- Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Florence, inventory no. 1098. International Checklist [hereafter IC] no. 490. Gibbs Sharon L. Henderson Janice A. de Solla Price Derek A Computerized Checklist of Astrolabes Yale University Department of the History of Science New Haven, Conn. 1973 This checklist is in course of revision and extension by David A. King, Institut für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, J.-W.-Goethe Universität, Frankfurt-am-Main, Germany.
- Turner , G.L'E. 1991 . The Reconstruction of a 16th-Century Florentine Workshop . paper read at the Eleventh Scientific Instrument Symposium . September 9–14 1991 , Bologna. At that time, 16 instruments by Giusti were discussed; now the total is 19. This paper is being prepared for publication.
- Turner , G.L'E. 1983 . “ Mathematical Instrument-Making in London in the Sixteenth Century ” . In English Map-Making 1500–1650 , Edited by: Tyacke , Sarah . 93 – 106 . London : British Library . plates 47–52 The record has been greatly extended since 1983.
- Globes, but no instruments, are cited by Zinner E. Deutsche und niederländische astronomische Instrumente des 11.-18. Jahrhunderts , 2nd edn Munich 1967 443 444 reprinted 1979
- A full description is given in a manuscript inventory, ‘Inventario del Reale Gabinetto 1776–1779’, item 669. An account of the collection is in [Felice Fontana] Saggio del Reale Gabinetto di Fisica e di Storia Naturale di Firenze Rome 1775
- The occasional use of the letter ι (without a dot) seems to be an identifying sign of Gerard Mercator's hand. See his globes of 1541 and 1551, and Tabulae geographicae Cl: Ptolemei ad mentem autoris restitutae & emendatae Per Gerardum Mercatorem Illustriss: Ducis Cliviae etc: Cosmographũ Duisburg 1578 February [old style]). The Latin cartouche to Gemma Frisius's celestial globe of 1537, engraved by Gerard, shows ι eight times.
- Turner , G.L'E. 1991 . The Reconstruction of a 16th-Century Florentine Workshop . paper read at the Eleventh Scientific Instrument Symposium . September 9–14 1991 , Bologna.
- Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza Florence primum mobile, 1568, inv. 2643; astrolabe, 1568, inv. 1285; IC 4605; Science Museum, London, astrolabe, 1572, inv. A629481; IC 4606
- Museum of the History of Science Oxford LE 2072; IC 180. Diameter 409 mm.
- Museo di Storia della Scienza Florence inv. 2643
- Boffito , Giuseppe . 1929 . Gli Strumenti della Scienza e la Scienza degle Strumenti 220 – 220 . Rome reprinted 1982 but Frater Egnatius Danti Praedicatorum Fecit in M. L. Righini Bonelli, Il Museo di Storia della Scienza a Firenze (Milan: Electa Editrice, 1968), p. 12. Perusia is the Roman name for modern Perugia.
- Museo di Storia della Scienza Florence inv. 2524; inv. 2520
- 1986 . Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani Vol. XXXII , 659 – 662 . Rome 1960–, Danti, Egnazio
- Allegri , Ettore and Cecchi , Alessandro . 1980 . Palazzo Vecchio e i Medici: Guida Storica 303 – 310 . Florence
- Boffito . 1929 . Gli Strumenti della Scienza e la Scienza degle Strumenti 212 – 213 . Rome
- Righini Bonelli , M.L. and Settle , T.B. 1979 . Egnatio Danti's Great Astronomical Quadrant . Annali dell'Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza di Firenze , 4 : 3 – 13 . pt 2
- Trattato dell'Vso et della Fabbrica dell'Astrolabio. Di F. Egnatio Danti dell'Or. di S. Domenico. Con l'Aggivnta del Planisferio del Roias. All'Illvstriss. et Reveren. S. don Ferdinando Cardinal de Medici In Fiorenza Appresso i Giunti. M.D.LXVIIII. An engraving decorating the title page consists of the six balls of the Medici superposed over a terrestrial globe showing Africa and Asia. See Figure 18.
