be complete, and true, but each day it appeared more
conformable to reality; it captured my mind in such a way that
I finally adhered to it. I desired, while I lived, to erect
this work as a monument to the theory. To do this, I digressed
a bit from the true-to-life pattern to the mechanical order so
that I could transfer all the movements of the heavens, etc.
(which I enjoyed thinking about more), to the plane surface of
the clock's face. In this way, the ecliptical spectacles of the
stars, etc., would appear at their proper times clearly before
the eyes of the viewer. I could also avoid many difficulties
which otherwise, perhaps, even the hands of the most skillful
craftsmen could never solve.
[Illustration: Figure 19.--MOVEMENT OF THE BORGHESI CLOCK, viewed from
the rear, showing rear of dial plate.]
[Illustration: Figure 20.--TITLE PAGE of Father Borghesi's second
book. The translation in its entirety is: "The Most Recent
Theoretical-Practical Astronomical Clock According to the Equally Most
Recent System of the World. Author: Francesco Borghesi of Mechel of
Anauni * Priest of Trent, Doctor of Philosophy * (The System of the
Clock) Ingeniously connected to new theoretical laws published 1764: and
the constructor, Bartholomeo Antonio Bertolla of Rumo, similarly from
Anauni * who skillfully produced this work * in this same current year
of Our Lord * which is the year 5713 [sic] since God created this earth.
(Trent: From the Printshop of Giovanni Battista Monauni, With Permission
of the Superiors.)" (_Title page reproduced by courtesy of the
Biblioteca della Citta di Trento._)]
You ought to know, therefore, that as a result of my nightly
meditations, I have rejected, after much consideration, all the
explanations of the universe thus far published. All other
theories of the make-up of the universe, however admirable, and
however many there are, turn the sun and earth around in an
ecliptic in an annual movement. Thus, Philolaus was the first
to move the earth from the center of the universe and move it
through the void; afterwards, Aristarchus of Samos and then
Copernicus moved the earth with the moon. The Egyptians, as
well as Pythagoras, Ptolemy, Tycho, Riciolus, Longomontanus,
etc., thought that the sun moved through the degrees of the
ecliptic each year. But I attributed this movement to neither
earth nor sun for the movement of both is only apparent. I did
not vainly surmise the annual equilibrium in all astronomical
observations to be from the daily movement of the same axis
moved at the poles of the heavens. Nor, in like manner, is
there a better way to satisfy physical experiments. To you,
then, most cultured reader: If you, perhaps, can make any use
or draw pleasure from this most faithful description of my new
theory and the mechanical instrument, refer it first to God on
High from whom is everything that is best, and then to those
avidly awaiting this little work. Lastly, if you find any
statement less fitting; in your humanity, do not disdain to
excuse it.
Borghesian Theory of the Universe
In Father Borghesi's second volume, there is a separate chapter entitled
"An Exposition of the Latest Theory of the Universe." This follows the
introduction to the reader, and in it Father Borghesi proposed:
That you might rightly conceive my new system of the world and
mechanically, as it were, construct it, imagine for yourself,
beneath that most happy seat of the Blessed and above all other
heavens, a kind of spherical convexity, everywhere equidistant
from the center of the earth, and endowed with absolutely no
motion.
On the inside, at two points diametrically opposite each other,
this convexity has two most sturdy poles (to speak
mechanically), projecting towards the center (which you call
the poles of the heavens), and the largest immobile semicircle,
in some manner is drawn from the center of one pole to the
center of the other. This semicircle in the middle, namely at a
point equidistant from each pole, is thought to be secured by
some sign, for example, by that "o," for arranging more
perceptibly the seat of the sun (as will be shown later). This
much must be conceived first.
