By the Rev. Canon J. E. Jackson, F.S.A. 



19 



The historians also of Padua, had he really been a native of that 

 place and very conspicuous as an architect, would not have omitted 

 to claim so famous a son. 



It was by mere accident that 1 was led to the explanation which 

 I venture now to submit, of the mystery which so long surrounded 

 the name of John of Padua. 



In turning over a number of curious old volumes that had been 

 'rescued from destruction in the garret of a farm-house I met with 

 a thin little quarto, the title of which was " Joannis Paduanii 

 ! Veronensis opus de compositione et usu multiformium Horologiorum 

 Solarium.'" {John Paduanius of Verona, on the construction and use 

 | of Sun-dials of various shapes.] " Printed at Venice, 1570.-" 

 Happening at the moment to remember (what I have already 

 mentioned) that at Caius College, Cambridge, there is a picture 

 with a curious sun-dial painted on the corner, which picture Dr. 

 Ducarel understood to be that of "John of Padua," the coincidence 

 :>f the names and circumstances struck me as remarkable. 

 : This sun-dial at Caius College, it should he mentioned, stood 

 formerly (for it has long since disappeared) on a column in the court 

 ml the college. Being constructed on twelve pentagons, each 

 pentagon having of course, five faces, it presented sixty dials. The 

 mnals of the house record that it was set up by Theodore Have, in 

 iihe year 1576. There is a miserable little sketch of the column on 

 ;vhich it stood, in Loggan's print of that College, Now, though 

 Theodore Have may have set up this curious sun-dial, still, he may 

 lave been assisted in its construction, either by Joannes Paduanius 

 n person, or by the rules in his book on that subject, printed in 

 1570, a few years before; and this, perhaps, may be enough to 

 iccount for the name of J ohn of Padua being mentioned at all at 

 he college. At any rate it brings John de Padua into such striking 

 loncurrence with Joannes Paduanius that it is difficult to believe 

 hey were not one and the same person. 1 



i J . 1 The usage of Latin grammar would suggest V^uanus rather than Padua?nw$: 

 ' j ut neither of them is classically correct. Livy, the Eoman historian, a native 

 p Patavium (Anglice Padua) was " T. Livius PatavinusP 



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