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View full screenBrass astrolabe, the second earliest surviving signed and dated astrolabe made in Europe, by Muhammad ibn al-Saffâr, Cordova, Spain, 417 AH, 1026 - 1027 AD, with rete c. 1300
T.1959.62
ibn al-Saffâr, Muhammad, 1026 - 1030 (fl.), Instrument maker
Cordova, Spain, Southern Europe
1026 - 1027
417 AH
c. 1300
Hispano-Moorish
Brass
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Turner, A.J., The Time Museum catalogue of the collection, Vol 1: Time Measuring Instruments, Part 1 Astrolabes and Astrolabe Related Instruments, Rockford, 1985, p. 115
Hernández Pérez, Azucena, Catalogo razonado de los astrolabios de la Espana medieval, Madrid 2018, pp 43-49
Hernández Pérez, Azucena, Astrolabios en al-Andalus y los reinos medievales hispanos, Madrid 2018, p 96
Jones, Jean and Uhl, Mary (eds.), Under One Roof, Edinburgh, 1996
Macdonald, A. and Morrison-Low, A.D., A Heavenly Library: Treasures from the Royal Observatory's Crawford Collection, Edinburgh, Royal Observatory and NMS, 1994, p. 24
The replacement rete is discussed by King, David A. 'Medieval Astronomical Instruments: A Catalogue in Preparation' in Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No 31 (1991), pp 3-7
Plenderleith, R. W., ‘Discovery of an Old Astrolabe’ in The Scottish Geographical Magazine, Vol. 76, No. 1, 1960: 25.
Phillips, P., The Collectors’ Encyclopeadia of Antiques, London 1973, p.604, fig. a.
Maddison, F., and Turner, A., Science and Technology in Islam, exhibition catalogue, London 1976, pp.104–6.
King, D. A., ‘Some Medieval Astronomical Instruments and their Secrets’, in Mazzolini, R. G. (ed.), Non-Verbal Communication in Science prior to 1900, Florence 1993, pp.29–52.
Ulrike Al-Khamis "Astrolabe" in Discover Islamic Art, Museum With No Frontiers, 2019. http://islamicart.museumwnf.org/database_item.php?id=object;ISL;uk;Mus03;1;en
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