A LATE 16TH CENTURY BOHEMIAN GILT COPPER PRAYERBOOK AND ASTRONOMICAL COMPENDIUM

Signed and dated 'Praguae fecit Erasmus habermel; [15]99'

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A LATE 16TH CENTURY BOHEMIAN GILT COPPER PRAYERBOOK AND ASTRONOMICAL COMPENDIUM
Signed and dated 'Praguae fecit Erasmus habermel; [15]99'
Prayerbook, in Latin and German. Calligraphic prayers written in fine roman, italic and gothic script in gold and brown ink, the first initial in gold with penwork decoration. 106 vellum leaves with gold frame, 86 leaves with text, including the Creed, Biblical quotations, and prayers on the Holy Trinity, the Passion, Forgiveness of Sins, the Sacrament and the Resurrection. There are also prayers for the raising of children, at the time of the plague, on a parent's death, and against the Turks. The Te Deum in Latin ends the collection. Bound as a book by gilt-copper plates with all surfaces inscribed with solar and planetary scales. Inside the front cover are two compasses, and inside the back cover is a group of small drawing instruments.

Front Cover. Engraved with an oval table for converting mean hours to planetary hours, labelled 'Horae diurnae cum vulgares tum planetariae inter se adequatae'. The outer circuit gives the mean hours in roman numerals from IIIa.m. to VIIIp.m., divided into half hours alternately shaded. the following sets of curves are labelled 'Horae ante meridiem' and 'Horae post meridiem; Occasus Solis'. The curves cross four bands marked on the central line 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, thus giving the hours of sunset during the year. At the centre of the oval is a table of the planets governing each hour of the day, labelled 'Tabula Planetarum diei'.

Inside front cover. The prominent feature is the presence of two magnetic compasses set inside the rectangular chapter ring of a horizontal sundial. At top centre is a group of four short lines that identify the latitude for which each chapter ring is to be used; the latitudes are: 42, 45, 48, 50. The column holding the string gnomon is hinged for packing, and the upper part has four holes for pegging the string to the latitude required. The compasses are identical except for the names of the eight wind directions marked; one set is in Italian, the other in German.

Back cover. Similar to the front cover, the oval table connects mean hours with Bohemian hours; labelled 'Horologium maius et minus inuicem oppositum et adequatum'. At the centre of the oval are two rows of figures. The upper tabulates the number of hours of the day and the corresponding hours of the night. For example, in the Germanic region there are sixteen hours of daylight and eight hours of night at midsummer. The lower tabulates the hour of sunrise and of sunset. The signature is below. The spine of the book has a table of the latitudes of fourteen towns.

Inside back cover. A tabulated calendar of the Holy Days of the church, with the month, feast day and date of entry of the Sun into the Zodiac.

On the upper and lower edges of the covers are density scales for Lapis (stone), Ferrum (iron) and Plumbium (lead); also a linear 100-part scale. Such scales are used by gunners for assessing the weight of shot

Inside the back cover is space for small drawing instruments, that comprise: a folding rule with a removable central bar that, placed between the legs, converts it to a right-angled level; a parallel ruler; a plain bar; a container with sliding lid compartmented to hold four coloured blocks. Many of the straight edges are engraved with measures, for example Viennese and Parisian inches.
4 in. (10.3 cm.) x 2.3/8 in. (6.2 cm.) x 1 in. (2.5 cm.)

Provenance

Rothschild inv. no. AR3233.

Literature

1903 Theresianumgasse Inventory, p. 88, no. 204.
1905 Theresianumgasse Inventory, p. 38, no. 158.

COMPARATIVE LITERATURE:

W. Eckhardt, 'Erasmus Habermel: Zur Biographie des Instrumentenmachers Kaiser Rudolfs II.' , Jahrbuch der Hamburger Kunstsammlungen, 21, 1976, pp. 55-92.
W. Eckhardt, 'Erasmus und Josua Habermel: Kunstgeschichte Anmerkungen zu den Werken der beiden Instrumentenmacher', ibid., 22, 1977, pp. 13-74.
Prague um 1600: Beitrge zur Kunst und Kulture am Hofe Rudolfs II., 2 vols, Prague, 1988.
E. Zinner, Deutsche und niederlndische astronomische Instrumente des 11.-18. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1956, p. 336.

Lot Essay

Well over 100 scientific instruments made by Habermel are known to exist, many, but not all, bearing his signature. Some were made for royal or noble patrons, and bear coats-of-arms and inscriptions. Because of their superb quality, they were sought after by collectors during the nineteenth Century, and subsequently the vast majority found their way into museums.

Erasmus Habermel was without doubt one of the finest craftsmen of the sixteenth Century, yet remarkably little is known of his career. He was probably born around 1550; we know that by 1593, he was appointed mathematical instrument maker to the Emperor Rudolf II, who, ten years earlier, had chosen Prague as the seat of his court. Whether Habermel was already working in Prague, or whether he came with the court from Vienna, is uncertain. By the end of the century, he was clearly running an extensive workshop, and producing maginificent and complex instruments. He died in 1606.

Unlike the Flanders instrument makers, Habermel habitually worked not in brass, but in gilded copper, a material well suited to the delicate and elaborate decoration that is typical of his instruments. These were made for the Emperor, whose collection was fabulous, and for patrons at the most sophisticated and cultured court in Europe.

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