Learning, Language and Invention: Essays Presented to Francis Maddison: 6 (Astrolabica ; No. 6)

This volume reflects the three key elements that have characterised Francis Maddison’s long career as curator of the Museum of the History of Science in Oxford: a passion for language (both his own and the exotic products of other cultures), a deep thirst for learning, and an interest in scientific artifacts as an indivisible part of material culture. Artifacts, scientific of otherwise, are as much the products of their culture as painting or literature. Much of the work at the Museum of the History of Science during Francis Maddison’s curatorship has been to bridge the gap between the so-called ’two cultures’, probably the most pernicious trend of the twentieth century. The papers included here range widely, covering such subjects as early Islamic decorated ceilings and hydrostatic devices, early European language books in the Bodleian Library, Paschall’s attempt at a universal language, the philology of Jacob Golius’ celestial globe, musical symbolism in Renaissance mathematics, astrological symbolism in Chaucer, Drebbel’s perpetuum mobile as it survives in documents and paintings, and a conducted tour of early instrument books in the Museum’s collection. Among the instruments discussed are George Graham’s proto-orreries, Gassendi’s astronomical instruments, the origins of the mariner’s compass as depicted by Stradanus, a medieval spherical astrolabe and two Indian hororary quandrants. The contributors to this volume have a deep appreciation of Francis Maddison’s cross-cultural approach to the study of scientific instruments: combining the archaeologist’s delight in objects, the philologist’s fascination with linguistic problems, the art historian’s eye for decorative embellishments, the historians’s need for context, the archivist’s appreciation of documents, and the bibliographer’s urge to catalogue. All these disciplines are essential to the study of scientific instruments, as is amply demonstrated by the essays in this