Sundial, 17th century — view 1 of 3 — View 1 of 3 · Image: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe · original image source (opens another website in a new tab)

View 1 of 3 · Image: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe · original image source (opens another website in a new tab)

Instruments · Sundial

Sundial, 17th century

DocumentedDocumented from the holding institution's catalogue record.

Maker / attribution: Unrecorded in source
Date: 17th century
Historical period: Early Modern Horology (1600 – 1750)
Country of origin: Unrecorded in source
Object type: Sundial
Dimensions: Breite: 1.3 cm (geschlossen) Breite: 4.8 cm, Höhe: 6.8 cm
Holding institution: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
Accession / object no.: V 12188 (Inventarnummer)
Credit line: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe
Catalogue title (original): Horizontalsonnenuhr (German)

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Record summary

Held and catalogued by Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (object number V 12188 (Inventarnummer)), this is a sundial, dated 17th century. The Atlas places it in the Early Modern Horology period (1600 – 1750) of its Instruments collection. Recorded dimensions: Breite: 1.3 cm (geschlossen) Breite: 4.8 cm, Höhe: 6.8 cm. The record is illustrated with 3 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

Catalogue description from Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe

Die Sonnenuhr besteht aus zwei in zusammengeklapptem Zustand aufeinanderliegende Elfenbeinplatten, hinten durch Messingringe befestigt, vorne durch Haken und Ösen zusammengehalten. Die untere Platte hat hinten einen FaIz, auf dem in auf geklapptem Zustand die obere Platte steht, die durch Haken und Ösen senkrecht feststellbar ist. Die eingravierten Zahlen und 0rnamente (Blumen, Vögel) sind in Blau, Rot und Schwarz eingefärbt. Die Konstruktion lässt zahlreiche Messungen zu: Die Sonnenuhr kann durch den in die Horizontalplatte eingelassenen, mit Glas geschützten Kompass meridional gerichtet werden. Auf der stehenden Platte sind in senkrechter Folge die Polhöhen 0-64 eingetragen (sog. SCALA LATITVO). Durch Neigen der stehenden Platte und Feststellen der Skala mittels eines Messingstabs kann die Sonnenuhr auf die richtige Polhöhe eingestellt werden. Der Fadenzeiger, der vom Kompasszentrum durch die durchbohrte Mitte der stehenden Platte geführt ist, wurde am äußeren Ende mit Wachsklümpchen beschwert. Ein Zifferblatt ist auf die Horizontalplatte graviert. Auf der Innenseite der stehenden Platte ist ein kreisrundes vertieftes Mittelfeld mit den Kreiseinteilung 1-29, auf der konzentrischen kleineren und drehbaren Messingscheibe (sog. HORAE NOCTIS) ein Zahlenkreis zwei Mal 1-12. Auf der Außenseite der Sonnenuhr befindet sich eine Windrose mit der Randeinteilung zwei Mal I-XII. Auf Innen- und Außenseite der Horizontalplatte sind die Polhöhen verschiedener Städte eingraviert mit den Überschriften CIVITATES & OPPIDA / TEMPORI PARE (außen) und REGIONEM / TEMPORI PARE" (Innenseite stehender Platte).

Shown in the original language of the source catalogue. An editor-reviewed English translation has not yet been published; we do not publish machine translations as authoritative text.

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 timeline More instruments from this period Earlier: Renaissance Horology

Atlas type guide

Sundials and solar time-finders

A sundial tells time from the position of a shadow cast by a gnomon or style. Because the sun's apparent motion depends on latitude, every fixed dial is laid out for a particular latitude, and portable dials either carry a latitude scale or are made for one region. Sundials show local apparent solar time, which drifts against mean (clock) time by up to about sixteen minutes over the year — the equation of time.

Portable dials were the pocket instruments of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. Nuremberg and Augsburg workshops produced folding ivory diptych dials with inset compasses; English and French makers sold brass horizontal dials, ring dials and the Butterfield type; Japanese and Chinese makers had their own traditions of compass dials. After mechanical watches became reliable, dials remained in use for setting them, and nineteenth-century heliochronometers were built to correct directly for the equation of time.

What to look for

The latitude engraved on the dial plate or a latitude arc on the gnomon — it shows where the dial was meant to be used.
The type of hour lines: equal (equinoctial) hours, Italian or Babylonian hours counted from sunset or sunrise, or unequal temporal hours on early and Islamic instruments.
An inset magnetic compass and whether a magnetic-declination mark is drawn on its card — a useful dating clue because declination changes over time.
Maker's signatures and town marks: Nuremberg compass-makers (Kompassmacher) often struck a personal mark and the town's punch.
Additional scales such as lunar volvelles, wind roses, perpetual calendars or lists of cities with their latitudes.

Dating clues

Ivory diptych dials are characteristic of Nuremberg between about 1500 and 1700.
Butterfield-type dials with a bird-shaped adjustable gnomon point to Paris workshops from the late seventeenth century onward.
Equation-of-time tables engraved on the plate became common after the mid-seventeenth century, once pendulum clocks made the difference between solar and mean time obvious.

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.

Mechanisms mentioned

No escapement or complication is named in the source record. See the encyclopedia for how such pieces work.

Record completeness

Maker or attributionNot in source
DateRecorded
Place or countryNot in source
MaterialsNot in source
DimensionsRecorded
Narrative descriptionRecorded
Inscriptions / marksNot in source
ProvenanceNot in source
Several photographsRecorded

Editorial status: Documented — facts as published by the source; not independently verified by Atlas editors.

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Sources & image rights

Record source: Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe (opens another website in a new tab).

Image rights: CC0 1.0 (opens another website in a new tab).

Images are hosted by the Atlas for study and credited to their owner. Rights holders may request correction, credit changes or removal, or grant permission, via the editorial office.

Cite this record

"Sundial, 17th century." Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe, V 12188 (Inventarnummer). Catalogue record in The Horology Atlas, WatchMuseum.org, https://atlas.watchmuseum.org/museum/sundial-17th-century-53d476.