Galilean Giovilabio

Object Details

Description

Galileo Galilei (1564–1642) hoped to use the movements of four large moons of the planet Jupiter to determine longitude at sea, and applied, without success, to the Spanish crown for the prize offered for this achievement.

This instrument, known as the Giovilabio, is based on Galileo's ideas. The larger revolving disc represents Jupiter and the smaller one the Sun. The discs are connected and their movements show when the four moons, observed from the Earth, enter and leave the shadow of Jupiter. The instrument’s plate is engraved in Latin with tables to predict these eclipses and it can also indicate time (though less precisely) from the observed positions of the moons.

The donor of this Giovilabio believed that it had been made under the direct supervision of Gaileo, by one of his pupils. We now think it was at the Museo di Antichi Stumenti in Florence, circa 1900.

References:

1. Bedini, Silvio A. “The Galilean Jovilabe,“ Nuncius, 1, 1986, pp. 25-46.

2. Bedini , Silvio A. The Pulse of Time: Galileo, the Determination of Longitude, and the Pendulum Clock, Florence: Leo S. Olschki, 1991, pp. 7-21.

3. G. Vanpaemel, "Science Disdained: Galileo and the Problem of Longitude," Italian Scientists in the Low Countries in the XVIIth and XVIIIth Centuries, Edited by C. S. Maffeoli and L. C. Palm, Amsterdam: Rodopi, 1989, pp. 111-129.

4. The Jovilabe: History and Design. http://hotgates.stanford.edu/Eyes/Jovilabe.old/jovhistory.html, accessed March 31, 2013.

Location

Currently not on view

Credit Line

Carolyn Mugar

ID Number

PH.336360

catalog number

336360

accession number

1977.0878

Object Name

Galilaean Giovilabio (replica)

Physical Description

brass (overall material)

Measurements

overall: 8 cm x 20 cm x 41 cm; 3 5/32 in x 7 7/8 in x 16 5/32 in

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Medicine and Science: Physical Sciences

Time and Navigation

Measuring & Mapping

National Museum of American History

Record ID

nmah_1184676

Metadata Usage (text)

CC0

GUID (Link to Original Record)

https://n2t.net/ark:/65665/ng49ca746ad-eb34-704b-e053-15f76fa0b4fa