Giovanni Dondi dall'Orologio

Giovanni Dondi dall'Orologio
Statue in the Prato della Valle of Padova
Bornabout 1330
Died19 October 1388
Other namesGiovanni de' Dondi
Occupation(s)physician, astronomer, engineer
Known forthe Astrarium

Giovanni Dondi dall'Orologio (about 1330 – 19 October 1388), also known as Giovanni de' Dondi, was a Venetian physician, astronomer and mechanical engineer in Padova, now in Italy.

He was a pioneer in the art of clock design and construction. The Astrarium, which he designed and built over a period of sixteen years, was a highly complex astronomical clock and planetarium, constructed some sixty years after the first all-mechanical clocks had been built in Europe, and demonstrated an ambitious attempt to describe and model the planetary system with mathematical precision and technological sophistication.