Accession No

0552

Brief Description

horary quadrant and nocturnal, Italian, 1531

Origin

Northern Italy

Maker

Class

dials

Earliest Date

1531

Latest Date

1531

Inscription Date

1531

Material

metal (brass); rope (string); glass

Dimensions

length 95mm, width 70mm

Special Collection

Robert Whipple collection

Provenance

Purchased by Robert Stewart Whipple from Gertrude Hamilton (trading as 'Mercator'), Paris, in 04/1929.

Inscription

‘1531’

Description Notes

Horary quadrant and nocturnal, Italian, 1531

Brass disc with shaped 3-lobed handle decorated with flowers.
Obverse: nocturnal. Fixed disc with date scale divided by month and subdivided into 5 days. Zodiac scale divided by sign (1st Aries at 14 March). Rotatable disc with hour scale divided 5 - 12, 1 - 7, numbered by 1; tooth for each hour; index at 12 in form of pointing hand. Also scale of days divided 1 - 30, numbered by 1. Main index arm has central disc with sun, pierced for lunar aspectarium. Centre is pierced to view pole star.
Reverse: equal hours horary quadrant for latitude 45˚ N. Pair of pinhole sights raised on the face. Curved hour lines numbered 5 - 12 by 1. Calendar arc divided to named month. Zodiac divisions crudely superimposed but not calibrated (1st Aries at 16 March). Brass plumb bob and blue glass bead suspended from brass suspension piece.

good condition

References

Events