Using Astrolabes for Astrological Purposes: The Earliest Evidence Revisited

Abstract

In general,* when pre-modern and modern texts and images—and today, even films—depict someone with an astrolabe, it suggests not only that they are practising astronomy, but also that they are familiar with astrology, and perhaps even magic.1 To what extent, however, was the astrolabe really an astrological instrument? To begin to address this question, this chapter revisits the earliest evidence concerning astrolabes, texts and instruments, bearing in mind their reliance on earlier traditions.2 First, it will examine treatises on the construction and use of the astrolabe, two from late Antiquity and the early Byzantine period by Ioannes Philoponus (c. 490–c. 570) and Severus Sebokht (c. 575–666/667), in Greek and Syriac respectively, and two of early ʿAbbāsid times by al-Khwārizmī