Memorabilia; Or Recollections, Historical, Biographical, and AntiquarianSavage, James
History
Memorabilia; Or Recollections, Historical, Biographical, and Antiquarian
Savage, James
History -- Miscellanea; Savage, James, 1767-1845
There is a fine specimen of ancient Clock-making in Wells Cathedral. It
is a clock constructed by Peter Lightfoot, one of the monks of
Glastonbury, about the year 1325, of complicated design and ingenious
execution. It was originally put up in that celebrated Monastery, and
was placed in the south transept, and by means of a communication tolled
the hours on the great bell of the central tower, whilst the quarters
were struck by automata on two small bells in the transept. The dial
plate shews the hours, and also the changes of the moon, the solar and
other astronomical motions; on its summit there is an horizontal frame
work, which exhibits by the aid of machinery, eight knights on horseback
armed for a tournament, and pursuing each other with a rapid rotatory
motion. At the Reformation this clock was removed from Glastonbury Abbey
to its present situation in Wells Cathedral.
The Clock in Exeter Cathedral was erected by Bishop Courtenay in the
year 1480. It is on the Ptolemaic system of Astronomy and of a curious
construction for the age in which it was put up. The earth is
represented by a globe in the centre; the sun by a fleur-de-lys; and the
moon by a ball painted half black and half white, which turns on its
axis, and shews the different phases of that luminary.
ALDUS MANUTIUS.
[DIED 1516.]
It would be difficult to say whether the exertions of any individual,
however splendid his talents, or even the labours of any particular
association, or academy, however celebrated, ever shed so much lustre on
the place of their residence as that which Venice derives from the
reputation of a stranger, who voluntarily selected it for his abode. I
allude to ALDUS MANUTIUS. This extraordinary person combined the lights
of the scholar, with the industry of the mechanic; and to his labours,
carried on without interruption till the conclusion of a long life, the
world owes the first or _principes editiones_ of twenty eight Greek
Classics. Among these we find Pindar, Æschylus, Sophocles, Euripides,
Herodotus, Thucydides, Demosthenes, Plato, and Aristotle. Besides these,
there are few ancient authors of any note, of whom this indefatigable
editor has not published editions of acknowledged accuracy, and as far
as the means of the art of printing, then in its infancy, permitted, of
great beauty. In order to appreciate the merit of Aldus, we must
consider the difficulties under which he must have laboured at a time
when there were few public libraries; when there was no regular
communication between distant cities; when the price of manuscripts put
them out of the reach of persons of ordinary incomes; and when the
existence of many since discovered, was utterly unknown. The man who
could surmount these obstacles, and publish so many authors till then
inedited; who could find means and time to give new and more accurate
editions of so many others already published, and accompany them all
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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