(last modified 4 June 2002)
Notes: Works of particular importance to the history of instrumentation are in bold print. A substantial number of other studies on medieval instruments have appeared in recent years in Barcelona: a website is currently in preparation there.
Notes on abbreviations: The following abbreviations are used for individual authors, all based in Frankfurt unless otherwise indicated:
See also:
DK - Astronomy in the Service of Islam, Aldershot (U.K.): Variorum Reprints, 1993. [Contains reprints of a few articles dealing with instruments.]
DK - "Mamluk Astronomy and the Institution of the Muwaqqit", in The Mamluks in Egyptian Politics and Society, Thomas Phillipp and Ulrich Haarmann, eds., Cambridge, etc.: Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp. 153-162.
(DK) - "Astronomical Handbooks and Tables from the Islamic World (750-1900): An Interim Report" (co-author with Julio Samsó), Suhayl – Journal for the Histrory of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation (Barcelona) 2 (2001), pp. 9-105.
DK - "Some Remarks on Islamic Astronomical Instruments", Scientiarum Historia (Brussels) 18:1 (1992), pp. 5-23.
DK - "1992 – A Good Year for Medieval Astronomical Instruments", Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society No. 36 (March, 1993), pp. 17-18.
DK+KM* - "Vergessene Schätze des Mittelalters – In Frankfurt erscheint der erste Katalog mittelalterlicher astronomischer Instrumente", Forschung Frankfurt (Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, Frankfurt am Main), 11. Jahrgang (1993), Nr. 4, pp. 1-13.
DK+KM* - "Der Frankfurter Katalog mittelalterlicher astronomischer Instrumente", in Gerhard Endress and Remke Kruk, eds., The Ancient Tradition in Christian and Islamic Hellenism – Studies on the Transmission of Greek Philosophy and Sciences dedicated to H. J. Drossaart Lulofs on his ninetieth birthday, [contains the Proceedings of the Third Symposium Graeco-Arabicum held at the University of Leiden on March 26-28, 1991, and additional contributions], Leiden: Research School CNWS, School of Asian, African, and Amerindian Studies, 1997, pp. 145-164.
See also:
KHS – "Das Ernst Zinner-Archiv", in Ad radices – Festband zum fünfzigjährigen Bestehen des Instituts für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften Frankfurt am Main, Anton von Gotstedter, ed., Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1994, pp. 25-28. [Description of the research archive of Ernst Zinner, now housed in the Institute for History of Science at Frankfurt. Zinner was the leading German instrument specialist of the 20th century, and his Nachlaß contains thousands of photos of astronomical instruments and manuscripts of astronomical texts. See also the following item!]
SA - “Dormant Treasures. The Zinner-Archive at Frankfurt University”, Nuncius – Annali di Storia della Scienza (Florence), 16 (2001), pp. 711-722.
DK - "Making Instruments Talk – Some Medieval Astronomical Instruments and Their Secrets", Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, No. 44 (March, 1995), pp. 5-12.
DK - "Some Remarks on Islamic Scientific Manuscripts and Instruments and Past, Present and Future Research", in John Cooper, ed., The Significance of Islamic Manuscripts, London: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1992, pp. 115-144.
DK - "From Inscriptions to Context: Some Islamic Astronomical Instruments and their Secrets", to appear in Text and Context in Islamic Societies: Sixteenth Giorgio Levi Della Vida Conference Proceedings, to be published by the Gustav E. von Grunebaum Center for Near Eastern Studies, University of California, Los Angeles.
BS – "Mit dem Himmel in der Hand", Kultur & Technik 2/1997, 38 – 43. [Brief remarks on the astrolabes in Munich collections.]
BS - "Sterne, Winde und Gebete – Islamische Instrumente", Faszination Orient – Max von Oppenheim: Forscher, Sammler, Diplomat, Gabriele Teichmann and Gisela Völger, eds., Cologne: DuMont (for the Max Freiherr von Oppenheim-Stiftung), 2001, pp. 372-381. [A brief account based on a detailed catalogue of the von Oppenheim Collection.]
