Dutch Calendar Medal
Dutch Calendar Medal
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- Description
- This relatively large silver calendar medal, inscribed in Dutch, consists of two discs with cutaway sections that reveal scales on central, slightly larger, silver disc between them. All three discs are riveted together at the center. One side shows a landscape, including a windmill. Below it, perpendicular to the image, is a table that lists symbols for planets next to names of the days of the week. Thus a symbol for the sun is next to the word Sondagh, of the moon next to Maendagh, of Mars next to Dingsdagh, of Mercury next to Wonsdagh, of Jupiter next to Donderdagh, of Venus next to Vrydagh, and of Saturn next to Saturdag. A cutaway along the edge next to the names of days of the week reveals seven consecutive numbers on a scale on the middle disc that runs from 1 to 31 – hence the dates corresponding to the weekdays.
- The other side of the middle disc has four concentric scales, each is divided into twelve parts. The outermost sections each show a signs of the zodiac and a number between 9 and 12. One is visible through a window in the lowest disc. Text adjacent to this window reads: CALENDARIUM PERPETUUM. The next circle going inward on the middle disc lists the months of the year and the number of days in that month. The third circle going inward on the middle disc has numbers ranging from as low as seven to as high as seventeen. One window on the lowest disc showing this scale is labeled “Nacht langh”, and indicates the length of night. An opposite window, showing the length of day is labeled: Dagh langh. The opposite numbers always add up to 24. The innermost scale on the middle disc also is shown in two windows, one showing the time of sunrise and the other the time of sunset. These times range from 3 ½ to 8 ½.. Opposite numbers always add up to 12. At the center of the instrument, pierced by the rivet, is an image of what might be a sandglass, with wings.
- The instrument is unsigned. It came to the Smithsonian from the collection of Henry Russell Wray.
- Compare MA.316924. Also compare number 99 in Ackermann’s catalog of calendar medals in the British Museum. She dates a similar calendar medal to the seventeenth century.
- Reference:
- Silke Ackermann, “Maths and Memory: Calendar Medals in the British Museum Part II,” The Medal, Spring, 2005, vol. 46, esp. pp. 10-11. Object 99 described here has catalog number 1958,1006.2453 in the collections of the British Museum.
- Location
- Currently not on view
- Object Name
- calendar medal
- place made
- Netherlands
- Measurements
- overall:.1 cm x 5 cm x 5 cm; 1/32 in x 1 31/32 in x 1 31/32 in
- ID Number
- MA.316925
- accession number
- 228694
- catalog number
- 316925
- subject
- Mathematics
- Calendar
- See more items in
- Medicine and Science: Mathematics
- Science & Mathematics
- Data Source
- National Museum of American History
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