Time ticks on rescue of rare 14th century pocket astrolabe quadrant

Culture Minister Margaret Hodge has placed a temporary export bar on a portable astrolabe quadrant, unearthed in Canterbury where it lay undiscovered for over 600 years. This will provide a last chance to raise the money to keep this amazing scientific gadget - one of only a handful of surviving examples of such instruments in the world - in the United Kingdom.

The engraved astrolabe quadrant is a multi-functional instrument useful
for such diverse tasks as timekeeping at day, surveying and determining
latitude. It is also a pocket calculator and much more. It would have
belonged to a highly educated person well versed in the secrets of the sky.

Margaret Hodge's ruling follows a recommendation by the Reviewing Committee on
the Export of Works of Art and Objects of Cultural Interest, administered by
the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council. The Committee recommended that
the export decision be deferred on the grounds that the astrolabe quadrant
is of outstanding significance for the study of the history of science.

The Committee awarded a starred rating to the astrolabe quadrant meaning
that every possible effort should be made to raise enough money to keep it
in the country.

This small, brass English astrolabe quadrant was made in the
fourteenth-century. It was found in 2005, associated with other medieval
material on the site of an earlier inn just outside Canterbury Westgate on
the road to London.

Catherine Johns, Reviewing Committee member, said:

"This small scientific instrument, with its many unique details, provides
us with a vivid insight into the sophisticated mathematical and astronomical
knowledge of the fourteenth century, the age of Chaucer."

The decision on the export licence application for the astrolabe quadrant will
be deferred for a period ending on 3 February 2008 inclusive. This period
may be extended until 3 June 2008 inclusive if a serious intention to raise
funds with a view to making an offer to purchase the astrolabe quadrant at
the recommended price of £350,000 excluding VAT.

From: PR Newswire.com