DK+KM* - "Über historische Modelle des Universums in drei und in zwei Dimensionen – die Armillarsphäre und das Astrolab" and descriptions of one early printed work and one manuscript as well as of various instruments, in Uwe Müller, ed., 450 Jahre Copernicus ‘De revolutionibus’ – Astronomische und mathematische Bücher aus Schweinfurter Bibliotheken, Schweinfurt: Stadtarchiv (Veröffentlichung Nr. 9), 1993, pp. 123-137, then 167-169 (no. 20), 351-353 (no. 169), and 361-381 (nos. 177-181).
DK - "Early Islamic Astronomical Instruments in Kuwaiti Collections", in Arlene Fullerton and Géza Fehérvári, eds., Kuwait: Art and Architecture – A Collection of Essays, Kuwait (no publisher stated), 1995, pp. 76-96.
DK - "Les instruments scientifiques en terre d’Islam", in L’apparence des cieux – Astronomie et astrologie en terre d’Islam, Sophie Makariou, ed., Paris: Éditions de la Réunion des musées nationaux, 1998, pp. 74-95. [Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Musée du Louvre during 18.6.-21.9.1998.]
BS - Die Astrolabiensammlungen des Deutschen Museums und des Bayerischen Nationalmuseums, Munich: Oldenbourg, 1999.
(KvC) - Instrumentos cientificos del siglo XVI – La corte española y la escuela de Lovaina, Madrid: Fundación Carlos Amberes, 1997; also an English translation of the text (without illustrations) is available as Scientific Instruments in the Sixteenth Century – The Spanish Court and the Louvain School.
RG - Erde, Sonne, Mond und Sterne – Globen, Sonnenuhren und astronomische Instrumente im Historischen Museum in Frankfurt am Main, Frankfurt: Historisches Museum, 1999.
((KvC))+(SA)+(FC) - Koenraad van Cleempoel, ed., Astrolabes in Greenwich. A Catalogue of the Planispheric Astrolabes in the National Maritime Museum, to be published by Oxford University Press and the National Maritime Museum. [Chapters "Astrological Scales on Astrolabes" by SA and "Islamic Astrolabes" by FC.]
DK - "L’astronomie en Syrie à l’époque islamique", in Sophie Cluzan, Eric Delpont and Jeanne Mouliérac, eds., Syrie, Mémoire et Civilisation, Paris: Flammarion (Institut du Monde Arabe), 1993, pp. 386-395, and ["Instruments astronomiques syriens"], pp. 432-443 and 480, and pp. 485-487 (bibliography, [confused]).
DK - "On the History of Astronomy in the Medieval Maghrib", in Études Philosophiques et Sociologiques Dédiées à Jamal ed-Dine Alaoui, Université Sidi Mohamed Ben Abdallah, Publications de la Faculté des Lettres et des Sciences Humaines Dhar El Mahraz - Fès, No Spécial 14 (Département de Philosophie, Sociologie et Psychologie), Fez, 1998 [published 1999], pp. 27-61. [Contains a list of Maghribi instruments.]
DK - "Astrolabes from Medieval Catalonia", for a general history of science in Catalonia to be published in Catalan by the Institute of Catalan Studies, Barcelona.
FC+PS - "Scientific Initiative in 9th-Century Baghdad: al-Khwârizmî on the Astrolabe and Related Treatises", to appear.
FC - Mathematical Instrumentation in 14th-Century Egypt and Syria, doctoral thesis, Johann Wolfgang Goethe University, Institute for History of Science, 2001. [Text edition and translation of and commentary on a richly- illustrated treatise by Najm al-Dîn al-Misrî (Cairo, ca. 1325) dealing with over 100 instrument-types, some hitherto unknown in the modern literature.]
