南怀仁所造天文仪器的技术及其历史地位

１６６９～１６７４年，南怀仁为北京观象台主持设计制造了黄道经纬仪、赤道经纬仪、地平经仪、象限仪、纪限仪和天体仪各一架，取代了浑仪和简仪等传统仪器。南怀仁主要参考了第谷的设计，同时吸收了中国的造型艺术。他将欧洲的机械加工工艺与中国的铸造工艺结合起来，实现了他的设计。南怀仁等人所造仪器在中国历史上是先进的，但与同时期的欧洲先进仪器相比则是比较落伍的。

THE EUROPEAN ASTRONOMICAL INSTRUMENT TECHNOLOGY USED BY FERDINAND VERBIEST AND ITS POSITION IN THE HISTORY OF INSTRUMENTS

in 1669, the Belgian Jesuit missionary Ferdinand VERBIEST (1623-1688)was in charge of guiding the design and manufacture of an ecliptic armillary sphere, an equatorial armillary sphere, an azimuthal instrument, a quadrant, a sextant and a stellar globe, whichsuperseded in 1674 such Chinese-style instruments as the armillary sphere and the simplifiedinstrument in the Observatory of Peking. In 1674, he published the Xinzhi Linqtai Yi-clangZhi to explain the design, manufacture, installment and usage of his instruments.VERBIEST's work enabled the precision of China's instruments to come up to an unprecedented standard. It is obvious that Verbiest consulted TYCHO Brahe's design in the book Astronomie instauratae Mechania (1598), and absorbed the traditional Chinese moulding arts. Hecombined European machining technology with Chinese casting methods to realize his design.This was in itself a process of creation. The European J. Hevelius and F. Verbiest were thelast typical representatives in classical observation technology, but the instruments of the former were finer than those of the latter. The instruments made by Verbiest were the most advanced in the history of Chinese instruments, but they were out-dated compared to the newEuropean products at that time. After he left Europe, it was not easy for him to keep abreastof the new technology of the West.