Enlarge / Close-up of the 11th century Verona astrolabe showing Hebrew (top left) and Arabic inscriptions.Federica Gigante
Cambridge University historian Federica Gigante is an expert on Islamic astrolabes. So naturally she was intrigued when the Fondazione Museo Miniscalchi-Erizzo in Verona, Italy, uploaded an image of just such an astrolabe to its website. The museum thought it might be a fake, but when Gigante visited to see the astrolabe firsthand, she realized it was not only an authentic 11th century instrument—one of the oldest yet discovered—it had engravings in both Arabic and Hebrew.
“This isn’t just an incredibly rare object. It’s a
→ Continue reading at Ars Technica