Museo Galileo
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Virtual Museum
Section of Room VI
 The Instruments of the Cartographer

A crucially important figure in sieges and on battlefields was the cartographer, who drew up maps of fortresses and territories. Starting from the early 16th century, one of the fundamental topographic instruments was the magnetic compass, consisting of a magnetized needle pivoting at the centre of a graduated disk divided into eight sectors and carrying a diopter. Each sector corresponded to the directions of a wind. This instrument had numerous variants: the theodolite, planimeter, holometer and graphometer.

Objects
Alidade

Alidade

Inv. 3603
Francesco Morelli, Rome, 1788

Del modo di misurare le distantie…, Cosimo Bartoli (facsimile)

Del modo di misurare le distantie…, Cosimo Bartoli (facsimile)

Firenze, Museo Galileo, Rari 120
Cosimo Bartoli, Venice, original 1564 / facsimile 2008

Graphometer

Graphometer

Inv. 245, 3699
Domenico Lusverg, Rome, 1710

Graphometer

Graphometer

Inv. 151
Maker unknown, 17th cent.

Graphometer

Graphometer

Inv. 3630
"Ring", Berlin, 18th cent.

Level

Level

Inv. 701
Domenico Lusverg, Rome, 1710

Odometer

Odometer

Inv. 648
Maker unknown, 17th cent.

Surveying compass

Surveying compass

Inv. 2506
Matteo Botti, Giovanbattista Botti, Italian, 17th cent.

Surveying compass

Surveying compass

Inv. 3371
Maker unknown, 17th cent.

Surveying compass

Surveying compass

Inv. 1279
Maker unknown, 17th cent.

Surveying compass

Surveying compass

Inv. 2508
Maker unknown, Italian, 17th cent.

Surveyor's square

Surveyor's square

Inv. 681
Domenico Lusverg, Rome, 1710

Surveyor's square

Surveyor's square

Inv. 680
Maker unknown, Urbino, 1654

Theodolite

Theodolite

Inv. 149
Maker unknown, 17th cent.