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Horary quadrant
    • Setting:
      Room II
    • Maker:
      Christoph Schissler
    • Place:
      Augsburg
    • Date:
      1599
    • Materials:
      gilt brass; case: black leather with gilt tooling; stand: oak, brass
    • Dimensions:
      side 350x371x371 mm
    • Inventory:
      155, 156 (cavalletto)
    • Horary quadrant (Inv. 155, 156)

This square-shaped instrument, made by Christoph Schissler, was used to measure time, distances, and heights. Calibrated for latitude 48°15' (corresponding to Augsburg). There are, in fact, two horary quadrants, one with curved lines for unequal hours, the other with straight lines. Two adjacent sides carry the shadow square with several graduations. The opposite corner holds a pivoting vane fitted with viewer. The quadrant is fixed to a wooden stand, whose parts telescope to allow the instrument to be placed in its gold-tooled black leather box. Brought to Florence from Germany by Prince Mattias de' Medici in the first half of the seventeenth century.

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