II O R O L O G Y. 
fitted of twelve hours each ; but fometimes (horter and 
fometimes longer. The real'on of this is explained in the 
fixty-fourth chapter of the before-mentiondd Cuftoms. 
Thefe horologia not only pointed out the hours by an in¬ 
dex, but emitted alio a found. This we learn from Pri- 
maria Inftituta Canonicorum Pnemonftratenfium, where 
it is ordered that the lacri(tan ttiould regulate the horolo¬ 
gium, and make it found before matins to awaken him. 
We dare not however venture thence to infer, that thefe 
machines announced the number of the hour by their 
found, as they feem only to have given an alarm at the 
time of getting up from bed. We have indeed never yet 
found a paflage where it is mentioned that the number of 
the hour was expreifed by them; and when we read of 
their emitting a found, we are to underhand that it was 
for the purpofe' of wakening the facriltan to morning- 
prayers. 
From what has been faid it is fufficiently apparent that 
clocks moved by wheels and weights began to be ufed in 
the monafteries in Europe about the eleventh century. 
Yet we do not think that Europe is entitled to the ho¬ 
nour of this invention ; but that it is rather to be afcribed 
to the Saracens, to whom we are indebted for molt of the 
mathematical fciences. This conjecture is fupported by 
the horologium which, as Trithemius tells us, was fent by 
fultan Saladin of Egypt, in the year 1232, to the emperor 
Frederic II. In the fourteenth century mention is made 
of the machine of our countryman Richard of Walling¬ 
ford, which - has been hitherto confidered as the oldeft clock 
known. Richard of Wallingford was ion of a fmitli, who 
lived at that town, and who, from his learning and inge¬ 
nuity, became abbot of St. Alban’s. He wrote alfo a trea- 
tife on this clock; and it appears that it continued to go 
in Leland’s time, who was born at the latter end of 
Henry VII.’s reign, and who (peaks of a tradition, that this 
famous piece of mechanifm was called Albion (all by one ) 
by the inventor. 
Clocks hitherto had been, as it- were, (liut up in mo¬ 
nafteries ; but they now began to be employed for tire 
common ufe and convenience of cities, though no inftance 
of- this is to be found before the above period. Hubert 
prince of Carrara caufed the firft clock ever publicly 
ereCted, to be put up at Padua, as we are told by Petrus 
Paulus Vergerius. It is faid to have been made by James 
Dondi, whofe family afterwards got the name of Horologia. 
We are informed by the Chronica mifcella Bononienfis, 
that the firft clock at Bologna was fixed up in the year 
13 56. Some time after the year 1364, Charles V. furnamed 
the Wile, king of France, caufed a large clock to be placed 
in the tower of his palace, by Henry de Wyck, whom he 
invited from Germany, becaufe there was then at Paris no 
artift of that kind, and to whom he allowed a (alary of fix 
ibis per day, with free lodgings in the tower. Towards 
the end of the century, about the year 1370, Strafburgh 
alfo had a clock, a defcription of which is given by Cork 
radus Dalypoclius. Courtray, about the fame period, was 
Celebrated for its clock, which was carried away by the 
duke of Burgundy in the year 1382. We are told by 
Lehmann, that a public clock was put up at Spire in 1395. 
“ That year,” fays he, “the clock was erefted on the Alt- 
burg gate. The bell for calling the people together to 
divine vvorlhip was call by a bell-founder from Strafburgh. 
The works of the clock cod fifty-one florins.” The 
greater part, however, of the principal cities of Europe 
were at this period without ftriking-clocks, which could 
not be procured but at a great expence. Of this we have 
an inftance in the city of Auxerre. In 1483, the ma¬ 
gistrates refolved to caufe a clock to be conftruCted; but, 
as it would coll a larger Cum of money than they thought 
they had a right to diipofe of bv their own authority, 
they applied to Charles VIII. to requeft leave to c-mploy 
a certain part of the public funds for that purpole. The 
great clock in the church of the Virgin Mary at Nurem¬ 
berg was erefted, as we read, in the year 1462. A public 
clock was put up at Venice in 1497. In the fame century 
yoL. x. No. 661. 
