The astronomical clock of Strasbourg cathedral: function and significance

Abstract

"Strasbourg Cathedral's astronomical clock is one of the most famous and well-known astronomical clock monuments in the world. No other clock has been described and appreciated so often and in such a myriad of ways. This book gives a detailed delineation of the artistic and technical components of the 1571-74 clock and it presents the astronomical indications and the underlying conceptional framework. According to an hitherto unknown original source Günther Oestmann discovered a contemporary programmatic statement and that the clock displays four ways of determining the ascendant as described by Ptolemy. Oestmann ascertained that the Strasbourg clock is the result of a highly original reception of the architectural theory of Vitruvius and other mathematical and mechanical texts of Late Antiquity.