Sundial: QUA HORA NON PUTATIS

This is a sundial of the rectory of the Church of the Assumption of Samoëns in Haute-Savoie, France. The motto is from the Gospel of Luke:

QUA HORA NON PUTATIS FILIUS HOMINIS VENIET

At the hour you do not reckon the Son of Man will come.

These two photos are by Tangopaso at Wikimedia, showing the sundial and the rectory wall.

These lovely images by La FoeZ I found at Flickr:

Sundial: DUM SPECTAS FUGIO

This colorful glass sundial was donated to Oxford University, and it is the work of John Carmichael, who uploaded this image to Wikimedia. The motto reads DUM SPECTAS FUGIO, "While you watch, I flee." This is a popular sundial motto; you can read about many more examples in Gatty's Book of Sun-Dials.

Who is speaking? That's up to you: time? the sun? both? You can also find the motto on clocks (for example, here is a lovely clock with this motto) in which case the answer it is certainly time that is speaking.

Clock: TEMPUS VALET VOLAT VELAT

This clock is on the steeple of the Church of Saint Martin in Resiutta, Italy. The motto reads TEMPUS VALET VOLAT VELAT, "Time is Strong - It Flies - It Veils." I wish I could capture the great word-play of the Latin in English.

The photo is by Johann Haritz at Wikimedia:

Sundial: SINE SOLE SILEO

I was researching a sundial in Jarocin, Poland when I found this sundial on the Radolinski Palace there. It reads "sine sole sileo," "without the sun, I am silent." You can see the signs of the zodiac there arranged in a circle. It was created by Richard Munzky in 1910.

Photo by Noaśka at Wikimedia:

This image shows a fuller view of the palace:

Sundial: UMBRA TRANSIT, LUX MANET

This sundial bears the motto Umbra Transit, Lux Manet. It means "The Shadow Passes, The Light Remains." The sundial is located at Saint Marcin's church in Jarocin, Poland, and was installed in 1910. You can see another sundial with an expanded version of this motto on a sundial here: Hora Fugit, Mors Venit, Umbra Transit, Lux Manet, "Time Flies, Death Comes, The Shadow Passes, The Light Remains."

Photo by Klapi at Wikimedia:

Sundial: UMBRA SUMUS

This is a sundial in a building on Brick Lane in London. The building is now a mosque, but originally it was a chapel (La Neuve Eglise) built by the Huguenots in 1743. In 1809 it became a Wesleyan chapel, and then a Methodist chapel in 1819. In 1891 it became a Jewish synagogue (Spitalfields Great Synagogue) serving Eastern European refugees. In 1975 the synagogue was relocated to Golders Green, and in 1976 the building was reopened as a mosque (Brick Lane Jamme Masjid) serving the local Bangladeshi community. What a procession of faiths!

The sundial is dated 1743 and so belongs to the original building. It has the motto UMBRA SUMUS, "we are a shadow." The words come from an ode of Horace (4.7). You can read the entire poem in Latin and English online. The stanza in question poses a lovely contrast between the moon's renewal and our own mortality:

Damna tamen celeres reparant caelestia lunae; Nos ubi decidimus, Quo pater Aeneas, quo dives Tullus et Ancus, Pulvis et umbra sumus.

The moons, however, quickly repair their heavenly losses; when we have fallen to where Father Aeneas fell, and wealthy Tullus and Ancus, we are dust and shadow.

(Aeneas is the Trojan hero who founded the Roman people; Tullus Hostilius and Ancus Marcius were the third and fourth kings of Rome.)

Photo by Paula Bailey at Flickr:

You can see the placement of the sundial here in this photo by Russianhouse at Wikimedia Commons:

Sundial: SOL LUCET OMNIBUS

This is a sundial in the Valongo Observatory at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The sundial is located on the wall of the Library.

The motto on the sundial is SOL LUCET OMNIBUS, "The sun shines for everyone / on everything." The words can be found in the Satyricon of Petronius:

Non commune est, quod natura optimum fecit? Sol omnibus lucet. Luna innumerabilibus comitata sideribus etiam feras ducit ad pabulum. Quid aquis dici formosius potest? In publico tamen manant. 

