Stephen Johnston
@stephenaj.bsky.social
Curator Emeritus at Oxford's History of Science Museum; STEM historian, particularly instruments and material culture - current research focused on astrolabes and astrology in medieval and renaissance Europe. (Disclaimer: focus known to wander.)
But your St Germain example looks like they are also representing the winds, as they also sometimes appear on ivory diptychs (where it often looks more like they are suffering from food poisoning.). And they are frequently on early printed maps too: oculi-mundi.com/windheads
The history of wind head iconography on old maps
windhead, mapmaking, cartography, decoration, iconography, allegory, study of images, study of maps, representation, maps, symbols, meteorology, artistry
oculi-mundi.com
November 20, 2025 at 11:58 AM
But your St Germain example looks like they are also representing the winds, as they also sometimes appear on ivory diptychs (where it often looks more like they are suffering from food poisoning.). And they are frequently on early printed maps too: oculi-mundi.com/windheads
And why my diptych dial example? There was a long tradition of cherub heads with wings in the corners of clock faces. Here they are on the dial of a long case clock by Ahasuerus Fromanteel, London, c. 1665. They're also found well into the 18th century (later too?).
(Alt text for image source.)
(Alt text for image source.)
November 20, 2025 at 11:58 AM
And why my diptych dial example? There was a long tradition of cherub heads with wings in the corners of clock faces. Here they are on the dial of a long case clock by Ahasuerus Fromanteel, London, c. 1665. They're also found well into the 18th century (later too?).
(Alt text for image source.)
(Alt text for image source.)
I think the zodiac must be (at best) suggestive: I can't see how it could have astronomical meaning. (Aries at 6 o'clock would be better since when the Sun enters Aries it's dawn at 6 am.) But perhaps the zodiac iconography would have been seen as reassuringly traditional in 1827?
November 20, 2025 at 11:58 AM
I think the zodiac must be (at best) suggestive: I can't see how it could have astronomical meaning. (Aries at 6 o'clock would be better since when the Sun enters Aries it's dawn at 6 am.) But perhaps the zodiac iconography would have been seen as reassuringly traditional in 1827?
Interesting that almost everything else visible here is quite austere, yet the clock face uses the traditional zodiac as decoration. And cute that there are heads of the winds in the spandrels, and they don't all seem to be suffering from the apparent nausea that commonly afflicts them....
November 19, 2025 at 7:35 PM
Interesting that almost everything else visible here is quite austere, yet the clock face uses the traditional zodiac as decoration. And cute that there are heads of the winds in the spandrels, and they don't all seem to be suffering from the apparent nausea that commonly afflicts them....
How on earth did I manage to overlook that? 🙄 Not much of an advert for eye-balling on my part....
November 19, 2025 at 3:50 PM
How on earth did I manage to overlook that? 🙄 Not much of an advert for eye-balling on my part....
Hope you enjoy it!
November 19, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Hope you enjoy it!
Looks like Agra to me, which would fit with Indian longitude
November 13, 2025 at 7:48 PM
Looks like Agra to me, which would fit with Indian longitude
Quite a line up !
November 9, 2025 at 11:08 PM
Quite a line up !
Though, having said that, I can't offer any sensible suggestions for the potentially enormous digital infrastructure that would be needed for your project idea....
November 7, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Though, having said that, I can't offer any sensible suggestions for the potentially enormous digital infrastructure that would be needed for your project idea....
Of course, yes, I now remember that I saw that post of yours. I had thought I was mostly sharing this little find to persuade Josefina that, despite my lack of recent progress, I really was still at work on our joint project. But was I also subconsciously trying to contribute elsewhere too?
November 7, 2025 at 10:06 PM
Of course, yes, I now remember that I saw that post of yours. I had thought I was mostly sharing this little find to persuade Josefina that, despite my lack of recent progress, I really was still at work on our joint project. But was I also subconsciously trying to contribute elsewhere too?
Lorch (1942-2021) was then based at #Manchester #UMIST and a fellow student of medieval astronomy – in his case mostly Arabic but also Latin. His copy of Goldstein's edition of this set of tables is a nice reminder that even the most apparently austere scholarship is personally underpinned.
