Horary Quadrants
Three 14th Century Medieval Horary Quadrants
A few years ago I became aware of an article* describing a marvelous medieval quadrant found in an archeological dig in Canterbury, England. It inspired me to try and create a modern replica, however the complexity of this piece sent me off on some research, which in turn resulted in my discovery of two additional articles describing quadrants I wanted to replicate.** The relative levels of complexity and difficulty in laying out these three instruments led me to start with the Chetwode quadrant followed by the Zutphen quadrant, and then the Canturbury quadrant. In these pages I will describe the making of the first two instruments and illustrate my final results for each. Unfortunately my work on these instruments convinced me that my age diminished dexterity makes the Canterbury instrument too difficult, so my ambition no longer includes it.
The Canterbury Quadrans Novus (Astrolabe Quadrant)
Dekker, Elly (2008) "'With his sharp lok perseth the sonne': A new quadrant from Canterbury", Annals of Science, 65:2, 201-220.
** Davis, John (2014) "THE ZUTPHEN QUADRANT, A Very Early Equal-Hour Instrument Excavated in The Netherlands", 26(i), 36-42.
Davis, John (2015) "THE CHEWODE QUADRANT, A Medieval Unequal-Hour Instrument", 27(ii).