Astrolabe

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Astrolabe

Spain, Seville, Spanish, 1226-1227/624 A.H.
Metal
Gilt copper alloy
Overall: 8 3/8 x 5 1/2 x 1 1/8 in. (21.28 x 13.97 x 2.86 cm)
Gift of Carolyn Merchant (M.2003.116a-k)
Art of the Middle East: Islamic and Contemporary
Not currently on public view

Curator Notes

The astrolabe is an astronomical device that Muslims inherited from the Hellenistic world and then passed on to medieval Europe....
The astrolabe is an astronomical device that Muslims inherited from the Hellenistic world and then passed on to medieval Europe. According to its inscriptions, this handsome gilt brass astrolabe was made in Seville, in southern Spain; exceptionally, it seems to have been altered nearly seventy years after it was made, possibly in Egypt or Syria. Like all such instruments, it was designed to measure the altitude of the stars, sun, or moon and to establish different astronomical and topographic associations without resorting to calculations or formulas; it was especially valuable in a religious context, as the Muslim times of prayer are astronomically determined.
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Bibliography

  • Lo Terrenal y lo Divino: Arte Islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015.

  • Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.

  • Lo Terrenal y lo Divino: Arte Islámico siglos VII al XIX Colección del Museo de Arte del Condado de Los Ángeles. Santiago: Centro Cultural La Moneda, 2015.

  • Komaroff, Linda. Beauty and Identity: Islamic Art from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Los Angeles: Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 2016.
  • Komaroff, Linda.  Islamic Art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art.  Los Angeles:  Museum Associates, 2005.
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