http://makingrenmanuscripts.exhibits.library.upenn.edu/files/original/c536cd677015e6bc733476230be32732.png 0a20e7920d9aaa39a188bc0d1f9055ae Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource 14. Transmitting Knowledge; Navigating a New World Subject The topic of the resource Navigating a New World Description An account of the resource In the fifteenth century, the rulers of Portugal and Spain were the leading sponsors of seagoing exploration. Prompted by the closure of the Silk Road passages following the fall of Constantinople to the Ottoman Turks, both kingdoms employed Italian merchant navigators as well as their own subjects to undertake far-flung ocean journeys. The Portuguese, already heavily invested in the trade of goods and people in West Africa, pioneered the eastward route to Asia. Christopher Columbus (1451–1506), a Genoese mariner in the service of Spain’s Catholic Monarchs, initially believed he had discovered a westward passage to the Far East upon landing in the Antilles; the error took several decades to rectify fully, and the belief persisted among some Jewish scholars that the peoples encountered were members of one of the lost tribes of Israel. Columbus’s widely-printed letter announcing his discoveries is an excellent example of the technology’s use for spreading information rapidly across Europe. And yet, the continuous stream of new cartographic information relayed by European navigators made the laborious production of printed world maps futile. Accordingly, manual mapmaking workshops continued their activity well into the sixteenth century. Technologies that allowed for accurate navigation were continuously being enhanced. Astrolabes and quadrants, Hellenic inventions further developed by Muslim scholars, necessitated special manuals on their proper use. Beginning with Marco Polo in the thirteenth century and continuing through Columbus’s reports, there existed a long tradition of providing detailed accounts of notable voyages, a number of which are exhibited here. Creator An entity primarily responsible for making the resource Dr. Nicholas Herman Source A related resource from which the described resource is derived Making the Renaissance Manuscript: Discoveries From Philadelphia Libraries Language A language of the resource English Type The nature or genre of the resource Exhibition Catalogue Dublin Core The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/. Title A name given to the resource <em>Canones vel op[er]ationes in op[er]ando quadrante</em> (Instructions for the Use of the Astrolabe Quadrant) Description An account of the resource This manuscript consists of an otherwise unknown treatise in thirty-five chapters on the Astrolabe quadrant, a simplified version of the medieval instrument reduced to a quarter circle. The <em>quadrans novus</em> was cheaper and simpler to make, yet could still perform most of an Astrolabe’s functions— namely, the measurement of altitude, latitudes, and longitudes, and the calculation of the time of day and night. The text is illustrated with meticulous diagrams and tables describing the use of the instrument. The binding, which consists of a bifolium from a twelfth-century copy of Augustine’s Commentary on the Gospel of John, is written in rare Beneventan script. A southern Italian localization is bolstered by textual references to the island of Diomedes off the coast of Puglia (now the Isole Tremiti) and by the watermark, which is similar to one employed in Naples later in the sixteenth century. Date A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource 1502 Format The file format, physical medium, or dimensions of the resource Manuscript on paper, 28 fols. Identifier An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context University of Pennsylvania, Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection, LJS 497 Coverage The spatial or temporal topic of the resource, the spatial applicability of the resource, or the jurisdiction under which the resource is relevant Southern Italy