Julian Lecturer 2023 commissions a new 'Julian sundial'

The Julian650 Julian Lecture was delivered by Professor Barry Windeatt.  Here he tells us about a new sundial he has commissioned at his college, Emmanuel College, in Cambridge. 

It all began when, while I was Vice-Master, I had the interesting experience of being a member of the Working Party that oversaw the design and implementation of the new and refurbished buildings on the College's southern edge. These include the social hub created out of the former bar and now named Fiona’s. On one side this new College café looks out over Chapman’s Garden, and I decided that a sundial on the sober brick elevation of the Westmorland Building, visible from Fiona’s, would be my contribution to the new building project.

The first step was to discuss a design appropriate to the location with the distinguished letter-cutter Dr Lida Lopes Cardozo at the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop in Cambridge (www.kindersleyworkshop.co.uk).  Lida soon sketched her suggested design, with a break-arch slate dial plate.

There would be a golden sunburst, within a sky-blue disc that references the blue clock face on the Chapel front. The silhouette of the brass gnomon would echo the wavy beams of the sunburst. The hour lines on the dial would be golden rays descending from the sunburst to the Roman numerals marking the hours, with an inscription below. It would be essential for the accuracy of the time-telling that calculations were made for the exact location of the sundial. For the many sundials that the Workshop has made at home and abroad, Lida works with the diallist Dr Frank King, of Churchill College.

Meanwhile a protracted process was underway to gain Listed Building Consent from the City Council. Once this was received, the piece of slate was ordered from a quarry in North Wales. When the slate had arrived, Lida drew her design on the slate in chalk.

All work at the Cardozo Kindersley Workshop is carried out by hand, so Emily Bunton then began the time-consuming task, with mallet and chisel, to remove the slate between the sun’s rays, so leaving the sunburst in relief.

After this had been completed, the hour lines and the numerals marking the hours were also cut into the slate with mallet and chisel, along with an inscription cut in italic lettering at the foot of the dial.

After the cutting was completed, the sunburst and hour lines were gilded by application of gold leaf, and the background to the sunburst was painted sky-blue.

The lettering and numerals were painted off-white, before the excess was cleaned away to reveal the completed sundial.

Finally, there was the little matter of lifting this heavy piece of slate into position and fixing it to the Westmorland Building. Scaffolding was erected, and the sundial was hauled up and fixed using three pins into the mortar, so that its installation is at any time ‘reversible’ – a condition of Listed Building Consent.  The lines from the revelations of the medieval English mystic Julian of Norwich (c.1342-c.1416) were chosen as an expression of hope and confidence whenever in time they are read.

Barry Windeatt, Keeper of Rare Books