Mantua. Clock Tower
From the middle of the 14th century, the building underwent a series of changes .
In the 15th century the porticoes were built and in 1472 the clock tower (Torre dell'Orologio) was built from a design by architect Luca Fancelli.The following year a clock was added to the tower. Conceived by mathematician and astrologer Bartolomeo Manfredi, the clock communicated the time to the people, the position of the planets , dawn and dusk, the signs of the zodiac, phases of the moon, the days favourable for bloodletting , sowing, departing on journeys and other things "useful in this world". The clock was certainly still functioning in the early eighteenth century. It was later made into a normal clock mechanism showing the sun and the hours.