ARMILLARY SPHERES

SHERBORNE . DORSET

QUIZ: is this dial a good example of a small sphere from the 1930s owned by an aunt; a find in an antique shop in Oxfordshire in 2007; or an impulsive cheapo eBay purchase a few months ago.

JARDIN DE PRÉVERT . COTENTIN . MANCHE

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OSLO NORWAY . FROGNER PARK . TWO ARMILLARY SPHERES

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GUSTAV VIGELAND

BENJAMIN WEGNER 1837

ARMILLARY SPHERE . TINTINHULL HOUSE . SOMERSET

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ARMILLARY SPHERE / EQUATORIAL DIAL . SHERBORNE SCHOOL . DORSET

The equatorial dial on the Beckett Room lawn was presented in summer 2004 as a leaving gift by the parents of three School House boys. It is inscribed with the boys’ surnames and the words ‘Carpe Diem’.

ARMILLARY SPHERE . CORCIANO . UMBRIA

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ARMILLARY SPHERES

A CONTRASTING PAIR DISPLAYED TOGETHER

A pair of armillary spheres dating to about 1700 show competing models of the universe. One has the Earth stationary at the center in the Ptolemaic system of the ancient Greeks. The other shows the later Copernican system, in which the sun is at the center and the Earth and the other planets revolve around it HoHS

ARMILLARY SPHERE . SANDFORD ORCAS MANOR . SOMERSET

ARMILLARY SPHERE PAIR . OXFORD . MUSEUM OF THE HISTORY OF SCIENCE

ARMILLARY SPHERE . ST GILES . OXFORD

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ARMILLARY SPHERE . SANTA MARIA NOVELLA . FLORENCE

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ARMILLARY SHERE . MUSEUM VAN LOON . KEIZERSGRACHT . AMSTERDAM

MOTTISFONT HANTS

BATH . PARADE GARDENS – COMMEMORATIVE SUNDIAL

Installed for the 30th Anniversary of the British Sundial Society – detailed post HERE

KINGSTON LACEY . DORSET

EQUATORIAL DIAL . SHERBORNE . DORSET

ST THOMAS à BECKET, SOUTH CADBURY, SOM.

In the Churchyard, a small armillary sphere dated 1929, on a slender column. The memorial inscription relates to Robert Read, ‘Ironmaster and Ornithologist’, with a charming and original dedication that I will post in other pages in the MOTTO page in due course

All photos: Keith Salvesen April 2021

MUSEO GALILEO . FIRENZE

SPHERE 1

Created by Antonio Santucci between 1588 and 1593

A huge and incredibly complex armillary sphere that strictly shouldn’t be included here. Standing next to it is an experience in itself. It may not be a sundial, but it deserves a place not least because the wonderful Museo Galileo has real though ornamental polyhedral sundials featured HERE

Moving out from a terrestrial globe at the centre, there are the ‘seven wanderers’ (Moon, Mercury, Venus, Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn). Then spheres of fixed stars; then the signs of the zodiac. Finally, the Primum Mobile or outer structure. Medici Coats of Arms are included, a wise precaution. The sphere took 5 years to complete.

SPHERE 2

A ‘Ptolemaic’ sphere built by Cammillo Della Volpaia in 1557

SPHERE 3

An inscribed brass sphere with a crystal ‘earth’ in the centre. Made by Girolamo della Volpaia in 1564

All photos – Keith Salvesen except sphere 3, form the catalogue (Bonelli / Settle)