Is Nature's best work not common to all? The sun shines for everyone. The moon accompanied by countless stars leads even wild beasts to their food. What can be said to be more beautiful than the water? Yet it flows for our common use.

The photo is by Gustavo F. Porto de Mello at Wikimedia Commons:

Sundial: CARPE DIEM

The image below shows a sundial found in the fortified town of Carcassonne in southern France. The sundial was made in 1961 (ANNO DMI MCMLXI, with a a mark to indicate the abbreviation of DOMINI) by René R. J. Rohr (RRJ ROHR FECIT).

The motto, CARPE DIEM, is one of the best known Latin phrases today, and it is often found on sundials. The words come from a poem by Horace: carpe diem, quam minimum credula postero; seize the day, trusting as little as possible in what will come next. You can read the entire poem in Latin and English at this Wikipedia article.

There's a bit of irony in the fact that earlier in the poem Horace rejects Babylonian astronomical science, the very science of celestial motion that provided the foundation for Greek and Roman astronomical science, including the Roman use of sundials.

The photo is by fdecomite at Wikimedia Commons:

Sundial: TEMPUS EDAX RERUM

The Burdett-Coutts Memorial Sundial, erected in 1879 in the churchyard of St Pancras Old Church in London, bears the motto Tempus Edax Rerum, Time (is) the Devourer of Things.

The photo is by Nic Walker:

Here is a close-up of the motto:

Here is another view of the sundial by George Highton:

And here is a photo by Richard Rogerson:

The phrase Tempus Edax Rerum isfrom Ovid's Metamorphoses; for more about the phrase in Ovid, see this post at Laudator Temporis Acti.

Sundial: ULTIMAM TIME

This is a sundial added in the year 2004 to the facade of the 13th-century chapel containing the relics of Saint Ferréol near Cérêt in the French Pyrenees. Its motto reads: ULTIMAM TIME, "Fear the final (hour)." This photo is by Bertrand Grondin (Wikimedia Commons):

Here is a detail showing the motto:

You can see the sundial in situ here (Wikimedia Commons):

The Ultimam Time motto is listed for several sundials in Gatty. Here are some other mottoes she cataloged which contain the word ultima:

Heu Miser Mortalis! Ultima Latet Hora
Hora est Ultima Multis
Horam Dum Petis, Ultimam Para
Sit Ultima Felix
Sufficit Una, Ultimam Time
Ultima Decidit
Ultima Forsan
Ultima Forte Tibi
Ultima Latet
Ultima Latet et Observantur Omnes
Ultima Latet Hora
Ultima Multis
Ultima Necat
Ultima Properat
Ultima Terret
Ultimam Cogita
Ultimam Nescis
Ultimam Pertimescas Horam

Sundial: NIL SINE NOBIS

The Hôtel de Cluny in Paris features a lovely sundial with the motto Nil Sine Nobis, "Nothing Without Us." The sun with its rays is carved above the motto which makes the meaning clear: "Nothing Without Us," i.e. nothing without us, the rays of the sun. The sundial can only work when the sun is shining!

There are many photographs of this famous sundial that you can find on the Internet. The image shown below is by Jen the Librarian at Flickr:

Here is a closer view of the sundial:

And here is a detail of the motto with the sun:

The decorative scallops which you can see allude to the pilgrimage to St. James in Compostela, whose route began near the Hôtel de Cluny.

The sundial is one of the faces of the Tower; you can see some additional views at this Flickr Gallery to place the sundial in situ.

Sundial: TEMPUS FUGIT AUGEBITUR SCIENTIA

I was attracted to this sundial because of the DNA double helix that decorates it. The sundial is located in Redu, Belgium. As you can see the sundial is dated 2001 and bears the name JJ Baron (Jean-Jacques Baron). The image is from Wikimedia Commons:

Here is a close-up of the DNA double helix:

The DNA double helix as a visible sign of science complements the Latin motto's optimistic invocation of science:

TEMPUS FUGIT    AUGEBITUR SCIENTIA

Time flies.    Knowledge will increase.

