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Spherical astronomy instruments

Escorial

This diagram of the face of an astrolabe, presented as part of Masha'allah text copied by Heingarter in the manuscript, is remarkable in many respects. First it takes the full space of the page and is associated directly to the diagram on the verso of the folio which, on the same scale and with the same center, shows the verso of the astrolabe. In other words this folio forms some kind of a paper astrolabe. It is also interesting to notice that while some parts of the representation are realistic and concrete, like the suspension of the astrolabe, other parts, like the central part, are more abstract and mathematical and show the principle of construction of the lines that are to be drawn on this face.

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