DK – “Astronomical Instruments made in Vienna in the Fifteenth Century”, and “Medieval Astronomical Instruments in or Lost from Austrian Collections”, two appendixes in “Astronomical Instruments between East and West” (cited in 3 above), pp. 183-188 and 189-191.
KvC – A Catalogue Raisonné of Scientific Instruments from the Louvain School, 1530 to 1600, (De diversis artibus: Collections of studies from the International Academy of the History of Science, vol 65 (N.S. 28)), Turnhout (B): Brepols, 2002.
RG – Promotion (1st doctoral) thesis on aspects of the instrumentation of Georg Hartmann of Nuremberg, Frankfurt University, in preparation.
BS - "Die früheste bekannte Formgebung der Astrolabien", in Ad radices – Festband zum fünfzigjährigen Bestehen des Instituts für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften Frankfurt am Main, Anton von Gotstedter, ed., Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1994, pp. 315-328.
DK+FC - "A Survey of Medieval Islamic Tables for Constructing Astrolabes", in preparation.
KM - "Ein islamisches Astrolab aus Córdoba mit späteren altkatalanischen Inschriften", in Der Weg der Wahrheit – Aufsätze zur Einheit der Wissenschaftsgeschichte – Festgabe zum 60. Geburtstag von Walter G. Saltzer, Peter Eisenhardt, Frank Linhard and Kaisar Petanides, eds., Hildesheim: Olms, 1999, pp. 119-133.
DK - "The Monumental Syrian Astrolabe in the Maritime Museum, Istanbul", Aydin Sayili Özel Sayisi, I-III, a special issue of Erdem (Ankara: Atatürk Kültür Merkezi) [in memory of Prof. Dr. Aydin Sayili], in three parts (9:25-27), Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu Basimevi, 1996-1997, II, pp. 729-735 and 10 plates.
PS - "Ein Astrolab aus dem 17. Jahrhundert – prachtvoll und verfälscht", in Ad radices – Festband zum fünfzigjährigen Bestehen des Instituts für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften Frankfurt am Main, Anton von Gotstedter, ed., Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1994, pp. 291-314.
SA - "Mutabor: Die Umarbeitung eines mittelalterlichen Astrolabs im 17. Jahrhundert", in Ad radices – Festband zum fünfzigjährigen Bestehen des Instituts für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften Frankfurt am Main, Anton von Gotstedter, ed., Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1994, pp. 193-209.
DK - "The Earliest European Astrolabe in the Light of Other Early Astrolabes", in The Oldest Latin Astrolabe, Wesley Stevens, Guy Beaujouan and Anthony J. Turner, eds., (Physis – Rivista di storia della scienza (Rome), Nuova serie 32:2-3 (1995) [published in September, 1996], pp. 189-450), pp. 359-404.
DK+KM - "The Medieval Catalan Astrolabe of the Society of Antiquaries, London", in From Baghdad to Barcelona. Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences in Honour of Prof. Juan Vernet, Josep Casulleras and Julio Samsó, eds., (Anuari de Filologia (Universitat de Barcelona) XXX (1996) B-2), 2 vols., Barcelona: Instituto "Millás Vallicrosa" de Historia de la Ciencia Árabe, 1996, II, pp. 673-718.
DK - "An Astrolabe from 14th-Century Christian Spain with Inscriptions in Latin, Hebrew and Arabic – A Unique Testimonial to an Intercultural Encounter", to appear in Medieval Encounters – Jewish, Christian and Muslim Culture in Confluence and Dialogue. [This journal appears to be defunct.]
DK - "The Ciphers of the Monks and the Astrolabe of Berselius Reconsidered", in Amphora – Festschrift für Hans Wussing zum 65. Geburtstag, Sergei S. Demidov, Menso Folkerts, David A. Rowe and Christoph J. Scriba, eds., Basel, Boston, Mass. and Berlin: Birkhäuser, 1992, pp. 375-388.
