ESHS/HSS Annual Meeting

The 'New Quadrant' and Its Reception: Visual and Material Approaches

• In Event: Contested Success and Celebrated Failure: The Practice of Mathematical Instruments in Varied Settings I

English Abstract

This paper investigates the emergence and diffusion of the instrument known in contemporary sources as the 'new quadrant', situating it within its broader European scientific and artisanal contexts (14th-16th centuries). Through a comparative visual and material analysis of the few extant instruments, the study examines how specific design elements, computational schemes, and astronomical inscriptions shed light on the conditions of their reception and interpretation. Particular attention is given to the ways in which makers and draftsmen misunderstood or creatively reinterpreted certain features of the quadrant, revealing moments of discontinuity in the transmission of technical knowledge.

Author

• Josefina Rodriguez-Arribas, Universität Hamburg