纪录片《大英博物馆世界简史》 062希伯来星盘（2）

（单词翻译）

This week's programmes are about high-status objects, from all over the world, that belonged to the leaders and thinkers of around seven hundred years ago - objects that offer profound insights into the society that made them. We don't know exactly who owned the Hebrew astrolabe in today's programme, but it tells us a great deal about how Jewish and Islamic scholars revitalised science and astronomy by developing the inheritance of classical Greece and Rome. This instrument speaks of a great intellectual synthesis, and it can also tell us about a time when the three religions Christianity, Judaism and Islam all peacefully co-existed. There was, in fact, no religious synthesis, but the three faiths lived together in fruitful tension, and the friction¹ between them made medieval Spain the intellectual powerhouse of Europe.

An astrolabe makes accessible in compact form the sum total of medieval astronomical² lore³. Like the latest developments today - of phone, web and particularly sat nav - this was a must-have technology, a demonstration⁴ that you were right on the cutting edge. There's a wonderfully funny and touching⁵ letter written by Chaucer to his ten-year-old son Lewis, who is obviously like techie boys in every generation, and is clamouring to get to grips with an astrolabe. As well as writing him a letter, Chaucer also wrote him a little instruction manual, telling the boy how to use the instrument, and warning him just how difficult he was going to find it. Although I suspect that, like most children today, little Lewis quickly left his father behind: