Museo Galileo
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Virtual Museum
Armillary sphere
    • Setting:
      Room III
    • Maker:
      unknown
    • Date:
      17th cent.
    • Materials:
      gilt brass
    • Dimensions:
      sphere diameter 185 mm, height 340 mm, width 225 mm
    • Inventory:
      1117
    • Armillary sphere (Inv. 1117)

This Ptolemaic armillary sphere rests on a stand made of turned and partly ornamented wood. The Earth is represented by a brass sphere at the center. The names of the zodiac signs are shown in Latin and Greek. Acquired and restored in the second half of the nineteenth century by Ferdinando Meucci, director of the Museo di Fisica e Storia Naturale of Florence.