|
Date: |
|
Description: | Incomplete post-medieval copper alloy pocket nocturnal: "an astronomical instrument for telling the time at night" (MDA Archaeological Objects Thesaurus 1997, 101). A disc with a central perforation and a lateral lug with a hinge set at right angles to the underside, consists of two hinge pivots, a copper alloy spindle and a single hinge pivot from the missing part. Most of the edge of the disc is missing. The front face is subdivided by concentric circles and radial lines into an inner ring of twelve segments, each containing the initial of a month of the year executed in punched dots and lower case black-letter script, arranged anti-clockwise. The next ring is narrower and is divided into twenty-four. The outermost ring, which is enclosed within a double line, contains seventy-two sub-divisions. The springing of the hinged lug is adjacent to the month of October. Diameter 37mm. Thickness of disc 1mm. Cf. an example from Norwich (HER 148) which was dated to the early 16th century (Margeson 1993, 71-72, no. 448). This piece should be given a wider date-range, 16th - early 17th century.Thanks are due to Dr John Davis of the British Sundial Society for the correct identiciation of this piece. He comments "The nocturnal forms the lid of a more complicated compendium which also would have included an equatorial (or equinoctial) sundial and a magnetic compass".Records of four nocturnals may be found on the PAS database, from Hampshire (two examples, HAMP1713 and HAMP-831705), Lincolnshire (NLM-ADA657) and Suffolk (SF-5EA704).
Original Image | Publisher: | http://finds.org.uk | Source: | Portable Antiquities | Identifier: | http://finds.org.uk/database/artefacts/r... | Go to resource |
|
More Like this...
-
-
Nocturnal
I.F.
Nocturnal and universal equinoctial…
-
Nocturnal
Combined nocturnal and vertical sundial.…
-
-
Nocturnal
Combined nocturnal, sundial and lunar…
-
Nocturnal
Combined nocturnal, sundial and lunar…
-
-
-
Nocturnal
Combined nocturnal and sundial.
Latitude…
-
|