The Prosciutto Sundial: Casting Light on an Ancient Roman Timepiece from the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum...

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Christopher Parslow (Robert Rich Professor of Latin, Robert Rich Professor of Latin, Department of Classical Studies and the Archaeology Program, Wesleyan University)

The Prosciutto Sundial

Casting Light on an Ancient Roman Timepiece from the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum

Christopher Parslow (Robert Rich Professor of Latin, Robert Rich Professor of Latin, Department of Classical Studies and the Archaeology Program, Wesleyan University)

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
17 March 2025

Literary studies: classical, early & medieval; Classical Greek & Roman archaeology; History of science

Recovered in 1755 during excavations in the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum, the prosciutto sundial is the earliest known portable Roman sundial. Palm-sized and in the shape of an Italian cured ham, its silver-plated cast bronze form cleverly combines an accurate modelling of a prosciutto with a relatively sophisticated scientific device capable of capturing the seasonal hours of the zodiacal year by employing the pig's tail to cast the sun's shadow onto the dial. This book explores the significance of this curious object's discovery in the Villa dei Papiri and offers the first comprehensive survey of its reception and analysis by drawing on contemporary correspondence and manuscripts, travel journals, popular accounts, archaeological studies, and scientific and horological assessments.

Christopher Parslow shows how the prosciutto sundial is a rare example of an ancient artifact that has attracted the attention of a very broad audience, from archaeologists, art historians, and philologists to astronomers, philosophers, and sundial aficionados. The backdrop to its history features bitter infighting in the Bourbon court, clandestine descriptions circulating on the international scholarly network, and jockeying for preeminence among scholars in the learned foreign academies. Despite this long history, no scholar has treated the prosciutto adequately in full or analyzed it correctly because they lacked crucial evidence available only by examining the actual object in detail. Parslow addresses that shortcoming by providing results obtained through a 3D model to offer the first empirical analysis since the initial assessment by the Bourbon court of the prosciutto's remarkably accurate capabilities as a timepiece.

By: Christopher Parslow (Robert Rich Professor of Latin Robert Rich Professor of Latin Department of Classical Studies and the Archaeology Program Wesleyan University)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 224mm, Width: 152mm, Spine: 28mm
Weight: 658g
ISBN: 9780197749388
ISBN 10: 0197749380
Pages: 368
Publication Date: 17 March 2025
Audience: Professional and scholarly , Undergraduate
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Christopher Parslow is the Robert Rich Professor of Latin at Wesleyan University and author of Rediscovering Antiquity: Karl Weber and the Excavations of Herculaneum, Pompeii, and Stabiae.

Reviews for The Prosciutto Sundial: Casting Light on an Ancient Roman Timepiece from the Villa dei Papiri in Herculaneum

Provides a thorough account of the discovery, dissemination, and interpretation of this diminutive, portable horological tool…. Beyond scrupulously documenting its reception, Parslow employs a 3D-printed model of the prosciutto to field-test its accuracy. The erudition on display in this well-illustrated text is as wide-ranging as it is engaging, with a multidisciplinary appeal…. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *