The Material Culture of Astronomy in Daily Life: Sundials,Science,and Social Change

Research for this essay was undertaken in preparation of an interpretive catalogue, Sundials and time finding instruments, vols iii and iv of Historic scientific instruments of the Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum (forthcoming 2002); and in preparation of a book-length study, Sundials, science, and social change.

Sloley R. W. , “Primitive methods of measuring time, with special reference to Egypt”, Journal of Egyptian archaeology, xvii (1931), 166–78; Parker R. A. , “Ancient Egyptian astronomy”, in The place of astronomy in the ancient world, ed. by Hodson F. R. (London, 1974), 51–65.

Herodotus , The histories, transl. by Godley A. D. (Cambridge, 1920), 2.109.3. On Babylonian hours, see Thureau-Dangin F. , “Sketch of the history of the sexagesimal system”, Osiris, vii (1939), 95–141, esp. pp. 111ff.

Laertius Diogenes (fl. A.D. 310–320) quoting Favorinus (A.D. 2nd century); cited in Gibbs Sharon L. , Greek and Roman sundials (New Haven, 1976), 6.

Gibbs , Greek and Roman sundials (ref. 4), 3–11; Dohrn-Van Rossum Gerhard , History of the hour: Clocks and modern temporal orders, transl. by Dunlap Thomas (Chicago, 1996), 18–21.

Dohrn-Van Rossum , History of the hour (ref. 5), 18–20.

Garzoni Tommaso , La piazza universale di tutte le professioni del mondo (1586); quoted in Time: The greatest innovator, catalogue of an exhibition at the Folger Shakespeare Library, October 1986–March 1987, ed. by Doggett Rachel (Washington, DC, 1986), 53, 65.

Fragment from a comic play, Boeotia, attributed to Plautus and quoted by Gellius Aulus , Noctes Atticae, transl. by Rolfe J. C. (New York, 1927), 3.3.5.

Seneca , Epistolae morales ad Luclium, transl. by Barker Phillips E. (Oxford, 1932); Martial , Epigrammata, rev. edn, transl. by Ker W. C. A. (Cambridge, 1968), 4.8; Cassiodorus , Cassiodor Senatoris varias (Berlin, 1894), 42; cited in Dohrn-Van Rossum , History of the hour (ref. 5), 17–18.

Tertullian , De oratione and De jejunio, as cited in Landes David S. , Revolution in time (Cambridge, 1983), 60.

Rule of Saint Benedict, chap. 16.

Arnaldi Mario , “Sundials painted in the cloister of an Italian monastery”, British Sundial Society bulletin, 98/1 (February 1998), 22–25.

Landes , Revolution in time (ref. 10), 60–63; Dohrn-Van Rossum , History of the hour (ref. 5), 29–39.

Scott David , “Sundials in Anglo-Saxon England”, British Sundial Society bulletin, xi (1999), 4–8, esp. p. 6; cf. Dohrn-Van Rossum , History of the hour (ref. 5), 39.

For images and catalogues of scratch dials on churches, see Horne Ethelbert , Primitive sun dials or scratch dials: Containing a list of those in Somerset (Taunton, England, 1917); Green Robert Arthur , Sundials: Incised dials or mass-clocks: A study of the time-markers of medieval churches, containing descriptions, photographs, diagrams, and analysis of dials, chiefly in Hampshire, but also in various other counties (London, 1926, reprinted 1978); and Price Laurence N. , Scratch dials of Old Axbridge and Long Ashton districts of north-west Somerset (Weston-super-Mare, England, 1991). European examples are given in Ernst Zinner, Alte Sonnenuhren an Europäischen Gebäuden (Wiesbaden, 1964). For a discussion of their mathematical and historical foundations, see Turner A. J. , “Anglo-Saxon sun-dials and the ‘tidal’ or ‘octaval’ system of time measurement”, Antiquarian horology, xv (1984), 76–77; Mills Allan A. , “Seasonal-hour sundials on vertical and horizontal planes, with an explanation of the scratch dial”, Annals of science, 1 (1993), 83–93; and Mills Allan A. , “Seasonal-hour sundials”, Antiquarian horology, xix (1990), 147–70.

See images of 13th-century sundials on the Minster of Hameln reproduced in Dohrn-Van Rossum , History of the hour (ref. 5), 31–32; and a sundial in the cloister of the Convent of Saint Dominic at Taggia, described in Arnaldi, “Sundials painted in the cloister” (ref. 12), 23.

