Astronomy in the Church: the Clementine Sundial in Santa Maria degli Angeli, Rome

TL;DR

The paper explores the historical and scientific significance of the Clementine Sundial in Santa Maria degli Angeli, highlighting its precision in astronomical measurements and its role in early 18th-century astrometry.

Contribution

It provides a detailed analysis of the sundial's design, historical context, and its use for precise stellar and solar transit observations in the 18th century.

Findings

The sundial's alignment deviates by about 4'30" from true North.

Stellar transits were recorded and synchronized with pendulum clocks.

The sundial enabled measurement of the tropical year's duration in 1703.

Abstract

Pope Clement XI (1700-1721) ordered Francesco Bianchini (1662-1729) to build a Meridian Line. Bianchini was the Secretary of the Commission for the Calendar. He chose the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli because of the stability of its roman walls and foundations and its suitable dimension. Stability over centuries of the ancient walls where the pinhole is located is a requirement for making high precision astrometry, such as the measurement of the inclination of the Earth axis over its orbit plan. In the 18th century it was possible to open the window holding the southern pinhole, and, even in daylight, stellar transits were recorded and precisely timed with pendulum mechanical clocks. The accuracy of such clocks was better than 1 s per day, and the observations of stellar transits allowed their synchronization with sidereal time. This "hybrid feature" of the Clementine Gnomon to measure solar and stellar transits allowed Bianchini to accomplish in 1703 the whole measurement of the duration of the tropical year, which was usually made by comparing observations very widely spread in time. The small deviation of the Line from true North of ~ 4'30" Eastwards has been measured comparing the delays of transits at both solstices with respect to the ephemerides.