A clock is an instrument for measuring time and indicating hours, minutes, and usually seconds, by means of hands moving on a dial-plate, and traditionally differing from a watch mainly in having the movement of its machinery regulated by a pendulum, and in not being portable. A clock also chimes, though the term clock is frequently, and incorrectly, applied to the non-chiming instruments for measuring time, which are technically known as a timepiece.
The use of a horologium, or hour-teller, was common even amongst the ancients, but their time-pieces were nothing else than sun-dials, hour-glasses, and clepsydrae. In the earlier half of our era we have accounts of several attempts at clock construction : that of Boethius in the 6th century, the clock sent by Harun al Rashid to Charlemagne in 809, that made by Pacificus, archdeacon of Verona, in the 9th century, and that of PopeSylvester II in the 10th century. It is doubtful, however, if any of these was a wheel-and-weight clock, and it is probably to the monks that we owe the invention of clocks set in motion by wheels and weights. In the 12th century clocks were made use of in the monasteries, which announced the end of every hour by the sound of a bell put in motion by means of wheels. From this time forward the expression, 'the clock has struck,' is often met with. The hand for marking the time is also made mention of.
In the 14th century there are stronger traces of the later system of clock-work. Dante particularly mentions clocks. Richard, abbot of St Albans in England, made a clock in 1326, such as had never been heard of until then. It not only indicated the course of the sun and moon, but also the ebb and flood tide. Large clocks on steeples likewise were first made use of in the 14th century. Watches are a much later invention, although they have likewise been said to have been invented as early as the 14th century. A celebrated clock, the construction of which is well known, was set up in Paris for Charles V in 1379, the maker being Henry de Vick, a German. It probably formed a model on which clocks were constructed for nearly 300 years, and until Huyghens applied the pendulum to clock-work as the regulating power, about 1657. The great advantage of the pendulum prior to the invention of electronic oscillators is that the beats or oscillations of a pendulum all occupy substantially the same time (the time depending on its length), hence its utility in imparting regularity to a time-measurer. The mechanism by which comparative regularity was previously attained, though ingenious and simple, was far less perfect; and the first pendulum escapement that is, the contrivance by which the pendulum was connected with the clock-work, was also less perfect than others subsequently introduced, especially Graham's dead-heat escapement, invented in 1700.
In a watch, prior to the invention of electronics, the balance-wheel and spring served the same purpose as the pendulum, and the honour of being the inventor of the balance-spring was contested between Huyghens and the English pliilosopher Dr. Hooke. Various improvements followed, such as the chronometerescapement, and the addition of a compensation adjustment, by which two metals having unequal rates of expansion and contraction under variations of temperature are combined in the pendulum or the balance-wheel, so that, each metal counteracting the other, the vibrations are isochronous under any change of temperature. This arrangement was perfected by Harrison in 1726, and was especially useful in navigation. Research Clock
The Congress of Verona took place in 1822. It was a meeting of envoys of the great European powers to consult respecting the disturbances in Spain. Their project of interference for the sake of restoring Spanish power in the revolted colonies of South America was what led to the enunciation of the Monroe Doctrine of 1823. Research Congress of Verona
Alboin was King of the Lombards from 561. He died in 573 or 574 when he was assassinated at the orders of his wife Rosamond. He succeeded his father Audoin in 561, and reigned in Noricum and Pannonia. Narses, the general of Justinian, sought his alliance, and received his aid, in the war against Totila, king of the Ostrogoths. Alboin afterwards (in 568) undertook the conquest of Italy, where Narses, who had subjected this country to Justinian, offended by an ungrateful court, sought an avenger in Alboin, and offered him his co-operation. After a victorious career in Italy he was slain at Verona, in 573 or 574, by an assassin, instigated by his wife Rosamond, whose hatred he had incurred by sending her, in one of his fits of intoxication, a cup wrought from the skull of her father, and forcing her to drink from it. Research Alboin
Alighieri Dante was an Italian poet. He was born in 1265 at Florence and died in 1321. Of a family belonging to the lower nobility, his education was confided to the learned Brunetto Latini. He is said also to have studied in various seats of learning, and it is certain that either at this time or in the course of his wandering life he made himself master of all the knowledge of his time.
