Gerard L'E. Turner, Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford, UK

• Contents: Preface; Later medieval and renaissance instruments; The craftsmanship of the 'Carolingian' astrolabe, IC 3042; A critique of the use of the first point of Aries in dating astrolabes; The astrolabe presented by Regiomontanus to Cardinal Bessarion in 1462; An astrolabe belonging to Galileo?; The Florentine workshop of Giovan Battista Giusti, 1556-c.1575; An astrolabe attributed to Gerard Mercator, c.1570; The three astrolabes of Gerard Mercator; A Tudor astrolabe by Thomas Gemini and its relationship to an astrological disc by Gerard Mercator of 1551; An astrolabe for Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, by Erasmus Habermel; An unusual Elizabethan silver globe by Charles Whitwell; Zinner's ghosts and a curious date:1576; Index.

'The dozen essays in this remarkably unified ensemble have been gathered together from seven different books or journals... Turner [...] has produced a tour de force of perceptive erudition. 'Material culture' now rises to a truly professional and sophisticated level.' Annals of Science

Gerard L'E. Turner, Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford, UK

• Contents: Preface; Later medieval and renaissance instruments; The craftsmanship of the 'Carolingian' astrolabe, IC 3042; A critique of the use of the first point of Aries in dating astrolabes; The astrolabe presented by Regiomontanus to Cardinal Bessarion in 1462; An astrolabe belonging to Galileo?; The Florentine workshop of Giovan Battista Giusti, 1556-c.1575; An astrolabe attributed to Gerard Mercator, c.1570; The three astrolabes of Gerard Mercator; A Tudor astrolabe by Thomas Gemini and its relationship to an astrological disc by Gerard Mercator of 1551; An astrolabe for Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, by Erasmus Habermel; An unusual Elizabethan silver globe by Charles Whitwell; Zinner's ghosts and a curious date:1576; Index.

'The dozen essays in this remarkably unified ensemble have been gathered together from seven different books or journals... Turner [...] has produced a tour de force of perceptive erudition. 'Material culture' now rises to a truly professional and sophisticated level.' Annals of Science

Gerard L'E. Turner, Museum of the History of Science, University of Oxford, UK

• Contents: Preface; Later medieval and renaissance instruments; The craftsmanship of the 'Carolingian' astrolabe, IC 3042; A critique of the use of the first point of Aries in dating astrolabes; The astrolabe presented by Regiomontanus to Cardinal Bessarion in 1462; An astrolabe belonging to Galileo?; The Florentine workshop of Giovan Battista Giusti, 1556-c.1575; An astrolabe attributed to Gerard Mercator, c.1570; The three astrolabes of Gerard Mercator; A Tudor astrolabe by Thomas Gemini and its relationship to an astrological disc by Gerard Mercator of 1551; An astrolabe for Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma, by Erasmus Habermel; An unusual Elizabethan silver globe by Charles Whitwell; Zinner's ghosts and a curious date:1576; Index.

'The dozen essays in this remarkably unified ensemble have been gathered together from seven different books or journals... Turner [...] has produced a tour de force of perceptive erudition. 'Material culture' now rises to a truly professional and sophisticated level.' Annals of Science