Why do dials show IIII instead of IV? The video guide

Chapters

1. 0:00A mistake that isn't one
2. 0:16Already used by the Romans
3. 0:28The rule until the 17th century
4. 0:37The Wells clock
5. 0:52Big Ben, the exception
6. 1:08Balancing the VIII
7. 1:26Mixing it up with VI
8. 1:41The king's legend

Transcript

Take a close look at this dial. At four o'clock, there is no I followed by a V, but four I's in a row. A mistake? A mistake that isn't one. The Romans themselves often wrote four this way. On their inscriptions, both forms sit side by side, sometimes in the same text. In Europe, four I's in a row even remain the usual form until around the seventeenth century. It appears on the oldest clock dials known. The one in Wells Cathedral, in England, dates from the late fourteenth century, and its four is already written as four I's. The habit is so strong that in London, Parliament describes the Great Clock of Big Ben as an exception: it shows an I followed by a V, "rather than the usual four on other clocks". Why keep it? No text ever made it compulsory. The most widespread hypothesis is balance: opposite, at eight o'clock, the eight is written with four signs. The two wide numerals answer each other. Another hypothesis: legibility. An I followed by a V looks a lot like the six, especially at the bottom of the dial, where numerals are often written upside down. As for the French king who supposedly refused this four, it is a legend, with no proof at all. So this dial is no mistake: it follows a tradition more than six centuries old. Discover a whole selection of watches at Montres Outlet.