Page 226 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

1671), in a 1646 entry in his manuscript chroni- a firsthand account of the East, characterizing it wrote letters in the dust with their fingers, and at
cle/diary (the original manuscript is preserved in instead as a mere compilation of earlier sources the end of a year they went up again and found
the Biblioteca Augusta in Perugia), mentioned an organized within the traditional framework of the the same letters that they had written the year
astrolabe known by him to be in the house of Imago mundi (Image of the World) by an before as fresh as they were on the first day, with-
Luzio Alfani as having been executed by Piervin- unknown author. In the narrative, classical and out any defect. And therefore it certainly appears
cenzo Danti de' Rinaldi. Piervincenzo had in 1498 biblical sources are freely mixed with information that these hills pass beyond the clouds to the pure
completed an Italian translation of Joannes de Sac- from medieval encyclopedias as well as historical air" (see also Warner 1889, 9). This account is
robosco's treatise La Sfera, dedicating the work to and pseudo-historical texts. Many earlier accounts basically a compilation of passages from, respec-
Alfano Alfani and referring in this dedication to of pilgrimages and travels to the East are quoted tively, Vincent of Beauvais' Speculum naturale
an astrolabe then under construction. Egnazio, more or less verbatim. (vi. 21), Gervase of Tilbury's Otia imperialia, and
Piervincenzo's grandson, published this transla- This manuscript consists simply of twenty- another passage from Vincent of Beauvais based
tion, and in the Proemio to the three editions eight miniatures carefully painted on both sides of on Peter Comestor (Deluz 1988, 74-76). The
(1571,1574,1579) referred to an astrolabe still in fourteen folios. No accompanying text is present illustrator portrayed wise men on Mount Athos
the Casa Alfani made by his grandfather for to help identify the subject matter, but recent observing the stars, while another three with long
Alfano (Danti 1579). What is possibly this same studies have shown that the images are based on sticks write in the dust the letters that were still
astrolabe was described in 1848 by Count Gian the Czech translation of the Travels made by Vav- as fresh after a year as on the day they were
Carlo Conestabile (Conestabile 1848,14-15), who rinec of Bfezova. The miniaturist, undoubtedly a made. For a fifteenth-century writer the scene
was related by marriage and inheritance to the Bohemian artist, has been identified by Otto would probably also have suggested geomancy.
Alfani family. In 1875 Gustavo Uzielli published Pacht as the Master of the Dietrichstein Mar- The astronomers in the background examine the
engraved illustrations of Conestabile's astrolabe tyrology of Gerona, who worked on the famous heavenly bodies with quadrants and astrolabes.
(Uzielli 1875, 300-304 and plate), which were Wenceslaus Bible of 1402. More recently Josef The carefully depicted quadrants are deployed in
later reproduced in reduced form by Gunther Krasa proposed that the author of the present the proper fashion but the astrolabe is not—when
(1932) in his discussion of the Hamburg instru- manuscript should be called the Master of the used for observation, it would have been held by
ment (the receipt which Uzielli gave to the conte Mandeville Travels and that two illuminations in its ring. The position of the stars and thus of the
Conestabile for the astrolabe "to be reproduced the last part of the Gerona manuscript should also heavens is found by aligning a star with the sight
[reprodotto]... by the 'shop' of the Military Engi- be ascribed to him. holes of the alidade and reading off its angles on
neers of Rome/' probably a reference to the prod- The illustration on folio 15r is based on Mande- the rim. J.M.M.
uction of the engraving plates rather than to a ville's account of Mount Athos, in chapter 5 of
three-dimensional reproduction, still survives in Vavrinec's translation: "There is also another hill
the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Firenze). By which men call Athos; and that is so high that its
1889 Uzielli reported that the astrolabe was no shadow stretches to Lemnos, which is distant from
longer in Italy (Uzielli 1889). The inscription on it nearly seventy-eight miles. Upon these hills the
the engraved scroll on the back of the astrolabe, air is so clear and so pure that no wind can be felt 12 5
which refers to Alfano Alfani, is somewhat there; and so no animal can be seen there; and so ASTRONOMY
ambiguous on the issue of authorship: Alfano no animal nor bird can live there, the air is so dry.
Severo, for his own inspiration and pleasure, And men say in those countries that once wise c. 1520-1525
made it [had it made (?)]. F.R.M. men went up on the hills and held to their noses Flemish
sponges soaked with water to catch the air, for the tapestry, wool warp, 5 ends per cm
7
2
air was so dry. And also up on those hills they 240 x 340 (94 /2 x i33 /sj
references: Burger 1950, 863-864, fig. 4; Stromberg
1965, 14-28, 46-47; Cavallo 1967, 1:79; Paris 1973-
12 4
1974,157—155, no. 64; New York 1974, 157—155, no.
WISE MEN ON MOUNT ATHOS 69; Joubert 1987, 165, 167, fig. 162
The Rohss Museum of Arts and Crafts, Gothenburg
from a volume of illustrations to Sir John
Mandeville, Travels
c. 1410-1420 Astronomy is personified as a female figure who
Bohemian holds a scroll bearing her name (Astronomie): she
silverpoint and pen and black ink with watercolor, points toward the stars, which are the object of
body color, and gold leaf, on light green prepared study of two astronomers in the foreground. The
vellum; manuscript, 16 fols. first holds a rolled parchment in one hand and
7
22.5 x 18.1 (8 /8xyV 8) an armillary sphere (showing the zodiacal signs
references: Warner 1889, XLII, 9, pi. 18; Cologne
1978-1980, 3:106-107; Krdsa 1983, pi. 19; Deluz Pisces [?], Aries, and Taurus on the ecliptic) in the
1988; Rowlands 1988, ly, no. i other. He observes the stars, especially the moon
and an adjacent feature that may be a comet. His
The British Library Board, London, Add. MS 24189, seated companion also notes his observations in a
fol. i 5r book. The scientific instrument on the lectern
before him is probably meant to be a nocturlabe,
The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, a guide for an instrument used to determine time at night, or
pilgrims bound for Jerusalem that was written in an astrolabe, the basic instrument used for calcu-
1356, was undoubtedly one of the most popular lating the position of the stars (see cat. 121).
travel accounts of the Middle Ages. More than 250 The heavens are observed by shepherds, too, a
extant manuscripts attest to its popularity. Nine- cirumstance that may allude to the Star of Beth-
teenth-century scholars, however, discredited it as lehem which announced the birth of Christ or to

EUROPE AND THE MEDITERRANEAN WORLD 225