Inventory no. 36441 - Former Display Label
Facsimile of a Spanish MARINER'S ASTROLABE
?c.1585
Electrotype facsimile; bronze. Unsigned and undated.
The astrolabe of which this is an electrotype copy is now in the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. It was found on Valencia Island, Co. Kerry, Eire, in 1845, within view of the place where three vessels of the Spanish Armada were wrecked. It may, therefore have come from one of these ships. The shape of the bracket and the type of suspension attachment are not unlike those found on Hispano-Moorish astrolabes; they suggest a Spanish origin.
Though the degrees are marked on the limb of the instrument, they are not numbered; the instrument is perhaps unfinished.
[Gunther 318]