Astrolabe Catalogue

 

Date ca. 1350
Place Oxford
Material Brass
Acquisition Lent by Oriel College, Oxford, in 1924
Accession 1924-23

Provenance

Oriel College presumably owned it from an early date. It has been said to have been part of a bequest to the college by Simon Bredon (c.1310-1372), a leading member of the so-called 'Merton School' of astronomer-physicians. In fact in his will, made in 1368, Bredon bequeathed his large astrolabe to Merton College and his small astrolabe to William Rede, who may subsequently have given it to Merton (which has two medieval astrolabes to this day). That the Oriel College astrolabe similarly emerges from this 14th-century scientific renaissance in Oxford is nonetheless reasonably certain.
MHS Home | Contact Us | ©2006 Museum of the History of Science