The astronomical clock of Strasbourg cathedral : function and significance

Author / Creator

Oestmann, Günther, 1959- author

Available as

Online

Summary

Strasbourg Cathedral’s astronomical clock is one of the most famous and well-known astronomical clock monuments in the world. No other clock has been described and appreciated so often and in such ...

Strasbourg Cathedral’s astronomical clock is one of the most famous and well-known astronomical clock monuments in the world. No other clock has been described and appreciated so often and in such a myriad of ways. This book gives a detailed delineation of the artistic and technical components of the 1571–74 clock and it presents the astronomical indications and the underlying conceptional framework. According to an hitherto unknown original source Günther Oestmann discovered a contemporary programmatic statement and that the clock displays four ways of determining the ascendant as described by Ptolemy. Oestmann ascertained that the Strasbourg clock is the result of a highly original reception of the architectural theory of Vitruvius and other mathematical and mechanical texts of Late Antiquity. Revised and updated translation from the German edition Die Straßburger Münsteruhr: Funktion und Bedeutung eines Kosmos-Modells des 16. Jahrhunderts. Published by GNT-Verlag in 1993.

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