Such angelic watchers appear on the cathedrals at Chartres, Rheims, Laon, Strasbourg, Amiens, Genoa, and elsewhere. Early examples such as those at Amiens and Strasbourg show seasonal hours, while later ones at Chartres and Laon give equal hours. Zinner , Alte Sonnenuhren (ref. 15), Figs 21–23; Eden H. K. F. and Lloyd Eleanor , The book of sun-dials originally compiled by the late Mrs. Alfred Gatty (London, 1900), 166–8; Geoffrey T. Henslow W. , Ye sundial booke (London, 1914), 36, 105; Earle Morse Alice , Sun dials and roses of yesterday (New York, 1902), opposite pp. 14, 18.

Chaucer Geoffrey , Canterbury tales, Shipman's Tale. B. Sh. 1396.

Turner A. J. , Mathematical instruments in Antiquity and the Middle Ages (London, 1994), 114 and Fig. 18.

Ivory diptych with double scaphe, French or German, mid-16th century, Adler Planetarium & Astronomy Museum [hereafter abbreviated “AP”], DPW-49.

In AP, see the ivory diptych by Paul Reinmann, Nuremberg, 1599 (M-246); ivory diptych, unsigned, c. 1475–99 (M-249); Oughtred-type dial, C. Bloud, Dieppe, mid-17th century, ivory (DPW-19); Butterfield-type dial, [T?] Haye, Paris, c. 1716, brass (A-3). See also the ivory diptych by Paul Reinmann, Nuremberg, 1598/9, illustrated in Penelope Gouk, The ivory sundials of Nuremberg, 1500–1700 (Cambridge, 1988), Plates 14, 15. In the Harvard Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments [hereafter abbreviated “CHSI”], see the German gilt-brass diptych, 1587 (7455); and Butterfield-type dials by Nicolas Bion, c. 1700, silver (7005,7082).

Richer Claude , La gnomonique universelle. Ou la science de tracer les cadrans solaires sur toutes sortes de surfaces tant stables que mobiles. Où par des methodes nouvelles on pourra avec facilité mettre en pratique tout ce que cette science contient de plus utile & de plus agreable (Paris, 1701), Plate 9, Figs 3, 4.

Equatorial sundial, [Hans Dorn], Vienna or Cracow, 1479, gilt and silvered brass with silvered copper, AP (M-288).

Clavius Christoph , Gnomonices libri octo, in quibus non solum horologiorum solari, sed aliarum quoq₃′ rerum, quae ex gnomonis umbra cognosci possunt, descriptiones geometricê demonstrantur (Rome, 1581), 636; Voellus Joannes S.J. , De horologiis sciothericis libri tres (Tournon, [1608]); Oddi Muzio , De gli horologi solari trattato di Mutio Oddi da Urbino (Venice, 1638); Dom Pierre de Sainte Marie Magdeleine, Traitté d'horlogiographie, contenant plusieurs manieres de construire, sur toutes surfaces, toutes sortes de lignes horaires, rev. 3rd edn (Paris, 1665); Stengel Peterson Johann , Gnomonica universalis, Oder Außfuehrliche Beschreibung der Sonnen: Uhren (Augsburg, 1675); Richer , La gnomonique universelle (ref. 22), 225; Ozanam Jacques , La gnomonique, ou l'on donne par un principe general la maniere de faire des cadrans sur toutes sortes de surfaces, & d'y tracer les heures astronomiques, babiloniennes & italiques, les arcs des signes, les cercles des hauteurs, les verticaux & les autres cercles de la sphere (Paris, 1711).

E.g., cruciform dial, German (Nuremberg?), c. 1750–1800, CHSI (7400).

Sharp, the Archbishop of St Andrews, had a cruciform sundial placed in the courtyard of his house between 1667 and 1679. See Eden and Lloyd , Book of sun-dials (ref. 17), 107–8, for this and other cross dials. Leadbetter Charles , Mechanick dialling (London, 1737), pp. vi, 78–82, describes an iron cross dial made by Robert Trevitt and placed at the boundary of the parish of St Stephen, Coleman Street, London in 1706. He thought such dials a “novelty” in England. “I never yet saw or heard there was any other Dial of that Sort in England, besides that which I have mentioned in this Treatise”, Leadbetter said. James Ferguson in A supplement to Mr. Ferguson's Book of Lectures (London, 1767), 35, also implied that cruciform dials were rare. He described a universal form that would “have a pretty uncommon appearance in a garden”. A French example, dated 1632, of gilt bronze is shaped both like a cross and a great key. It may have been a grave marker or church ornament (AP, M-317).

Pini Valentino , Fabrica de gl'horologi solari (Venice, 1598), 41r–43r. For a cruciform dial with travelling case, see that by E. Bigot, Cayenne, French Guiana, 18th century, brass, AP (DPW-47).