The tempus fugit motto is commonly found on sundials, but the augebitur scientia motto is not common (although Gatty does cite an example: "On the house once occupied by Cuvier at the Jardin des Plantes, Paris"). The words come from the Bible, Daniel 12:4, but the textual tradition here is very tangled. The Catholic Vulgate reads plurimi pertransibunt, et multiplex erit scientia while the Latin version of Tremellius and Junius reads percurrent multi et augebitur cognitio.

We owe the mixed augebitur scientia to the title page of Francis Bacon's Instauratio Magna of 1620 which reads: Multi pertransibunt et augebitur scientia, "Many shall pass through, and knowledge shall increase," with an image of two ships sailing on the ocean, setting out beyond the Pillars of Hercules.

Jean-Jacques Baron, the creator of this sundial, has elegantly substituted the standard tempus fugit phrase for the first part of the motto to create something new, very appropriate for a sundial and very appropriate for science too, as symbolized the DNA double helix. I suspect Francis Bacon would approve!

Sundial: DIES NOSTRI QUASI UMBRA

I chose to write about this sundial because I was looking for another one that has zodiac images, and of course I was delighted to find out that this is a sundial in Poland! I cannot remember actually seeing this sundial when I spent a summer in Kraków, but I certainly visited the Mariacki Church, a beautiful building which is on the city's main square. The sundial was installed in 1954 and is the work of Tadeusz Przypkowski, whose sundials can be seen in many other European cities, as well as at the Royal Observatory in Greenwich!

The Latin motto is from the Bible, 1 Chronicles 29:

Dies nostri quasi umbra super terram et nulla est mora.

Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding.

What an apt motto for a sundial where the shadow moves ever onward without delay!

I found this image at Wikimedia Commons (thanks to Rj1979), and I also found a wonderful photo gallery, including historical photographs from the time of the sundial's installation, at the Gnomonika website.

Here is the sundial, and the zodiac symbols can be seen up and down to the left and the right; click here for a larger image that shows the zodiac signs in detail.

In the upper left, there is also this elegant depiction of the name MARYA (Mary) surrounded by twelve stars, an allusion to the opening words of Revelation 12: Et signum magnum apparuit in caelo: mulier amicta sole, et luna sub pedibus eius, et in capite eius corona stellarum duodecim, "And there appeared a great wonder in heaven: a woman clothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars."

Sundial: SOLI DEO GLORIA

I found this lovely sundial at Wikimedia Commons, thanks to Roland ZH. It is at the Reformierte Kirche in Eglisau (not far from Zurich) in Switzerland.

The Latin motto is especially elegant, perfect for a sun dial:

SOLI DEO GLORIA

Here is a more detailed view:

The Latin words mean "(To) God Alone (is the) Glory." The Latin phrase is of great importance in the history of Christianity; you can learn more about that in this Wikipedia article: Soli Deo Gloria.

The word for "alone" in Latin here is soli, which is the dative form of the adjective solus. This creates a wonderful pun on the word for sun, which is sol in Latin, soli in the dative. So, in addition to meaning "To God Alone is the Glory," the Latin phrase also means "To God, the Sun, is the Glory."

For another sundial with this same Latin motto, see this beautiful image at the British Museum: 19th-century ivory diptych dial (see the motto on the lower dial). See also this diptych dial at the Royal Museums Greenwich.

Meanwhile, this Swiss sundial has a German inscription on a banner which I cannot read; if anybody can help me with this, that would be super! You can see a more detailed view here.

Sundial: VOLAT IRREVOCABILIS · ULTIMA LATET

This sundial is located in Meran, a city in the South Tyrol (Alto Adige in Italian), which is an autonomous province of northern Italy. At the top of the sundial there is an inscription that reads: A·E·I·O·U, which stands for Austriae Est Imperare Orbi Universo, It is for Austria to rule the whole world (for other Latin interpretations of the acronym, see this Wikipedia article: AEIOU).

