Museo Galileo
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Plane astrolabe
    • Setting:
      Room II
    • Maker:
      Christoph Schissler
    • Place:
      Augsburg
    • Date:
      1560
    • Materials:
      gilt brass
    • Dimensions:
      diameter 215 mm
    • Inventory:
      1114
    • Plane astrolabe (Inv. 1114)
    • Plane astrolabe (Inv. 1114)

This elaborate astrolabe was made by the German craftsman Christoph Schissler. His signature, with the place and date of manufacture, is engraved on the back. Carries a single tympanum for latitudes 45° and 48° (corresponding to the Po Plain and Bavaria). There is a rule. The back displays the alidade, shadow square, degree scale, and hour lines. Brought to Florence from Germany by Prince Mattias de' Medici in the first half of the seventeenth century.