Cruciform sundial-reliquary, Ulrich Schniep workshop, Munich, c. 1560, AP (M-253). For other examples, see the instrument signed “Carolus Platus Fa. Romæ ã no do 1598” sold at Christie's on 17 December 1998 [illustrated in the British Sundial Society bulletin, xi (1999), 31]; and an ivory cruciform sundial, early 17th century, Musée Stewart, Montreal (acc. no. 1982–34).

See drawing of a sundial in a Saxon psalter from the 11th century; British Library, Cotton Manuscripts, Tiberius C vi, folio 7; pictured in Mills, “Seasonal-hour sundials” (ref. 15), 161. Pini , Fabrica de gl'horologi solari (ref. 26), 38v–39r, details a dial in the cover of a prayer book.

Ivory diptychs shaped like books with clasps, Paul Reinmann, Nuremberg, c. 1595–1609 and 1599, AP (M-245 and M-246); and another without clasps, Italian, c. 1550–75, CHSI (7488).

On computus, see McCluskey Stephen C. , Astronomies and cultures in early medieval Europe (Cambridge, 1998), chap. 5. On epacts, see Decker Elly , “Epact tables on instruments: Their definition and use”, Annals of science, 1 (1993), 303–24; Vincent Clare and Chandler Bruce , “Nighttime and Easter time: The rotations of the Sun, the Moon, and the Little Bear in Renaissance time reckoning”, Metropolitan Museum of Art bulletin, xxvii (1969), 372–84. On calendars, see Richards E. G. , Mapping time: The calendar and its history (Oxford, 1998); Ackermann Silke , “The principles and uses of calendars: Political and social implications”, in The story of time, ed. by Lippincott Kristen (London, 1999), 48–51; and Coyne G. V. Hoskin M. A. , and Pedersen O. (eds), Gregorian Reform of the calendar: Proceedings of the Vatican Conference to commemorate its 400th anniversary, 1582–1992 (Vatican City, 1983).

In CHSI, see the astronomical compendia by Christoph Schissler, Augsburg, c. 1550 (7470), and by Roch Pacquellet, Laon, 1567 (7377); and the magnetic-azimuth diptych sundial by Charles Bloud, Dieppe, 1653 (7800).

See for example, the pair of Gregorian and Julian epact tables on the gilt brass diptych, German, 1600, CHSI (7456); and on ivory diptychs by Nuremberg makers Thomas Ducher, Joseph Ducher, Hans Troschel I, Hans Troschel II, Conrad Karner II, and Georg Karner, dated from 1600 to 1700, CHSI (7576, 7573, 7899, 7537, 7534, 7535, 7553, 7525, 7524). The ivory dials are pictured in Steven A. Lloyd, Ivory diptych sundials, 1570–1750 (Catalogue of the Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Harvard University; Cambridge, Mass., 1992).

According to the system of Italian hours, the day is divided into twenty-four equal hours beginning with the first hour at sunset. With Nuremberg hours, the day is divided into two sets of equal hours with the first hour of the day counted at sunrise and the first hour of the night counted at sunset. The system of common hours is the familiar one in which the day is divided into two groups of twelve equal hours starting at noon and midnight. For numerous examples of multiple dials on instruments, see Gouk , Ivory sundials of Nuremberg (ref. 21); and Lloyd , Ivory diptych sundials (ref. 33).

In the Adler Planetarium collection, see the Bloud-type dials by Charles Bloud, Dieppe, c. 1653–80 (N-19); Jacques Senecal, Dieppe, c. 1650–60 (3 sundials: DPW-18, T-55, W-37); and an unsigned sundial, Dieppe, c. 1650–70 (A-163).

In CHSI, see astronomical compendium, Antwerp, 1599, ivory, (7527); magnetic azimuth diptych, A. André, Paris, 1642, ivory (7498); and diptych, Leonhart Miller, Nuremberg, 1613 (7459).

Erhard Etzlaub's compendium is AP (DPW-22). On Etzlaub's maps and instruments, see Krüger Herbert , “Erhard Etzlaub's Romweg map and its dating in the Holy Year of 1500”, Imago mundi, viii (1951), 17–26; Schnelbögl F. , “Life and work of the Nuremberg cartographer Erhard Etzlaub (+1532)”, Imago mundi, xx (1966), 11–26.

