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III.—On an Astrolabe Planisphere of English make

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  25 January 2012

Ferguson
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Extract

I have the honour to exhibit, through the kindness of the owner, Mrs. Rinington of Tynefield, Penrith, a planispheric astrolabe of English make. It was included among the antiquities and curiosities exhibited at a recent art and industrial exhibition held at that place, and my attention was drawn to it by a member of the committee, who asked by what name it should be catalogued. I must own that I guessed rather than knew that the object was an astrolabe, but as to its uses I was profoundly ignorant; I borrowed the instrument and endeavoured to inform myself. I found this difficult to do, as the treatises on astrolabes are rare and scarce, and it is impossible to obtain a sight of some of them without a visit to London: this I was unable through illness to undertake. The standard work on the subject is Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe; addressed to Ms son Lowys, and dated 1391. This has been most ably edited for the Early English Text Society by Professor Skeat, and to it I am much indebted. There is also an earlier edition by Mr. Brae, in 1870, which I have not seen. There is a valuable paper in The Transactions of the Bristol and Gloucestershire Archaeological Society, vol. xii. entitled Remarks on an Astrolabe, by Robert Taylor, M.A., which gives a description of an astrolabe of English make, the property of Mr. Hyett of Painswick House, Gloucestershire. A paper on the astrolabe, by the late Octavius Morgan, F.S.A., is also interred in the Archaeologia, vol. xxxiv., under the title of Supplementary Observations on an Astronomical and Astrological Table Clock, together with an account of the Astrolabe.

Type
Research Article
Information
Archaeologia , Volume 52 , Issue 1 , 1890 , pp. 75 - 84
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1890

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References

page 75 note a Morgan, Mr. Octavius, Archaeologia, vol. xxxiv. p. 261,Google Scholar refers to the following as scarce: A Mirror for Mathematics, a Golden Gem for Geometricians, a sure Safety for Saylers, and an auncient Antiquary for Astronomers and Astrologians. By Tanner, Robert, Gent. Practitioner in Astrologie and Physic. London, 1587.Google ScholarThe Description of a Planispheric Astrolabe, constructed for Sháh Sultáh Husain Safaúr, King of Persia, by Morley, W. H., Williams, and Norgate, , 1856,Google Scholar is also rare, only 100 copies having been printed for private distribution.

page 75 note b Extra series, xvi.

page 75 note c Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of London, 2nd Series, iii. 27Google Scholar, 520. Archaeological Journal, xii. 292.Google Scholar See also Archaeologia, XXXIII. 8, 84, and 293, and xxxiv. 1, and 258: “Observations on an Astrological Clock, belonging to the Society of Antiquaries”; and XL. 343, “An Account of a Pocket Dial or Nocturnal.”

page 76 note a This pin is coeval with the rewle and label, and I have had their date, 1888, scratched upon all the three: the pin of 1888 supplanted a similar pin, only rather shorter, evidently modern, and of a different coloured metal to the rest of the instrument. This pin will not fit into the astrolabe, if put in, as it ought to be, from the back side: when I first saw the instrument, this pin was inserted from the front, and the rete was on the back of the instrument, clearly showing that the parts of the instrument had been put together by some person who did not understand it.

page 76 note b A Treatise on the Astrolabe, by Geoffrey Chaucer. Early-English Text Society. Extra Series, xvi. p. 8, n. edited by Skeat, ProfessorGoogle Scholar.

page 77 note a Treatise on the Astrolabe, etc. lit ante.

page 82 note a See Mr. Taylor's paper, ut ante, p. 15.

page 82 note b Mr. Taylor's gives the lists of the festivals in the Sloane astrolabe and the one he describes.