Early astronomy in context: the view from the museum

Contribution List

1. Early astronomy in context: the view from the museum

Mr Stephen Johnston (History of Science Museum, University of Oxford)

Instruments were a key feature of the medieval European corpus astronomicum, with texts on the quadrant and astrolabe featuring as regular accompaniments to Sacrobosco’s De sphaera. As part of a curriculum extending from the basics of calculation to the calendar and planetary motions, instrument manuals were embedded in the didactic culture of the universities. However, if we switch from...