- Apianus , Petrus . 1524 . Cosmographicus Liber Landshut
- Averdunk , H. and Müller-Reinhard , J. 1914 . Gerard Mercator und die Geographen unter seinen Nachkommen Gotha For his calligraphy, and its enormous influence, see A. S. Osley, Mercator: A Monograph on the Lettering of Maps, etc in the 16th Century Netherlands with a Facsimile and Translation of his Treatise on the italic hand and a Translation of Ghim's Vita Mercatoris (London, 1969). For the Sultan's globes, see Gerard Turner, Elly Dekker, Julian Raby, and Priscilla Thomas, The Murad III Globes (London: Christie, Manson & Woods, 1991); 32 pp. catalogue of the sale on 30 October, 1991.
- A late development is the new, revised map of the North Polar region, included in Mercator's Atlas Duisburg 1595 on which Nova Zemla (Novja Zeml'a) is presented as a separate island.
- In a text: DE MVNDI CREATIONE as constitutione breuis instructio, appended to Rumold Mercator's map, Gemma Frisius is acknowledged for the projection. See Shirley Rodney W. The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps 1472–1700 London 1984 179 179 reprinted with corrections, 1987
- The texts on Mercator's world map have been Gerard Mercator's Map of the World (1569): In the form of an Atlas in the Maritiem Museum ‘Prins Hendrik’ at Rotterdam van 't Hoff B. publication of the Maritiem Museum, No. 6, Supplement to No. 2 of Imago Mundi (Rotterdam, 1961)
- 1868 . Declaratio insigniorum utilitatum, quae sunt in globo terrestri, coelesti et annulo astronomico ad invictissimum Romanum Imperatorem Carolum Quintum: Opuscule inédit de Gérard Mercator , St Nicolas : Dr Van Raemdonck . publié par le See also Averdunk and Müller-Reinhard (footnote 21), pp. 16, 56. A recently discovered atlas with manuscript maps by Mercator is mentioned by Osley (footnote 21), p. 74. See Sotheby's of London catalogue for 13 March, 1979: ‘The Mercator Atlas of Europe. To be sold as a single lot in the sale of valuable autograph letters,…’. See also P. Scott and J. Goss, ‘Important Mercator “Discovery” under the hammer’, The Map Collector, 6 (March 1979), 27–35.
- Shirley . 1984 . The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps 1472–1700 144 – 145 . London and Averdunk and Müller-Reinhard (footnote 21), pp. 72–4
- The best compilation of world maps of the sixteenth century is that by Shirley The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps 1472–1700 London 1984
- Osley . 1969 . Mercator: A Monograph on the Lettering of Maps, etc in the 16th Century Netherlands with a Facsimile and Translation of his Treatise on the italic hand and a Translation of Ghim's Vita Mercatoris 65 – 65 . London Rumold assisted: ‘Dès lors aussi il reprit le burin pour travailler aux cartes que la santé de son père ne lui permettait plus d'achever et terminer l'Atlas’; Biographie Nationale, XIV (Brussels, 1897), col. 426.
- A short outline of Mercator's life, together with an English translation of Walter Ghim's Vita Mercatoris is found in Osley Mercator: A Monograph on the Lettering of Maps, etc in the 16th Century Netherlands with a Facsimile and Translation of his Treatise on the italic hand and a Translation of Ghim's Vita Mercatoris London 1969 19 29 and 184–94. See also Averdunk and Müller-Reinhard (footnote 21)
- van Ortroy , Ferdinand . 1920 . Bio-Bibliographie de Gemma Frisius Brussels Osley (footnote 21), p. 91, suggests that Gemma himself had a workshop at Louvain founded by Gaspar a Myrica, and developed under the directing force of Gemma Frisius. It is this workshop, supposedly, which was taken over by Gualterus Arsenius when Mercator left in 1552. This questionable point of view is found in The Time Museum: Catalogue of the Collection, edited by Bruce Chandler, Volume 1, ‘Time Measuring Instruments’, Part 1, ‘Astrolabes, Astrolabe Related Instruments’, by A. J. Turner (Rockford, Illinois, 1985), p. 47. See pp. 138–9 for the argument that Gualterus and Regnerus are one and the same, Reynier being a family name, that of Gemma in fact. See footnote 52 for a possible confirmation.
