Editing Armillary sphere (section)

===Medieval Middle East and Europe===
[[File:Spherical astrolabe islamic march 2024.JPG|thumb|left|upright|The spherical [[astrolabe]] from medieval [[Islamic astronomy]], c. 1480, in the [[Museum of the History of Science, Oxford]]<ref name="LindbergShank2013">{{cite book|last1=Lindberg|first1=David C.|author-link1=David C. Lindberg|last2=Shank|first2=Michael H.|title=The Cambridge History of Science: Volume 2, Medieval Science|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ZMNkAwAAQBAJ&pg=PT173|access-date=15 May 2018|date=7 October 2013|publisher=Cambridge University Press|isbn=978-1-316-02547-5|page=173}}</ref>]]
[[Image:Sandro Botticelli 052.jpg|thumb|upright|An armillary sphere [[Saint Augustine in His Study (Botticelli, Ognissanti)|in a painting]] by [[Republic of Florence|Florentine]] Italian artist [[Sandro Botticelli]], c. 1480.]]
[[File:Représentation ottomane sphère armilaire - XVIe.jpg|thumb|upright|An [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] illustration of an armillary sphere, 16th century]]

[[Islamic astronomy|Persian and Arab astronomers]] such as [[Ibrahim al-Fazari]] and [[Abbas Ibn Firnas]] continued to build and improve on armillary spheres. The spherical astrolabe, a variation of both the [[astrolabe]] and the armillary sphere, was likely invented during the [[Middle Ages]] in the [[Islamic Golden Age|Middle East]].<ref>[[Emilie Savage-Smith]] (1993). "Book Reviews", ''Journal of Islamic Studies'' '''4''' (2), pp. 296–299. {{blockquote|"There is no evidence for the Hellenistic origin of the spherical astrolabe, but rather evidence so far available suggests that it may have been an early but distinctly Islamic development with no Greek antecedents."}}</ref> About 550 AD, Christian philosopher [[John Philoponus]] wrote a treatise on the astrolabe in Greek, which is the earliest extant treatise on the instrument.<ref>Modern editions of [[John Philoponus]]' treatise on the astrolabe are ''De usu astrolabii eiusque constructione libellus'' (On the Use and Construction of the Astrolabe), ed. Heinrich Hase, Bonn: E. Weber, 1839, {{OCLC|165707441}} (or id. Rheinisches Museum für Philologie 6 (1839): 127–71); repr. and translated into French by Alain Philippe Segonds, ''Jean Philopon, traité de l'astrolabe,'' Paris: Librairie Alain Brieux, 1981, {{OCLC|10467740}}; and translated into English by H.W. Green in R.T. Gunther, ''The Astrolabes of the World'', Vol. 1/2, Oxford, 1932, {{OL|18840299M}} repr. London: Holland Press, 1976, {{OL|14132393M }} pp. 61–81.</ref> The earliest description of the spherical astrolabe dates back to the Persian astronomer [[Al-Nayrizi|Nayrizi]] ([[floruit|fl.]] 892–902). [[Pope Sylvester II]] applied the use of sighting tubes with his armillary sphere in order to fix the position of the [[pole star]] and record measurements for the [[tropics]] and [[equator]], and used armillary spheres as a teaching device.<ref>Darlington, 679–670.</ref>