IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
| |||||||||
|
| IIIF Color HighRes |
| The Book of Ser Marco Polo : vol.1 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
 |
|
|
 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Citation Information
450
MARCO POLO Booz H.
'~
•
adorned in every case with figures of dragons," etc. He then proceeds to describe them :
" (i). Armillary Zodiacal Sphere of 6 feet diameter. This sphere reposes on the heads of four dragons, the bodies of which after various convolutions come to rest
upon the extremities of two brazen beams forming a cross, and thus bear the entire
weight of the instrument. These dragons . . . . are represented according to the notion the Chinese form of them, enveloped in clouds, covered above the horns with
long hair, with a tufted beard on the lower jaw, flaming eyes, long sharp teeth, the
gaping throat ever vomiting a torrent of fire. Four lion-cubs of the same material bear the ends of the cross beams, and the heads of these are raised or depressed by
means of attached screws, according to what is required. The circles are divided on both exterior and interior surface into 36o degrees ; each degree into 6o minutes by transverse lines, and the minutes into sections of to seconds each by the sight-edge* applied to them."
Of Verbiest's other instruments we need give only the names : (2) Equinoxial Sphere, 6 feet diameter. (3) Azimuthal Horizon, same diam. (4) Great Quadrant,
of 6 feet radius. (5) Sextant of about 8 feet radius. (6) Celestial Globe of
6 feet diameter.
As Lecomte gives no details of the old instruments which he saw through a grating, and as the description of this zodiacal sphere (No. I) corresponds in some of its main
features with that represented in the photograph, I could not but recognize the possibility that this instrument of Verbiest's had for some reason or other been removed from the Terrace, and that the photograph might therefore possibly not be a representation of one of the ancient instruments displaced by him. t
The question having been raised it was very desirable to settle it, and I applied to Mr. Wylie for information, as I had received the photographs from him, and knew that he had been Mr. Thomson's companion and helper in the matter.
" Let me assure you," he writes (21st August, 1874), " the Jesuits had nothing to do with the manufacture of the so-called Mongol instruments ; and whoever made them,
they were certainly on the Peking Observatory before Loyola was born. They are not made for the astronomical system introduced by the Jesuits, but are altogether conformable to the system introduced by Kúblái's astronomer Ko Show-king. . . .
I will mention one thing which is quite decisive as to the Jesuits. The circle is divided into 365/ degrees, each degree into zoo minutes, and each minute into Ioo
seconds. The Jesuits always used the sexagesimal division. Lecomte speaks of the imperfection of the division on the Jesuit-made instruments ; but those on the Mongol instruments are immeasurably coarser.
"I understand it is not the ornamentation your friend objects to ? $ If it is, I would observe that there is no evidence of progress in the decorative and ornamental arts during the Ming Dynasty ; and even in the Jesuit instruments that part of the work is purely Chinese, excepting in one instrument, which I am persuaded must have been made in Europe.
" I have a Chinese work called Luh-King-t'oo-Kaou, 'Illustrations and Investigations of the Six Classics.' This was written in A.D. 1131-I162, and revised and
Pinnula. The French .pinnule is properly a sight-vane at the end of a traversing bar. The transverse lines imply that minutes were read by the system of our a'ia; onal scales ; and these I understand to have been subdivided still further by aid of a divided edge attached to the sight-vane ; qu. a Vernier ?
t Verbiest himself speaks of the displaced instruments thus it ut nova instrumenta
astronomica facienda mihi imponeret, qu e scilicet more Europxo affabre facta, et in specula. Astroptica Pekinensi collocata, mternani Imperii Tartarici memoriam apud posteritatem servarent, prioribus instrumentis Sinicis rudioris Minerva', qua jam a trecentis j5roxinze annis sleculam occuy5abant, inde anzotis. Imperator statim annuit illorum postulatis, et totius rei curani, publico diplomate mihi imposuit. Ego itaque intra quadriennis spatium sex diversi generis instrumenta confeci." This is from an account of the Observatory written by Verbiest himself, and printed at Peking in 1668 (Liber Organicus Astronol;zi'e Eurot5a?a apud Sinas Restitutee, etc.). My friend Mr. D. Hanbury made the extract from a copy of this rare book in the London Institution Library. An enlarged edition was published in Europe. (Dillingen, 1687.)
On the contrary, he considered the photographs interesting, as showing to how late a period the art of fine casting had endured.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Copyright (C) 2003-2019 National Institute of Informatics and The Toyo Bunko. All Rights Reserved.