Proveniens: Prag 1648, Skattkammaren Stockholms slott 1648, universitetet i Dorpat ca 1700, Kungliga biblioteket 1710, Statens historiska museum 1855, Nordiska museet 1934.
Instrumentet är konstruerat av hovurmakaren och matematikern Jost Bürgi (1552-1632) och har formgivits av guldsmeden Antonius Eisenhoit(1553/54-1603). Det kombinerade instrumentet beställdes ursprungligen av den astrologi- och astronomiintresserade lantgreven av Kassel, Wilhelm IV (1532-1592). Rudolf II, känd som sin tids storsamlare, knöt till sig framstående vetenskapsmän som astronomerna Tycho Brahe och Johannes Kepler. Kepler har sannolikt använt instrumentet för astronomiska beräkningar. I början av 1600-talet ingick föremålet i kejsar Rudolf II:s (1552-1612) skattkammare. I samband med erövringen av Lillsidan av Prag 1648 togs instrumentet som krigsbyte till Sverige.
Se bl. a. Ulf Hamilton, "Krigsbyte", Livrustkammarens utställningskatalog, 2007, sid. 209, kat nr 2.19.
/Anna Arfvidsson Womack 2022
'Astronomiskt ur i sexsidigt foder av ebenholts på lejontassar av förgylld brons. Visartavlan med stjärnkarta av förgylld mässing med stjärnbilderna i gravyr samt ett rörligt cirkelsystem för astronomiska avläsningar, dessutom tim- och minutvisare samt datumvisare, som anger såväl juliansk som gregoriansk tid. Överbyggnad bestående av armillarsfär av mässing med djurkretsens tecken i urklippt och graverad plåt. Sign. Antonn : Eisenhodt Warburgiensis Sculpt : 1600-talets början.' Ur "Sekler och sekunder", Nordiska museets utställningkatalog 1952, nr 477, specialur.
Armillary sphere with astronomical clock
Made in Germany in the 1580s.
Gilt brass and bronze on a base of ebony.
Astronomical clock:
The dial shows a star chart with 49 constellations in engraving. Around the map there is a double calendar ring that shows both Julian and Gregorian calendar (the Greg. cal. introduced leap years).The star map with the calendar moved one turn clockwise / year.
On top of the star chart there is a brass grid and hour- and minute hands (turned counter clockwise one turn / day.)
The astronomical clock was used for time measurement.
The armillary sphere
The Armillary sphere is a three-dimensional representation of the sky vault around the earth (it originally moved 1 turn/day.)
Zodiac constellations are cut into thin plates on a circle around the sphere.
The positions and motions of stars could be read off from the armillary sphere. This was an essential part of astrology, which in the 16th Century ranked as a serious science.
The clock illustrates the medieval worldview, where the knowledge of the celestial bodies had a close connection with religion and with astrology.
The clock/sphere was designed in the mid 1580s by
the Swiss instrument maker and mathematician Jost Bürgi
and the goldsmith Anton Eisenhoit (deceased in 1603)
for Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassel, who was a keen astrologer and astronomer and had built up an observatory in his capital city of Kassel.
In the early 17th Century the clock/sphere was acquired by the German-Roman emperor Rudolph II in Prague (died in 1612). He employed the astronomers Tycho Brahe and Johannes Kepler.
During the last year of the Thirty Years War, 1648, Swedish troops sacked Prague castle and the astronomical clock was brought to the royal castle in Stockholm.
In 1697 it was rescued from the fire when the castle burned down.
Later the object was in the custody of different institutions in Sweden. In 1930 deposited with the Nordic museum.
/Maria Maxén 2019-05-21