| Leardo’s Times | Actual Times | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1453 | Dec. 1 | ? hrs. | 203? pts. | Nov. 30 | 2.40 P. M. |
| 1455 | Apr. 16 | 21 hrs. | ? | Apr. 17 | 12.22 A. M. |
| 1456 | Apr. 6 | 7 hrs. | 229 pts. | Apr. 5 | 4.25 A. M. |
| 1461 | Jan. 11 | 21 hrs. | ? | Jan. 11 | 8.44 P. M. |
| 1468 | Feb. 23 | 14 hrs. | 747 pts. | Feb. 23 | 10.15 P. M. |
The discrepancies are too great and too variable to enable us to come to any very definite conclusions as to the place or manner of origin of Leardo’s figures.
[11]The division of the hour into 1080 points (3×6×60, as Dom Bévenot points out) is puzzling. More usually the hour was subdivided into four points. See Grotefend, op. cit., p. 188.
[12]The dominical letter for 1453 was G.
[13]On the basis of certain of the figures given by Leardo for the lengths of the days at about the times of the solstices, I have estimated that this table was worked out for about lat. 42° 45′ N, which is more nearly the latitude of Orvieto than that of Venice (45° 30′). (This calculation was made with the Smithsonian Meteorological Tables, 4th edit. (constituting Smithsonian Misc. Colls., Vol. 69, No. 1), Washington, 1918: Table 87, “Duration of Sunshine at Different Latitudes,” and Table 88, “Declination of the Sun for the Year 1899.” The difference in the declination of the sun for 1452 and 1899 is negligible.) Dom Bévenot writes: “I fancy day lengths were reckoned roughly for degrees. Here in Weingarten about 1490 they used tables drawn up for lat. 45° N, though the place is actually 47° 40′.”
[14]I am indebted to Dom Bévenot for the following comment:
“Concerning the calendar of saints I find the good Venetian has inserted besides the usual feast of St. Mark, patron of Venice, on April 25 two more: that of his apparition and the finding of his relics on June 25 and a third feast on Jan. 31 (translation). The last two were special for the diocese of Venice (Aquileia). The calendar for Aquileia is given at the beginning of Grotefend, op. cit., Vol. 1, but does not quite tally with Leardo’s list of saints. Perhaps this is because Grotefend has modernized the calendar. It may be that Leardo, living perhaps elsewhere than in Venice or its diocese, put in feasts that were dear to him. Indeed, in view of your findings for latitude from the length of the days [see [preceding note]], Rome is the most likely place, perhaps, for the Venetian embassy. It lies nearly in lat. 42° N; if we allow for Leardo measuring the length of the days according to the apparent sunset and sunrise, this may well explain a discrepancy of the greater part of a degree.”
[15]Berchet, op. cit., p. 7.
[16]See H. F. Lutz, Geographical Studies Among Babylonians and Egyptians, in Amer. Anthropologist, Vol. 26 (N.S.), 1924, pp. 160-174.