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III.—A Portable Dial in the form of a book, with Figures derived from Raymond Lul

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2011

O. M. Dalton
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Extract

The dial forming the subject of this paper, acquired by the British Museum in 1923, is of gilt copper, made in the form of a book, along the edges of which are inscribed in capitals the words: Lucerna instrumentalis | intellectus directiva | sive instrumentum sciendi. The dial-plate which is fixed in the interior has a compass and two very short gnomons. It is for use in the latitudes of 42 and 45, and would serve for Rome and one of the large towns in the North Italian plain, perhaps Milan or Venice. It was made at Rome in the year 1593, as shown by the inscription on the dial-plate. On the cover is a shield of arms, barry, and in chief the letters I H S surmounted by a cross, a feature perhaps indicating that the owner was a member of the Society of Jesus; a fuller device, in which the three nails of the Passion are seen below the sacred monogram and cross, occupies the centre of the figure on the outside of the lower cover. The identification of the arms presents difficulties. They might be those of the Caraffa (gules, three bars argent), a member of which family, Vincenzio Caraffa, was general of the Jesuits in 1645.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 74 , 1925 , pp. 89 - 102
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1925

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References

page 89 note 1 The two faces of the dial-plate are shown in pl.xxix; the inscriptions which they bear are as follows:

Upper Surface.

Across the middle, and partly concealed by the attachment of the compass: Horae ab Ortu | Inaequalibus puctuatis immixtae. | Romae año D 1593.

In the upper half: Ad polū 45 Grad . In the lower half: Ad latitudinē 42 Grad . Round the border are the names of the winds in Latin. Along the top: Cirrius (for Circius, a westerly wind); Septentrio, Boreas (both N. winds). Along the right side: Solanus (E. wind). Eurus (SE. wind). At the bottom: Meridies (S. wind). Along the left side: Aphricus (for Africus, SW. wind). Favonius (W. wind).

Lower Surface.

Across the middle: Horae ab Occasu cū Astronomicis pūctuatis.

In the upper half: Polus 45 Grad . In the lower half: Latitudo 42 Grad . On the surface the names of winds round the border are in Italian. At the top: Tramontana (N. wind). Along the right side: Greco (NE. wind), Levante (E. wind). Along the bottom: Scirocco (SE. wind). Ostro (for Austro, = S. wind). Garbino (SW. wind). On the left side: Ponente (= W. wind), Maestro (NW. wind)

page 90 note 1 The Rev. H. Thurston, S.J., reminds me, in a letter, that although this device was commonly identified with the Society of Jesus and was frequently used by its members, it was not confined to them alone. With regard to the arms, he adds that, if the dial had belonged to any Jesuit establishment, a mark of individual ownership would be irregular, members of the Order not even writing their names in their books. The RR. PP. Dudon and Maries have also kindly helped me in my inquiries as to the possible ownership of the dial by a known member of the Society.

page 91 note 1 He is described as a hermit of the third order of St. Francis. His desire to convert the Saracens is said to have been awakened by a sermon heard on the Feast of St. Francis on 4th October 1266.

page 92 note 1 Lul was beatified, his day falling on 5th June.

page 93 note 1 Henrici Cornelii Agrippae … in Artem Brevem Raymundi Lullii commentaria, 1538, pp. 1–2.

page 93 note 2 Carbonel, H., Artis Lullianae seu memoriae artificialis secretum, oratoribus et praedicatoribus utilissimum, Paris, 1620.Google Scholarde Hauteville, N., L'art de bien discourir, ou Part de Lulle explique, etendu et appliqué à la chaire et au barreau, etc. Belot, Jean, Œuvre des oeuvres, contenant Part de la mémoire, l'art de doctementc prêcher et haranguer d'après Raimond Lulle. Rouen, 1640Google Scholar.

page 93 note 3 Kriegsmann, W., Pantosophiae sacro-profanae a Rayniundo Lullio in artem reductae. Oxford, 1677, p., 3Google Scholar.

page 94 note 1 Alstredius, J. H., Clavis artis Lullianae. Strasburg, 1652, p. 15Google Scholar: ‘Ejus institutum fuit concinnare artem generalem cujus ope possemus disserere de omni Scibili.”

page 94 note 2 Kircher, A., Ars magna Sciendi sive combinatoria (Amsterdam, 1669), p. 155Google Scholar.

