The forgotten nautical astronomical instruments Fabrizio Benincasa CNR-IBE, Institute of BioEconomy, Italy Matteo De Vincenzi CNR-IBE, Institute of BioEconomy, Italy Gianni Fasano CNR-IBE, Institute of BioEconomy, Italy This is a section of Ninth International Symposium “Monitoring of Mediterranean Coastal Areas: Problems and Measurement Techniques”(DOI: 10.36253/979-12-215-0030-1) by Laura Bonora, Donatella Carboni, Matteo De Vincenzi, Giorgio Matteucci Firenze University Press Firenze 2022 https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0030-1.35

Available for academic research purposes

Open Access

Copyright Author(s)

Content licence CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Metadata licence CC0 1.0

This is original content, published for academic research purposes

 Digital edition XML powered by Booksflow

Astrology and meteorology have always had great importance for agriculture and navigation. They are described some measuring and forecasting instruments which, in the past, had a moderate success to navigate the Mediterranean, but they were forgotten because they were supplanted by other more reliable instruments in oceans. We refer to: parapegma, (made when meteorology was still a particular aspect of astrology); a calculator for determining the position of stars; instruments to establish position of a ship with respect to the Sun or the North Pole and to determine ships direction and speed

 Nautical astronomical instruments Parapegma History of Technology Mediterranean sailing Meteorological Instruments

It is available online at https://doi.org/10.36253/979-12-215-0030-1.35

References A. Bausani (1977) - Appunti di astronomia e astrologia arabo-islamiche, Cooperativa Libraria Universitaria Editrice Cafoscarina, Venezia C. D. Conner (2005) - A People's History of Science: Miners, Midwives, and Low Mechanicks, Nation Books, Ney York A. De Carli (1795) – Del Bdelleudiometro ossia osservazioni meteorologiche fatte a Milano colle mignatte, in “Opuscoli scelti sulle scienze e sulle arti tratti dagli Atti delle Accademie, e dalle altre Collezioni filosofiche, e letterarie, e dalle opere più recenti inglesi, tedesche, francesi, latine, e italiane, e da manoscritti originali, e inediti”, Tomo XVIII, G. Marelli, Milano pp. 204-213 E. Farré i Olivé (1996) - La Sphaera Horarum Noctis de Ramon Llull, La Busca de Paper n. 22, Primavera, pp. 3-12 http://www.eduardfarre.com/pdf/EFarre_RamonLlull.pdf J. Foer, D. Thuras, E. Morton (2017) - Atlas Obscura. Guida alle meraviglie nascoste del mondo, Mondadori, Milano. R. Hamblyn (2001) – The invention of clouds: how an amateur meteorologist forged the language of the skies. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, New York N. de Hilster (2011) - The Early Development of the Davis Quadrant, Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society, No. 110, pp. 14-22. https://www.dehilster.info/docs/SIS_bulletin_110_Hilster_Davis-Quadrant_2011.pdf D.A. King (1987) - Islamic Astronomical Instruments, Variorum Reprints, London D. Lehoux (2007) - Astronomy, Weather, and Calendars in the Ancient World. Parapegmata and Related Texts in Classical and Near-Eastern Societies. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge W. E. May, William Edward (1973) - A History of Marine Navigation, G. T. Foulis & Co. Ltd., Henley-on-Thames, Oxfordshire, ISBN 0-85429-143-1 M. G. Nickiforov (2014) - Analysis of the calendar C. Ptolemy "Phases of the fixed stars", Bulgarian Astronomical Journal Vol. 20, pp. 68-85 https://astro.bas.bg/AIJ/issues/n20/MNikifor.pdf G. Pastore (2010) - Antikythera Calculator advances modern science of 19 centuries, Advances in Space Research, Volume 46, Issue 4, pp. 552-556, 10.1016/j.asr.2010.04.002 D. J. Price (1974) - Gears from the Greeks. The Antikythera Mechanism: A Calendar Computer from ca. 80 B. C. Transactions of the American Philosophical Society. New Series. 64 (7), pp. 1-70. 10.2307/1006146 D. Sobel (2005) - Longitude: the true story of a lone genius who solved the greatest scientific problem of his time, MJF Books, New York D. Spinellis, (2008) - The Antikythera Mechanism: A Computer Science Perspective, Computer, vol. 41, no. 5, pp. 22-27, 10.1109/MC.2008.166 E. G. R. Taylor (1953)- I-Thomas Hariot's Manuscript, Journal of Navigation, Vol. 6 (2), pp.131-140. 10.1017/S0373463300035438 P. Trento (2011) - L' astrolabio. Storia, funzioni, costruzione, Stampa Alternativa, Roma http://www.tecalibri.info/T/TRENTO-P_astrolabio.htm