Six-hour clocks, "so-called Roman-style clocks are special clocks that do not show the traditional division of time in XII hours, but in VI.
They are sundials, which indicated, by the sound of bells, the ancient Italic Hours adopted, in Rome, by the Church towards the end of the 13th century.
These Hours were marked considering the beginning of the measurement of time from the evening Avemaria, shortly after sunset, and no longer from midnight, as was customary.
Four complete revolutions of the hand were therefore required to arrive at the 24-hour mark, thus dividing the day into four intervals from 6 hours each.
To ensure a better understanding of the time, there was also the so-called ribot: after about a minute, the same number of chimes were repeated to make the time comprehensible even to the most distracted.
Later, there was the invasion of Napoleonic troops into Italian territory, which led to the introduction of the hours known as Oltramontane or French-style, in which the day began at midnight and was divided into two twelve-hour intervals.
This type of time counting, in short order, was adopted throughout Europe.
The papal state, once the French had been driven out, attempted to restore the ancient measurement of time, according to the Italic Hours, but was forced to give it up, in turn adopting what had now become a universal method of counting.
