This research project in the history of observational astronomy is supported by the Science, Technology and Society program at NSF and jointly by the SBE and MPS directorates by way of a Dear Colleague Letter, Research on Mathematical and Physical Sciences and Society.
The telescope's invention 400 years ago altered our understanding of the cosmos and of our place in it. References to telescopes for sale suggest that many hundreds (if not thousands) were produced before 1650. Two recent surveys, however, identified (at most) twenty known surviving examples. Most of our knowledge of early telescopes thus comes from a handful of artifacts and scattered references, often presented without consideration of the context of their use. Yet then, as now, telescopes were to be looked at as well as looked through; they served, and continue to serve (as the Hubble Space Telescope demonstrates) as icons of knowledge, engineering skill, and exploration, and symbols of intellectual and social status.
Locating, analyzing, and cataloguing surviving telescopes (from the period before 1750) within diverse museum and private collections will increase our understanding of this instrument and its impact. Careful examination of the optical and physical qualities of surviving early examples should enable us to address the functional and rhetorical claims about the instruments and their makers, and provide evidence about the technical details, appearance, and material culture of early telescopes, as well as their significance in scientific, popular, courtly, and other contexts.
This project marks the first systematic, comprehensive study of surviving early telescopes. Only by assembling and investigating the largest possible sample size, aided by an analysis of written sources and an examination of related artifacts, can we hope to more fully understand the role of this instrument in the diverse contexts in which it played important roles. By creating an Internet-accessible database of early telescopes made prior to 1750, supplemented with a detailed public website, this project will broadly distribute the information gathered and provide an avenue for scholars, collectors, and museums to contribute to its refinement for years to come.
