Medieval Science & Scientific Instruments

This site was created to share my interests in ancient instruments and to support my lectures and workshops on instruments. It is my hope that the materials at this site will aid my workshop students by enabling them to review our work together. Others should note that information, techniques, and tricks may have been conveyed during workshops that are not duplicated here. For those who wish to further explore Medieval and Renaissance scientific instruments I also provide information about a number of my other projects. You will find tables of calculations, exploded views, suggestions on construction etc. I have also listed some of my favorite resources: books I have used in learning about the history of these instruments, as well as how to calculate, lay-out, and fabricate Medieval and Renaissance scientific instruments.

• Workshops: Handouts/overviews/projects from workshops.
• Instruments: Example instruments I have made over the years with information on materials used, construction details etc.
• References: various print resources on the nature of ancient instruments and their construction.

Since I was a child I have had a strong interest in how we humans understand and measure our world. Consequently I have played with and collected measuring instruments for almost as long as I can remember. This interest in turn lead me to pursue the types of measurements made by earlier cultures, in particular Medieval Europe, and how they made them. Such instruments are rare, and most of us have little opportunity to see, let alone handle or own such artifacts. Thus since the mid-1980's I have been occasionally building my own working replicas of ancient scientific and philosophical instruments. For equally long I have been giving occasional lectures on the origins and use of these devices. In 1998 I began giving workshops on making one's own simple model instruments.

My instruments have been displayed at a number of different venues in addition to my workshops.

• A poster on the torquetum was presented at the XXII Scientific Instrument Symposium of the International Union of the History and Philosophy of Science. The Mariner's Museum, Newport News VA (Fall 2003), and again at the Fifth Annual New & Used Poster Session at Humboldt State University (Spring 2004).
• The torquetum was entered in a juried art competition (I figured a modern instrument obsolete for over four centuries qualifies as art!), the 6th Annual Junk Art Competition at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka, California. (Fall 2000)
• I demonstrated selected instruments during my presentation at the Dedication of the Robert A. Paselk Scientific Instrument Museum, October 13, 2000.
• Most of my navigational instrument replicas were on display from June 8 - August 1, 2001 as part of an exhibit created by Tom Jones for the Alexander von Humboldt Conference (June 15-22).
• I demonstrated a number of my navigational replicas at an AVISTA reception for The Art, Science, and Technology of Medieval Travel V: Medieval Navigational Instruments. at the 41^stInternational Congress on Medieval Studies, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo MI (May, 2006).
• Most of my instruments were on display fo an exhibit, "Replicas and Restorations of Early Instruments by Richard A. Paselk", for the third exhibits case in the main library display area of the Robert A. Paselk Scientific Instrument Museum (January 2015–June 2015).