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Writing the clock: the reconstruction of time in the late Middle Ages

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 December 2003

JOHN SCATTERGOOD
Affiliation:
School of English, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland. E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract

For most of the Middle Ages, diurnal timekeeping depended on sundials, water-clocks, and occasionally flame-clocks. However, towards the end of the thirteenth century, the mechanical clock, weight driven and regulated by a verge escapement and foliot mechanism, was developed. The earliest mechanical clocks appeared in Northern Italy but rapidly spread throughout Europe. In Jacques le Goff’s words, ‘Henceforth the clock became the measure of all things’. Early clocks were neither particularly accurate nor reliable, but the machine, because it was better than anything that had preceded it, acquired the reputation for perfect regularity and dependability. This paper seeks to show how the clock came to be regarded as a model and a reference point, invoked by writers in relation to the ordering of the universe, the nature of a well-regulated society, and as an image of proper moral behaviour.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© Academia Europaea 2003

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