DK - "Rewriting History through Instruments: The Secrets of a Medieval Astrolabe from Picardy", in Making Instruments Count – Essays on Historical Scientific Instruments presented to Gerard L’Estrange Turner, Robert G. Anderson, James A. Bennett, and Will F. Ryan, eds., Aldershot (U.K.): Variorum, 1993, pp. 42-62.
DK - "Astrolabe picard et numérotation cistercienne", Musée des arts et métiers (Paris) – La revue, Décembre 1997, pp. 47-55.
DK - The Ciphers of the Monks – A Forgotten Number Notation of the Middle Ages, (Boethius – Texte und Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik und der Naturwissenschaften, ed. Menso Folkerts, Band 44), Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag, 2001. [In addition to a detailed description of the astrolabe with monastic ciphers, also contains an overview of instrumentation in medieval France and a discussion of rete design and decoration.]
RG - "Zwei mittelalterliche französische Astrolabien", in Ad radices – Festband zum fünfzigjährigen Bestehen des Instituts für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften Frankfurt am Main, Anton von Gotstedter, ed., Stuttgart: Franz Steiner, 1994, pp. 211-230.
BS - "Ein Astrolab aus dem Jahr 1420", NTM – Internationale Zeitschrift für Geschichte und Ethik der Naturwissenschaften, Technik und Medizin (Basle: Birkhäuser), N.S., 5:3 (1997), pp. 142-159.
(DK) - "The Astrolabe Presented by Regiomontanus to Cardinal Bessarion in 1462" (with Gerard L’E. Turner), Nuncius: Annali di Storia della Scienza (Florence) 9:1 (1994), pp. 165-206. [The rediscovery of a dozen or so astrolabes from the same workshop and related workshops reveals the absurdity of condemning the Regiomontanus astrolabe as a fake.]
DK - "The Astrolabe Depicted in the Intarsia of the Studiolo of Archduke Federico in Urbino" (text in both English and Italian), in La scienza del Ducato di Urbino – The Science of the Dukedom of Urbino, Flavio Vetrano, ed., Urbino: Accademia Raffaello, 2001, pp. 101-139.
EC - "Ibn Bâso’s Astrolabe in the Maghrib and East", in From Baghdad to Barcelona. Studies in the Islamic Exact Sciences in Honour of Prof. Juan Vernet, Josep Casulleras and Julio Samsó, eds., (Anuari de Filologia (Universitat de Barcelona) XXX (1996) B-2), 2 vols., Barcelona: Instituto "Millás Vallicrosa" de Historia de la Ciencia Árabe, 1996, II, pp. 755-767.
EC - "A Study of the Use of Ibn Bâso’s Universal Astrolabe Plate", Archives internationales d’Histoire des sciences 50 (2000), pp. 264-295.
DK+FC - The Universal Astrolabe of Ibn al-Sarrâj – Innovation in Medieval Islamic Science (with François Charette), currently being prepared for publication.
RM+DK+KvC - "A Doubly Universal Astrolabe from 16th-Century Spain" (by Roberto Moreno, with David A. King and Koenraad van Cleempoel), to appear in Annals of Science.
MV - "Medieval Islamic Horary Quadrants for Specific Latitudes and Their Influence on the European Tradition", Suhayl – Journal for the Histrory of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation (Barcelona)1 (2000), pp. 273-355.
FC - "Der geflügelte Quadrant: Ein ungewöhnliches Sinusinstrument aus dem 14. Jh.", in Der Weg der Wahrheit – Aufsätze zur Einheit der Wissenschaftsgeschichte – Festgabe zum 60. Geburtstag von Walter G. Saltzer, Peter Eisenhardt, Frank Linhard asnd Kaisar Petanides, eds., Hildesheim: Olms, 1999, pp. 25-36.
