Astrolabe Catalogue

 

Date 1595
Place Paris (?)
Material Brass
Acquisition Presented by Lewis Evans in 1924
Accession 1924-0/2056

Provenance

Evans bought it from Percy Webster, his main London dealer. It had been sold at Puttick & Simpson's, London, on 18 June 1894. An early ownership inscription on the rule boldly records in Flemish 'Ick toebehoore Philis de Din', perhaps an abbrebiation for Philippus. The astrolabe was made for the latitudes of Paris and Lille, the capital city of French Flanders, which was at this time part of the Spanish Netherlands. The prominent religious emblems suggest it may have been made for a Jesuit.
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