Type: book
Inv. No. n/a
Source: MHS
One of the many editions by Gemma Frisius, published from 1529 onwards, of the popular work on cosmography first written by Peter Apian. It contains several paper instruments with moving parts, the one on view being the ‘speculum cosmographicum’, or cosmographical mirror. It fits perfectly within the agenda of cosmography, which emphasised the relationship between the heavens and the earth. Here an ecliptic circle, marking the annual path of the sun, can rotate above a planispheric projection of the earth, to show the relationships between geographical location, local time and date.
See also: Cosmographia student exhibition
Previous: Gerard Mercator’s copy of Nicolaus Copernicus, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium
Next: Astrolabe (cosmographical mirror) and universal altitude sundial by Gillis Coignet