Abstract
THE Oxford University Press has produced for Dr. Gunther two sumptuous volumes. The binding is elegant, the paper is good, the print, except in the facsimile of Morley's description of a planispheric astrolabe, is clear, and the numerous photographic plates are exceedingly beautiful; these number no less than 153 in addition to 217 figures. There could scarcely be a book better fitted to lie as an ornament on a library table, and there could scarcely be a book better fitted to be left unread. Wherever I have been able to check the author, I have found him careless both in his statements and in the correction of the press. Of the latter fault there are two examples in the preface. Not all the erudition of the University Press readers has saved Dr. Gunther from the solecism De Astrolabii Canones, repeated not indeed in all, but unhappily in most of the passages where the name of Robertus Anglicus's work occurs. In the same sentence the subject ‘pages’ is followed by the singular ‘is’. The Table of Contents not only repeats the incorrect title of Robertus Anglicus's work, but also gives us ‘Severas Sabokt’ for Severus Sabokt, and in five places it substitutes ‘Bleau’ for Blaeu. After fifty pages of a mechanical facsimile of Morley's work, the author's own qualities are displayed again. On p. 53 the very name of the instrument to which the volume is devoted is given as do-rpoXd/Bov instead of ao-rpoAa/30s. On p. 59 Prof. Jenkin has become Prof. Jenkins, the date of his astrolabe being variously given as 1925, 1927, and 1928. Dorotheus of Sidon changes sex and becomes Dorothea. After this one cannot complain of a variation between Philopon, Philoponus, and Philopons.
The Astrolabes of the World: based upon the Series of Instruments in the Lewis Evans Collection in the Old Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, with Notes on Astrolabes in the Collections of the British Museum, Science Museum, Sir J. Findlay, Mr. S. V. Hoffman, the Mensing Collection, and in other Public and Private Collections.
By Dr. Robert T. Gunther. Vol. 1: The Eastern Astrolabes. Pp. xvii + 304 + 68 plates. Vol. 2: The Western Astrolabes. Pp. viii + 305–609 + plates 69–153. (Oxford: Printed at the University Press, 1932.) £10 10s. net.
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F., J. The Astrolabes of the World: based upon the Series of Instruments in the Lewis Evans Collection in the Old Ashmolean Museum at Oxford, with Notes on Astrolabes in the Collections of the British Museum, Science Museum, Sir J Findlay, Mr S V Hoffman, the Mensing Collection, and in other Public and Private Collections . Nature 131, 819–821 (1933). https://doi.org/10.1038/131819a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/131819a0
