Russian Academy of Sciences
Peter the Great’s Museum of Anthropology and Ethnography (Kunstkammer)
The World of an Object

May- August, 2001

The Astrolabe of Arsenius

    The astrolabe (from the Greek "αστρον" - a star, and "λαβη" - to keep) is an instrument to measure angles in order to locate a star. The instrument was first designed in Ancient Greece. The astrolabe was in wide practical use in the Arab countries by the IX century: it helped to determine time of a day, continuance of day- and nighttime, to measure equatorial coordinates of celestial bodies by longitude and azimuths, etc.
    It was approximately the X century when the astrolabes reached Spain and became known in Western Europe. With time, European workshops started producing the astrolabes. First there were copies of the Arabian ones and it was the XVI century when the European masters started producing the instruments by their own design. The decorative aspect was given great emphasis and the astrolabes came into vogue and were collected by the crowned heads. Gualterus Arsenius (1530-1580), a Flemish master, was among the best tool men of that time. He worked for the Spanish king Philippe II and other noble people who perceived the astrolabes first of all as astrological instrument.
    Nowadays, in the world, there are 21 astrolabes made by Arsenius. One of them, made in 1568, belonged to the Austrian commander of the Thirty Years' War time Albrecht Wallenstein, the Duke of the Friedland and Mecklenburg. In the XIX century this astrolabe belonged to the Grand Duchess Elena Pavlovna, who granted it to the State Public Library in Petersburg (now - National Library of Russia) and later it was given to the Lomonosov Museum.

    The astrolabe is 33.5 cm in diameter.

    The astrolabe consists of the following:

• a mater or the main body is a disc with banking board and a ring for precious orientation in relation to the horizon
• three timpans - flat discs with engraved projections of celestial coordinates for latitudes of European cities 510, 51015', 520
• a grid - projection of celestial sphere of the northern hemisphere with 45 brightest stars and Zodiac circle.
• an alidade - azimuthal lever
• an axe which connect the elements of the instrument

    Fauns and Fauna are on the top of the astrolabe, who, according to the ancient mythology, represent the foresight.
    The base of the throne bears the author's signature: "G.A. neros Gemmæ Frisÿ Louanÿ Fecit anno 1668.".
    The astrolabe of Arsenius made with amazing accuracy and fine mastery is the only one of its kind in Russia.