II. CLOCK MARKING SIMULTANEOUS HOURS AT DIFFERENT REGIONS OF THE EARTH
[After Dr. E. Moore’s Time-References in the Divina Commedia.]
To indicate changes of hour, the reader may imagine the rim of the clock to revolve counterclockwise, while the five hands remain stationary, or the hands to revolve clockwise, while the rim remains stationary.
Thus, for example, Purg. xxvii. 1-5, the sun was rising at Jerusalem, ‘there where his Maker shed His blood,’ when it was midnight in Spain (on the Ebro) and noon in India, ‘the waves in Ganges burnt by noon’; and therefore sunset in Purgatory: ‘wherefore the day was departing, when the Angel of God joyfully appeared to us.’