Speaker
Description
Antonio Santucci of Pomarance (d. 1613), cosmographer of the Grand Duke of Tuscany Ferdinando I de 'Medici, went down in history for a New Treatise on Comets published in 1611 and reprinted posthumously in 1619. Another of his treatises "Above the New Invention of the Armillary Sphere” has instead remained in manuscript form. The making of the object described therein is believed to coincide with the large armillary instrument preserved in the Museo Galileo in Florence. It should be noted that the name "armillary sphere" was combined with the object by virtue of a very superficial examination of the manuscript. The comparison of the document with Santucci's large instrument leads more generally to think on what an "armillary sphere" is and what it is not. In fact, it is possible to identify two moments of misunderstanding, which have led to calling "armillary spheres" even quite different objects. The first moment can be placed at the end of the Sixteenth century. The second moment, on the other hand, can be placed in the 1980s and features some Anglo-Saxon scholars.
