Type: instrument
Inv. No. 80277
Source: MHS
Now based in Nuremberg, having moved from Wittenberg in 1556, Heiden has made an ivory diptych dial – an instrument typical of his adopted city – but one of an individual design, announcing both social and astronomical ambition. It was a gift from the maker to the patrician Thomas Loffelholtz, on his election to the ‘Council of the Seven Lords Elder’ of Nuremberg. Contrasting with the sparseness of the horizontal and vertical string-gnomon dials on the inner surfaces, the outer have brass volvelles with calendars for saints’ days and zodiacal signs, tables for the date of Easter and the solar cycle, and a more sophisticated universal dial.
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