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Newcastle-upon-Tyne, indicate that it was originally made for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.