You must understand that imposed on these poles is the first
mobile [Primum Mobile], everywhere convex, and divided, into 12
equal parts [Dodecatemoria], by the 6 greatest circles,
intersecting each other at the centers of the poles. Then it is
divided by another equally great circle, everywhere equidistant
from the poles, into two hemispheres. One hemisphere of 12
parts, proceeding in order from west [setting] to east [rising]
should be assigned the respective signs of the zodiac; that is,
one to Aries, the next to Taurus, and so on, etc. The circle
which cuts those 12 parts transversely in the middle, you call
the ecliptic. Then, these capital spaces of the Primum Mobile
are subdivided by degrees, minutes, etc., both in longitude and
in latitude, so that this heaven represents a kind of great
spherical net, extended to capture the longitude and latitude
of the stars, and Mobile on the aforementioned poles. Note,
however (and this is almost the leading point of the system),
in that circle of longitude which divides the sign of Gemini
from Cancer and Arcitenens [Sagittarius] from Capricorn, you
must conceive two points, directly opposite each other and
removed about twenty-three and a half degrees from the poles:
Boreal [the northern] between Gemini and Cancer; Austral [the
southern] between Sagittarius and Capricorn. These two points
by some power (imagine it is magnetic power), equal between
them, hold the terraqueous orb suspended in the middle, by
acting on the axis of the same orb (imagine it is iron) in such
a way that the earth is continually drawn to those two points
as to two opposite centers. It is never nearer to one, for as
it is about to move towards one, the opposite power is
constantly drawing it back. Thus, both those points and the
axis of the earth are always held in one common line, wherever
those points happen to be carried by the rotation of this
heaven.
Again, it is necessary for you to conceive in this heaven,
first, two great circles, bisecting each other at right angles
in the centers of these two magnets. One of these circles,
passing through the first point of Aries and Libra in the
ecliptic, is called equinoctial colure: the other circle,
passing consequently between the first point of Cancer and
Capricorn, is called solstitial colure. Beneath these are
likewise imagined many other great circles, in the centers of
the magnets dividing crosswise in the shape of an "X." But if,
receding from these magnets, you describe circles (parallel to
each other and ever greater and greater, up to the greatest
circle which you will perceive is called the equator),
equidistant from each magnet and obliquely splitting the
ecliptic in the equinoctial colure, you can then behold a
great, new, woven net in this heaven of the Primum Mobile. This
net most beautifully expands to extract the straight ascent and
descent of the stars, etc., from the vast ocean of the heavens,
catching the straight ascent in the greatest circles and, in
other unequal circles, parallel to each other and obliquely
cutting across, most safely catching the descent.
Immediately below the Primum Mobile place the heaven of the
fixed stars (and, that the idea might be clearer), revolving
separately on the same poles on which the Primum Mobile
revolves. Through this heaven, the filaments of the little
nets, etc., seem to the eyes of you on earth as if they shine.
In this heaven, you should conceive in their fixed places, the
fixed stars, a proportionate, inviolable distance from each
other, and, indeed, if you will, the heavenly images, etc.,
depicted, and all carried along at the same time with their
heaven by one motion.
Conceive a straight line running from the center of the earth
to that sign "o" noted in the semicircle of the supreme
immobile heaven. On this line, greatly below the heaven of the
fixed stars, place the center of the solar epicycle, holding an
area in common with the ecliptic and subject to absolutely no
motions, but at such a distance from the center of the earth
that the semidiameter of the earth has little, if any,
proportion with the distance of the solar epicycle from the
earth. Around the sun, moving continually in this epicycle (its
immobile palace) through the degrees of the anomaly, you can
revolve, with motions proportionate to the system, the five
planets: Mercury and Venus (the nearest barons of the sun),
then Mars, Jupiter and, most remote, Saturn, with its
respective satellites, etc., eccentrically surrounding the
earth itself and the moon in their immense ambit and wandering
by their proper motions through the zodiac.
Nevertheless, not far from the earth you should imagine
fabricated, as from most refined crystal, the heaven of the
moon everywhere equidistant from the center of the earth and
revolving separately on the same poles (prolonged even to this
place) on which the Primum Mobile and the heaven of the fixed
stars revolve. In the middle of this, that is, in some point
equally removed from the poles, you place the center of the
lunar epicycle, movable also by the common rotation of the
lunar heaven. I refrain from the other movements of the moon in
latitude, etc., as also those of the five planets, etc., which
the theory in no way excludes, lest by a variety of congested
motions explained too abundantly, either you might be confused
about the fundamental concept of the system or, while adorning
the theory and trying to embellish the least things more
widely, you might reject also the things which are capital.
