German Calendar Medal
notes: label: Description
content: This calendar medal, inscribed in German, consists of two silver discs with cutaway sections that reveal scales on central, slightly larger, brass disc between them. The three discs are riveted together at the center. A decorative piece with a hole is attached to top of one disc. An engraving on this side shows a female figure with a winged male figure who is carrying a bow and arrow (possibly Venus and Cupid). They are seated in a chariot drawn by birds. Above and perpendicular to this 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 Sontag, of the moon next to Monntag, of Mars next to Dienstag, the rivet holding the discs together next to Mittswoch, of Jupiter next to Donnerstag, of Venus next to Freitag, and of Saturn next to Sonnaben. 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.
label: Description
content: The other side of the middle disc has four concentric scales, each is divided into twelve parts. The outermost sections each show a sign of the zodiac and a number between 18 and 25. One of these entries is visible through an opening in the lowest disc. Text adjacent to this opening 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. Text adjacent to the opening showing this reads: Monat Tage. The third circle going inward on the middle disc has numbers ranging from as low as 7 to as high as 17. One window on the lowest disc that reveals this scale is labeled “Tage Länge” and indicates the length of day. An opposite window, showing the length of night is labeled: Nacht Länge. 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 sunset and the other the time of sunrise. These are labeled: “Sonn Untergang” and “Sonn Aufgang.” Values range from 3 1/2 to 8 1/2, with the total being 12. There is a floral image at the center.
label: Description
content: There is no maker's mark.
label: Description
content: The object came to the Smithsonian from the collection of Henry Russell Wray.
label: Description
content: Compare MA.316925. Also compare to numbers 99 and 100 in Ackermann’s catalog of calendar medals in the British Museum. She tentatively dates these calendar medals to the late seventeenth century.
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: Silke Ackermann, “Maths and Memory: Calendar Medals in the British Museum Part II,” <I>The Medal</I>, Spring, 2005, vol. 46, esp. pp. 10-11. Object 99 in Ackermann’s catalog number 1958,1006.2453 in the collections of the British Museum. Object 100 has catalog number 1888,1201.332 at the British Museum.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
place: label: place made
content: Germany
topic: label: Subject
content: Mathematics
label: Subject
content: Calendar
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
label: See more items in
content: Science & Mathematics
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.316924
label: accession number
content: 228694
label: catalog number
content: 316924
objectType: label: Object Name
content: calendar medal
physicalDescription: label: Measurements
content: overall: .1 cm x 5.3 cm x 5.3 cm; 1/32 in x 2 3/32 in x 2 3/32 in