page 94 note 3 We may recall the Logic Demonstrator invented in 1777 by Charles, third Earl Stanhope, and now in the Ashmolean Museum (Gunther, R. T., Early Science in Oxford, 1923, vol. i, p. 129)Google Scholar.

page 95 note 1 Salzinger, I., Collected Edition of the Works of Raymond Lul, Mainz, 1721Google Scholar. Vol. iii: In the Introductoria Artis Demonstrativae de Figura A.

page 95 note 2 See, in the same volume of Salzinger, the Liber vere mirandarum demonstrationum.

page 96 note 1 The British Museum has a fifteenth-century MS. of Lul in which a figure has one of the concentric circles cut out, and attached in such a way as to revolve.

page 96 note 2 As above, p. 7.

page 96 note 3 Research in MS. copies of Lul's numerous treatises might reveal originals for these also. Lul introduced so many variations and modifications that the changes are hard to follow; their pursuit would have taken far more time than I could afford to give.

page 97 note 1 I have not succeeded in finding this Figure in the books describing Lul's system; but it is the simple reduction to circular form of the Alphabet tabulated in columns, which often occurs.

page 97 note 2 It is to be found in Salzinger, as above, vol. iii.

‘Ex Chaos influuntur quattuor elementa simplicia. Per Chaos Deus species seminavit.’

‘Cum Creator omnium Deus Chaos de non esse ad esse produceret, seminavit in ipsum semina causalia et appetitus eorum, id est, dispositionem et habilitatem formae et materiae speciem.’ Chaos has three grades, the first being a state of mere confusion, in which the semina causalia are potentially present: ‘In primo gradu Chaos erant per modum creationis oranes species in potentia.’

page 98 note 1 At such moments we are inclined to accept Carlyle's severe judgement of the Schoolmen as a body: that they gyrated like spinning dervishes, and ended where they began (Miscellanies: ‘Characteristics’). The ars circulandi of Lul seems peculiarly open to this criticism.

page 98 note 2 In Salzinger, vol. ii: Liber propositionum secundum artem Demonstrativam, p. 2, there is mention of a Figura Sensitiva, which has in the centre five triangles of different colours, and three revolving circles.

page 100 note 1 See the chapter on Geometry in Practica compendiosa Artis Raym. Lul, by B. Lavinheta, 1523. ‘Nam si A valet tantum quam B et C, tot angulos habet per intellectum cum imaginatione, quot habent B et C per sensum. Sed B et C habent sex; ergo, A habet sex.’

page 100 note 2 This figure is said by Lavinheta to occur in Lul's Ars magna (hanc figuram declarat doctor noster in Arte magna). It may perhaps be assumed that all these subsidiary figures are derived from Lul, for his encyclopaedic works covered the whole range of contemporary knowledge and included treatises upon many branches of science.

page 100 note 3 I have been unable to discover the meaning of this word.

page 101 note 1 Salzinger, vol. iii, sections: De figura elementali, and Compèndium, seu commentum Artis Demonstrativae. A very similar figure, in vol. iii, with T in the centre, and the four elements in the inmost circles, but with A—P in each of the three outer circles, is described as: Secunda Figura T.

page 101 note 2 These four letters occur on the squares in the centre of Lul's figure S (Figura Animae).

page 102 note 1 We may note, in addition to Virtues: Symbolum (the Creed), Ave Maria, Pater Noster, Praecepta Decal(ogi), Sacramenta; Consilia novissima, Tria genera bonorum operum, Dona etfructus Spiritus Saudi; In Ccelum clama(n)tia, Capitalia Peccata, Aliena, In Spiritum Sanctum.

page 102 note 2 The real reference is: Ecclesiastes i, 33.

page 102 note 3 Eccl. xiv, 17.

page 102 note 4 Apart from his importance to linguists as the first important writer in Catalan, Lul has appealed most strongly to our century through his mystical thought. Quite recently two small books have been published in England illustrating this aspect of his mind: E. Allison Peers, The Book of the Lover and the Beloved, translated from the Catalan of Ramón Lull, with an introductory essay, 1923; and Waite, A. E., Raymund Lully, 1922Google Scholar.

It may be of interest to record that the Library of Karlsruhe possesses a fine fourteenth-century MS., with a series of illuminations illustrating the career of Raymond Lul (Brambach, W., Des Raimundus Lullius Leben und Werke in Bildern des xiv Jahrhunderts, Karlsruhe, 1893)Google Scholar.