Here you already have the whole machine, but still inert and to
be animated for the first time by motions accommodated to the
system. Nevertheless, before I assign motion to the individual
parts of the world, so that the thing might later appear more
clearly to you, I arrange all things thus: first, as if by
hand, I turn the Primum Mobile until the Boreal magnetic point
comes to the level or the area of the semicircle described in
the supreme immobile convexity; then I turn the heaven of the
fixed stars until, for example, the heel of Castor (a star of
the third magnitude), almost in the ecliptic and indeed in our
time not far distant from the solstitial colure, likewise falls
nearly at the level of the aforesaid semicircle. Later, I turn
the lunar heaven until I bring the center of the lunar epicycle
to the same level. Then, I turn the earth until some
predetermined city, for example, Trent, situated in the
northern zone with a latitude of about forty-six degrees, is
brought to the oft-mentioned level.
From things arranged in this way and from what has gone before,
it is evident (with the motions of the luminaries in epicycles
left out, however, lest you be distracted by the explanation)
that at Trent, just as in the whole northern hemisphere, it is
the summer solstice; and, conversely, in the southern
hemisphere, it is the winter solstice. The reason is because
the northern magnetic point together with the northern half of
the earthly axis is at its highest point towards the sun,
immovably residing in a line sent through the level of the
highest semicircle; and, conversely, the southern magnetic
point with the corresponding half of the axis is most removed
from the same. It further follows, that noonday and the new
moon coincide, and the heel of Castor almost reaches the
summit, etc.
Now, beginning from this hypothetical situation of the whole
world as from the root of the motions, I move all things in
their circles so that the earth turns on its axis with a
revolving motion from west to east in each 24 hours of median
time. The lunar heaven completes one circle around its poles
likewise from west to east in the time of 29 terrestrial
revolutions, hours 12.44.3.13.1. The sphere of the fixed stars
on the same poles revolves once from east to west within 365
revolutions of the earth, hours 6.9.29.1. The Primum Mobile on
the poles (common to the heaven of the fixed stars and the
heaven of the moon), is moved once in the same way from east to
west, a little faster, however, than the heaven of the fixed
stars, yet within 365 revolutions of the earth, hours 5.48.56;
that is, within a median astronomical year.
Now, behold for yourself a new world supported on new poles and
provided with new motions and laws. Now you, reader and lover
of the stars, turn it, and revolve it as long as it pleases
you, and compare it astronomically and physically with the
Copernican or the Tychonian systems or with whatever one
pleases you more, and judge which one seems more consonant with
nature when all things are examined. But if you aren't able to
reconcile this theory with some astronomical observations or
physical experiments and think it should be eliminated from
the group of theories, see that I might know this while life is
still my companion, so that I might think with you, if this is
possible. Also, so that, in gratitude for the detected or
perhaps hidden error, I might speak or write, and you won't
have to shout in vain in bold ridicule and with no applause
after the fleeing shades of the dead and the mute ashes. But,
if you object that the daily motion of the revolving earth and
the annual motion of its whirling axis do not sufficiently
agree with certain texts of Sacred Scripture, and if those
things which the Copernicans and the Longomontanists say do not
convince you, then reject my whole system as an old wives'
tale.
* * * * *
GLOSSARY
ANOMOLIA or anomaly, is the angular distance of a planet from its
perihelion (that point of the orbit of a planet which is nearest to the
sun) as seen from the sun.
AEQUINOCTIUM or the equinox, is the time in which days and nights are
equal in the space of hours. There are two equinoxes: the spring
equinox--c. 8 calends of April in the sign of Aries; and the fall
equinox--c. 10 calends of October in the sign of Libra.
AERAS is derived from _aera_, _aerae_, which originally meant a given
number, usually used in regard to money. The word was later extended to
mean a number used in any calculation, and finally it came to mean a
certain time from which subsequent times were counted, e.g., _Anno
Domini_, after the Birth of Christ.
