“We are told by Lehmann[1083], that a public clock was put up at Spire in the year 1395. ‘That year,’ says he, ‘the clock was erected on the Altburg gate. The bell for calling the people together to divine worship was cast by a bell-founder from Strasburg.—The works of the clock cost fifty-one florins.’
“The greater part however of the principal cities of Europe were at this period without striking clocks, which could not be procured but at a great expense. Of this we have an instance in the city of Auxerre. In the year 1483, the magistrates resolved to cause a clock to be constructed; but as it would cost a larger sum of money than they thought they had a right to dispose of by their own authority, they applied to Charles VIII. to request leave to employ a certain part of the public funds for that purpose.
“The great clock in the church of the Virgin Mary at Nuremberg was erected in the year 1462.
“A public clock was put up at Venice in the year 1497[1084].
“In the same century an excellent clock, which is described in a letter of Politian[1085] to Francis Casa, in the year 1484, was constructed by one Lorenzo, a Florentine, for Cosmo I. of Medici.
“Towards the end of this century clocks began to be in use among private persons. This appears from a letter of Ambrosius Camaldulensis to Nicolaus, a learned man of Florence: ‘When I received your letter I immediately made ready your clock, and should have sent it had any one been at hand to have taken it. I have caused it to be cleaned, for it was full of dust, and thus as it could not go freely it was retarded; and because it could not thus run correctly, I gave it to that illustrious youth Angelo, who is most skilful in these things[1086].’
“About this period also, mention is made of watches. Among the Italian poems of Gaspar Visconti, there is a sonnet with the following title: ‘Si fanno certi orologii piccioli e portativi, che non poco di artificio sempre lavorano, mostrando le ore, e molti corsi de pianeti, e le feste, sonando quando il tempo lo ricerca. Questo sonetto è facto in persona de uno inamorato, che, guardando uno delli predicti orologii, compara se stesso a quello, &c.’[1087]
“It appears, therefore, that Doppelmayer is mistaken when he says that watches were invented by Peter Hele, at Nuremberg, in the sixteenth century; and that because they were shaped like an egg, they were called Nuremberg animated eggs. I. Cocleus, in his Description of Germany, speaking of this Hele, says, ‘This young man has performed works which the most skilful mathematicians may admire. For he makes small watches of steel with numerous wheels, which, as they move without any weight, both point out and strike forty hours, even though they are contained in the bosom or in the pocket[1088].’”
FOOTNOTES
[1040] The author says that the principal writers on this subject are Alexander, a monk of the order of St. Benedict; Paute, his countryman; and our Derham.