Illustrating the phaenomena

Oxford University Press

2013

487 p.

9780199609697

contents: Cover; Contents; 1. Preliminaries; 1.1 The descriptive tradition; 1.2 The geometry of the cosmos; 1.3 The mathematical tradition; 1.4 Signs, conventions, precession, and epochal modes; 1.5 Prerequisites to globe making; 1.6 Hipparchus's rule; Appendix 1.1 Summary of the ancient constellations; Appendix 1.2 On sources; Appendix 1.3 Locating colures with respect to stars; 2. Celestial cartography in antiquity; 2.1 The Berlin fragment; 2.2 The Larissa globe; 2.3 Kugel's globe; 2.4 The Mainz globe; 2.5 Hyginus's globe; 2.6 The Farnese globe; Appendix 2.1 Catalogue of antique celestial globes; 3. The descriptive tradition in the Middle Ages3.1 Summer and winter hemispheres; 3.2 Planispheres; 3.3 Northern and southern hemispheres; 3.4 Globe making in the Middle Ages; Appendix 3.1 Catalogue of medieval hemispheres; Appendix 3.2 Catalogue of medieval planispheres; Appendix 3.3 Northern and southern medieval hemispheres; Appendix 3.4 Medieval pictures of globes; 4. Islamic celestial cartography; 4.1 The celestial ceiling of Qusayr (omitted)Amra; 4.2 The Islamic mathematical tradition; 4.3 The Uranography of Abu 'L-Husayn al-Sufi (903-86); 4.4 Extant globes made before 1500; Appendix 4.1 Islamic globes with constellation images made before 15005. The mathematical tradition in medieval Europe; 5.1 The mathematical tradition: the Islamic legacy; 5.2 Ptolemy's precession globe; 5.3 Maps in the mathematical tradition; 5.4 Globes in the service of astrology; Appendix 5.1 European celestial maps made before 1500; Appendix 5.2 European celestial globes made before 1500; Epilogue; Bibliography; Addendum; Manuscript Index.

The introduction of the moving sphere as a model for understanding the celestial phenomena caused a great breakthrough in scientific thinking about the structure of the world. It provided the momentum for making celestial globes and mapping the stars. Celestial globes were produced first by Greek astronomers, and soon became greatly appreciated in antiquity as decorative objects (3 antique globes). The design and construction of the globe varied greatly as it passed through the Arabic (10 scientific globes made before 1500) and Medieval European cultures (3 scientific globes made before 1500). It was the starting-point for the design of many maps in antiquity and later in the Middle Ages (33) serving to illustrate books such as Aratus's Phaenomena. In the early fifteenth century scientific celestial maps (5) were constructed in their own right, independent of globes. In this book all extant celestial maps and globes made before 1500 are described and analysed in detail. This prestigious study will appeal to academic historians of science and astronomy, and art historians alike.

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