were invited to take up the work under his supervision. At the end of three years the clock was completed and soon came to be referred to as one of the seven wonders of Germany. “Truly a masterpiece,” said Montucla, “and the first of its kind in all Europe by reason of the numerous movements which it executes.”[341] In the year 1580 a description of the same was prepared and published by Dasypodius himself.[342] Although calling for frequent repairs the clock continued running until the year 1789, when it ceased, and after fifty years had passed the old mechanism was replaced by new, the work of Schwilgué.[343] Remarkable as is the entire masterpiece, it is the globes with which Dasypodius furnished it that especially interest us here. At the base of the clock is placed a celestial sphere (Fig. 70) three feet in diameter, supported by four columns of wood richly carved. On the surface appear the forty-eight Ptolemaic constellations, each constellation having its appropriate figure, and the 1022 stars which had been located in Ptolemy’s day. The globe is so connected with the machinery, by which the various parts of the clock are made to perform their functions, that it makes one revolution on its axis every twenty-four hours, thus representing the rising and the setting of the several celestial bodies. Two circles were added, one carrying the sun and the other the moon, adjusted so as to turn about the globe, the first in twenty-four hours, and the second in about twenty-five. The arrangement of the movements, it appears, was not greatly altered in the reconstruction of 1838-1842, and the clock, as it now stands, is thus described by Britten: “On the floor level is a celestial globe indicating siderial time. In its motion round its axis the globe carries with it the circles that surround it—namely, the equator, the ecliptic, the solstitial and equinoctial colures, while the meridian and horizon circles remain motionless, so that there are shown the rising and the setting, as well as the passage over the meridian of Strassburg, of all stars that are visible to the naked eye, and which appear above the horizon. Behind the celestial globe is the calendar; on a metallic band, nine inches wide and thirty feet in circumference, are the months and the days of the months, Dominical letters, fixed and movable feast days. The band is shifted at midnight, and a statue of Apollo points out the day of the month and the name of the saint corresponding to that day. The internal part of the annular band indicates true solar time, the rising and the setting of the sun, the diurnal motion of the moon around the earth, and its passage over the meridian, the phases of the moon and the eclipses of the sun and moon. Adjacent compartments are devoted to a perpetual calendar, solar and lunar cycles and other periodic occurrences, solar and lunar equations, etc. Above the calendar appear allegorical figures, seated in chariots, and representing the days of the week.