Astrolabes / Browse
/ 41951
| Date | 16th century (?) |
| Place | Europe |
| Material | Brass |
| Inventory no. | 41951 |
| Acquisition | No acquisition details have been found |
This astrolabe was constructed to assist in casting horoscopes. The womb of the mater has been engraved with a set of horoscopic houses. The simplified rete, consisting of just the ecliptic band, rotates over these lines. The user would set the single pointer to cross the ecliptic at the sun's position in the zodiac. Then, the ecliptic and pointer would be rotated until the pointer indicates the time for casting the horoscope. The user could read off the cusps of the horoscopic houses from the points where the ecliptic crosses the twelve lines in the womb. The simple design and small size suggest that the instrument was intended to be carried about and used frequently.
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Mater
The mater and limb are of two pieces, soldered construction. Scales on the limb: equal hours scale. More informationBack
The back is covered with a set of radial scales listing the time of sunset at six-day intervals, one for each month of the year. The back contains 12 scales of the following types: Other. More informationRete, Rivet
The rete contains 0 stars. The zodiac on the rete is labelled: ♈ , ♉ , ♊ , ♋ , ♌ , ♍ , ♎ , ♏ , ♐ , ♑ , ♒ , ♓ .The rete is attached using a rivet. More information