COLURI or the Colures, which are two circles in the heavenly sphere,
passing through the poles of the world and cutting each other at right
angles: the one passes through the equinoctial points of Aries and Libra
and is called _Colurus Aequinoctiorum_ or equinoctial colure; the other
touches the _solstitialia_ of Cancer and Capricorn and is called
_Colurus Solstitiorum_ or solstitial colure. They are called _Colurus_,
which is translated as "mutilated tails," for the part which emerges in
the Antarctic is not visible and is quasitruncated.
ECLIPTICA or the ecliptic, is an imaginary line in the heavens in which
the sun was supposed to have performed its annual course.
EPICYCLUS or epicycle, is a small orb which, being fixed in the deferent
of a planet, is carried along with its motion and yet, with its own
peculiar motion, carries the body of the planet fastened to it round
about its proper center.
IRIS or the rainbow. In mythology, Iris was the daughter of Thaumatis
and Electra, messenger of Juno of the goddesses and Jove of the gods.
SOLSTITIUM or the solstice, is that time when the sun seems to stand
still for a short time: when the sign of Cancer enters the month of June
(equivalent to the summer solstice, when the sun begins to recede from
us); and when the sign of Capricorn enters the month of December
(equivalent to the winter solstice, when the sun begins to accede to
us).
* * * * *
Last Years
There is a break in the story of Borghesi and Bertolla for the next five
years. The second clock may have been the last project on which the
priest and the clockmaker worked together, for very good reasons. The
two clocks must have represented a considerable financial investment in
materials and in time, and neither of the men was in sufficiently
affluent circumstances to undertake the luxury of such a hobby without
some form of recompense. The publication of the two little volumes must
have also been done at Father Borghesi's expense. The income of the
parish priest in a small mountain village could not have been equal to
the relatively great costs of the projects that had been completed. It
seems probable that the priest attempted to sell his clocks to a wealthy
patron, perhaps the Baron of Cles, or he may have attempted to obtain
some form of recompense for the continuation of his research. However,
no records can be found of such patronage if it existed. If Borghesi had
received financial assistance while the projects were in progress, he
would certainly have made adequate mention of the patron's name and
assistance in one or the other of the two volumes which he
published.[17]
The next record relating to Borghesi which has been found is the
description of a letter written by an anonymous mathematician late in
1768 or early in 1769. It was 28 pages in length, written in Latin, in
the form of a reply to the writer's brother, on the subject of the clock
invented by Borghesi. It consisted primarily of a criticism launched
against Borghesi's first little volume published in 1763.
The anonymous letter is without date, place, or signature. This writer
claimed that Father Borghesi had made many errors in his book,
presumably in the description of the clock's functions, and in the basic
theories upon which the priest had predicated his research. No complete
copy of the letter's text has been found for study, although it is
described at length in Tovazzi's _Biblioteca Tirolese_. Tovazzi noted
that four copies of the letter existed at that time, and that he
personally had filed one in the Biblioteca di Cles in Trent. However,
every attempt to locate a copy at the present time has been
unsuccessful.
If the anonymous letter was brought to the attention of Father Borghesi,
it must have introduced a disturbing note into his life and cost the
priest many unhappy moments. He was not, however, dissuaded from his
preoccupation with horology. Several years later, in 1773, Father
Borghesi was working on yet another astronomical clock, this time
presumably without the assistance of Bertolla. This third clock was
reported by Tovazzi to have been "of minimum expense but of maximum
ingenuity."
No subsequent information relating to it has come to light, and there is
no record that it was actually completed.
Again there is a period of silence in the life of Father Borghesi which
no amount of research has yet been able to pierce. Whatever the
circumstances may have been, it is reported by several of the sources
noted that both the first and the second clock did, in fact, become the
property of the Empress Maria Theresa in Vienna. The presentation was
made sometime during the period between the completion of the second
clock in 1764 and the year 1780. There is some discrepancy in the
contemporary accounts as to whether Father Borghesi presented one or two
clocks to the Empress, but all the sources with but one exception record
that both clocks were acquired by the Empress.
