Scientific Instruments

Featured exhibit items for scientific instruments.

Exhibit Items

	On Bees Stelluti, Francesco (1625) In this poster-sized work, the first publication of observations made with a microscope, Cesi and Stelluti studied the anatomy of the bee. The text includes classical references to bees as well as new knowledge, integrated in a tabular outline.
	The Great Art of Light and Shadow Kircher, Athanasius (1646) A “camera obscura” (“dark room”) consists of a box or container in which light enters via a small hole and projects an image on an opposite wall. The image will be reversed and upside-down, but its proportions will be preserved.
2	Astronomical Calendar, 1476 Regiomontanus, (1476) In this book, Regiomontanus predicted the positions of the Sun and Moon for 40 years. He designed a sundial to work independently of one’s latitude, and a volvelle, or circular dial, to locate the position and phase of the Moon according to date and time.
2	Theater of the World Gallucci, Giovanni Paolo (1588) Gallucci, a Venetian scholar, was interested in astronomical instruments, both physical and on paper. The “Theater of the World” features a parade of rotating wheels, or “volvelles,” descendants of the astrolabe.
4	Innovative Sundials Baldi, Bernardino (ca. 1592) This manuscript, a never-published treatise on sundials written in the author’s own hand, was lost in the 18th century and believed destroyed in a shipwreck. Baldi studied with one of Galileo’s teachers, Guidobaldo del Monte.
4	On Secret Writing Porta, Giambattista della (1563) Members of the Academy of the Lynx preferred to communicate with each other in code. Della Porta was the most accomplished cryptographer of the Renaissance. This work includes a set of movable cipher disks to code and decode messages.
6	Instruments for the Restoration of Astronomy Brahe, Tycho (1602) For two decades, Tycho and his assistants at Uraniborg produced thousands of astronomical observations of unprecedented quality. Tycho’s large-scale observing instruments, together with sophisticated new error correction techniques, increased observational precision by a factor of twenty.
6	Essays on Natural Experiences, 1666 Accademia del Cimento, (1666) The Academy of the Lynx (Accademia dei Lincei) dissolved after the death of its founder, Prince Federigo Cesi. In its place, Grand Duke Ferdinand II established the Academy of Experiment in Florence, which carried further the research program of Galileo.
9	Introduction to the Astrolabe Lansbergen, Philip van (1635) Astronomers use astrolabes for dozens of astronomical operations including telling time by the Sun or stars and determining the positions of planets.
12	Description and Use of Both the Globes, the Armillary Sphere, and Orrery Martin, Benjamin (ca. 1760) This book explains how to use the terrestrial and celestial globes, an armillary sphere (which shows the movements of the sky), and an orrery (which models the motions of the planets). Martin operated an instrument shop in London.