Forschungskolloquium zur Wissenschaftsgeschichte

'The Heavens Daily in View:' Tracking Planetary Theory within the Gears of Renaissance Automata

Datum
16:15 - 17:45 Uhr
Ort
Online
Veranstaltet von
Friedrich Steinle
Vortragende Person(en)
Michael Korey (State Art Collections, Dresden)

Planetary automata, also called planetary clocks, were expensive and rare masterpieces of technical ingenuity designed to show the subtle motion of the heavenly bodies according to Ptolemaic theory. In particular, the hands on their dials served to visualize the true motion of the planets in real time as seen by an earthly observer. These automata may justly be considered mathematical instruments for a two-fold reason: they manifest a mechanical transposition of mathematical astronomy, and their conception and design required the mastery of practical geometry and trigonometry. They were almost exclusively the reserve of princes and emperors, and within the history of astronomy notice of about a dozen of them has reached us, of which four from the Renaissance survive (in Paris, Vienna, Kassel, and Dresden). This paper presents an analysis of new research on these instruments, focusing on the two created under the explicit direction of Landgrave Wilhelm IV of Hesse-Kassel around 1560.

 

Wegen der weiterhin bestehenden Einschränkungen wird das Kolloquium im Online-Format stattfinden. Für Details und aktuelle Informationen siehe https://isis.tu-berlin.de/course/view.php?id=20896