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Multifaced Equatorial Sundial
1604
Wolfgang Mayr
Despite mechanical advances, sundials remained the most reliable instruments for measuring time in the seventeenth century. This elegant example tells the hour on five different dials. It also includes ways of calculating the reigning planet for each hour of the day and the sun's position in a given zodiac sign. Finely engraved Latin inscriptions on the vertical dials allude to the effects of time: on the right bar is a quote from Horace, "Death stands at the end of all things"; across from it is the biblical phrase "Seek me and I shall not be." |