LONDON – A 15th-century astrolabe hammered for £400,000 ($638,645 with buyer’s premium), more than twice its estimate at Bonhams’ Important Instruments of Science and Technology Sale on April 24. The 69-lot sale made £1 million ($1.2 million) against a collective estimate of £250,000-£350,000 ($314,380-$440,110), with 90% sold by lot.
Jon Baddeley, Bonhams specialist, said “This is one of the strongest results we’ve seen at auction at Bonhams Knightsbridge in the past decade. The astrolabe, an early smartphone of sorts, was a vital tool, used for not only telling the time, but mapping one’s location, tracking the stars, and even making life decisions. As the only global auction house to still hold dedicated Science and Technology sales, we’re very pleased with the results, demonstrating the importance of this survivor of mathematical culture from the dawn of the European Renaissance.”
The Regiomontanus/Cardinal Bessarion Astrolabe bears the inscription Under the protection of the divine Bessarion on whom all can be said to depend I arise in Rome the work of John 1462, the Regiomontanus/Cardinal Bessarion astrolabe was a testament to patronage between a young German humanist and a Greek Cardinal.
Johannes Bessarion entered the order of St. Basil at an early age. He was created a Cardinal-priest by Pope Eugenius IV in 1439 and soon became a champion for the reunification of the Greek and Roman churches, becoming Patriarch of Constantinople in 1463. Johann Müller (1436-1476), later known as Regiomontanus, was a student at the University of Vienna, where, under the tutelage of celebrated astronomer Georg Peurbach, he entered Bessarion’s circle in May 1460. This astrolabe was one of his early works, marking the beginning of a patronage relationship defined by a shared passion for the humanities.
Only one of five dated astrolabes of this type in the world, the Regiomontanus/Bessarion model is a direct link to a period of scientific and spiritual transition in European culture. The humanist Roman script used in the engraving is characteristic of the 15th century, but it retains traces of the preceding Gothic era in its numerals and its use of the quatrefoil motif.
