The Mariner’s Astrolabe

TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE Book Reviews 867 effect of silk production on the evolving social and religious life of the Chinese people; an excursion into this world reveals to us the development of the legends of the First Sericulturalist, the rituals and the pantheon of sericulture, and the economic factors touching on the silk producers. Section g (pp. 285-433) deals in detail with the pro­ duction of silk through many historical eras beginning with the 6th century b.c. Technical processes are surveyed within their historical contexts. Silk production was a highly demanding process in terms of skill and specialized implements, from the planting of mulberry trees and raising the silkworms to the various methods of reeling the silk filaments off the cocoons. Often the accurate reconstruction of a machine of the past from textual descriptions and sometimes inaccu­ rate pictorial depictions poses a grave challenge to the historian; here Kuhn demonstrates commendable scholarly expertise in making use of the most appropriate sources, comparing and collating them and arriving at a viable answer. This volume is a solid addition to the Science and Civilisation in China series. With so many segments already published, it is now helpful to be able to refer to other volumes for complementary material. One looks forward to reading volume 2 of Section 31, which will examine the next steps in the production of textiles, ending with the weaving of fabrics. E-tu Zen Sun Dr. Si n is professor emerita of Chinese history at the Pennsylvania State University. Her many books and articles have concentrated on the economic history of prc-20thcentury China, including an annotated translation of Tien-kung k’ai-wu: Chinese Technology in the Seventeenth Century, the 1637 work by Sung Ying-hsing, and Selected Essays in Chinese Economic History. The Mariner’s Astrolabe: A Survey of Known, Surviving Sea Astrolabes. By Alan Stimson. Utrecht: HES Publishers, 1988. Pp. 191; illustra­ tions, appendixes. F 125.00. The mariner’s astrolabe, or sea astrolabe as it is also known, Hrst devised in the late 15th century, was one of the most important of the few existing instruments for navigational use in the age of geographic discovery. Originally produced in substantial numbers and widely used by European navigators from the late 15th until the late 18th century, the instrument is now among the rarest of surviving historic scientific instruments. Relatively little is known about the early period of its development and use. The identity of its inventor is not known, and few of the names of those who made astrolabes have survived. Until the past two decades, only a handful were in museums and private collections, but the increasing activity in underwater explora­ tion and recoveries from shipwrecks surviving in the depths of 868 Book Reviews TECHNOLOGY AND CULTURE harbors throughout the world has increased the number substantially, making possible the present comparative study. Alan Stimson, a recognized scholar in the history of astronomy and navigation and a former seaman, is curator of astronomy and navigation at the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich. Building on the authoritative 1966 historical monograph by Lt. Cmdr. Da­ vid W. Waters, then deputy director of the National Maritime Mu­ seum, Stimson has compiled a detailed catalog of all known surviving examples of mariner’s astrolabes, adding forty-four more to the twenty-one known to Waters. Little documentary evidence has been added to what was already known. Following a historical introduction, Stimson includes a section on “Copies, Mistaken Identities and Fakes” that is invaluable for museum curators and collectors. The author points out that because of the instrument’s rarity, museums not owning one and unable to obtain an authentic example commissioned copies to be made for inclusion in their historical displays. Some copies were made as early as the 18th and 19th centuries. Originally these were not made with the intention to defraud, but other examples were deliberate fakes and are difficult to identify as such. The author includes a listing of known copies of astrolabes currently owned in museum collections throughout the world. The main body of the work consists of a register of the sixty-five mariner’s astrolabes currently known. For reasons of convenience, Stimson

Archaeology · Art history · China · Civilization · Section (typography) · Sericulture · SILK · Chinese history and philosophy · Computer Science · Engineering · Environmental and Cultural Studies in Latin America and Beyond · History