English Planispheric Astrolabe
date: label: date made
content: ca 1300-1450
label: date made
content: ca 1325-1450
label: date made
content: ca 1450
notes: label: Description
content: The astrolabe is an astronomical calculating device used from ancient times into the eighteenth century. Measuring the height of a star using the back of the instrument, and knowing the latitude, one could find the time of night and the position of other stars. The openwork piece on the front, called the rete, is a star map of the northern sky. Pointers on the rete correspond to stars; the outermost circle is the Tropic of Capricorn, and the circle that is off-center represents the zodiac, the apparent annual motion of the sun. This brass astrolabe has a body and throne plate (there are no separate plates), a handle, ring, rete, alidade, pin, wedge, and index arm. It is signed d (/) q pnel in Gothic script – this may be an owner’s mark.
label: Description
content: This isnstrument is sometimes referred to as "Parnel's astrolabe."
label: Description
content: Reference:
label: Description
content: For a detailed description of this object, see Sharon Gibbs with George Saliba, <a href="https://repository.si.edu/handle/10088/2444"><I>Planispheric Astrolabes from the National Museum of American History</I></a>, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1984, pp. 13, 150-151. The object is referred to in the catalog as CCA No. 304.
label: Description
content: Robert T. Gunther, <I>Astrolabes of the World</I>, vol II, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1932, p. 483.
label: Description
content: John Davis, "Two Medieval English Astrolabes in the Smithsonian Museum," <I>Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society</I>, 2023, #157, pp. 2-17. Davis dates this instrument to second quarter of the fourteenth century.
label: Location
content: Currently not on view
setName: label: See more items in
content: Medicine and Science: Mathematics
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Gift of International Business Machines Corporation
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Museum of American History
identifier: label: ID Number
content: MA.316758
label: catalog number
content: 316758
label: accession number
content: 215454
objectType: label: Object Name
content: astrolabe
physicalDescription: label: Physical Description
content: brass (overall material)
label: Measurements
content: overall: 18.6 cm x 14.5 cm x 1.5 cm; 7 5/16 in x 5 23/32 in x 19/32 in