Medieval Gadgets, Hybrid Volvelles
above: Volvelle, De Sphaera Mundi; detail
Medieval Gadgets, Hybrid Volvelles, 2015-2016
Volvelles are the first paper analog computers from the medieval period, which were made by hand and installed inside the scientific manuscripts to offer different astronomical calculations and to make the manuscripts interactive. The original volvelles used circle shapes fastened to a leaf in the center which held various layers in place so that the discs could spin independently. I create variously-sized Hybrid Volvelles that are composed of geometric shapes using silkscreen, ink and watercolor on paper-disks. I assemble these paper disks on wood panels and connect them by fasteners to allow independent spinning and interactivity. In some, I mix and match Persian, Arab and European medieval and early modern scientific images and information with the aim to construct historical knowledge of various cultural points of view into one form. For example, in one of my volvelles, I layered Galileo’s manuscript page on the observations of the moon with the eleventh-century Persian astronomer Biruni’s observation of the moon’s diagram.
(36) Hybrid Volvelles, wall installation, 55″ x 24′, California State University, Stanislaus, 2016
(36) Hybrid Volvelles, detail of the wall installation, 55″ x 24′, California State University, Stanislaus, 2016
After Johannes de Sacrobosco’s 16th c. Volvelle, De Sphaera Mundi, 18×17″, 17×17″, 8.5×8.5″
Wood panels, watercolor, ink and silkscreen on paper and fasteners
A tribute to medieval Persian mathematicians: Biruni, Tusi and Khayyam, 15.5×17″, 13×13″, 10×8.5″
Wood panels, watercolor, ink and silkscreen on paper and fasteners
After Martín Cortés’s 16th c. Volvelles, Breve Compendio de la Sphera y de la Aite de Navegar , 18”x 15.5”
Wood panels, watercolor, ink and silkscreen on paper and fasteners, 2015
After Johannes de Sacrobosco’s 16th c. Volvelle, De Sphaera Mundi, 21.5 x 34″
Wood panels, watercolor, ink and silkscreen on paper and fasteners
After a volvelle, 16th c., Southern France or Northern Italy
Left: original Right: my version of the original
Wood panels, watercolor, ink and silkscreen on paper and fasteners
After a volvelle by Johannes de Sacrobosco, 13th c. De Sphaera Mundi, basics of astronomy
“Based heavily on Ptolemy’s Almagest and drawing additional ideas from Islamic Astronomy
It was one of the most influential works of pre-Copernican astronomy in Europe”
Text: The Esoteric Codex: Astrological Texts By Clayton Arthur
Images courtesy of The Collation, the Folger Shakespeare Library
Left: original Right: my version of the original
After the cartographer Jean du Temps of Blois, 16th C. France
Left: originals Right: my version of the originals
Wood panels, watercolor, ink and silkscreen on paper and fasteners
Hybrid Volvelles, details
Research and Process:
Making my Hybrid Volvelles, 2015
Original volvelles that inspired some of my Hybrid Volvelles
Astronomical Vovelle, from Astronomical and Medical Miscellany, English, late fourteenth century, shortly after 1386.
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Ms. Ludwig XII 7, fol. 51
Video courtesy of The J. Paul Getty Museum
Original diagrams that I used to create my images on volvelles
Galileo, 16th c., Italian, a page from his manuscript on astronomy
Biruni, 11th c., Persian, observation of the moon’s diagram