The six-hour clock ( it, sistema orario a sei ore), also called the Roman () or the Italian () system, is a system of date and time notation in Italy which was invented before the modern 24-hour clock. In this system, the day starts at the evening

Ave Maria The Hail Mary ( la, Ave Maria) is a traditional Christian prayer addressing Mary, the mother of Jesus. The prayer is based on two biblical passages featured in the Gospel of Luke: the Angel Gabriel's visit to Mary (the Annunciation) and Mary's ...

at the end of

twilight Twilight is light produced by sunlight scattering in the upper atmosphere, when the Sun is below the horizon, which illuminates the lower atmosphere and the Earth's surface. The word twilight can also refer to the periods of time when this i ...

, approximately half an hour after sunset, and the following 24 hours are divided into four cycles of six hours each. Historically, several other ancient timekeeping systems are known to have begun the day at twilight. In this case the practice in Italy dates to the

Middle Ages In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire ...

, in the

Papal States The Papal States ( ; it, Stato Pontificio, ), officially the State of the Church ( it, Stato della Chiesa, ; la, Status Ecclesiasticus;), were a series of territories in the Italian Peninsula under the direct sovereign rule of the pope fro ...

whence it spread to other parts of central Italy. It originates from the

monastic Monasticism (from Ancient Greek , , from , , 'alone'), also referred to as monachism, or monkhood, is a religion, religious way of life in which one renounces world (theology), worldly pursuits to devote oneself fully to spiritual work. Monastic ...

tradition of dividing the day according to prayer times. While common from the 1400s to the 1600s, it was replaced by the

12-hour clock The 12-hour clock is a time convention in which the 24 hours of the day are divided into two periods: a.m. (from Latin , translating to "before midday") and p.m. (from Latin , translating to "after midday"). For different opinions on represen ...

first in the north, and in the south around the early 1800s. Many historic buildings in Italy feature old clock faces divided into six hours, which make four revolutions per day. A clock which counted only six hours had the advantage of being much simpler mechanically.

See also

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