Dutch Marine Compass, Netherlands, 17th Century. Iron And Brass.

Dutch marine compass, Netherlands, 17th century
Iron and brass.

This 17th-century Dutch marine compass is made of wrought iron with a brass hinge and reinforcements. Used on board ships for navigation, it allowed sailors to accurately plot distances on nautical charts and measure deviations using latitude scales. Its robust design, suited to the maritime environment, attests to the high level of development of scientific instruments produced in the United Provinces during the Golden Age of Dutch navigation. Similar instruments accompanied the nautical charts and atlases published in Amsterdam by leading cartographers such as Johannes van Keulen.

Bibliography:

• Gerard L’E. Turner, Scientific Instruments 1500–1900: An Introduction, University of California Press, 1998.
• Anthony J. Turner, Early Scientific Instruments: Europe 1400–1800, Sotheby’s Publications, 1987.
• David Bion, The Construction and Principal Uses of Mathematical Instruments, London, 1723 (facsimile ed.).
• E.G.R. Taylor, The Mathematical Practitioners of Tudor and Stuart England, Cambridge University Press, 1954.