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Astrolabe
Attributed to Giovanni Battista Giusti
Later 16th century; Florence
Brass and wood; 840 mm in diameter

This great astrolabe, positioned on a tilting octagonal table, is made up of just one plate for the latitude of Florence. It is provided with a rete, with the zodiac circle, constellations and stars, and alidade.

The device is unsigned, but the style in which it is constructed has led to its attribution to either Egnatio Danti or Giovanni Battista Giusti, both of whom were active in Florence in the 1560s.

The instrument belonged to the Medicean collections. It was requested and borrowed by natural philosophers and mathematical practitioners who wished to make calculations and observations of the Florentine sky, including Galileo.

Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Firenze
Inventory no. 3361

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