Epact Scientific Instruments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe

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Diptych Dial
Unsigned
circa 1600; Italian
Ivory and brass; 56 x 69 x 12 mm

The outer side of the upper leaf has a horizontal dial for latitude circa 45? with folding brass gnomon and compass viewing hole. The dial has common hours numbered from IIII to XII to VIII to the half-hour and decoration of stars and foliage.

The inner side of the upper leaf has a pin gnomon dial for Italian hours, numbered from 14 to 23. There is a multiple half circle as decoration on the bottom.

The inner side of the lower leaf has a compass (needle missing) with card painted in gold, red and blue and a decoration of lines and dots on the sides. Below is a pin gnomon dial for Italian hours numbered from 10 to 24 with a circular motif similar to the one on the upper leaf.

The outer side of the lower leaf is blank.

See P. Gouk, The Ivory Sundials of Nuremberg 1500-1700 (Cambridge, 1988).

Ilaria Meliconi

Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
Inventory number 82248

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