It is doubtful that Father Borghesi had originally intended to give his
clocks to the Empress at the time that they were made, for he would most
certainly have made some mention of such an intention in the two little
volumes which he published about them. If he saw the letter published by
the anonymous mathematician in late 1768 or 1769, it is possible that he
decided to make the presentation in expiation of his sense of guilt for
the amount of his time which the creation of the timepieces had
consumed. On the other hand, it is just as possible that Father Borghesi
may have forwarded copies of his two little volumes to the Imperial
Court at Vienna, and that the Empress expressed a desire to acquire the
clocks.
Father Tovazzi states that in 1780 "the clock invented by him [Borghesi]
was preserved in Vienna, Austria, at the Imperial Court from which the
inventor was receiving an annual pension of 400 florins." No records in
the Palace archives relating to the clock have yet been found, nor
records of payment of an annuity to Father Borghesi. However, a more
exhaustive investigation of the Furniture Depository of the Imperial
Court may bring forth related records. It was the implication in Father
Tovazzi's account that the second clock had been presented to the
Empress prior to the publication of the anonymous, critical letter in
1768 or 1769. He believed that it was envy of Father Borghesi's
ingenuity, fame and financial benefit that had caused the anonymous
mathematician to publish his letter, for Tovazzi asked "Who would have
encountered opposition to such a marvel? Envy is not yet dead, and has
always reigned."
This last-mentioned theory about the presentation may be the most likely
one. Some evidence may be found in the second clock itself which bears
out this assumption. The multiple chapter ring, with its many
inscriptions, is engraved and silvered in a relatively crude manner,
presumably by Bertolla himself. The main dial plate, however, which is
of gilt brass, is engraved with the utmost skill by one of the great
masters of the art. The inscription below the Imperial Hapsburg eagle
relates to Francis I, Emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. It is entirely
possible that although Father Borghesi originally had no intention of
giving the clock to the Emperor or the Empress at the time that it was
made, he later changed his mind. Accordingly, he may have commissioned a
master engraver, possibly in Trent or in Vienna itself, to produce a
dial plate which would be of such a quality as to be worthy of the
Emperor himself. If so, this was done shortly after the clock was
completed, for the Emperor died in August of the following year. Perhaps
by the time that the clock was ready, the Emperor had already died, and
Father Borghesi gave the clock instead to Maria Theresa without revising
the inscription.
The acceptance of the clocks by the Empress, and the annuity which was
his reward, would have constituted considerable honor even for one of
the foremost clockmakers of the Empire, but for a humble parish priest
in a little village, such notable Imperial recognition was overwhelming.
Possibly as a result of it, a change was noted in Father Borghesi in the
next few years. His conscience began to bother him, and he began to
question whether he had done right in spending so much of his time and
thought on his horological research. He became more and more confused in
his own mind. Had he spent too much time in mechanical studies to the
neglect of his ecclesiastical duties? If this had been the case, he had
committed the most grievous sin.
Exaggerated though these thoughts may appear, they were undoubtedly of
the most critical importance to the middle-aged priest. His mental
turbulence and confusion increased daily, and it soon became apparent to
others around him. By June 1779, he was completely in the grip of his
obsession, and his parishioners began to whisper amongst themselves that
their pastor was being tortured by the devil. They were unable to help
him, and he became more and more preoccupied with his problem. The years
passed slowly as the pastor became more vague and more tortured by his
conscience.[18]
There probably was continued contact between Father Borghesi and
Bertolla for at least some time after the development of his illness.
Bertolla had retired from active work, but continued to pursue his
interests in his clockshop as much as his health and advanced years
permitted. A clock which he made at the age of 80 survives and is
described and illustrated in the following section on "The Clocks of
Bartolomeo Antonio Bertolla." Finally, on January 15, 1789, Bertolla
passed away and Father Borghesi was left alone, deprived of the
companionship he had enjoyed with the older man for the past two or
three decades. One of Bertolla's nephews continued to work in the master
clockmaker's workshop, but there did not appear to be any association
between the younger man and Father Borghesi.