He seems to have been quite a boy, no more than nine years of age, when he first saw Beatrice Portinari, and the love she awakened in him he has described in that record of his early years, the Vita Nuova, as well as in his later great work, the Divina Cornmedia, in terms which make it hard to distinguish the real personality of Beatrice from some ideal power of beauty and virtue of which she is to Dante the symbol. Their actual lives at least went far enough apart, Beatrice marrying a noble Florentine, Simone Bardi, in 1287, and dying three years afterwards; while the year following Dante married Gemma dei Donati, by whom he had seven children. At this time the Guelfic party in Florence became divided into the rival factions of Bianchi and Neri (Whites and Blacks), the latter being an extreme party while the former leaned to reconciliation with the Ghibellines. Dante's sympathies were with the Bianchi, and being a prior of the trades and a leading citizen in Florence he went on an embassy to Rome to influence the pope on behalf of the Bianchi.
The rival faction of the Neri, however, had got the upper hand in the city, and in the usual fashion of the time were burning the houses of their rivals and slaying them in the open street. In Dante's absence his enemies obtained a decree of banishment;
against him, coupled with a heavy fine, a sentence which was soon followed by another condemning him to be burned alive for malversation and peculation.
From this time the poet became, and to the end of his life remained, an exile; and his history, first lost by the indifference of contemporaries and then hallowed by the legends of later generations, becomes semi-mythical. He has told us himself how he wandered 'through almost all parts where this language is spoken,' and how hard he felt it 'to climb the stairs and eat the bitterbread of strangers.' During this period he is said to have visited many cities, Arezzo, Bologna, Sienna, etc, and even Paris.
In 1314 he found shelter with Can Grande della Scala at Verona, where he remained until 1318. In 1320 we find him staying at Ravenna with his friend Guido da Polenta. In September 1321 his sufferings and wanderings were ended by death. He was buried at Ravenna, where his bones still lie.
His great poem, the Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy), written in great part, if not altogether, during his exile, is divided into three parts, entitled Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise. The poet dreams that he has wandered into a dusky forest, when the shade of Virgil appears and offers to conduct him through hell and purgatory. Further the pagan poet may not go, but Beatrice herself shall lead him through paradise. The journey through hell is first described, and the imaginative power with which the distorted characters of the guilty and the punishments laid upon them are brought before us; the impressive pathos of these short histories - often compressed in Dante's severe style into a couple of lines - of Pope and Grhibelline, Italian lord and lady; the passionate depth of characterization, the subtle insight and intense faith, make up a whole which for significance and completeness has perhaps no rival in the work of any one man.
From hell the poet, still in the company of Virgil, ascends to purgatory, where the scenes are still mostly of the same kind though the punishments are only temporary. In the earthly paradiseDante beholds Beatrice in a scene of surpassing magnificence, ascends with her into the celestial paradise, and after roaming over seven spheres reaches the eighth, where he beholds 'the glorious company which surrounds the triumphant Redeemer.' In the ninthDante feels himself in presence of the divine essence, and sees the souls of the blessed on thrones in a circle of infinite magnitude. The Deity himself, in the tenth, he cannot see for excess of light.
There are many notable translations of Dante's great poem. Amongst English versions we may mention those of Gary, Longfellow, and Dean Plumptre, and an excellent prose translation by Dr. John Carlyle. The Vita Nuova has been admirably translated by D. G. Rossetti in his Early Italian Poets.
Dante's other works are: Il Convito (the Banquet), a series of philosophical commentaries on the author's canzoni; Il Canzoniere, a collection of poems; a Latin treatise, De Monarchia, a work intended to prove the supremacy of the head of the holy Roman Empire; a treatise on the Italian language entitled, De Vulgari Eloquio; and an inquiry into the relative altitude of the water and the land, De Aqua et Terra. Research Alighieri Dante
Attila (Etzel) was King of the Huns. He was born in 406 and died in 453. The son of Mundzuk, and the successor, in conjunction with his brother Bleda, of his uncle Rhuas, he succeeded to the chieftainship in 434 when his people were masters of eastern Europe north of the Danube, and were terrorising western Europe as far as the Rhine and western Asia. They threatened the Eastern Empire, and twice compelled the weak Theodosius II to purchase an inglorious peace. Attila caused his brother Bleda to be murdered in 444, and in a short time extended his dominion over all the peoples of Germany and exacted tribute from the eastern and western emperors. The Vandals, the Ostrogoths, the Gepidse, and a part of the Franks united under his banners, and he speedily formed a pretext for leading them against the Empire of the East. He laid waste all the countries from the Black Sea to the Adriatic Sea, and in three encounters defeated the Emperor Theodoeius, but could not take Constantinople.
Thrace, Macedonia, and Greece all submitted to the invader, who destroyed seventy flourishing cities; and Theodosius was obliged to purchase a peace. Turning to the west, the 'scourge of God,' as the universal terror termed him, crossed with an immense army the Rhine, the Moselle, and the Seine, came to the Loire, and laid siege to Orleans. The inhabitants of this city repelled the first attack, and the united forces of the Romans under Aetius, and of the Visigoths under their king Theodoric, compelled Attila to raise the siege. He retreated to Champagne, and waited for the enemy in the plains of Chalons.
