XII.—The Great Astrolabe and other Scientific Instruments of Humphrey Cole

R.T. Gunther

doi:10.1017/S026134090001331X

XII.—The Great Astrolabe and other Scientific Instruments of Humphrey Cole

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 November 2011

R.T. Gunther

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The recent discovery of the finest known example of an English Astrolabe of the largest size, signed by the Elizabethan maker, Humphrey Cole of London, has afforded an opportunity of gathering together some notes on all instruments now known to have been made by him, and of setting forth the chief biographical details of his life. The result shows that he must be regarded as the leading English scientific instrument maker of his century.

Type: Research Article
Information: Archaeologia , Volume 76 , 1927 , pp. 273 - 317

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/S026134090001331X [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1927

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References

^{page 275 note 1} Philosophical Transactions, 1668, p. 873.Google Scholar PubMed

^{page 275 note 2} The advantage of the association of a compass needle with the astrolabe, for use as a surveying instrument is described in the Scottish Geographical Magazine for May 1927.

^{page 275 note 3} Figured in Gunther, Early Science in Oxford, vol. ii, p. 128.Google Scholar

^{page 277 note 1} Frisius, G., Cosmographia, c. 1584.Google Scholar

^{page 278 note 1} Archaeological Journal, xii, p. 292. It was purchased at the sale of Mr. Bernal's collection.

^{page 282 note 1} Diana 427 (N.E.D.).

^{page 285 note 1} Gunther, ,Early Science in Oxford, ii, p. 282.Google Scholar

^{page 291 note 1} Archaeologia, xl, p. 6.

^{page 294 note 1} Bruce, ‘Description of a Pocket-Dial’, Archaeologia, xl.

^{page 296 note 1} Digges, , Tectonicon 1556 (f. 17 in the 1592 edition).Google Scholar

^{page 300 note 1} Metcalfe, , Book of Knights.Google Scholar

^{page 300 note 2} Some of the uses of the orthographic projection are given in Stone's edition of Cunn's Treatise of the Sector, 1729.

^{page 305 note 1} Walpole, , Anecdotes of Painting, iii.Google Scholar

^{page 308 note 1} The older maps in this Atlas were engraved by Francis Hogenberg of Antwerp c. 1570. The Map of Palestine was reproduced on a reduced scale in 1598 in Maginus' edition of Ptolemy's Geography.

^{page 309 note 1} Gunther, , loc. cit., ii, p. 279.Google Scholar

^{page 310 note 1} Colvin, , Early Engraving, fig. 7.Google Scholar

^{page 311 note 1} Ruding, , Annals of Coinage, iii, p. 37.Google Scholar

^{page 311 note 2} Hocking, W., ‘Early History of Coinage by Machinery’, Numismatic Chronicle, 1909Google Scholar, and Symonds, H., ‘Mint of Queen Elizabeth’, 1916Google Scholar.

^{page 312 note 1} Calendar of State Papers, Domestic, 15th Sept. 1565.

^{page 313 note 1} State Papers, Colonial, East Indies, 1513–1616, no. 91.

^{page 315 note 1} Published by the Commissioners on Public Records, 1837.

^{page 316 note 1} Possibly the Globi terrestris sculptura of Gerard Mercator. Louvain, 1552.

^{page 316 note 2} Possibly Richard Jugge's Bishops' Bible of 1572.

^{page 316 note 3} Cuningham, Cosmographical Glasse 1559.

^{page 316 note 4} Recorde, R., Castle of Knowledge 1556.Google Scholar

^{page 316 note 5} Andrew Thevet, The New found worlde, or Antarctike … travailed and written in the French tong. English translation 1568.

^{page 316 note 6} Pedro de Medina, Regimento de navegacion, contiene las cosas que los piletos ha de saber para bien navegar. Seville, 1563.

^{page 316 note 7} Numerous hour-glasses were a necessary part of the equipment of every well-appointed ship of the period. They were used for timing the length of watches, for estimating the distance sailed and thus for deducing the longitude. Several were turned simultaneously so as to insure against the risk of the stoppage of the sand in a single glass. The Dutch used them set in frames in groups of four. ‘A [printed] Survey-Book conteining all the Rigging … Furniture and Stores belonging to his Majesties ships’ the Royal James, the Royal Katherine and Hanvich, No. 2265, in the Pepysian Library, has the following entries:

Boatswain his Sea store

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XII.—The Great Astrolabe and other Scientific Instruments of Humphrey Cole

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