Saturday, September 14, 2013

The Sloane Astrolabe

From the British Museum:
This unusually large, very accurately and elegantly engraved instrument had been in the possession of Sir Hans Sloane and was therefore part of the founding collections of the British Museum in 1753. It is the earliest and largest English astrolabe to have survived from the Middle Ages but shows a knowledge of Arabic astronomy and instrumentation. The presence of the names of three saints of particular English significance (Dunstan 19th May, Augustine of Canterbury 26th May, Edmund 20th November) in the list on the back and the plate marked for London make an English origin most likely. One plate is marked for 48º 30', the latitude of Paris. (Read more.)
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