Stengel , Gnomonica universalis (ref. 24), frontispiece, shows a pierced vault supplying a spot of light for an hour marker. Ximines Leonardo , Del vecchio e nuovo gnomone Fiorentino e delle osservazioni astronomiche fisiche ed architettoniche fatte nel verificarne la costruzione libri iv (Florence, 1757); Heibron J. L. , The sun in the church: Cathedrals as solar observatories (Cambridge, 1999); Camus G. , “Les méridiennes de l'Eglise Saint-Sulpice à Paris”, L'astronomie, civ (1990), 195–214; Paltrinieri Giovanni , “The meridian of the Basilica of San Petronio in Bologna”, British Sundial Society bulletin, 94/2 (1994), 32–36; Lanciano Nicoletta , “Four meridian lines in Rome”, British Sundial Society bulletin, 98/1 (1998), 36–38.

Quinones Ricardo J. , “The new dynamic of time in Renaissance literature and society”, in Time: The greatest innovator (ref. 7), 25–37.

Cf. Le Goff Jacques , Time, work, and culture in the Middle Ages (Chicago, 1982), and Dohrn-Van Rossum , History of the hour (ref. 5).

Panofsky Erwin , Studies in iconology: Humanistic themes in the art of the Renaissance (New York, 1962), chap. 3, “Father Time”. See also Time: The greatest innovator (ref. 7).

Pini , Fabrica de gl'horologi solari (ref. 26) has emblematic title page with sundial; de Celles Bedos Fran&çois , La gnomonique pratique, ou l'art de tracer les cadrans solaires avec la plus grande précision, 2nd edn (Paris, 1774), Plate 15 showing a direct east-facing sundial.

Gouk , Ivory sundials of Nuremberg (ref. 21), cat. 33 and 34. Ivory diptych, Lesel Michael , Nuremberg, early 17th century, CHSI (7559).

Altitude sundial with horary quadrant and universal ring dial, French, c. 1675, pasteboard and copper, CHSI (7173).

Rohr René R. J. , Sundials: History, theory, and practice (Toronto, 1970), Plate 8.

Inclinable cube sundials, unsigned but attributed to Stocken E. C. , south German, late 18th or early 19th century, wooden, AP (W-215, W-216, G-18); and another unsigned, inclinable, cube sundial, German, early 19th century, silver, AP (M-325).

Leybourn William writing in the preface, “To the Reader” of Thomas Stirrup, Horometria: Or, the compleat diallist, 2nd edn (London, 1659).

Franklin Benjamin , Advice to a young tradesman, written by an old one , printed first in Fisher George , The American instructor: Or Young man's best companion , 9th edn, revised (Philadelphia, 1748), 375–7; reprinted in Labaree Leonard W. (eds), The papers of Benjamin Franklin (35 vols, New Haven, 1959–), iii, 304–8.

The city of New York later issued a six-cent note with the Fugio motif. See Earle , Sun dials (ref. 17), 21–23.

Dohrn-Van Rossum , History of the hour (ref. 5), chap. 5.

Barnum Heath P. (ed.), Dives et pauper (Early English Text Society, 275; Oxford, 1976), 119ff; quoted in Dohrn-Van Rossum , History of the hour (ref. 5), 1, 150.

Dohrn-Van Rossum , History of the hour (ref. 5), chaps 7–8; Doggett (ed.), Time: The greatest innovator (ref. 7), 65.

The equation of time appeared on sundials in the 18th century as an aid to set one's clock by the sun. E.g., in AP, see the heliochronometer, Sauter J. J. Stockholm , c. 1785 (M-302); and a mounted universal ring dial, Nairne Edward , London, c. 1750–75 (M-314).

Bedini Silvio , “The map of time”, in Time: The greatest innovator (ref. 7), 11–23, esp. pp. 15–17.

Sehling E. , Die reformatorische Kirchenordnungen des XVI. Jahrhunderts (Tübingen, 1902–), v, col. 423; quoted in Dohrn-Van Rossum , History of the hour (ref. 5), 155.

Cf. Turner A. J. , “Dialling in the time of Giovan Battista Benedetti”, in Cultura, scienza e techniche nella Venezia del Cinquecento. Atti del convegno internazionale di studio Giovan Battista Benedetti e il suo tempo (Venice, 1987), 311–20. Turner attributes the dramatic increase in the production of sundials and books about them in the 16th century to the rapid spread of clocks across Europe, the incorporation of magnetic compasses into sundials, which opened up possibilities for new forms of portable dials, and the rise of mathematical interest in sundial projections and the integration of dialing into the mathematics curriculum.

de la Hire Philippe , La gnomonique ou methodes universelles, pour tracer des horloges solaires ou cadrans sur toutes sortes de surfaces (Paris, 1698), sig. br-bv; my translation.

