French Vernacular Books / Livres vernaculaires français (FB)

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The Astrolabe

An ancient instrument for solving problems of location and distance, as well as time

Astrolábon órganon is the word used in Ptolemaeus Syntaxis 5.1 to describe a form of armillary sphere consisting of both fixed and rotating rings for determining the ecliptic co-ordinates of stars. Also called astrolabe were two-dimensional representations of the celestial sphere: over fixed disks with a representation of the horizon of the earth (in each case for a specific geographic latitude) and its parallels up to the zenith lies a rotating representation of the heavens (called ‘spider’ or ‘net’) with zodiac and indicators for some of the brightest stars. On the back is an indicator (‘alidade’) with visor plates for calculating the height of the stars. The astrolabe allows its user to determine the hours of day and night, the positions of stars, and the height and depth of objects on earth (mountains, buildings, wells). The oldest extant descriptions of the flat, planispheric astrolabe come from Iohannes Philoponus, 6th century AD, and (in Syrian) from Severus Sebokht, c. 660 AD. Indirect references may date back as early as Theon (4th cent.). Between the 8th and the 9th centuries the Arabs appropriated the knowledge of the astrolabe. At the end of the 10th century and again in the 12th century, they passed it on to Western Europe, where astrolabes were constructed up until the 17th cent. Today, one Byzantine astrolabe (from 1062) is extant, as are some 750 Arabic-Islamic astrolabes and approximately the same number of European astrolabes.

This information is abstracted from Brill's New Pauly, the English edition of the authoritative Der Neue Pauly, Encyclopaedia of the Ancient World. The encyclopaedic coverage and high academic standard of the work, the interdisciplinary and contemporary approach and clear and accessible presentation have made the New Pauly the unrivalled modern reference work for the ancient world. For more information see www.brillsnewpauly.com or visit our website catalog: www.brill.nl/bnp
Brill’s New Pauly and the complete original Der Neue Pauly, the recognized standard reference works for students and scholars of the ancient world are also available online. This dual-language edition offers basic and advanced search facilities and is fully browsable. New English translations are added as they become available. See www.paulyonline.brill.nl for more information and a demo version.

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French Vernacular Books / Livres vernaculaires français (FB)

Books Published in the French Language before 1601 / Livres imprimés en français avant 1601

Edited by Andrew Pettegree, Malcolm Walsby and Alexander Wilkinson

Books

Available
Publication year: 2007


ISBN-13 (i)The ISBN (International Standard Book Number) has been changed from 10 to 13 digits on 1 January 2007:	978 90 04 15687 6
ISBN-10:	90 04 15687 9

Cover:	Cloth
Number of pages:	vol.1: lxvi, 738 pp.; vol. 2: xxxvi, 804 pp.
Number of volumes:	2
Google Book Search:	View this book at Google Book Search

List price:	€ 312.00 / US$ 444.00

Reviews

“Destined to become a standard work of reference”. Des McTernan, Curator, French Language Imprints 1501-1850, The British Library. In: French Studies Library Group Annual Review. Issue 3 (2006-7)

Readership

Scholars and researchers interested in the history, culture and literature of sixteenth-century France, as well as librarians and bibliographers in France and in the major research libraries worldwide.

About the author(s)

Andrew Pettegree, M.A., D. Phil. (Oxford, 1984), is Professor of Modern History at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of a number of books on the European Reformation and aspects of the European book world.

Malcolm Walsby, Ph. D. (2001) in History, University of Kent at Canterbury, is AHRC Project Manager at the University of St Andrews. He is the author of The Counts of Laval: Culture, Patronage and Religion in fifteenth- and sixteenth-century France (Ashgate, 2007).

Alexander S. Wilkinson, M. Litt., Ph. D. (2001) in History, University of St Andrews, is Director of the Centre for the History of the Media at University College Dublin, and author of Mary Queen of Scots and French Public Opinion (Palgrave, 2004).

This work offers for the first time a complete list of all books published wholly or partially in the French language before 1601. Based on twelve years of investigations in libraries in France, the United Kingdom, the United States, Germany, the Netherlands and elsewhere, it provides an analytical short-title catalogue of over 52,000 bibliographically distinct items, with reference to surviving copies in over 1,600 libraries worldwide. Many of the items described are editions and even complete texts fully unknown and re-discovered by the project. French Vernacular Books is an invaluable research tool for all students and scholars interested in the history, culture and literature of France, as well as historians of the early modern book world.

Customers interested in this title may also be interested in: Iberian Books, edited by Alexander Wilkinson.

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