ianus belonged. He achieved note as
the author of various publications, including _Neue Raedergebaeude_[6]
[New Construction of Wheels] relating to planet-wheels, or gear-trains
containing epicyclic elements. He constructed a clock based on an
elaborate astronomical design which was substantially different from the
others. The fourth of the ecclesiasts who designed astronomical clocks
in this period was Father Klein of Prague, who produced a complicated
astronomical timepiece in about 1738.

The fact that such important and outstanding examples of astronomical
clocks were produced exclusively by ecclesiasts in Austria during the
second half of the 18th century is especially significant. It is
particularly so when a fifth cleric is added to the group, also an
Austrian subject although Italian by heritage, in the person of Father
Francesco Borghesi.

Although only Father Borghesi's second astronomical clock is now known,
it is apparent that this example in the Museum of History and Technology
represents an experiment in astronomical time-telling comparable to any
of the timepieces produced by Father Hahn, Father Aurelianus, Brother
David a San Cajetano or Father Klein.

This combination of five clerical clockmakers who lived in the same
region during the same period of time is sufficiently unusual. However,
the fact that each of them apparently worked without association with
any of the others leads to the conjecture that a common factor must have
led them to their individual preoccupation with astronomical horology.
What the link may have been is not apparent from the surviving records
of the lives and works of these clerics. Certainly it was not an
interest in astronomy or clockmaking per se, because other than the
astronomical clocks, none of these horological inventors--with the
possible exception of Father Hahn--worked in any other aspect of the
fields of astronomy or horology. However, after a comprehensive study of
Father Borghesi's writings, there is little doubt of the religious basis
of his own inspiration.

Designer Borghesi

Father Borghesi's story takes place in the picturesque mountainous
region of what was then known as Venezia Tridentina (since 1947,
Trentino-Alto Adige) in northern Italy, along the Tyrolean border of
Austria. Because of its strategic position as the passage between
Innsbruck and Verona, the possession of the Tridentina was contested
again and again in the European wars, but