Epact Scientific Instruments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe

The construction is an extraordinary and challenging one in a number of ways, but perhaps most obviously in the table of numbers on the front, used to calculate oppositions, conjunctions and eclipses of the sun and moon for the Spanish town of Zaragosa, referred to by its Latin name, Caesar Augusta. The whole instrument bears evidence of its sophistication and tells us that it was intended for scholarly and specialist use. For these reasons, it is a particular disappointment that the latitude plates and the rete are missing.

Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
Inventory number 48892

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