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Compass
Unsigned
Dated 1562; Italian
Gilt and silvered brass; 97 mm in diameter

This compass carries on its base a table of the latitudes of fifty-five places. Such tables typically appear on sundials which are adjustable for latitude, and it is possible that this instrument may originally have been part of a larger sundial. Certainly, the four lugs fixed at the cardinal points could have been used to attach the compass to a base plate or ring.

The instrument appears to be by the same maker as another unsigned Italian instrument (Epact 24653).

Museum of the History of Science, Oxford
Inventory number 84224

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Basic URL: http://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/epact/catalogue.php?ENumber=36069

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