Astrolabe Catalogue

 

Date ca. 1575
Maker Humphry Cole
Place London
Material Gilt brass
Acquisition Presented by A. E. Gunther in 1986
Accession 1971-14

Provenance

The Gunther Collection, initially deposited on loan in 1940 by the executors of R. T. Gunther (1869-1940), the Museum's founding Curator, was a very miscellaneous collection, and contained four astrolabes (one of them added later). His son A. E. Gunther added this astrolabe to the collection in 1971, having come across it at the Heacham, Norfolk, home of his mother. It must be assumed to have remained in the family's possession accidentally after R. T. Gunther died, some items (in line with Government wartime advice) having been removed from the Museum or hidden away. It has been speculated that Gunther acquired it independently in the 1920s, but it is not included in his book The Astrolabes of the World (1932). Historically it belongs, however, to Oxford University's Savilian Collection of astronomical instruments, the surviving parts of which were transferred to the Museum from the University Observatory in 1936. It bears around the edge part of the standard contemporary inscription ('1659. Acad. Oxon. {Ex dono Nic Greaves. S.T.D.') recording the gift of these instruments to the University by Nicholas Greaves, in memory of his brother John Greaves, Savilian Professor of Astronomy at Oxford, and his predecessor John Bainbridge. The instruments had belonged to John Greaves, and some of them were associated with his scientific expedition to the Middle East in 1637-40. The latitudes of the plates of this astrolabe, however, ranging from London to Newcastle-upon-Tyne, indicate that it was originally made for use in England.
MHS Home | Contact Us | ©2006 Museum of the History of Science