- For some astrolabes from the Arsenius workshop and their signatures, see Gunther R.T. Astrolabes of the World Oxford 1932 2 vols reprinted London, 1976), pp. 382–3. See also footnote 42.
- de Smet , Antoine . 1964 . Der Goldschmid und Graveur Gaspar van der Heyden und die Konstruktion von Globen in Löwen im ersten Drittel des XVI . Der Globusfreund , 13 : 32 – 48 .
- van der Krogt , P.C.J. 1993 . Globi Neerlandici: The Production of Globes in the Low Countries 40 – 57 . Utrecht
- Osley . 1969 . Mercator: A Monograph on the Lettering of Maps, etc in the 16th Century Netherlands with a Facsimile and Translation of his Treatise on the italic hand and a Translation of Ghim's Vita Mercatoris 185 – 185 . London Ghim's words in translation.
- van Durme , M. 1959 . Correspondance Mercatorienne 14 – 17 . Antwerp No. 3, Mercator à Antoine Perrenot, Louvain 4 August [1540]: Mitto tandem, mi Reverendissime, calvariam, multo serius profecto quam opinari quiverim perfectam, sed dum paucis armis instructus hoc artificum absolvere vellem, nova subinde cavitatum obliqui, angusti, rotundi, acutive recessus instrumenta poposcere, quibus fabricandis plus iusto rei mora protacta est, ut fit, dum ipsi omnium indigi alienas cogimur et varias officinas petere.
- Beausard , Petrus . 1553 . Annuli Astronomici instrumenti cum certissimi tum commodissimi usus 19 – 20 . Antwerp ‘Verum dictis armillis si quintus annulus accedat, qui horizontis vice fungatur (cuiusmodi nonnulos videre licuit: utque est, quem magna industria ac solerti opera his proximis annis, Carolo quinto Imperatori invictissimo et matheseos studiosissimo, confecit noster Gerardus Mercator, Rupelmundanus, vir, quo fabricae instrumentorum, ut cum omnium pace dixerim, hac tempestate nullum peritiorem noverim), non me Hercule dicere possim, huiusmodi instrumentum quot usus praestare queat: adeo ut usuum certitudine (taceo multitudinem) cum astrolabio certare facile dixeris’. See also Henri Michel, ‘Mercator, Constructeur d'Instruments astronomiques’, Ciel et Terre, 78 (1962), 191–6; Antoine de Smet, ‘Mercator à Louvain’, Duisburger Forschungen, Festschrift zum 450 Geburtstag Gerhard Mercator (Duisburg, 1962), pp. 28–90.
- The astronomical ring of Mercator is described in his unpublished treatise of 1551 (footnote 26), and in Beausard Annuli Astronomici instrumenti cum certissimi tum commodissimi usus Antwerp 1553 19 20 See also letters from Mercator to Perrenot of c. 1544 and 1545 in Van Durme (footnote 36), pp. 26–30, Nos 14, 15.
- The astronomical ring of Mercator is described in his unpublished treatise of 1551 (footnote 26), and in Osley Mercator: A Monograph on the Lettering of Maps, etc in the 16th Century Netherlands with a Facsimile and Translation of his Treatise on the italic hand and a Translation of Ghim's Vita Mercatoris London 1969 186 186 Idem, Ghim's words in translation: ‘he made for His Majesty a large number of scientific instruments of exquisite workmanship’.
- Postema , Jan . 1993 . Johan van den Corput 1542–1611: Kaartmaker, Vestingbouwer, Krijgsman 42 – 42 . Kampen ‘Signetten te steken ende andersins in coper te graveren, behoirt al tot unser kunst van mathematica, dwelck nu een deel mynder studien is, want wy unse instrumente self moeten maecken’.