Below the sundial is an inscription that reads:

AT IRREVOCABILIS · ULTIMA LATET

Clearly, the first word in the lower left-hand corner has been painted over so that only the last two letters are visible. The full reading should be:

VOLAT IRREVOCABILIS · ULTIMA LATET

The interpunct between the words irrevocabilis and ultima shows that there are two declarative statements here, not just one, with the implied noun hora (hour, time) as the subject of both:

(the hour) flies, not to be called back · (the) final (hour) is hidden

Without the verb volat, the motto simply does not make sense because the adjective "not to be called back" does not fit with hiding. What we have here are two different Latin cliches about time. On the one hand, time is something that flies, something that runs away and will not come back to you no matter how desperately you might call (hora irrevocabilis). Meanwhile, as the present is slipping away irrevocably into the past, the future is unknown, something that is hidden from our knowledge (latet).

Moreover, just above the motto there is a skull together with an hourglass, again reinforcing the two-part interpretation of the motto: the hourglass with sand running through it shows the movement of time (volat irrevocabilis), while the skull is a "memento mori" of our final hour which is certain to come but which is hidden until it does arrive (ultima latet).

Note that there has been an erasure in the upper right-hand corner also, but it is only a decorative element that has been covered over, not part of the inscription itself. Still, the symmetry of the top line shows clearly that a decorative element is missing in the upper right-hand corner, just as there are letters missing in the lower left-hand corner.

So, given the clear evidence for a reading of VOLAT, I am very surprised not to find this interpretation provided somewhere online. Instead, I see repeated on many webpages the incorrect and incomplete transcription with AT, which is then accompanied by a nonsensical English translation that results from the incorrect transcription. Presumably the main source for this repeated error is the Wikimedia webpage which I have used for the source of this image; it features the incorrect transcription and this English translation: "But the last [hour] is hidden, not to be recalled."

If anyone has reason to think I am wrong about this, please let me know!

Meanwhile, the entire presentation is quite beautiful, as you can see in the image below. There is a sun with a face beaming down from the left-hand corner, and the signs of the zodiac at the bottom. Lovely!

Update: Thanks very much to ManfredK for alerting me to his photograph of this sundial at Wikimedia:

ManfredK's high-resolution image allows you to see the detail for the sun, and also the hourglass and skull:

Here is the the image I had originally worked from at Wikimedia, contributed by Alex1011:

(see also the excellent photos
by Michel Lalos here: Cadrans solaires d'Italie,
and by Alessio here: Alefoto.it)

Sundial: PEREUNT ET IMPUTANTUR

This sundial is from St Buryan Church in Cornwall, England and is dated to the year 1747. The Latin inscription means "They perish and are reckoned," meaning that the hours and days perish and are reckoned to our accounts.

Pereunt et Imputantur

(Wikipedia)

The words are from the Roman poet Martial, 5.20. Here are the closing lines in Latin and in an English translation by Robert Louis Stevenson; for the complete poem in Latin and in Stevenson's English translation, see this blog post at Laudator Temporis Acti.

Now neither [of us] lives unto himself, alas!
And the good suns we see, that flash and pass
And perish; and the bell that knells them cries:
"Another gone: O when will ye arise?"

Nunc vivit necuter sibi, bonosque
soles effugere atque abire sentit,
qui nobis pereunt et inputantur.
Quisquam vivere cum sciat, moratur?

Here is Cowley's English rendering of those lines (cited by Eden):

Now to himself, alas! does neither live
But sees good suns of which we are to give
A strict account, set, and doth march away:
Knows a man how to live, and does he stay?

You can see the same inscription on the famous astronomical clock of Exeter Cathedral. The motto is discussed in Eden expanded edition of Gatty's Book of Sun Dials, with a long list of other examples.

Additional views of the sundial: 

• Sum Space by John Colby
• Fine Art America: Rod Johnson
• David Cross at Flickr
• Saints and Stones: J. Demetrescu
• John Bradshaw at Flickr
• Roy Reed at Flickr
• David X at GloboSapiens.net