JOHN BLAGRAVE
David Harber is not the first gnomonics expert in his family. While researching the mathematician and dialist Sir John Blagrave (1561-1611) David unearthed the astonishing fact that this celebrated Elizabethan was a direct ancestor of his.
John Blagrave was an esteemed Tudor mathematician and designer of astronomical instruments, including the The Mathematical Jewel, shown left.
Using the sphere was said to lead “any man practicing thereon, the direct pathway (from the first steppe to the last) through the whole Artes of Astronomy, Cosmography, Geography, Topography, Navigation, Longitudes of Regions, Dyalling... with great and incredible speede, plainesse, facilliitie and pleasure.”
David comments: “Blagrave's astrolabe is one of the all-time great scientific instruments, often referred to and discussed in dialist circles, so to discover from my father that he was family and was born in Sonning, under 10 miles from my workshop, was astonishing.”
Moved by this discovery, David has begun work on a replica of the original Mathematical Jewel.