Inventory no. 37297 - Former Display Label
37
German ASTROLABE
c.1585
Signed, on the bottom of the edge, "Erasmus Habermel"; undated. Gilt brass. Maximum diam. of polygon: 195 mm.
Rete for 17 stars, of unusual pattern. As on all known astrolabes bearing the name of Habermel, the ecliptic circle on the rete is wrongly divided, rendering it useless (cf. the other Habermel astrolabe shown here). 3 plates, engraved for latitudes 39°, 42°; 45°, 48°; and 51°, the sixth side being engraved as a tablet of horizons, together with a conversion scale of equal and unequal hours and shadow scales. The mater is engraved with a quadratum nauticum. The back is engraved with the universal projection known as the astrolabum (sic) catholicum of Gemma Frisius (see the adjacent horizontal case). There is a second wedge (horse), washer and pin for use when the rule and sliding cursor (used with the universal projection) were not required.
The arms on the suspension piece have been identified as those of Franciscus Paduanius of Forli (Italy); some 28 other instruments, dated 1585 and 1586, bearing the name of Habermel are also engraved with these arms. Paduanius was a physician who included Popes and the Emperor Rudolf II among his clients. The polygonal (12-sided) shape of this astrolabe is very unusual, but there is another polygonal Habermel astrolabe in Dublin.
[IC 278]
Lewis Evans Collection