Stephen Johnston
@stephenaj.bsky.social
Curator Emeritus at Oxford's History of Science Museum; STEM historian, particularly instruments and material culture - current research focused on astrolabes and astrology in medieval and renaissance Europe. (Disclaimer: focus known to wander.)
Quite a line up !
November 9, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Quite a line up !
Though, having said that, I can't offer any sensible suggestions for the potentially enormous digital infrastructure that would be needed for your project idea....
November 7, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Though, having said that, I can't offer any sensible suggestions for the potentially enormous digital infrastructure that would be needed for your project idea....
Of course, yes, I now remember that I saw that post of yours. I had thought I was mostly sharing this little find to persuade Josefina that, despite my lack of recent progress, I really was still at work on our joint project. But was I also subconsciously trying to contribute elsewhere too?
November 7, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Of course, yes, I now remember that I saw that post of yours. I had thought I was mostly sharing this little find to persuade Josefina that, despite my lack of recent progress, I really was still at work on our joint project. But was I also subconsciously trying to contribute elsewhere too?
Lorch (1942-2021) was then based at #Manchester #UMIST and a fellow student of medieval astronomy – in his case mostly Arabic but also Latin. His copy of Goldstein's edition of this set of tables is a nice reminder that even the most apparently austere scholarship is personally underpinned.
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November 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Lorch (1942-2021) was then based at #Manchester #UMIST and a fellow student of medieval astronomy – in his case mostly Arabic but also Latin. His copy of Goldstein's edition of this set of tables is a nice reminder that even the most apparently austere scholarship is personally underpinned.
(4/4)
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A real surprise and delight to unpack what I thought was an anonymous purchase and instead discover it was an author’s dedication copy, addressed to Richard [Lorch] “in appreciation of a pleasant visit with you in Manchester”. It was signed by “Bernie” almost exactly 50 years ago.
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November 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM
A real surprise and delight to unpack what I thought was an anonymous purchase and instead discover it was an author’s dedication copy, addressed to Richard [Lorch] “in appreciation of a pleasant visit with you in Manchester”. It was signed by “Bernie” almost exactly 50 years ago.
(3/4)
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I’m currently working with Josefina Rodriguez-Arribas on the mathematics of early 15th-century Hebrew astrology and decided it would be useful to have an edition of a key primary source to hand.
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November 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM
I’m currently working with Josefina Rodriguez-Arribas on the mathematics of early 15th-century Hebrew astrology and decided it would be useful to have an edition of a key primary source to hand.
(2/4)
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Well, you only have to give away your email address to get the e-newsletter. But when it arrives it'll definitely be a debit on your time and reading budget so, you're right, maybe not for free after all....
November 5, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Well, you only have to give away your email address to get the e-newsletter. But when it arrives it'll definitely be a debit on your time and reading budget so, you're right, maybe not for free after all....
"were devised to make men fall in love with Astronomy, for many times it falleth out so among us, that albeit we are not willing to give ear unto a matter or to read a discourse because it is profitable, yet will we give ear unto it and take pains to read or hear it because it is pleasant"
October 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
"were devised to make men fall in love with Astronomy, for many times it falleth out so among us, that albeit we are not willing to give ear unto a matter or to read a discourse because it is profitable, yet will we give ear unto it and take pains to read or hear it because it is pleasant"
Though I've always liked Thomas Hood's comment at the end of the C16 when he was discussing his printed celestial maps. He devoted many pages to the "poetical fables" of the constellations that were represented on his engraved plates, and noted that these fables....
October 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Though I've always liked Thomas Hood's comment at the end of the C16 when he was discussing his printed celestial maps. He devoted many pages to the "poetical fables" of the constellations that were represented on his engraved plates, and noted that these fables....
I wish that were true, but it's not. I can't bring the context to know how unusual or utterly standard it was to include lines from poetry in this sort of early scholastic writing. (I haven't moved on much since that first approach to Sacrobosco.)
October 15, 2025 at 4:55 PM
I wish that were true, but it's not. I can't bring the context to know how unusual or utterly standard it was to include lines from poetry in this sort of early scholastic writing. (I haven't moved on much since that first approach to Sacrobosco.)
I'm not complaining - or at least I won't be when everyone's contribution is condensed into a diamond-bright thread, and unleashed on the world in 300-character bites....
October 15, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I'm not complaining - or at least I won't be when everyone's contribution is condensed into a diamond-bright thread, and unleashed on the world in 300-character bites....
