At 16:48 20/12/98 -0600, you wrote:
>Hello, listmembers. I have a question regarding the canonical hours: How
was time
>measured in the middle ages and renaissance, especially at night? I've heard
>something about the existence of candles with marks on them to indicate
hours. Also,
>that in winter night hours were longer than sixty minutes and day hours
shorter to
>account for twelve hour days and nights.
Yes, day and night were each divided into twelve hours. At the equinox, the
day hours would be the same length as the night hours. In winter, the night
hours would be longer, in summer, the day hours would be longer. Whatever
the time of year, the sixth hour of the night would always fall at midnight,
and the sixth hour of the day at noon (curiously, the term 'nona hora', the
ninth hour, gives us the word 'noon', which only indicates that in practice,
none was said at mid-day. The monks got up early, and went to bed early
(they still do), and so recited the canonical hours rather earlier than
their titles would seem to indicate.
As to how they measured time . . . like Eccles, they had it written down on
a piece of paper.
Bill.
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