Elizabethan Instrument Makers

The Origins of the London Trade in Precision Instrument Making
Erscheinungsjahr 2000
ISBN: 978-0-19-856566-6
Verlag: Oxford University Press

Buch, Englisch, 332 Seiten, Print PDF, Format (B × H): 196 mm x 255 mm, Gewicht: 897 g

Europe in the sixteenth century experienced a period of unprecedented vitality and innovation in the spheres of science and commerce. The Americas had been discovered and the colonizing nations had an urgent need for mathematical instruments for navigation and surveying. The Elizabethan age saw the establishment of the precision instrument-making trade in London, from 1540, a trade that would become world-famous in the succeeding two centuries.The first of a group of London makers was an immigrant from Flanders, Thomas Gemini, succeeded by the Englishman, Humfrey Cole.It has proved possible to find over 100 surviving mathematical instruments, signed and unsigned, made by a group of London makers during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I. This book describes these instruments in detail, together with the methods by which unsigned instruments are attributed. It tells how the skills of dividing and engraving on brass developed in parallel with the map-making and printing for which the Low Countries were the most important centre. There was already a demand in Elizabethan England for these skills, since accurate measurement was crucial to the professions of navigation, surveying, fortification, and gunnery. England, at war with Spain, eager to exploit the riches of the New World, and, at home, experiencing the re-distribution of monastic property to individual landowners, urgently needed these new professions.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Turner, Gerard L'E.

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Geschichtswissenschaft Geschichtliche Themen Wissenschafts- und Universitätsgeschichte
• Naturwissenschaften Physik Physik Allgemein Geschichte der Physik
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften, Formalen Wissenschaften & Technik
• Geowissenschaften Geographie | Raumplanung Geodäsie, Kartographie, GIS, Fernerkundung
• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Psychologie / Allgemeines & Theorie Geschichte der Psychologie
• Naturwissenschaften Chemie Chemie Allgemein Geschichte der Chemie
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Forschung und Information Forschungsmethodik, Wissenschaftliche Ausstattung
• Geowissenschaften Geologie Geodäsie, Kartographie, Fernerkundung
• Interdisziplinäres Wissenschaften Wissenschaften: Allgemeines Geschichte der Human- und Sozialwissenschaften

Inhaltsverzeichnis

- Foreword by Director of the British Museum Preface; PART I: The Trade: the London trade in the sixteenth century; The craftsmen; The map and book engravers; The instruments produced; Sir Robert Dudley,an exceptional patron Part II: The Catalogue; Appendix: The attribution of unsigned instruments ( with M. St.J.Turner); Bibliography; Index

Über Autor(innen)

Gerard L'E Turner is Senior Research Associate at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford. He is one of the UK's foremost authorities on scientific instruments, and has been the recipient of a number of awards and prizes.