DK - "A Vetustissimus Arabic Text on the Quadrans Vetus", Journal for the History of Astronomy 33 (2002), pp. 1-19. [See also SATMI, Pt. IXa, for a more detailed version.]
DK - "Los cuadrantes solares andalusíes", in Juan Vernet, Julio Samsó, et al., eds., El legado científico andalusí, Madrid: Ministerio de Cultura, 1992, pp. 89-102.
DK - "14th-Century England or 9th-Century Baghdad? New Insights on the Origins of the Elusive Astronomical Instrument called the Navicula de Venetiis", to appear in Centaurus. [See also SATMI, Pt. IXb, for a more detailed version.]
PS - "Two Early Arabic Sources on the Magnetic Compass", Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies 1 (1996-97), pp. 81-132. [Electronic journal accessible on the Internet via http://www.uib.no/jais/jais.htm.]
DK+KM* - "Weltkarten zur Ermittlung der Richtung nach Mekka", in Gerhard Bott, ed., Focus Behaim-Globus, 2 vols., Nuremberg: Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 1992, I, pp. 167-171, and II, 686-691.
DK - "Two Iranian World Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca", Imago Mundi – The International Journal for the History of Cartography 49 (1997), pp. 62-82 and colour plate 1.
DK - "Two Iranian World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca", in La science dans le monde iranien à l’époque islamique, Actes du colloque tenu à l’Université des Sciences Humaines de Strasbourg 6-8 juin 1995, Z. Vesel, H. Beikbaghban and B. Thierry de Crussol des Epesse, eds., (Bibliothèque iranienne 50), Tehran: Institut Français de Recherche en Iran, 1998, pp. 3-24.
DK - "Samt" [direction, world-maps centred on Mecca], The Encyclopaedia of Islam, new edition, vol. VIII, fascs. 145-146, Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1995.
DK - "Islamische Weltkarten mit Mekka als Mittelpunkt – Die Wiederentdeckung einer bemerkenswerten Tradition mittelalterlicher Kartographie", in Peter Eisenhardt, Frank Linhard asnd Kaisar Petanides, eds., Der Weg der Wahrheit – Aufsätze zur Einheit der Wissenschaftsgeschichte – Festgabe zum 60. Geburtstag von Walter G. Saltzer, Hildesheim: Olms, 1999, pp. 93-107.
DK - World-Maps for Finding the Direction and Distance to Mecca:
Innovation and Tradition in Islamic Science, Leiden: E. J. Brill, and
London: Al-Furqan Islamic Heritage Foundation, 1999. [See also the
newly-discovered material discussed in SATMI, Xc. This proves that
the notion behind the maps goes back at least to the 10th century,
as hypothesized in the book, and that the medieval Iranian tradition of
geographical data goes back at least to the 11th century, earlier
than hitherto supposed.]
KM - "Zeugen des Mehrsprachigkeit: mittelalterliche romanische Monatsnamen auf islamischen astronomischen Instrumenten", in Romania arabica. Festschrift für Reinhold Kontzi zum 70. Geburtstag, Jens Lüdtke, ed., Tübingen: Gunther Narr, 1996, pp. 251-270.
BS - Untersuchungen von mathematisch-astronomischen Darstellungen auf mittelalterlichen Instrumenten islamischer und europäischer Herkunft, Bassum (D): Verlag für Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften und der Technik, 1997. [Analyses of star-positions on the retes of numerous Islamic and European astrolabes.]
DK - "Bringing Astronomical Instruments Back to Earth: The Geographical Data on Medieval Astrolabes (to ca. 1100)", in Between Demonstration and Imagination: Essays in the History of Science and Philosophy Presented to John D. North, Arjo Vanderjagt and Lodi Nauta, eds., Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1999, pp. 3-53.
