No label defined (Q4375083)

After an ultrabrief sketch of the history of the sundial, the author draws attention to the lack of an adequate general history of dialling and to the need for an adequate typology if such a history is to be written, given the overwhelming amount of treatises as well as devices. The main part of the article is meant to create the basis for such a typology. At first comes an algebraic-analytical general theory, followed by an application to the plane point dial which, as the regretted author points out, is ``probably sufficient to show that an analytical investigation of sundials is able to provide a more precise understanding of a number of basic features than a traditional, synthetic approach, thereby revealing relationships that otherwise might easily escape notice''. In the end, the typological inadequacy of traditional nomenclatures as well as typologies based on a single parameter is pointed out, and an open-ended proposal for a three-parameter classification is set forth. For the entire collection see [Zbl 0881.00050].