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.
At last, in 1794, Father Borghesi lost his sanity completely, and he was
forced to relinquish his pastoral duties to a curate. For the remaining
eight years of his life, he continued to live in the rectory of the
little parish church in Mechel where most of his life had been spent,
his needs undoubtedly attended by the parishioners he could no longer
serve. During this period, until his death at the age of 79 on June 12,
1802, Father Borghesi lived on, oblivious of those around him.
Seemingly, he retired to another world; perhaps to that universe which
he had tried to reproduce in his second clock.