(4/4)
(4/4)
November 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM
Lorch (1942-2021) was then based at #Manchester #UMIST and a fellow student of medieval astronomy – in his case mostly Arabic but also Latin. His copy of Goldstein's edition of this set of tables is a nice reminder that even the most apparently austere scholarship is personally underpinned.
(4/4)
(4/4)
A real surprise and delight to unpack what I thought was an anonymous purchase and instead discover it was an author’s dedication copy, addressed to Richard [Lorch] “in appreciation of a pleasant visit with you in Manchester”. It was signed by “Bernie” almost exactly 50 years ago.
(3/4)
(3/4)
November 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM
A real surprise and delight to unpack what I thought was an anonymous purchase and instead discover it was an author’s dedication copy, addressed to Richard [Lorch] “in appreciation of a pleasant visit with you in Manchester”. It was signed by “Bernie” almost exactly 50 years ago.
(3/4)
(3/4)
I’m currently working with Josefina Rodriguez-Arribas on the mathematics of early 15th-century Hebrew astrology and decided it would be useful to have an edition of a key primary source to hand.
(2/4)
(2/4)
November 7, 2025 at 9:29 PM
I’m currently working with Josefina Rodriguez-Arribas on the mathematics of early 15th-century Hebrew astrology and decided it would be useful to have an edition of a key primary source to hand.
(2/4)
(2/4)
Well, you only have to give away your email address to get the e-newsletter. But when it arrives it'll definitely be a debit on your time and reading budget so, you're right, maybe not for free after all....
November 5, 2025 at 6:58 PM
Well, you only have to give away your email address to get the e-newsletter. But when it arrives it'll definitely be a debit on your time and reading budget so, you're right, maybe not for free after all....
"were devised to make men fall in love with Astronomy, for many times it falleth out so among us, that albeit we are not willing to give ear unto a matter or to read a discourse because it is profitable, yet will we give ear unto it and take pains to read or hear it because it is pleasant"
October 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
"were devised to make men fall in love with Astronomy, for many times it falleth out so among us, that albeit we are not willing to give ear unto a matter or to read a discourse because it is profitable, yet will we give ear unto it and take pains to read or hear it because it is pleasant"
Though I've always liked Thomas Hood's comment at the end of the C16 when he was discussing his printed celestial maps. He devoted many pages to the "poetical fables" of the constellations that were represented on his engraved plates, and noted that these fables....
October 15, 2025 at 5:01 PM
Though I've always liked Thomas Hood's comment at the end of the C16 when he was discussing his printed celestial maps. He devoted many pages to the "poetical fables" of the constellations that were represented on his engraved plates, and noted that these fables....
I wish that were true, but it's not. I can't bring the context to know how unusual or utterly standard it was to include lines from poetry in this sort of early scholastic writing. (I haven't moved on much since that first approach to Sacrobosco.)
October 15, 2025 at 4:55 PM
I wish that were true, but it's not. I can't bring the context to know how unusual or utterly standard it was to include lines from poetry in this sort of early scholastic writing. (I haven't moved on much since that first approach to Sacrobosco.)
I'm not complaining - or at least I won't be when everyone's contribution is condensed into a diamond-bright thread, and unleashed on the world in 300-character bites....
October 15, 2025 at 4:49 PM
I'm not complaining - or at least I won't be when everyone's contribution is condensed into a diamond-bright thread, and unleashed on the world in 300-character bites....
Makes me think of the first time I ever looked at Sacrobosco's Sphere, and was very surprised at the presence of quotations from classical poetry. Not what I was innocently or naively expecting for a C13 Paris university text. If you find someone to comment on that, I for one would be glad to read!
October 15, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Makes me think of the first time I ever looked at Sacrobosco's Sphere, and was very surprised at the presence of quotations from classical poetry. Not what I was innocently or naively expecting for a C13 Paris university text. If you find someone to comment on that, I for one would be glad to read!
What a nice initiative - especially the scope for including practising poets. And perhaps you can arm-twist all the participants at the "Teaching the Cosmos" workshop to contribute a thread before they are allowed to leave? 🙂 (Not exactly live-tweeting, but very useful for those of us not there.)
October 15, 2025 at 3:57 PM
What a nice initiative - especially the scope for including practising poets. And perhaps you can arm-twist all the participants at the "Teaching the Cosmos" workshop to contribute a thread before they are allowed to leave? 🙂 (Not exactly live-tweeting, but very useful for those of us not there.)