaus HollarFather Time carrying the Pope back to Rome, c. 1641London, British Museum

‘This burden back to Rome,I’ll beare againe,From hence it came,There let it still remaine….’

25 March + 11 Days =

5 April

Muhammad al-Sakasi al-JakarsiQuadrant with perpetual calendarsAH 1308 (1891-92 AD)London British Museum

jan feb mar apr may jun jul aug sep oct nov dec

Feast of the Circumcision

stile veneto

Feast of the Incarnation of Christ

Easter or della Pasqua or stile francese

stile bizantino

Feats of the Nativity Feast of the Nativity

Ricordo come ogi questo dì 6 dì

marzo, mi nacque un fanciulo

mastio: posigli nome

Michelangnolo, et nacque in

lunedì matina , innanzi dì 4 o 5

ore…

(nota che addì 6 marzo 1474 è

alla fiorentina ab incarnatione, et

alla Romana, a nativitate, è

1475.)

I record that today, the 6th of

March 1474, a son was born to

me. I named him Micheagnolo

and he was born on the Monday

morning, some time between 4

and 5 hours before it …

(note that this date of 6 March

1474 is given in ‘the florentine

style’, or from the incarnation,

which in ‘the Roman style,

calculated from the nativity,

would be 1475.)

birth record from Michelangelo’s father:

notice from Ascanio Condivi, Life of Michelangelo, 1553

…l’anno della salute nostra

1474, il dì sesto di marzo,

quattro ore inanzi giorno, in

lunedì.

… in the year 1474, on the 6th

of March at 4 hours before the

morning, on a Monday.

notice from Benedetto Varchi’s funeral oration for Michelangelo, 1564

… questo benedetto figliuolo,

la domenica notte del sesto

giorno di marzo, d’intorno à

otto hore: l’anno della nostra

salute mille quattrocento

settantaquattro.

… this blessed son was born

on Sunday night of the 6th of

March, around the eighth hour,

in 1474.

from Giorgio Vasari, Lives of the Artists, 1568 edn.

Naque dunque un figliuolo …

l’anno 1474 … il sesto dì di

marzo, la domenica, intorno

all’otto di notte.

Thus a son was born … in

1474… on the sixth day of

March , a Sunday, around the

eighth hour of the night.

father: 6 March 1474* 4 or 5 in the morning Monday

Condivi: 6 March 1474 4 in the morning Monday

Varchi: 6 March 1474 8th hour of the night Sunday

Vasari: 6 March 1474 8th hour of the night Sunday

sunset sunrise

Sunday

Sunday

Monday

eighth hour of the night

midnight

4-5 hours before dawn

1474 = 3°

1475 = 25°

mar jun sept dec mar jun sept dec mar jun sept dec

Feast of the Incarnation of Christ

Feast of the Nativity

1474

1475

1474

1474

1475

1475

6 March 1474alla fiorentinawithout planets conjunct

6 March 1474alla Romanawith planets conjunct