eliminated Iron: the group ol theories, see thai I might 

 know this while life is siill m\ companion, bo thai I 

 might think with you, if this is possible, Vlso, so that, 

 in gratitude for the detected or perhaps hidden error, 

 I might speak or write, and \'>u won'i have to shout in 

 vain in bold ridicule and with no applause aftei the 

 Seeing shades of the dead and the mute ashes. But, if 



you objecl thai the daily moti I the revolving earth 



and the annual motion of its whirling .i\is <l I 



suffii iently agree with certain texts of Sac red Si ripture, 

 and if those things which the Copernicans and the 



Longomontanists saj d I convince you, then reject 



my whole system as an old wives' tale. 



Last Years 



I here is a break in the story of Borghesi and Bertolla 

 Foi the nexl five years. The second clock may have 

 been the last project on which the priest and the clock- 

 iii. da i worked together, for very good reasons. The 

 two clinks must have represented a considei tble 

 financial investment in materials and in time, and 

 neither of the men was in sufficiently .diluent circum- 

 stances 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 wealth) 

 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. 15 



The next record relating to Borghesi which has been 

 found is the description of a letter written bv an 

 anonymous mathematician late in 1 768 or early in 

 1 7t >< ». It was L'iJ 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 con- 

 sisted primarily of a criticism launched againsi 

 Borghesi's first little volume published in 1763. 



The anonymous letter is without date, place, or 



17 1'ii'p \. op. cit. (footnote 1 1 ), pp. 



signature, ["his writer claimed thai Father Borghesi 

 had made □ m his book, presumably in 



the description of the clock's functions, and in the 

 basic theories upon which the priesl had predicated 

 his research. No complete copy of the letter's text 

 has been found for study, although it is described at 

 length in Fovazzi's Bib r. Tovazzi noted 



thai lour copies ol the letter existed at that time, and 

 ih. ii In- personally had filed one in the Biblioteca di 

 Cles m I niii. However, every attempt to locate a 



i i .|i\ il lip pi esenl time has been UJQSUI i i 



II the anom mous letter was brought to the attention 

 ..I I adier Borghesi. it must have introduced a dis- 

 turbing note into his hie and , m-i the priest many 

 unhappy moments. He was not. however, dissuaded 

 from his preoccupation with horology. Several 

 years later, in 177:i. lather Borghesi was working 

 mi yet another astronomical clock, this time pre- 

 sumably without the assistance of Bertolla. I his 

 third clock was reported by Tovazzi to have been "of 

 minimum expense but of maximum ingenuity.'' 



No subsequent information relating t<i it iias come 

 i.i light, and there is no record that it was actually 

 completed. 



Again there is a period ol silence in die life ol I ather 

 Borghesi which no amount ol research has yei 

 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 some- 

 time during the period between the completion <i! 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 excep- 

 tion record that both clocks were acquired by the 

 Empress. 



Il is doubtful that lather Borghesi had originally 

 intended to give his clocks in the Empress at the time 

 that they were made, for he would most certainly ha\ e 

 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 mathe- 



iii.itn lan in late I 7t>8 or 1769, it is possible that he 

 decided in 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 tli.it Father Boi 

 m.i\ have forwarded copies of his two little volumes 

 to the Imperial Court at Vienna, and that the 



I'.M'KR 33: nil borghlsi astri >m imicai clock 



57 



