Diptych sundial (closed)

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Diptych sundials have two plates hinged together, and in use open out to form a right angle, with the string hinge operating as a gnomon. This ivory example (pictured here closed) was made in 1617, by Lienhart Miler of Nuremburg in Germany.

The photograph shows the outside of the base, which has standard German lunar volvelle in brass. The scales are labelled 1-12 twice (inner) and 1-29 (outer).

A common feature of ivory diptych dials made in Nuremburg and Dieppe was a lunar volvelle to convert the time at night read off a sundial from a shadow cast by moonlight, to the corresponding solar time.

Record details

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• Online ID: 000-190-001-021-C
• Image Rights Holder: National Museums Scotland
• Project: National Museums Scotland
  Project description   View all records in project
• Ref: National Museums Scotland  T.1924.10
• Date: 1617
  
• Material: Ivory, inlaid metal. Inscription: [On base] Italian and Babylonian hours; [inside lid] length of days
  Sundial, portable
  
• Dimensions: 3.63" x 2.25"
  
• What: Sundial, portable
  
• Subject: 20. TIME MEASUREMENT, Sundials (Departmental Classification)
  
• Who: Lienhart Miler, Nuremburg (Sundial maker)
  
• Where: Germany, Nuremburg
  
• Event:
• Description: Portable sundial in ivory, book form, base with sunk compass and engraved with a horizontal dial and Italian and Babylonian hours, made by Lienhart Miler, Nuremburg, 1617
  
• References:
  • For a comparable example, see Lloyd, Steven A., Ivory Diptych Sundials 1570-1750. London & Cambridge, Massachusetts: Harvard, 1992. p 68 
• Translations:
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