While At The Morgan Library

As I posted, Ed and I went to the Morgan Library last week-end.  We say the library and two shows.

The first show was about how time was kept in the Middle Ages in Europe.  It was fascinating. The way they divided up the hours in day - for example. Since the time keeping was kept by the clergy, the time was split up around prayer times.

It also defined the time on Earth for humans, based on the Bible.

They also had a scroll of life that outlined when Adam and Eve started farming, how they begat down to the French kings (although the ancestry did say Adam / Eve ... Noah and then went from there).

It was a cool show

Eddie (for scale) with the actual scrolll

This is a wooden Astrolabe from 1455 - one of very very few around and still working. It shows the days of the week, phases of the moon, day of the year, year, month, what feast day it is, which constellation is in the sky constellation in the sky. It also shows the exact time of the middle of the night (between sundown and sunrise) because the monks had to pray then.  Crazy!