Astrolabe Catalogue

 

Date 1527
Maker Georg Hartmann
Place Nuremberg
Material Brass
Acquisition Lent by St John's College, Oxford, in 1924
Accession 1924-33

Provenance

The blackened condition of the outer surfaces, in common with other instruments from St John's College, arises from localised atmospheric pollution, perhaps from being stored or displayed in a gas-lit room. It was presented to St John's, probably in 1634, by William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury and Chancellor of Oxford University, whose arms impaled by those of Canterbury are engraved on the back; Laud had been a student, fellow, and President of St John's College. His other astrolabe, which he gave to the Bodleian Library, is also in the Museum's collection (inventory no. 47063).
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