Description

Seventeeth Century Map of the Heavens, Indo-Persian, c.17th century, of pierced and hand-engraved brass, 6″ (15 cm) in diameter. Engraved in Arabic script, the rete, with its map of the heavens and celestial coordinate system, has a circular ecliptic band labeled with the twelve Zodiacal houses and subdivided on the beveled edge for every two days. Arcs of the equator are included inside the upper half of the ecliptic, and outside the lower half. A horizontal bar is counter-changed at the equinoxes and at the center, and a vertical bar is interrupted by two fine multi-lobed bifurcated decorative frames. There are 26 labeled star pointers on elegant floral supporters, most with small incised points at their tips, to indicate the precise star positions. Condition is very fine, noting light wear and slight bending of the tips of the circumferential ring. Included is a star list, giving transcriptions of all the star names plus their equivalent modern constellation locations.

This decorated rete is in the Indian tradition, possibly from Lahore. It is notably similar to the rete on a large Indo-Persian astrolabe, illustrated and described by S.R. Sarma in his on-line A Descriptive Catalogue of Indian Astronomical Instruments, 2016, item B015. The present rete is B016 in Sarma¹s comprehensive catalogue. A fine early example.