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 lid, which has a wine rose with 16 directions labelled in German, and a sun-face motif at the centre. The wind vane is missing.

Many diptych sundials were designed to give a wind direction, because often this dictates prevailing weather conditions, especially in the middle of a large land-mass, such as Europe.

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• Online ID: 000-190-001-020-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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