Clock of the Doge's Palace

---

Clock by Johan Slim, 1614
Courtyard of the Doge's Palace
Venice, September 2013

“The restoration operations currently being undertaken by Piaget have uncovered the following inscription engraved on one of the bases of the mechanism : ‘Johan Slim – July 1614 – Aug.’. This is the name of the clocwmaker (probably a German) who built it. The mechanism now being renovated is thus the original one corresponding to the construction period of the façade.
But the technical characteristics of this mechanism featured shapes and technical solutions reflecting the work of Bartolomeo Ferraccina (the watchmaker behind the mechanism of the clock in the Torre dell’Orologio): this would of course appear to imply that the latter may have been partially modified half way through the 18th century, while retaining the spaces and passages of the original version, and especially respecting the strange cell suspended behind the dial – one of the main reasons behind the fascination still exercised by the courtyard clock.” (Restoration of the clock in the courtyard of the Doge's Palace, The Watch Quote)