- An astrolabe, signed: ‘Authore Gem[m]a Frisio et exaratue a Gualtero Arsenio Lovanij 1554’, is described in Fernandez Villar Sobre el astrolabio firmado por G. Frisius y G. Arsenius de Historia Museo de Chapultepec Castillo Mexico City 1976 We are grateful to R. and M. Webster for providing a copy. This astrolabe may be the one acknowledged by Gemma Frisius in De Astrolabo Catholico Liber (Antwerp, 1556), pp. 14v–15r: ‘Astrolaba quae nostro instinctu per nepotem nostru[m] Gualterum Arsenium co[n]structa sunt, ad secundu[m] annum à bissexto inscriptos habent dies’. In the same chapter the year is shown to be 1554.
- Osley . 1969 . Mercator: A Monograph on the Lettering of Maps, etc in the 16th Century Netherlands with a Facsimile and Translation of his Treatise on the italic hand and a Translation of Ghim's Vita Mercatoris London chapter 5
- Shirley . 1984 . The Mapping of the World: Early Printed World Maps 1472–1700 88 – 89 . London
- Osley . 1969 . Mercator: A Monograph on the Lettering of Maps, etc in the 16th Century Netherlands with a Facsimile and Translation of his Treatise on the italic hand and a Translation of Ghim's Vita Mercatoris 65 – 65 . London
- The Librarian of the Royal Geographical Society kindly provided a photocopy. For Ghim on the Mercator brothers, see Osley Mercator: A Monograph on the Lettering of Maps, etc in the 16th Century Netherlands with a Facsimile and Translation of his Treatise on the italic hand and a Translation of Ghim's Vita Mercatoris London 1969 191 192
- 1587 . Orbis Terrae Compendiosa Descriptio Duisburg Two hemispheres in stereographic projection.
- See Dekker E. van der Krogt P. Mercator and his Globes Mercator: Time and Space in press For the Copernican precession theory, see N. M. Swerdlow and O. Neugebauer, Mathematical Astronomy in Copernicus's De Revolutionibus. Studies in the History of Mathematics and Physical Sciences (New York, 1984), x, pp. 127–48.
- We used the ‘Ptolemaic’ catalogue edited by Kunitzsch P. Der Sternkatalog des Almagest. II: Die lateinische Übersetzung Gerhards von Cremona Wiesbaden 1990 in Claudius Ptolemäus and III: Gesamtkonkordanz der Sternkoordinaten (Wiesbaden, 1991).
- Beausard . 1553 . Annuli Astronomici instrumenti cum certissimi tum commodissimi usus 53 – 53 . Antwerp
- Osley . 1969 . Mercator: A Monograph on the Lettering of Maps, etc in the 16th Century Netherlands with a Facsimile and Translation of his Treatise on the italic hand and a Translation of Ghim's Vita Mercatoris 93 – 93 . London figure 45. The signature is visible: Nepos Gemmæ Frisij faciebat Louanÿ anō 1557 GAR. This monogram GAR may be read as: Gualterius Arsenius Regnerus.
- Astrolabe in the Museum of the History of Science Oxford LE 2047; IC 229. See Gunther (footnote 32), pp. 384–6, Pls XCII, XCIII.
- On 1 November 1569 a world map was sold by Plantin to ‘D. Balthasar Rovelascha p[our] Rafael Bruenello de fratelli Friscobaldi p[ar] commission de Claude de Lorneau’; see Voet Léon Les relations commerciales entre Gérard Mercator et la maison Plantinienne à Anvers Duisburger Forschungen 1962 6 171 229 expecially p. 205 table 4, p. 211 note 71. Rafael Brunelli will have been the agent for the Florentine bankers Frescobaldi. The production of the world map was already in full swing, for in September 1569 the Plantin firm in Antwerp bought 56 maps from Mercator (idem). For the European banking empire of the Fuggers, and its influence, see Götz Freiherr von Pölnitz, Die Fugger (Frankurt-am-Main, 1960). With headquarters in Augsburg, and foreign trading post at Antwerp, the Fuggers had Grossfaktorei also in Venice, Genoa, and Rome during the sixteenth century.
Annals of Science
Volume 50, 1993 - Issue 5