Re: VMs: Libra

[Nick Pelling <incoming@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hi Dana,

At 10:14 23/12/2003 -0700, Dana Scott wrote:
> What strikes me in this depiction of Libra is the similarity of the scale 
> to the one seen in the VMs. I wonder if this design can be traced back to 
> its place of origin?
> <http://www.renaissanceastrology.com/libra.html>http://www.renaissanceastrology.com/libra.html

An excellent technological match, thanks! In both pictures, the artist has 
made the forked hinge and vertical pointer stylistically clear. It should 
(from Lilly's (1647) picture) be immediately clear how this kind of scale 
(known as "hand scales") was held and used.

BTW, there's a nice history of weighing at the Royal Pharmaceutical Society 
of Great Britain website (taken from its Museum's Information Sheet 11):-
        http://www.rpsgb.org.uk/pdfs/mussheet11.pdf

A (mainly post-1640) history of scales is here:-
        http://www.gilai.com/books/articles/balance.html

Its short bibliography lists:-
1) Kisch Bruno, Scales and Weights Yale Studies in the History of Science 
and medicine. Yale Univ. Press. 1965
2) Turner Gerald, Scientific Instruments 1500-1900 University of California 
Press. 1998
3) Mechira Pumbit Magazine Vol. 20 2000.

Any of these would seem to be a good place to start any literature review 
into the history of scales 1300-1600 (which is what we'd need to be able to 
date the VMs' Libra hand-scales). :-)

Cheers, ....Nick Pelling..... 


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