First two quotations are from Martin Benjamin , The description and use of both the globes, the armillary sphere, and orrery, exemplified in a large and select variety of problems in astronomy, geography, dialling, navigation, spherical trigonometry, chronology, &c. (London, [1761?]), pp. 34 and iii respectively. Third quotation is from Leybourn's preface to the reader of Stirrup, Hommetria (ref. 44).

AP (M-363).

Pillar dial, style of Habermel Erasmus Prague , c. 1580, gilt brass and silver, AP (M-306).

Pillar dials at the Adler Planetarium: Style of Erasmus Habermel, Prague, c. 1580, gilt brass and silver (M-306); [ Habermel Erasmus ], Prague, c. 1580, gilt copper (M-305); European, 18th–19th century, boxwood (A-160); Savarin Bordeaux , 18th century, printed paper on wood (W-72).

Cf. Butterfield-type dial by Michael Butterfield, Paris, c. 1665–1724, premier cadran, silver, AP (A-243) with that of Pierre le Maire 2, Paris, c. 1740, brass, AP (W-42).

Cf. Augsburg-type dial by Johann Mathias Willebrand, Augsburg, c. 1700, silver and gilt brass, AP (N-11) with that of Lorenz Grassl, Augsburg, c. 1770, brass and silvered brass, AP (T-18).

Augsburg-type dial in silver volvelle case with brass container, by Martin Johann Augsburg , c. 1675–1700, silver and gilt brass, AP (A-98).

Augsburg-type dial with volvelle case, Happacher Philip Freiburg ?, c. 1675–1700, gold, silver, gilt brass, AP (A-104).

Four Augsburg-type sundials at the Adler Planetarium: Martin Johann Augsburg , c. 1675–1700, silver and gilt brass (A-98); Willebrand Mathias Johann Augsburg , c. 1700, silver and gilt brass (N-11); Schrettegger Nepomuk Johann Augsburg , c. 1797–1843, gilt and silvered brass (T-17); Grassl Lorenz Augsburg , c. 1770, brass and silvered brass (T-18).

Example of forgeries: Butterfield-type sundials, Paris, c. 1700, AP (M-312, N-5), and CHSI (7009, 7011).

Cf. Butterfield-type dial by Pierre le Maire 2, Paris, c. 1740, brass, AP (W-42), which has the typical European gazetteer, with another Butterfield-type dial by Pierre le Maire 2, Paris, c. 1750–1785, brass, AP (T-58), which has fourteen cities in French North America on the gazetteer. Cf. also an inclinable brass sundial by the same maker, AP (W-57), which shows the French possessions down the Mississippi to New Orleans and into South America.

Quotation appears on a manuscript pasted into the case of a Pierre le Maire 2 Butterfield-type sundial, dated 1743, that belongs to the Musée Stewart in Montreal. This sundial has a gazetteer similar to those discussed in ref. 68. For archaeological records, see Bedini Silvio A. , Thinkers and tinkers (New York, 1975), 264, 442 n. 14, and Figs 22–23.

Gouk , Ivory sundials of Nuremberg (ref. 21), 106–10. In the Adler Planetarium collection, there is an English universal ring dial with French months on its calendar scale (N-32); and a German floating sundial with an English compass rose (N-9). Both are 18th century.

See for instance, a Butterfield-type dial by Jean-Gabriel-Augustin Chevallier, Paris, c. 1796–1840, copper, brass, silvered brass, AP (A-97), which has ten cities spanning from Paris to Quebec to Warsaw to Rome; an ivory diptych by Hans Ducher 2 or Hans Ducher 3, Nuremberg, c. 1570–1621, AP (DPW-30), which covers Africa to Moscow; and a universal ring dial attributed to Sommer Johann , Augsburg, c. 1660–1702, AP (A-166), which includes Calcutta, Goa, and Constantinople.

Ivory diptych, Ducher Thomas , Nuremberg, c. 1620–40, CHSI (7579).

Cf. Butterfield-type dials by [Jean Louis Jacques?] Baradelle, Paris, c. 1752–94, silver, AP (W-41, N-6, and W-67).

See the following ivory, Bloud-type sundials at the Adler Planetarium: Gabriel Bloud, Dieppe, c. 1666 (N-20); two unsigned instruments, Dieppe, c. 1650–70 (A-163, W-30); and Senecal Jacques with Gervaise Felix , Dieppe, c. 1660 (DPW-18).

Butterfield-type dials by Butterfield Michael , Paris, c. 1665–1724, silver, AP (A-243, W-219).

Inclinable dial, Culpeper Edmund , London, c. 1713–38, silver, AP (W-130).