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The northern Italian usage was parallel to that of Ms. Newbigin's Florence, with the numbering of hours beginning at sundown (not, as in Dr. Colasacco's example, at dawn). So yes, the actual occurrence of "hour 1" would change with the seasons. This was true, incidentally, even in the later 15th century, when most cities had municipal clocks and the hours were rung throughout the city -- even though such clocks would have allowed for a standard and constant reckoning of the switch from hour 24 to hour 1 irrespective of the actual time of sundown. So some city employee must have had to readjust the clock constantly to allow for changes in sundown. Or so the surviving family memoirs suggest. The memoirs also suggest that while people habitually reckoned time by the clock, they weren't altogether comfortable doing so, and they weren't absolutely convinced when one day changed to the next -- so, for example, families' notices of the births of babies often specify the week day, the calendar date, the hour, the saint's day, and the day of the lunar cycle: rather more information than one would need if one were completely confident in the clock-time system. James Grubb History, UMBC On Tue, 7 Mar 2000, COLASACCO, ROBERT wrote: > Does that mean that as the seasons changed so did the hore, i.e., in summer > ora 1 would be, say, 5 or 6 am etc.? > Robert Colasacco > > -----Original Message----- > From: Nerida Newbigin [mailto:[log in to unmask]] > Sent: Monday, March 06, 2000 4:42 PM > To: [log in to unmask] > Subject: Re: Time > > > In fifteenth and sixteenth century Florence, the day was divided into > twelve equal night-time hours and twelve equal day-time hours, and these > were counted 1-24 from sunset. Thus, "la sera a hore 23" would be an hour > before sunset, and "a hora 3 di notte" would be three hours after dark. > > Does this help? > > Nerida Newbigin > Sydney > > Diana Wright wrote: > > > In Sanudo I.1036, he refers to "la sera a hore 23" and then the action > > continuing "a hora 3 di notte." > > > > I make this 11pm and 3am. Is this right? > > > > Diana Wright > > Washington, DC > %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%