289 
an excellent clock, which is defcribed in a letter of Poli- 
tian to Francis Cafa, in 1484, was conltructed by one Lo¬ 
renzo, a Florentine, for Cofmo I. of Medicis. 
Towards the end of this century, clocks began to be in 
ufe among private perfons. This appears from a letter of 
Anabrofius Camaldulenfis to Nicolaus, a learned man of 
Florence. About this period alfo, mention is made of 
watches ; fo that Doppelmayer is deceived when he lays 
that watches were invented by Peter Hele, at Nuremberg, 
in the fixteehth century; and that, becaufe they were ftiaped 
like an egg, they were called Nuremberg animated, eggs. 
Having produced inftances of feveral clocks made in 
different parts of tire fourteenth century, as alfo having 
endeavoured to prove that they were not very uncommon 
even in the thirteenth, it may be thought neceflary that we 
Ihould account for their not being more generally ufed 
during thole periods, as, in their prefent Hate at leaft, 
they are fo very convenient. For this it Ihould feem that 
many reafons Ihould be afligned. In the infancy of this 
new piece of mechanifm, they were probably of a very 
imperfect conllruCtion, perhaps never went tolerably, and 
were foon deranged, whilft there was no one within a rea- 
lonable diftance to put them in order. We find, there¬ 
fore, that Henry VI. of England, and Charles V. of France, 
appointed clock-makers, with a ftipend, to keep the Well- 
miniter and Paris clocks in order. It need fcarcely be 
obl'erved alfo, that, as the artifts were fo few, their work 
mult have been charged accordingly, and that kings only 
could be the purchalers of what was rather an expenfive 
toy, than of any confiderable ufe. And it may perhaps 
be laid, that they continued in a great meafure to be no 
better than toys, till the middle of the feventeenth cen¬ 
tury. Add to this, that in the thirteenth and fourteenth 
centuries, there was fo little commerce, intercourfe, or 
fociety, that an hour-glafs, or the fun, was very fufficient 
for the common purpol'es, which are now more accurately 
fettled by clocks of modern conftrudtion. Dials likewllc 
wanted no mending. 
The oldeft clock which we have in England, that is 
fiippofed to go tolerably, is of the year 1540, in the reign 
of Henry VIII. But the name of the artift is not known, 
only the initial letters N. O. appear. This clock is ftill 
kept going at Hampton-court palace. Befides lliowing 
the time of the day, it exhibits the motion of the fun and 
moon, together with the matters depending thereon, as 
the day o( the month, fun and moon’s place in the zodiac, 
moon’s fouthing, &c. 
Thus much with regard to the firft introduftion of clocks. 
We lhall now bring forward a few particulars in relation to 
thofe more portable meafurers of time, called watches, the 
earlieft of which leems to be one that was in fir Aftiton 
Lever’s molt valuable mufeum, the date upon which is 1541. 
Derham, in his Artificial Clock-maker, publilhed in 1714, 
mentions a watch of Henry VIII. which was (till in or¬ 
der; and Dr. Demainbray had heard both fir Ifaac New¬ 
ton and Demoivre lpeak of this watch. The emperor 
Charles V. Henry’s cotemporary, was Co much pleated 
with thefe time-meafurers, that he ufed to fit after his 
dinner with feveral of them on the table, his bottle being 
in the centre ; and when he retired to the monaltery of St. 
Juft, he con turned ftill to amule himfelf with keeping them 
in order, which is laid to have produced a reflection from 
him on the abfurdity of his attempt to regulate the motions 
of the different powers of Europe. 
Some of the watches ufed at this time, feem to have 
been linkers ; at lealt we find in the Memoirs of Liters 
ture, that fuch watches having been ltolen both from 
Charles V. and Louis XI. whillt they were in a crowd, 
the thief was detected by their linking the hour. In mod 
of the more ancient watches, catgut luppHes the place of 
a chain; they are commonly of a (mailer fize than we ule 
at prelent, and often of an oval form. The proprietor of 
this work was lately in pofiefiion of a watch that was dug 
up a few years ago near the feite of the ancient cattle at 
Winehefter, where it had lain probably fines the time of 
4 F, Cromwell, 
