Epact Scientific Instruments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe

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Astrolabe
Signed by Georg Hartmann
Dated 1542; Nuremberg
Paper, board, wood; 133 mm in diameter

Early paper instruments are rare, but Georg Hartmann seems to have made a great many and a number of examples of his work have survived. Though they appear to have been printed from the same plate, the dates differ as he added additional numerals with the passing of the years. In this case, the original plate seems to have read MDXXXI, for 1531, but additional characters, which intrude into the nearby scale, have changed this to MDXXXXII.

A particularly interesting feature of this instrument is that an early owner has written his name in ink on the blank rim as 'leonardi a bottalis a{s}tensis'. This is understood to have been Leonardo Botalli of Asti, a medical author and physician to Charles IX and Henri III of France.

Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
Inventory number 49296

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