Over the years I’ve become a fan of the concept of time in all shapes and forms. Last weekend I found this link to one of the most comprehensive on-line listings of antique stained glass sundials. I found myself looking through nearly all of them.

Latin mottos can be found on many as a decorative element. The choice of words is what piqued my curiosity the most. Why were those words chosen? I picked the two sundials in this posting because I enjoyed their Latin motto’s most.

The Goldfinch Dial:
Vesper In Ambiguo Est = The Evening is uncertain
Age(N)Dum = Come Now!
Mora Noxia = Delay is harmful
Cras Nil = Tomorrow is nothing

What I discovered today was that the “New Blaeu” map I recently had printed uses Ovid’s text in the same way that the Nun Appleton sundial uses. They were made around the same time too, but in different countries. Quite cool.

Click to be taken to the interactive version of the map:

Poma dat Autumnus, Formosa est messibus Aestas, Ver praebet fores, Igne levatur hiems.
Autumn gives fruits, Summer fair with corn appears, Spring bestows flowers, Winter fire cheers.

The seasonal sequence in the image above is Spring, Summer, Fall, Winter. Ovid’s prose from “Remedia Amoris / The Cure For Love” puts the four seasons in reverse order.

Related Antique Entries:

• President Andrew Johnson’s Veto Message to Congress Concerning A Bill to Regulate the Elective Franchise in the District of Columbia - January 5, 1867
• WAR SIGNS IN THE STARS : Our Country's Horoscope Says There Will Be Peace - The Washington Times, April 10, 1898
• Emancipation Day by Mrs. Mary E. Kail
• SENATE TIE ON PROHIBITION - The New York Times, December 20, 1916
• S280 - A Bill To Repeal an Act Entitled ''An Act to Retrocede the County of Alexandria, in the District of Columbia, to the State of Virginia" - United States Senate, April 23, 1866
• How the Scythians Used Hemp - Paragraphs 73-75 from Book 4 of The Histories of Herodotus [circa 440 BC]
• TO MAKE A STATE OF DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - The New York Times, December 14, 1902
• The Strange Narcotics Used in Asia and South America - The New York Sun, February 8th, 1880
• Advertisement for the Buffalo Bill's Wild West at Athletic Park in Washington, DC - National Republican, June 20th, 1885
• Advertisement for Adam Forepaugh's Circus in Athletic Park, Washington, DC - The National Republican, April 11, 1885
• Advertisement for the Barnum and London Circus in Athletic Park, Washington, DC - The National Republican, May 3rd, 1884
• The Full Text Of An Act for the Release of certain Persons held to Service or Labor in the District of Columbia
• The Sons of Martha by Rudyard Kipling - New York Tribune, April 28, 1907
• The Noyes Armillary Sphere Described In The Historic American Buildngs Survey #532
• Armillary Sphere Donated to 'Federal City' by Author; Ancient Astronomical Device Links Early Chinese to Modern Americans - The Washington Post, November 10, 1936
• VOTE PLEA TO CONGRESS - Americanize 400,000, Urges D.C. Joint Citizens' Committee - The Washington Post, February 13, 1918
• Chronicling One Century Ago - A Listing Of All The Daily American Newspapers Published In 1910 In The Chronicling America Collection
• The 1910 Publication Calendar of the Washington Times from the Chronicling America Newspaper Collection [100 Year Old News]
• The 1910 Publication Calendar of the Washington Herald from the Chronicling America Newspaper Collection [100 Year Old News]
• The 1910 Publication Calendar of the San Francisco Call from the Chronicling America Newspaper Collection [100 Year Old News]
• The 1910 Publication Calendar of the Palestine Daily Herald from the Chronicling America Newspaper Collection [100 Year Old News]
• The 1910 Publication Calendar of the Padukah Evening Sun from the Chronicling America Newspaper Collection [100 Year Old News]
• The 1910 Publication Calendar of the Ogden Standard from the Chronicling America Newspaper Collection [100 Year Old News]
• The 1910 Publication Calendar of the New York Tribune from the Chronicling America Newspaper Collection [100 Year Old News]
• The 1910 Publication Calendar of the New York Sun from the Chronicling America Newspaper Collection [100 Year Old News]
• The 1910 Publication Calendar of the Los Angeles Herald from the Chronicling America Newspaper Collection [100 Year Old News]
• The 1910 Publication Calendar of the Deseret Evening News from the Chronicling America Newspaper Collection [100 Year Old News]
• The 1910 Publication Calendar of the Alexandria Gazette from the Chronicling America Newspaper Collection [100 Year Old News]
• ALEXANDRIA AND THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA - The Alexandria Gazette, June 9, 1909
