Museo Galileo
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Plane astrolabe
    • Setting:
      Room II
    • Maker:
      Vincenzo Viviani [attr.]
    • Place:
      Italian
    • Date:
      1645
    • Materials:
      copper, wood, cardboard
    • Dimensions:
      diameter 228 mm
    • Inventory:
      1289
    • Plane astrolabe (Inv. 1289)
    • Plane astrolabe (Inv. 1289)

This astrolabe, from the Vincenzo Viviani bequest, seems to have been made for teaching purposes, perhaps by the scientist himself. The wooden, copper-edged mater carries: a tympanum with the celestial vault; a tympanum with the main stars; a copper tympanum for latitudes 38° and 43° (from Sicily to Pisa); a cardboard tympanum for latitude 43° (Pisa); a rete; and a cardboard disk with a shadow square. The limb, rete, and index are made of copper, as is the back, which features an alidade, a disk with shadow square, a windrose, and a table for ecclesiastical dates.