Makes me think of the first time I ever looked at Sacrobosco's Sphere, and was very surprised at the presence of quotations from classical poetry. Not what I was innocently or naively expecting for a C13 Paris university text. If you find someone to comment on that, I for one would be glad to read!
October 15, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Makes me think of the first time I ever looked at Sacrobosco's Sphere, and was very surprised at the presence of quotations from classical poetry. Not what I was innocently or naively expecting for a C13 Paris university text. If you find someone to comment on that, I for one would be glad to read!
What a nice initiative - especially the scope for including practising poets. And perhaps you can arm-twist all the participants at the "Teaching the Cosmos" workshop to contribute a thread before they are allowed to leave? 🙂 (Not exactly live-tweeting, but very useful for those of us not there.)
October 15, 2025 at 3:57 PM
What a nice initiative - especially the scope for including practising poets. And perhaps you can arm-twist all the participants at the "Teaching the Cosmos" workshop to contribute a thread before they are allowed to leave? 🙂 (Not exactly live-tweeting, but very useful for those of us not there.)
That last image is indeed more suggestive than the other two. It made me think of a parallax diagram, but one that had been somehow combined with sighting the visible moon (perhaps because there is a reference in the text below to Galileo's telescope?)
October 15, 2025 at 3:48 PM
That last image is indeed more suggestive than the other two. It made me think of a parallax diagram, but one that had been somehow combined with sighting the visible moon (perhaps because there is a reference in the text below to Galileo's telescope?)
Just from the letter forms, it's surely much more recent. But undoubtedly from before the period of modern conservation practice! Early 20th century? I can ask Michael Korey at MPS if you're curious. (I don't think he's on Bluesky)
October 15, 2025 at 9:03 AM
Just from the letter forms, it's surely much more recent. But undoubtedly from before the period of modern conservation practice! Early 20th century? I can ask Michael Korey at MPS if you're curious. (I don't think he's on Bluesky)
As little as possible - I strongly suspect they're not for EIDA analysis! Surely they're just there to signal geometry and astronomy in an impressionistic rather than realistic way - no? (Especially the lower one, where the triangle doesn't even reach the implausible crescent of the moon....)
October 14, 2025 at 5:24 PM
As little as possible - I strongly suspect they're not for EIDA analysis! Surely they're just there to signal geometry and astronomy in an impressionistic rather than realistic way - no? (Especially the lower one, where the triangle doesn't even reach the implausible crescent of the moon....)
That's funny - I was also struck by the incongruously modern engraved lettering of Venus the last time I was in Dresden, and so took almost exactly the same image. The contrast between the sumptuous original decoration and this later identification of the planet is pretty extreme....
October 14, 2025 at 5:08 PM
That's funny - I was also struck by the incongruously modern engraved lettering of Venus the last time I was in Dresden, and so took almost exactly the same image. The contrast between the sumptuous original decoration and this later identification of the planet is pretty extreme....
As a museological exercise, it would be interesting to compare with the GNM exhibition from more than 20 years ago: "Quasi Centrum Europae: Europa Kauft in Nürnberg 1400-1800" (though I didn't see that either). How thoroughgoing is the shift in perspective from Europe to the global world in 2025?
October 14, 2025 at 4:09 PM
As a museological exercise, it would be interesting to compare with the GNM exhibition from more than 20 years ago: "Quasi Centrum Europae: Europa Kauft in Nürnberg 1400-1800" (though I didn't see that either). How thoroughgoing is the shift in perspective from Europe to the global world in 2025?
Reposted by Stephen Johnston
Decided that jaunty isn't quite the right word in such cases. More like determinedly oblique? (Prompted by stumbling on this example of an astrologer from 1675, in a series of prints under the wonderful title Le Ventiquattr'Hore dell'humana felicità www.ashmolean.org/collections-...)
October 14, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Decided that jaunty isn't quite the right word in such cases. More like determinedly oblique? (Prompted by stumbling on this example of an astrologer from 1675, in a series of prints under the wonderful title Le Ventiquattr'Hore dell'humana felicità www.ashmolean.org/collections-...)
Decided that jaunty isn't quite the right word in such cases. More like determinedly oblique? (Prompted by stumbling on this example of an astrologer from 1675, in a series of prints under the wonderful title Le Ventiquattr'Hore dell'humana felicità www.ashmolean.org/collections-...)
October 14, 2025 at 8:25 AM
Decided that jaunty isn't quite the right word in such cases. More like determinedly oblique? (Prompted by stumbling on this example of an astrologer from 1675, in a series of prints under the wonderful title Le Ventiquattr'Hore dell'humana felicità www.ashmolean.org/collections-...)