• STILL AFTER ALEXANDRIA - The Alexandria Gazette, June 5th, 1909
• Justice Stafford Eloquent on Washington: Past, Present, and Future - The Washington Herald, May 9th, 1909
• What the Stars Tell of The Times - The Washington Times, February 9, 1896
• 2010 Cartographic Calendar [Color Edition]
• 2010 Cartographic Calendar [Black & White Edition]
• A Projected Relief Park Map of the United States - The Washington Times, March 28, 1897
• TAFT STIRS CAPITAL BY SUFFRAGE SPEECH - The New York Times, May 10th, 1909
• HOME RULE FOR THE DISTRICT! GRAND MASS-MEETING OF CITIZENS AT ODD-FELLOWS' HALL [The Washington Times, 1/20/1880]
• A Diagrammatic Photograph Showing The American Warship, The Delaware, Blowing Up New York City
• Randle Highlands VS Fort Dupont [Antique Overlay of an Anacostia Alternative Future]
• [FOUND MAP] The Masthead Map of the San Mateo Item Newspaper
• WANT 20,000 SIGNERS - The Washington Post, November 16th, 1894
• Squelched [A Sunday Comic from 1896]
• PRESIDENT OPPOSED TO SUFFRAGE IN DISTRICT - The Washington Post, May 9th, 1909
• Prof. Gregory Favors It - The Washington Post, July 10th, 1883
• Suffrage in the District - The Washington Post, January 24, 1880
• District Representation - The Washington Post, January 22, 1879
• Map of Westminster Street NW in Washington, DC from 1921
• La Grisette by Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.
• [FOUND MAP] Isola d'Elba aka the Island of Elba
• My own Coat of Arms, the Origin of the Stars & Stripes, and Hartburn, DC
• A Perpetual Calendar showing the day of any month corresponding to any day of the week, for the year 1775, to the year 2025
• What! A Bicycle Rifle? Yes?
• Nixon Sends GIs Into Cambodia And An Inverted 1970 Map of Communist Controlled Laos and Cambodia
• Thomas Jefferson's Map of Washington from March 31st, 1791
• An Act for establishing the Temporary and Permanent seat of the Government of the United States
• Text of the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871
• Text of the District of Columbia Organic Act of 1801
• Photograph of the ceiling inside of the Alhambra obtained from the Casselman Archive of Islamic and Mudejar Architecture in Spain
• Stereocard of the Great Hall in the Vatican Library
• In the December issue of QST Magazine
• Hallway view of the first edition of the New & Arabesque Map of the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden
• Gloria Immortalis Labore Parta
• A New & Somewhat Accurate Map of the Tropic of Gemini and the Tropic of Sagittarius
• Tabvla Festorvm - Table of important Catholic dates from Opera Mathematica
• Gregorius XIII - Pont(ifex) Opt(imus) Maximus / Anno Restituto MDLXXXII
• The Vicissitude of the Seasons Explained
• The Use of the Analemma - As explained around 1780
• The Millbank Penitentiary, the Tate Britain, and the Panopticon
• Tabvla Temporis [Semidiurni in fignis Borealibus / Australibus]
• A New & Arabesque Map of the Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden
• Artomatic 2008 Opening Night
• Of (the Tartars) manners both good and bad (around 400 years ago)
• Then & Now Birds-Eye Views of the Westminster Neighborhood in Washington, DC [1884 & 2005]
• The Yu Ji Tu map [1137] and a map of the distribution of Moslems in China [1922] via Rev. Claude L. Pickens, Jr.'s trip to northwest China [1936]
• ABSOLUT STATEHOOD
• Remedia Amoris / The Cure For Love by Ovid
• Hello Cherubs - A New Splash Page Graphic Added
• Antique Stained Glass Sundials
• Happy Nowruz !!
• ordered last week: New Blaeu
• Carte du Telegraphe Optique [dans l'hexagone]
• Oil Wells in Los Angeles 103 years ago [One Slick Overlay]
• The art of Map Fest by Teresa Mendez - The Christian Science Monitor
• Within Sight of the White House [Overlay of Hooker's Division]
• The Dissected Map ...continued
• Découvrir Carte Est Mort!
• Tycho Brahe's Armillary Spheres
• Holy See an Armillary Sphere?
• Found Celestial Cartography
• The Brandeis Brief
• An updated Armillary Sphere
• 1880 Street Railway Map of the City of Washington
• The Astro-Theological Overlays for Google Earth
• An Interactive Astrological Calendar from 1544 for Google Earth
• An Updated Astrological Calendar from 1544 - Eastern Hemisphere
• Socio Ditata Labore - Revisited
• NOVA ET ACCVRATISSIMA TOTIVS TERRARVM ORBIS TABVLA [2007 Remix]
• An Updated Astrological Calendar from 1544 - Western Hemisphere
• Geography & the Humanities Symposium Program Cover
• A New And Accurate Map of the World by John Speed [2007 Remix]
• America as a Cloverleaf
• A New Map of the Terraqueous Globe : according to the the Ancient discoveries and most general Divisions of Geospatial Art
• Society is Enriched by Labor :: Socio Ditata Labore
• The Modern Geographer