Astrolabes and Angels, Epigrams and Enigmas
From Regiomontanus’ Acrostic for Cardinal Bessarion to Piero della Francesca’s Flagellation of Christ. Inspired by two remarkable discoveries by Berthold Holzschuh
By (author) David A. King
Hardback (Out of print)
(August 2007)
ISBN: 9783515090612
6.69 x 9.49 inches
Price: $135.00
On back order
On the astrolabe presented by the young German astronomer Regiomontanus to his ageing patron Cardinal Bessarion there is a Latin epigram and the image of an angel. The former is a geometrically-arranged acrostic with eight hidden vertical axes. Of these, the two principal ones correspond precisely to the two principal axes of the enigmatic painting “The Flagellation of Christ” by Piero della Francesca. In this are five figures in a flagellation scene on the left and three “modern” figures on the right, including a bearded Greek and an “angelic” young man in cardinal red. Over 40 interpretations of the three “moderns” have been proposed over the past 150 years. In this book, David King shows how clusters of letters across the epigram reveal double or multiple identities for each and every one of the eight persons in the painting. The only new person in the drama is Regiomontanus, whose epigram provided the inspiration for the painting. His image embodies three talented young men close to Bessarion who had recently died, and also symbolizes the cardinal’s hope for the future.
David A. King was Professor of the History of Science at the Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt am Main until his retirement in 2007. Most of his publications deal with the history of science in Islamic civilization.
- By (author) David A. King
Other Titles in this Series
Theodosius: Sphaerica
Arabic and Medieval Latin Translations Edited by Paul Kunitzsch and Richard Lorch
Raum, Gott, Gravitation
Eine Untersuchung zum Verhältnis von Wissenschaft und Metaphysik anhand des 'absoluten Raumes' von Newton über Kant zu Fries
Über Galvanismus und deutsche Träumereien
Zur Rezeption romantischer Naturforschung in Frankreich zwischen 1800 und 1820
Methoden des Erinnerns und Vergessens
Johannes Fontanas "Secretum de thesauro experimentorum ymaginationis hominum"
Form, Zahl, Ordnung
Studien zur Wissenschafts- und Technikgeschichte. Festschrift für Ivo Schneider zum 65. Geburtstag
Die ptolemäische “Optik” in Spätantike und byzantinischer Zeit
Historiographische Dekonstruktion, textliche Neuerschließung, Rekontextualisierung
Kardinalität und Kardinäle
Wissenschaftshistorische Aufarbeitung der Korrespondenz zwischen Georg Cantor und katholischen Theologen seiner Zeit
Kosmos und Zahl
Beiträge zur Mathematik- und Astronomiegeschichte, zu Alexander von Humboldt und Leibniz
Die grosse kosmologische Kontroverse
Rekonstruktionsversuche anhand des Itinerarium exstaticum von Athanasius Kircher SJ (1602-1680)
Volume 55
Mechanisches Memorieren und Chiffrieren um 1430
Johannes Fontanas "Tractatus de instrumentis artis memorie"
Johannes de Tinemue’s Redaction of Euclid’s Elements, the so-called Adelard III Version. Vol. I
Introduction, Sigla and Descriptions of the Manuscripts, Editorial Remarks Euclides, Elementa; Vol. II: Conspectus Siglorum, Apparatus Criticus, Addenda
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