Padova Astronomical Clock, the Scrovegni Chapel and a Prestigious University

Piazza dei Signori in Padova with the Astronomical Clock

The Riddle of the Clock, from Hampton Court to Padova

What does 2022 have in store for us? Wouldn't it be fascinating, and perhaps scary, to be able to forecast the future? Yet until just a few hundreds of years ago people thought that reading into the future was possible and that astrology was a science. Still today there are so many people who avidly read horoscopes ...

Going back in time kings and queens would consult astrologers to decide when to marry, have children or go into battle. Henry VIII, when residing at Hampton Court, could look from his rooms across the courtyard of the palace and check the astronomical clock that he had installed there in 1540.

Padova Astronomical Clock, Piazza dei Signori

Two hundred years earlier in Padua Ubertino da Carrara was the lord, or Signore, and he commissioned an astronomical clock from the great astronomer and doctor Jacopo Dondi. Ubertino was an enlightened prince and he did a lot to improve Padova, such as roads and flood defences. He also had a new palace built with the clock positioned high on a tower so that it could be seen by his subjects and used for telling the time, the lunar phases and astral conjugations (which were used by doctors to assess people's humours and health issues). Such a beautiful and complex clock also added prestige to the Carrara family. At the centre of the clock was the earth as it was then thought that the sun circled the earth.

This clock however thirty years later was badly damaged in a fire and practically needed a complete rebuild. Padova in the meantime had been conquered by Venice and it was the Venetian republic that had the clock rebuilt in 1427. It was then repositioned to the present site, no longer facing the cathedral but facing Piazza dei Signori and the direction of Venice.

The Padova clock is 5.6 metres in diameter, much larger than any other astronomical clock of the period and its zodiac symbols are made of gold. However, one symbol is missing, can you spot which and guess why? Answers to be found at the bottom of this page.

Palazzo della Ragione, Piazza dei Signori, Padova

Palazzo della Ragione

There are many wonderful things to discover in Padova. In Piazza dei Signori you can also visit the Palazzo della Ragione which dates from the 12th century and has perhaps the largest medieval halls in the world. The second floor was used as a courthouse and is over 80 metres in length. Apart from wonderful frescoes inside is a stool made of dark marble which was used in the Middle Ages as a 'naughty chair' for insolvent debtors. The debtor had to sit on it just in his underpants and shirt and declare his remorse and renunciation of worldly goods. Afterwards he had to leave the city.

Humiliation Stool, a ‘naughty chair’ for insolvent debtors, Palazzo della Ragione, Padova

Lapis Lazuli for the Scrovegni Chapel

One of the most important attractions of Padova is the Scrovegni chapel, which is famous for the wonderful blue colour of the interior walls and for the frescoes by Giotto. The blue hue is still bright and fresh today because Giotto used the semi precious stones lapis lazuli, which at the time were quarried only in Afghanistan. The stones were crushed with a pestle and mortar and the resulting powder was used as pigment. The expense of having such large quantity of lapis lazuli imported into Italy from Afghanistan in the 1300s is simply unimaginable. Giotto at the time was also the most acclaimed artist in Florence. His frescoes are the first in the history of art to show people with facial expressions. Delight, sorrow and surprise these are the feelings which he portrayed.

The man who paid for it all was a banker, Enrico Scrovegni. Lending money at an interest rate was at the time forbidden by the church so Enrico must have wondered and worried about his after-life. By having the chapel built he was taking out an 'insurance' with God.

Cappella degli Scrovegni, with its famous blue colour obtained with lapis lazuli, Padova

Padova University

'Familiarity breeds contempt' we say in this country, and for a long time this was true of my feelings towards Padova, as I spent five years there studying. After my graduation I only went there occasionally to shop or meet friends. However, recently I have revisited the university buildings and the guided tours are extremely interesting. Padua has recently celebrated 800 years from its foundation - it is in fact the 5th oldest university in the world after Bologna, Oxford, Salamanca and Cambridge. Also it was there in 1678 that Elena Piscopia graduated: she was the first woman to graduate from a university in the world.

The oldest university building is Palazzo del Bo which has wonderful rooms. Here you can see medieval halls as well as Art Deco rooms which were designed and furnished entirely by Gio Ponti, the most iconic architect and designer of the 1930s.

Here in the Palazzo del Bo you will also find the oldest anatomical theatre in the world which dates from the 16th century. In a small space over 300 students would watch over their professor as he carried out an autopsy. The corpses were provided by the court and had all been prisoners who had been executed.

Galileo Galilei taught in Padova for eighteen years and developed his heliocentric theory there after Copernicus, who had also studied in Padova. Galileo said later that those spent in Padova were his best years. You can go on a 'Galileo Tour', or simply visit by yourself the house where he lived or the the room with his original desk in the Palazzo del Bo.

I wonder what Galileo actually thought of the astronomical clock in Piazza dei Signori with the earth at the centre of the solar system. The missing sign is Libra - many people still believe the legend that the horologist who placed the zodiac signs on the dial wasn't happy with the money he was being paid for his work and therefore didn't make Libra, or Scales in Italian, which is the symbol of justice and fairness. The truth instead is that in antiquity when the zodiac signs were identified and linked with constellations there was never a Libra sign as there is no constellation of Libra. The claws of Scorpio occupied the place taken nowadays by Libra, as in the Padova clock. Astronomers used to refer to the period between 21st September to 21st of October as 'the claws'.

It's almost a shame that the legend isn't true - what a wonderful piece of revenge it would have been and we all like a good story, don't we ...

Palazzo della Ragione Portico