In apparent opposition to the prophecies of the soothsayers the ranks of the Romans and Goths were broken; but when the victory of Attila seemed assured the Gothic prince Thorismond, the son of Theodoric, poured down from the neighbouring height upon the Huns, who were defeated with great slaughter. Rather irritated more than discouraged, he sought in the following year a new opportunity to seize upon Italy, and demanded Honoria, the sister of Valentinian III, in marriage, with half the kingdom as a dowry. When this demand was refused he conquered and destroyed Aquileia, Padua, Vicenza, Verona, and Bergamo, laid waste the plains of Lombardy, and was marching on Rome when Pope Leo I went with the Roman ambassadors to his camp and succeeded in obtaining a peace. Attila went back to Hungary, and died on the night of his marriage with Hilda or Ildico in 453, either from the bursting of a blood-vessel or by her hand. The description that Jornandes has left us of him is in keeping with his Kalmuck-Tartar origin. He had a large head, a flat nose, broad shoulders, and a short and ill-formed body; but his eyes were brilliant, his walk stately, and his voice strong and well-toned. Research Attila
Pierre Du Terrail, Seigneur De Bayard was a French knight. He was born in 1476 at Catle Bayard and died in 1524. He was known as chevalier sanspeur et sans reproche (knight without fear and without reproach). At the age of eighteen he accompanied Charles VIII to Italy, and in the battle at Verona took a standard. At the beginning of the reign of Louis XII, in a battle near Milan, he entered the city at the heels of the fugitives, and was taken prisoner, but dismissed by Ludovico Sforza without ransom.
In Apulia he killed his calumniator, Sotomayor, and afterwards defended a bridge over the Garigliano singly against the Spaniards, receiving for this exploit as a coat of arms a porcupine, with the motto Vires agminis unus habet ('one has the strength of a band'). He distinguished himself equally against the Genoese and the Venetians, and, when Julius II declared himself against France, went to the assistance of the Duke of Ferrara.
He was severely wounded at the assault of Brescia, but returned, as soon as cured, to the camp of Gaston de Foix, before Ravenna, and after new exploits was again dangerously wounded in the retreat from Pavia. In the war commenced by Ferdinand the Catholic he displayed the same heroism, and the fatal reverses which embittered the last years of Louis XII only added to the personal glory of Bayard. When Francis I ascended the throne he sent Bayard into Dauphine to open a passage over the Alps and through Piedmont. Prosper Colonna lay in wait for him, but was made prisoner by Bayard, who immediately after further distinguished himself in the battle of Marignano.
After his defence of Mezieres against the invading army of Charles V he was saluted in Paris as the saviour of his country, receiving the honour paid to a prince of the blood. His presence reduced the revolted Genoese to obedience, but failed to prevent the expulsion of the French after the capture of Lodi. In the retreat the safety of the army was committed to Bayard, who, however, was mortally wounded by a stone from a blunderbuss in protecting the passage of the Sesia. He kissed the cross of his sword, confessed to his squire, and died on April the 30th, 1524. He was buried in a church of the Minorites, near Grenoble. Research Bayard
The Cenommani (Cenomani) were a Celtic people of the Aulerei nation of Gaul who inhabited the department of Sarthe. Their capital was Vindinum (Le Mans). A branch of the Cenommani invaded Italy in the 6th century BC, and occupied the left bank of the Po between the Adda and the Adige, with Verona as their capital.
Dietrich of Bern is the name under which Theodoric the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, appears in the old German legends. Bern stands for Verona, his capital. Research Dietrich of Bern
Francesco Torbido (Il Moro) was an Italian painter. He was born in 1486 at verona and died in 1546. He studied under Giorgionne at Venice and Leberale at verona. he worked mainly at verona where he painted frescoes in the cathedral and other locations and also produced portraits including a self-portrait in chalks. Research Francesco Torbido
Gaius Valerius Catullus was a Roman lyric poet. He was born at Verona in 84 BC and died in 54 BC. He was the friend of Marcus Cicero, of Plancus, Cinna, and Cornelius Nepos; to the last he dedicated the collection of his poems. Almost all the known details of his life are derived by inference from his works, and relate to such matters as his passion for Lesbia, his journey to Bithynia, and voyage home in his yacht, his pleasant villa on Lake Benacus, etc. He was the first of the Romans who successfully caught the Greek lyric spirit, and gave to Roman literature its most genuine songs. Research Gaius Catullus
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Clock
