Curious And Unusual - Mid-day in Rome

	~ Curious And Unusual ~ - 8 - Mid-day in Rome the city's official timing

How can you tell what time it is?
You would obviously take a look at your watch. But if your watch was wrong, or had it stopped, you would need to ask somebody the time, or take a look at a clock, that is you would need to use a reliable reference.

In the past centuries, most common people in Rome did not have to worry about these problems, because they simply did not have a watch, nor a clock, as these were still considered luxury items: they relied on the bells that were rung from the many churches in Rome. But instead of marking the exact time, often the bells rang too early or too late, as the time was still measured rather inaccurately. An official time reference for all the city was still lacking: pope Clement XI may have thought of this, at the beginning of the 18th century, when he commissioned to Francesco Bianchini the making of an important and complicated sundial in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli. Clement was also the pope who reformed the religious calendar, by introducing a standard parameter to determine every year the date of Easter day, i.e. the first Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox.	Michelangelo turned the remains of the ancient Baths of Diocletian into the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli

In the past centuries, most common people in Rome did not have to worry about these problems, because they simply did not have a watch, nor a clock, as these were still considered luxury items: they relied on the bells that were rung from the many churches in Rome. But instead of marking the exact time, often the bells rang too early or too late, as the time was still measured rather inaccurately.
An official time reference for all the city was still lacking: pope Clement XI may have thought of this, at the beginning of the 18th century, when he commissioned to Francesco Bianchini the making of an important and complicated sundial in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli.
Clement was also the pope who reformed the religious calendar, by introducing a standard parameter to determine every year the date of Easter day, i.e. the first Sunday following the full moon after the spring equinox.

Michelangelo turned the remains of the ancient
Baths of Diocletian into the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli

Therefore, the sundial was not only built by Clement XI to act as a standard time reference for the city, but also as a religious calendar on which each year's Easter day could be calculated.

(↑ above) the church's right transept; a red circle indicates the sundial; (↓ below) some of the lines and notches on the church's floor	The church of Santa Maria degli Angeli was chosen as a proper site for the sundial, because the building was strong enough: in the case of an earthquake, it would have proven steady enough to prevent the floor notches from shifting, thus making the time measurement no longer reliable. This church is famous because it stands on the site of the great baths built by emperor Diocletian between AD 298 and 306, during the late years of the roman empire; their surface was over 360 × 370 metres wide (about 400 × 410 yards), and the church, despite being one of the largest in Rome, now covers only a small part of this area.	the sundial in detail; the marble cornice below the hole was cut so that the light beam could reach the floor

Further lines indicate the Terminus Pascae i.e. the date limits Easter day must fall within, and minor lines and notches indicate the position of the North Star, and other astronomical observations.

Clement XI's sundial acted as Rome's official time reference for about one century and a half.

When in 1565 Michelangelo drew the project of Santa Maria degli Angeli, he used the surviving central halls of the ancient complex, with their original columns. The same façade of the church is in fact a tall niche, or exedra, belonging to the roman structure.

Clement's sundial was unveiled in 1703, and still today it stands on its original site. It consists of a large papal crest, that hangs above the right transept's wall, at a height of about 20 metres (65 feet), with a hole in its lower part: at mid-day, a ray of light passes through the hole, reaching a very precise scheme on the floor, made of lines and notches inlaid in coloured marble.
The main line (known as 'Clement's Line') shows the spot touched by the beam of light, each day of the year; by making some calculations, it is also possible to use the line and find the date. Along both its sides are marble panels featuring the zodiac constellations.

two marble panels featuring zodiac constellations: Taurus and Libra

Meanwhile, other sundials had been built in Rome: one of them was housed in a small tower in piazza del Collegio Romano, behind the church of Sant'Ignazio di Loyola.

However, in those days 'mid-day' was still merely considered an astronomical time reference: in fact, the people in Rome used to count the hours of the day from the last religious function which all churches in the city held at a given time. The function, called by locals Avemmarìa (i.e. the Ave Maria prayer), acted as a time reference for the rest of the evening, and for the following day; expressions such as "at twenty-one hours" actually meant twenty-one hours after the function (i.e. in the afternoon of the following day).

conversion table of the timing system
in Rome until the mid 19th century

Things were complicated by the fact that the evening prayer was held at about 7:15 PM, but during winter it was brought forward at 6:15 PM: therefore, "at fifteen hours" meant a quarter past ten in June, but a quarter past nine in January.

This was not the only complication of Rome's timing. When clocks finally began to appear on important churches and public buildings, some of them had a dial with only six hours, not twelve as in ordinary clocks, so to divide the day into canonical hours, when the prescribed prayers were to be recited. The bells, instead, rung up to twelve times, despite the dial, and the hours were counted up to 24! For instance, at the 21st hour (i.e. around 4 pm in summer) the dial would have shown III, and nine tolls of the bell would have been heard.
Only two of these dials are still extant, in the main cloister of Santo Spirito in Sassia complex, near the Vatican, and on the façade of Santa Maria dell'Orto's church, in Trastevere district (pictures on the right).

the old astronomical tower

Today's ordinary system once used to be called 'French timing', as it was temporarily introduced by the end of the 1700s, when Rome was occupied by Napoleon's troops and was administered by the French empire. The population did not feel very comfortable with the change, and when the papal rule was restored in 1814, the old 'Roman timing' was taken back into use.

No sooner than the second half of the 19th century, pope Pius IX definitively switched to the 'French timing', and in Rome too mid-day became the main reference from which the hours of the day were officially counted, replacing the religious timing method.

Furthermore, since the bells kept ringing at different times despite the sundial, in order to avoid confusion, the same pope introduced the custom of publicly announcing mid-day throughout the city in a rather curious way: as of December 1st 1846, every day at 12 o'clock, a cannon was fired from the top of Sant'Angelo Castle, striking the official time.
The actual mid-day was measured from the above-mentioned tower behind Sant'Ignazio's church: as soon as the beam of light reached the sundial's line, a large sphere was lowered from the dome of the nearby church; this signal was seen from the castle, where the cannon was promptly fired.

Very soon the daily shooting of the cannon became a a popular custom, especially in Trastevere district.

In fact, when the French troops sieged Rome in 1849, during the days of the Roman Republic, the first cannon-shot against the city was actually mistaken by the people for the mid-day signal!

This tradition continued in time, also when mid-day stopped being measured from the small tower behind Sant'Ignazio's church.
In 1903 the location of the gun-shooting ceremony was moved to Monte Mario, a hill on the north-western side of the city, and then, one year later, to the top of the Janiculum Hill, the highest spot in Rome.
The daily gun-shot was stopped during World War II, but in 1959, on April 21st (the day traditionally believed to be "Rome's birthday"), the ceremony was resumed. Since then, it has never been stopped again: still today, in the age of precision quartz watches, the firing of the Janiculum's gun is a popular daily event for roman people.

the cannon shooting ceremony at mid-day

↑ for every child in Rome
the cannon ceremony is a must

the breathtaking view from
the Janiculum Hill →

Especially on weekends, crowds of children and tourists gather by the famous balcony on top of the hill, excitedly awaiting for the cannon to be rolled out: on a small terrace below, just in front of the breath-taking view over the city, three soldiers ritually load a howitzer, and after a short countdown they fire a blank shot, at 12 o'clock sharp.
The blast is so loud that it can be clearly heard throughout the centre of Rome (despite nowadays the heavy traffic may sometimes cover it): many romans still check their watches to the sound of the peculiar 'time alarm' from the Janiculum.