DK - "The Stars-Names on Three 14th-Century Astrolabes from Spain, France
and Italy", in Sic itur ad astra. Studien
zur Geschichte der Mathematik und Naturwissenschaften. Festschrift für
den Arabisten Paul Kunitzsch zum 70. Geburtstag, Menso Folkerts
and Richard P. Lorch, eds., Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 2000, pp. 307-333.
MMW - “Drei Astrolabien des Ibrahim Sa’id as-Sahli”, in Al-Andalus und Europa: zwischen Orient und Okzident, in preparation.
MMW - “Zur Ikonographie astrologischer Darstellungen: Gemini”, in Akten des 28. Deutschen Orientalistentages Bamberg, 26.-30. März 2001, in press.
MMW - “Science and Magic in Ayyubid Syria” for a volume on Ayyubid Jerusalem, to be published by the Islamic Art Trust, edited by Robert Hillenbrand.
MMW - Islamische Astrolabien aus kunsthistorischer Sicht,
Habilitation (2nd doctor title) thesis, Bonn University, in preparation.
DK - "Cataloguing Medieval Islamic Astronomical Instruments", an essay review of Francis Maddison and Emilie Savage-Smith, Science, Tools and Magic, vol. XII (in 2 parts) of The Nasser D. Khalili Collection of Islamic Art, general editor Julian Raby, The Nour Foundation, London, in association with Azimuth Editions and Oxford University Press, 1997, in Bibliotheca Orientalis (Leiden) 57 (2000), cols. 247-258.
DK - Review of Gerard L’E. Turner, Elizabethan Instrument Makers – The Origins of the London Trade in Precision Instrument Making, Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000, to appear in Journal for the History of Collections.
FC - Review of The Melon-shaped Astrolabe in Arabic Astronomy, E. S. Kennedy, P. Kunitzsch and R. P. Lorch, eds., Stuttgart: Franz Steiner Verlag 1999, in Berichte zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte 23 (2000), pp. 71-72.
PS - Review of the same book, to appear in Zeitschrift der Deutschen
Morgenländischen Gesellschaft.
DK - "Astronomy in Islamic Society: Qibla, Gnomonics and Timekeeping", in Encyclopaedia of the History of Arabic Science, Rushdi Rashed, ed., in collaboration with Régis Morelon, 3 vols., London and New York, N.Y.: Routledge, 1996, I, pp. 128-184; translated as "Astronomie et société musulmane : qibla, gnomonique, mîqât", in eidem, eds., Histoire des sciences arabes, 3 vols., Paris: Éditions du Seuil, 1997, I, pp. 173-215; also available in Arabic.
DK – Article "Astrolabe" in Instruments of Science: A Historical Encyclopedia, Robert Bud and Deborah Warner, eds., New York, N.Y.: Garland Publishing, 1998, pp. 32-34.
| I | A Survey of Tables for Regulating Time by the Sun and Stars (previously unpublished) |
| II | A Survey of Tables for Regulating the Times of Prayer (previously unpublished) |
| III | A Survey of Arithmetical Shadow-Schemes for Time-Reckoning |
| IV | On the Times of Prayer in Islam (previously unpublished) |
| V | On the Role of the Muezzin and Muwaqqit in Medieval Islamic Society |
| VI | Universal Solutions in Medieval Islamic Astronomy |
| VII | An Approximate Formula for Timekeeping (750-1900) (previously unpublished) |
| VIII | Astronomical Instrumentation in the Medieval Islamic World (previously unpublished in English) |
| IXa | On the Universal Horary Quadrant (for a shorter version in Centaurus 2002 see 9C above) |
| IXb | On Universal Horary Dials for Timekeeping by the Sun and Stars (for a shorter version in JHA 2002 see 9E above) |
| Xa-b | Architecture and Astronomy: The Sacred Direction in Islam |
| Xc | Safavid Mecca-Centred World-Maps (some new material) |
| XI | Aspects of Applied Astronomy in Mosques and Monasteries |
| XII | When the night sky over Qandahar was lit only by stars ... ... |