Father Borghesi soon came to the conclusion that it would be desirable
to have a written description to explain the mechanism of the clock and
its many indicators. He thereupon wrote out the story of how the clock
was made, the reasons for embarking on the enterprise, the difficulties
he had encountered, and the success which had crowned his and Bertolla's
mutual labors. Finally, he described the operation of the clock's
mechanism and the functions of its array of indicators.
The little book was written in Latin and only a few copies were printed,
presumably at the priest's own expense, on a handpress by Giovanni
Battista Monauni, printer to the Bishop in Trent. The little volume was
stated by contemporary writers to have been published in 1763, although
no date appears on the title page. The title translated is, in part,
_The Most Recent, Perpetual Astronomical Calendar Clock,
Theoretical--Practical...._ The work begins with an introduction for the
reader in which Father Borghesi stated that:
... the little work, which, as far as I was concerned could
easily have been finished in a year, was only completed after
about three years. Fortunately, however, it was so far beyond
the expectations of most, that not only am I able to foretell
with certainty all the lunar ecliptic phenomena and the solar,
or rather terrestrial, phenomena, carefully worked out in their
true periods, among many other matters exhibited by the
machine; but also, within a few hours, I can exhibit by
altogether tangible evidence to the skeptics and the doubting
those very same phenomena, occurring within the space of many
years, or even centuries, and succeeding one another in proper
order, with their many attendant circumstances. I was not much
concerned about the other eclipses, such as those of Mercury,
Venus, and the other stars wandering through the zodiac, or
about the other solar eclipses from the transit of Mercury or
Venus, since they are altogether undiscernible to the naked
eye, and very few compilers of ephemerides wish them to be
noted, probably for the same reason.
Do not, however, expect, star-loving reader, that here anything
at all that you may wish can be drawn forth as from its source,
for to demand this would be almost the same as to seek to drain
as from a cup all the vast knowledge of the many arithmetical
sciences from the narrow confines of one book. You will
understand how impossible that is when, through prolonged
labor, you have grown somewhat more mature in this kind of
learning.
Wherefore, rather fully, and out of consideration for you, I
have decided, setting aside these prolixities, with completely
synoptic brevity and with all possible clarity to expound for
you simply the proportion of the movements, the description of
the machine, and its usage. As a result, when you have
progressed a little in theoretical mechanics, you will not only
be able to reduce all these things to their astronomical
principles, but you may find the way more smoothly laid out for
you even for perfecting the machine itself. And, thus, you may
be more effectively encouraged to a successful conclusion. Let
it be so now for you through the following 10 chapters!
After these rather hopeful assurances, Father Borghesi proceeded to
provide a detailed description of the clock dial and functions in the 10
short chapters which he had promised, under a separate section entitled
"Synopsis Totius Operis Mechanici," which is translated in its entirety
in the appendix.
As Father Borghesi prepared his little volume about his first clock, and
described its unusual features and outlined its functions, which were
primarily to place in evidence the celestial constellations, it occurred
to him that it would now be easier after the experience he had acquired
with his first timepiece, to construct another clock, which would
present the motions of the two astronomical systems, the Ptolemaic and
the Copernican. In this first book, he promised the reader that he would
undertake the second project. It is fortunate that Father Borghesi
undertook this project for the second clock is the only example of his
work that is known to exist today. Extensive research has not shown what
happened to the first clock, although several sources state that both
timepieces were presented to Empress Maria Theresa sometime between 1764
and 1780.