This magnificent ancient quarter may be the oldest scientific instrument in England

He qualifies as “Oldest known and dated English scientific instrument” From Christie’s auction house This item will be put up for auction This Wednesday, December 13, 2023: Master of the Chetwode Quadrant, a small time quarter in copper alloy, is estimated at $130,000-190,000 (€120,000-175,000). However, only a few medieval devices of this type have come down to us. Even more uniquely, it is engraved with the year “1311,” a date that predates it by about fifteen yearsChaucer’s astrolabe (British Museum, 1914,0219.1), which held the previous record for seniority.

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Quarter time is extremely rare, but not only

The artifact to be auctioned is an ancient portable sundial, known as a “quadrans vetus” (tetrad vetustissimusin Latin). “Its primary function was to infer the time of day from the solar altitude measured using engraved time lines.”pointing to Newsweek Philip Nothaft, historian at the University of Oxford (England), specializes in the practice of astronomy and chronology in medieval and early modern Europe (5th to 15th centuries).

The main face of the quarter-circle instrument actually serves as a “clock”. For simplicity, this relates the altitude of the Sun and the time elapsed since sunrise, taking into account the observer’s latitude and time of year. But unlike the clock system in use today, with its “equal” hours, the Quadrans vetus system “divided” the amount of daylight into 12 “temporary” or “unequal” hours, making winter hours much shorter than summer hours.

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In the medieval world, this was indeed the case “It is important to be able to work during the day.”Christie recalls in a I reportedBefore explaining: “The unequal hours begin at sunrise, noon is the sixth hour, and the twelfth hour is sunset.”. This would be it “It revolutionized the way people lived in the Middle Ages.”by allowing workers to make the most of precious sunlight, explains James Hislop, head of science and natural history at the auction house.

In addition to helping to tell time, quadrilaterals can also be used to solve mathematical problems involving measuring distances, depths and heights, using the ‘shadow box’ located below time lines. Or by using the rotating index finger to calculate the date of the Sunday following the first full moon after the vernal equinox – Easter for Christians. Thus it was at the same time a tool of merchants, priests and scholars.

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In the Middle Ages from Baghdad to the English countryside

Portable time measuring devices are frequently described in medieval manuscripts, e.g Master of the Chetwode Quadrant It was recently discovered and displayed here to the public, However, very few of them have been found today during archaeological excavations. “English instruments of the Middle Ages are incredibly rare, and any new discovery greatly enriches our knowledge of the lore of the period.”enthuses James Hislop.

We tend to assume that life was once simpler and less complicated. However, the ancient quarter shows that medieval chronology was certainly more difficult than its modern counterpart, notes the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford, England, which has one in its collection and Explains how it works.

The quarter is also displayed “Remarkable similarities” With another tool, it was discovered by a metal detector near an Augustinian monastery founded in 1244 in Buckinghamshire (England) and Sold at auction in October 2015. The composition of the metal and the common size and style of engraving indicate that the two pieces could have come from the same workshop. It was even made by the same anonymous “watchmaker” at the beginning of the 14th century.

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It was also at this time that these tools gained a certain popularity. It was first recorded in a manuscript written in Baghdad in the ninth or tenth century, and the sciences it contains were certainly introduced to Europe via Islamic Spain – the capital of the Abbasids supplied the Old Continent via Al-Andalus, an area of ​​the Iberian Peninsula then under the control of Muslims.

According to James Hislop, the first measuring instruments were first observed in Montpellier at the end of the thirteenth century, in particular when their design was modified by the astronomer and translator of Arabic treatises Jacob ibn Mukhayr ibn Tibbon (sometimes nicknamed Provatius), who gives textual instructions for constructing “Astrolabe quadrangle“. “We know it existed in two basic variants, depending on whether or not the tool included a moving cursor to find the daily solar declination and noon elevation.”Historian Philip Nothaft adds.

If these objects were used mainly for humble purposes later, they were also placed in the hands of the elite. This is evidenced by historical archives, which reveal that in 1358 William Urologer, monk of St. Alban’s (Hertfordshire, England), presented four hour quarters to Isabella of France, wife of King Edward II of England.

On the same topic:
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