Every year, the National Technical Museum enriches the exhibition of the NTM Plasy Building Heritage Centre with a selected exhibit that stands out from the theme of building. For the year 2020, the NTM has chosen a really valuable object, one of the rarest from the NTM collections. In Plasy, a rare Renaissance ARMILLARY SOPHERA, the only one from that period preserved in our country, will be exhibited.

The armillary sphere represents a simplified model of the sky. The celestial sphere is not full as in the case of a globe, but consists of several circles that can rotate to demonstrate the position and movement of the heavenly bodies. It served both as a demonstration aid in teaching and as an observational and measuring instrument.

photo: NTM

The history of the use of the armillary sphere dates back to antiquity, in our country it became a symbol of astronomy and science of the Renaissance. The exhibit on display dates from this period and dates from 1560-1580. It was still constructed according to the geocentric Ptolemaic theory, i.e. with the Earth located at the centre of the planetary system. The 38 mm diameter globe is engraved with a cartographic image of the Earth that corresponds to the knowledge of the mid-16th century. The American continent is annotated terra incognita(unknown land), the image of Australia is missing.

Visitors can see the armillary sphere from 26 May to 1 November 2020 as part of the NTM CSD Plasy’s Exposition of Civil Engineering. Other similar exhibits, some of which are National Cultural Monuments, can be seen in the most important collection of astronomical instruments in the Czech lands in the main building of the NTM in Prague, Letná.