A “Wise Measuring Banner” or the Artillery “Chetverogranetz” (Four-Sided Meter Stick): Revisiting the Attribution of “Peter I’s Half-Arshin” from the State Hermitage Collections

Abstract

The article offers a substantiated attribution of “Peter I’s half-arshin”, a foursided ruler from the State Hermitage collections (accessory number ТХ-1252). This attribution is grounded in its comparison with similar items from the collections of the Lomonosov Museum (Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography of Russian Academy of Sciences, the Kunstkamera), the History of Sciences Museum in Oxford, and the National Museum of American History. Several written historical sources such as the 17th – early 18th century artillery manuals (M. O. Rodigaevskii’s “Statute of Martial, Cannon, and Other Matters”, T. Brink’s “Description of Artillery…”, and “The newest theory and practice of artillery” by E. Braun) and a reputable publication “The Construction and Principle Uses of Mathematical Instruments”) by a French instrument-maker N. Bion also support the proposed attribution. The erroneous initial attribution is explained by the uniqueness of the item that has no equals: neither in the published catalogues of various collections nor in the electronic Russian State Catalogue of Museum Collections. The paper also reviews the basic principles of making and using this instrument and its significance during the period from the second third of the 16th century through the first half of the 19th century. It was mainly intended for military use. The possibility for calculating the cannon shot range and trajectory, the distance-to-target, the shooting power, and the amount of powder necessary for a particular combat task often, to a large extent, determined the level of artillery development. Therefore, the success of the battles depended on such instruments and on the skills of they use.