Abstract
ASTROLABES are not as generally available for study in the museums of the world as their scientific importance and artistic qualities would merit, but all who may desire to become better acquainted with this instrument in its various forms are now given the opportunity. Subscribers are invited for a comprehensive work, entitled “The Astrolabes of the World” based upon the series of instruments in the Lewis Evans Collection in the Old Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, in the Science Museum at South Kensington, and in several other public and private collections in Europe and America. The early Greek treatise on the astrolabe, by Philopon, and the Syriac treatise by Sabokt—both dating from the seventh century—will appear in English for the first time. Illustrations are given of Chaucer's astrolabe, now clearly identified by the character of the rete as depicted in MSS. and many instruments contemporary with Columbus and Drake, are figured. The subject is of fundamental importance to all students of the history of astronomy, geography and surveying, and indeed to the history of science generally, for it may truly be said that the astrolabe kept alight the torch of the scientific method of observation and of computation of results, in many countries, and through many dark ages, when larger instruments and well equipped observatories did not exist. It is hoped that the principal reference libraries may obtain copies of this monumental work, which it is proposed to issue in two quarto volumes, containing more than 600 pages and 155 plates, of which 12 are in collotype, and 216 text figures. The price to subscribers is ten guineas. Subscription forms may be obtained from Dr. R. T. Gunther, Curator of the Lewis Evans Collection, in the Old Ashmolean, Broad Street, Oxford.
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Astrolabes and Their History. Nature 131, 21 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131021d0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131021d0
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