000 01925 a2200301 4500
001 1040235719
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008 250324042024GB eng
020 _a9781040235713
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037 _bTaylor & Francis
_cGBP 52.99
_fBB
040 _a01
041 _aeng
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100 1 _aGerard L'E. Turner
245 1 0 _aRenaissance Astrolabes and their Makers
250 _a1
260 _aOxford
_bRoutledge
_c20241028
300 _a310 p
520 _bThis book is about the archaeology of science, or what can be learnt from the systematic examination of the artefacts made by precision craftsmen for the study of the natural world. An international authority on historical scientific instruments, Gerard Turner has collected here his essays on European astrolabes and related topics. By 1600 the astrolabe had nearly ceased to be made and used in the West, and before that date there was little of the source material for the study of instruments that exists for more modern times. It is necessary to 'read' the instruments themselves, and astrolabes in particular are rich in all sorts of information, mathematical, astronomical, metallurgical, in addition to what they can reveal about craftsmanship, the existence of workshops, and economic and social conditions. There is a strong forensic element in instrument research, and Gerard Turner's achievements include the identification of three astrolabes made by Gerard Mercator, all of whose instruments were thought to have been destroyed. Other essays deal with the discovery of an important late 16th-century Florentine workshop, and of a group of mid-15th-century German astrolabes linked to Regiomontanus.
999 _c8735
_d8735