Instruments · Demonstration models; orreries; planetaria (models)
Orrery, tellurium or planetary model, c. 1712, made for Charles Boyle, the fourth Earl of Orrery by John Rowley, Fleet Street, London.
- Maker / attribution
- Rowley, John (maker); John Rowley (maker)
- Date
- 1712-1713
- Historical period
- Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
- Country of origin
- England
- Place
- Fleet Street, London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom
- Object type
- Demonstration models; orreries; planetaria (models)
- Holding institution
- Science Museum Group, London
- Accession / object no.
- 1952-73
- Credit line
- Earl of Cork and Orrery
- Catalogue title (original)
- Orrery made by John Rowley for the Earl of Orrery
Record summary
Held and catalogued by Science Museum Group, London (object number 1952-73), this is a demonstration models; orreries; planetaria (models) by Rowley, John, made in Fleet Street, London, Greater London, England, United Kingdom, dated 1712-1713. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Instruments collection. The record is illustrated with 4 photographs.
Assembled from the source record's structured fields. Dates and attributions are given as the source states them; where a field is missing the Atlas leaves it blank rather than estimating.
Catalogue description
Science Museum Group description
Dated 1712-3, this planetary model was made by the London instrument maker, John Rowley. It is a demonstration device to show the motions of the Earth and Moon around the Sun. Such apparatus became popular from around 1700, especially after Sir Isaac Newton published his universal theory of gravity. This particular example was made for Charles Boyle, the fourth Earl of Orrery in Ireland. Rowley may have been inspired by an earlier example made by the London clock maker, George Graham. Much admired in its day, it was given the title 'orrery' after its owner – possibly a play on the word ‘horary’, meaning hours. This name was subsequently applied to later planetary models or machines, although the alternative term 'tellurium' is often used to describe devices such as this that show only the Earth, Moon and Sun.
Historical context
Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Huygens' pendulum and balance spring transform accuracy; English makers develop the anchor and deadbeat escapements.
Pocket sundials, Butterfield dials and sandglasses remained essential companions to imperfect clocks; navigators used sandglasses and the log line; observatories began to combine telescopes with pendulum clocks.
Read the period in the timelineMore instruments from this periodEarlier: Renaissance Horology
Atlas type guide
Astrolabes, quadrants and astronomical compendia
The planispheric astrolabe is a two-dimensional model of the sky. A pierced rotating star map (the rete) turns over a plate engraved for a particular latitude; by aligning a star or the sun with its observed altitude, the user can read the time of day or night, the time of sunrise and sunset, and solve many other astronomical problems. Developed in the Hellenistic world and refined by astronomers in the Islamic world from the eighth century, it reached Latin Europe through al-Andalus.
Quadrants, compendia, armillary spheres and later orreries belong to the same family of instruments that model the heavens. They were teaching tools, status objects and practical time-finders. Many surviving examples are signed and dated, which makes them important evidence for the history of instrument-making workshops in Baghdad, Isfahan, Lahore, Toledo, Louvain, Nuremberg, London and elsewhere.
What to look for
- The latitudes engraved on the plates — they show which cities the instrument was made for.
- The script and calendar used: Arabic or Persian inscriptions, abjad numerals, Hebrew or Latin text indicate tradition and region.
- The design of the rete: the number of named stars and the style of the star pointers changes by region and period.
- Shadow squares, unequal-hour lines and zodiac scales on the back (dorsum).
- Signatures, dedications and dates, often hidden on the throne (kursi) or the back.
Dating clues
- Signed and dated astrolabes allow precise dating; undated ones are attributed by star positions on the rete, which shift slowly through precession.
- Gothic-style retes with tracery are typical of European instruments of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
- Printed paper astrolabes and planispheres became common from the sixteenth century onward.
General guidance written by the Atlas editors about this kind of object. It is not a statement about this particular piece; for that, rely on the source record above and on physical examination.
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