Cieli Medicei - Italian telescopes

Terrestrial telescope
Italian construction (1689)

Around the mid-seventeenth century, very long astronomical telescopes were built in the attempt to obtain magnified and clear images of the celestial objects. In the 1660s some members of the Florentine Academy of the Cimento conceived the so-called "arcicanna" to avoid bending the instruments' tubes under their own weight. The objective and the eyepiece were mounted at the ends of a wooden bow. The tube of the instrument was made with a string frame, tightened by the bow, and lined with light oilcloth.
None of these cumbersome astronomical instruments has survived. However, some short or medium size telescopes, adapted to terrestrial use, are present in the Medici collection. Many of them are not signed, but their distinctive shape suggests Italian provenience. Between the many sections out of which the telescope was made, the largest always held the objective lens, the smallest the eyepiece.

Related objects
	Inv. 2550 V.28 Terrestrial telescope 1695 Giovanni Battista Magnelli, Italian construction Cardboard, leather Length 2290 mm
	Inv. 3639 V.32 Terrestrial telescope 1689 Paolo Belletti, Italian construction Cardboard, leather, paper Length 1730 mm
	Inv. 3493 V.36 Terrestrial telescope Second half of the seventeenth century Unsigned, Italian construction Cardboard, paper Length 1220 mm
	Inv. 2590 V.20 Objective lens End of the seventeenth century Unsigned Glass Diameter 173 mm
	Inv. 2589 V.21 Objective lens End of the seventeenth century Unsigned Glass, wood, cardboard Diameter 190 mm
	Inv. 2588 V.22 Objective lens End of the seventeenth century Unsigned Glass, wood Diameter 235 mm
	Inv. 3449.18 V.14 Eyepiece lens End of the seventeenth century - first half of the eighteenth century Unsigned Wood, leather, glass Length 95 mm
	Inv. 3449.11 V.19 Tubes of composite eyepiece End of the seventeenth century - First half of the eighteenth century Unsigned Cardboard, paper Length 129 mm
	Inv. 3449.17 V.17 Cardboard tube End of the seventeenth century - First half of the eighteenth century Unsigned Cardboard Length 58 mm
	Inv. 3449.16 V.16 Tube for eyepiece End of the seventeenth century - First half of the eighteenth century Unsigned Cardboard, Florentine paper, wood Diameter 50 mm
	Inv. 3449.8 V.18 Eyepiece tube End of the seventeenth century - First half of the eighteenth century Unsigned Cardboard, wood, leather, Florentine paper Length 102 mm