The prosciutto sundial : casting light on an ancient Roman timepiece from the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum / Christopher Parslow.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Parslow, Christopher Charles, author.

Series:

Oxford scholarship online.

Oxford scholarship online

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Villa of the Papyri (Herculaneum).

Sundials--Italy--Herculaneum (Extinct city).

Sundials.

Sundials--Rome--History.

Excavations (Archaeology)--Italy--Herculaneum (Extinct city).

Excavations (Archaeology).

Physical Description:

1 online resource (364 pages)

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York, NY : Oxford University Press, [2024]

Summary:

Recovered in 1755 during excavations in the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, the prosciutto sundial is the earliest known portable Roman sundial. Palm-sized and in the shape of an Italian cured ham, its silver-plated cast bronze form cleverly combines an accurate modelling of a prosciutto with a relatively sophisticated scientific device capable of capturing the seasonal hours of the zodiacal year by employing the pig's tail to cast the sun's shadow onto the dial. This book explores the significance of this curious object's discovery in the Villa dei Papiri and offers the first comprehensive survey of its reception and analysis by drawing on contemporary correspondence and manuscripts, travel journals, popular accounts, archaeological studies, and scientific and horological assessments.

Contents:

Cover

The Prosciutto Sundial : Casting Light on an Ancient Roman Timepiece from the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum

Copyright

Dedication

Brief Contents

Detailed Contents

Preface and Acknowledgments

Abbreviations

1: Discovery

1.a) Una cosa la quale deve far strepito fra i letterati : Paderni's Letter to the Royal Society

1.b) Identifying the Prosciutto's Findspot in the Villa dei Papiri

1.c) The Prosciutto and the "English Gentleman" in the Memorie

1.d) Autant de fautes que de mots : D'Alembert's boustrophedon and the Encyclopédie

1.e) Un' altra collera antiquaria : Paciaudi's "Carafe," the Monumenta Peloponnesia, and Tanucci

1.f) Les tablettes vides et la mémoire pleine : The Accounts of Barthélemy and La Condamine

1.g) Prosciutto Mania: Mazzocchi, Martorelli, and Piaggio's L'Orologio Solare

2: Analysis

2.a) Una Cosa Inedita : The Prosciutto vs. the Egyptianizing Base in Le Antichità d'Ercolano

2.b) Caylus and the Oedipuses of the Sphinxes of Herculaneum

2.c) The Accademia Strikes Back: The Preface to Volume III of Le Antichità d'Ercolano

2.d) Chaerephon's Twelve-Foot Dinner: Deciphering Greek and Roman Time

2.e) Carcani's Empirical Research and Analysis

2.f) The Transit of Venus, the Obliquity of the Ecliptic, and Dating the Prosciutto

2.g) The Accademia's Engraving of the Prosciutto

2.h) Paderni and the Sundials of Pompeii

3: Enlightenment

3.a) Lalande's "Moveable" Gnomon and the Follies of the Encyclopédie 's Successors

3.b) Totum ex aere nitidissime elaboratum : Calkoen's Analysis of the Prosciutto

3.c) "Nice Invention, for Not Forgetting Dinner": Montucla's Histoire des Mathématiques

3.d) Ingénieuse et assez simple : Delambre's Trigonometric Analysis

3.e) Woepcke's Disquisitiones and the Temporal Hour

3.f) The Dawn of "Dialling".

3.g) The Prosciutto's Peregrinations and the Horologists of the Nineteenth Century

3.h) Comparetti and De Petra and the Villa dei Papiri

3.i) Drecker's "Little Clock"

3.j) De Solla Price's "Mass of Bronze"

3.k) Nothing New Under the Sun: Prosciutto Studies in the Late Twentieth Century

4: Observations

4.a) The Prosciutto and Philodemus in the Villa dei Papiri

4.b) Hoc eius erat matutinum : Piso Pontifex and the Augustan Calendrical Reforms

4.c) Epicurus' Pig?

4.d) Designing and Casting the Prosciutto Sundial

4.e) "The Craft Is Closely Related to the Science"

4.f) Slicing and Dicing: Recreating Carcani's Empirical Research in 3D

Appendix A: Comparison of Grid Dimensions

Appendix B: Tables of Horary Readings

Table A Latitute 42° in 28 CE

EQUINOX September /March [Vertical Line 4]

WINTER SOLSTICE [Vertical Line 7]

SUMMER SOLSTICE [Vertical Line 1]

MAY /JULY [Vertical Line 2]

APRIL /AUGUST [Vertical Line 3]

FEBRUARY /OCTOBER [Vertical Line 5]

JANUARY /NOVEMBER [Vertical Line 6]

Table B Latitute 41° 39′ 45″ (41.66°)

Table C Latitude 41° IN 28 CE

Table D Latitude 40° 50´ 25″ (40.84°)

Table E Latitude 40° 48´ 27″ (40.81°).

EQUINOX September /March [Vertical Line 4]

Table F Latitude 40° 50´ 20 (40.84°)

Table G: Latitude 41° 31' 52" (41.53°) in 2023 CE: = Accademia's Findings

Bibliography

Biographical Dictionaries, Encyclopedias, and Manuscripts

Books and Journals

Index.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Description based on online resource and publisher information; title from PDF title page (viewed on July 4, 2024).

ISBN:

0-19-774941-0

0-19-774939-9

OCLC:

1443727680