It is not difficult to visualize the two men, the priest and the
clockmaker, as they sat together night after night working out their
plans. Father Borghesi would painstakingly outline the astronomical
principles he wished to have the clock exhibit and the mathematical
principles which would be involved to operate them. Bertolla
concentrated on them and tried to transcribe the principles into
functional mechanical terms, visualizing each operation in terms of
wheels and gears. Little by little the two men coordinated the numerous
elements and welded them into an operating entity. They adjourned either
to the stark simplicity of the rectory or, probably more often, to
Bertolla's little home workshop, the priest standing over his friend
while the latter worked at his bench in the dark paneled interior
illuminated only by the several lamps on the work benches.
This first clock which the two men combined to create is a monument to
the great scientific knowledge of the self-taught priest and the
technical ability of the clockmaker--a unity combining astronomical
science, mechanics, and artistry. The story of the project is told in a
little book, _Novissima Ac Perpetua Astronomica..._, which Borghesi
later published. Explaining the incentive which inspired him, and the
premises from which he began his work, he wrote:
From the foundation of astronomical science long ago,
innumerable [and] repeated observations of both ancient and
modern astronomers, emerged at last from their hiding places.
Made light of by the jests of so many outstanding intellects,
they have so successfully brought to light the paths of the
stars and their motions, which are more complicated to us than
the Gordian knots. Now it is possible for even an amateur in
astronomy, sufficiently instructed, to predict for any given
time not only the mean position of the planets, but also their
true longitude and latitude, and even the true time of their
conjunctions, and their ecliptic oppositions, with all the
attendant circumstances. Yet, until now, no hypothesis has been
devised which would force an automaton to show to us, before
our very eyes, the eclipses of the planets in their true and
certain times.
For though there have been men seeking with all their might to
bind by laws their artificial heavens, by I know not how many
and how great calculations, and to systematize the complexities
of the rotations of celestial bodies; nevertheless, all of
them, as if by common agreement, considered themselves to have
made great contributions to mechanico-theoretical astronomy.
However, they have only attained, even though closely, the mean
locations of the secondary mobiles, and those by a certain
rather crude calculation. Some attained by more, some by less,
but all by some degree of wandering from the truth, either worn
out by the intricacies of the motions, or deceived and
deceiving by the errors of their calculations. This fact those
well know, who, setting about to collect information of this
kind, even those publicized not long ago, with true
astronomical calculation, have been bored to death while
digging out by the most elementary and superficial arithmetical
torture, the worst of fallacies spontaneously erupting from
thence.
It would seem that true calculations alone can be desired in
mechanico-astronomics. Long study had not only convinced me
that an automaton was within the realm of possibility, but that
there were many mechanical systems by which it could be
achieved. I girded myself for a new project and developed it
theoretically from the ground up, but under such unhappy
auspices that not only did all hope fail that anyone would ever
appear who might have seemed willing to set his hand to the
work, but that the new discovery itself was scoffed at by many
as altogether a nightmarish delirium of an unbridled
imagination.
The first months of the project must have seemed like an inspired dream
to the two men, and then must have followed a period of hopeless
depression. Bertolla undoubtedly felt many times that the clock was an
aspiration far beyond their combined abilities and means, but the priest
would not be thwarted in his ambition and refused to abandon the
project. He felt that it was a work that they were destined to produce.
Many times, he wrote, he chided and begged and shamed his erstwhile
partner into resuming the project where it had been last abandoned.
Little by little, the first clock began to take form. As each new
difficulty was encountered, the two men would go back over the notes and
sketches to trace the problem to its source. Often a new part of the
mechanism would nullify another which had thus far operated
successfully, and a complete rearrangement would be required.
[Illustration: Figure 7.--TITLE PAGE of Father Borghesi's first book.
The translation in its entirety is: "The Most Recent, Perpetual,
Astronomical Calendar Clock: Theoretical--Practical: by means of which
besides the hours, the minutes and seconds; the current year, the month;
the day of the month and the day of the week; the dominical letter,
epact, and thence, the day of all the feastdays, both fixed and movable;
the solar cycle; the golden number; the Roman indiction; the dominant
planet of any year and its sign; the phases of the moon and its mean
age: and all the motions of the sun and the moon as to longitude,
latitude, eccentricity, etc., are immediately seen, so accurately that
[not only] the true new full moons and the true quadrature, etc., of the
sun and moon appear, but also, all solar and lunar eclipses--both
visible and invisible; as in heaven, so on the clock, they are
conspicuously celebrated in their true times, and those of the past and
those of the future, with their circumstances of time and duration,
magnitude, etc., can be quickly determined. All this was devised and
brought to light by the author, Francesco Borghesi of Anáuni, a secular
priest of Trent, A.A.L.L. & Doctor of Philosophy. (Trent: From the
printshop of Giovanni Battista Monauni, With Permission of Superiors.)"
(_Title page reproduced by permission of the Biblioteca della Citta di
Trento._)]
Again and again, Bertolla threw up his hands in despair and begged
Father Borghesi to abandon the enterprise. He protested that he was not
capable of producing such a complicated mechanism; he had neither the
tools nor the skill. The priest wished to produce a clock such as the
world had never seen before, such as the greatest scientists and
clockmakers of all time had never been able to make. But Bertolla felt
that he was only a provincial craftsman who could not hope to surpass
them all with only his simple tools and training.
In his book on the first clock, _Novissima Ac Perpetua Astronomica..._,
Father Borghesi wrote that when he had finally come within a few weeks
of the embryo stage in the development of his clock, he was faced with
the problem of bolstering the sagging enthusiasm of Bertolla. The
clockmaker's original enthusiasm had shown promise of great results, but
as the days passed and the problems of the multiplex and generally
unfamiliar apparatus to be forged for the workings of the automaton
became more complex, his ardor decreased. Finally, Bertolla became so
discouraged by the scoffers and frustrated by the fact that the work was
insufficiently organized that Father Borghesi wrote that "it almost
became a harder task for me to bolster up by daily opportunity and
importunity the failing patience of the artisan, frightened away from
the work already begun, than it was for me to extract from the inner
recesses of mathematics and astronomy, without light and without a
guide, the whole fabric of the machine itself!"
In spite of Bertolla's protests, Father Borghesi prevailed, reviving his
friend's interest once more until the two were deep in the project
again. Months passed as they worked together on the mechanism and it
seemed as if they lived for no other purpose. Inevitably, Bertolla's
health began to suffer, undermined as it was by the constant nervous
tension, and he eventually became ill from mental strain. He was forced
to spend some time in bed, and for many weeks the subject of the clock
was not discussed. Bertolla's other work, by which he made his living,
suffered and it was several months before he was able to return to his
little shop.
One year passed into another and the work progressed slowly. The first
clock, which easily should have been finished in less than a year, was
not completed until after three full years had passed. However, when the
priest and the clockmaker put the finishing touches to their great
clock, the result surpassed the greatest possible expectations, for it
was truly a masterpiece. Not only did it illustrate the ecliptic
phenomena of the moon, the sun and earth occurring in their proper time,
as well as many other things, but it showed these operations as they
succeeded in proper order, taking place through the centuries.
With mutual feelings of great pride, the two friends surveyed the result
of their three years of endeavor. Bertolla realized that he had reached
a point of maximum achievement in his work. He probably felt that now he
could relax again, that his sleep would no longer be troubled by
confused nightmares of wheels and gears that did not mesh together. Time
was to prove otherwise.