Epact Scientific Instruments of Medieval and Renaissance Europe

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Robert Dudley

Sir Robert Dudley (1574-1649) was the illegitimate son of the Earl of Leicester, one of the most prominent courtiers of Elizabethan England. Although his name appears on several instruments, he was no ordinary maker. He commissioned a number of instruments from London makers in the 1590s and took these with him when he left the country in 1605. He settled in Tuscany in the service of the Medici where he published his lavish multivolume work Dell'Arcano del Mare in 1646-7. Although principally a patron of makers, Dudley may also have dabbled in engraving and some of the instruments inscribed as being his invention may be at least partly in his own hand.

For instruments by Robert Dudley, see:

Quadrant, Signed by Robert Dudley, English, Dated 1597 (Firenze, IMSS)

Wind Rose, Signed by Robert Dudley, English, Dated 1596 (Firenze, IMSS)

References: J. T. Leader, Life of Sir Robert Dudley, Earl of Warwick and Duke of Northumberland (Florence, 1895); N. Ritchie, "Sir Robert Dudley: expatriate in Tuscan service", History Today, 26 (1976), pp. 385-92.