Museo Galileo
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"Radio latino"
    • Setting:
      Room VI
    • Inventor:
      Latino Orsini
    • Maker:
      Carlo Doni
    • Place:
      Italian
    • Date:
      17th cent.
    • Materials:
      brass
    • Dimensions:
      max. length 1460 mm
    • Inventory:
      619
    • "Radio latino" (Inv. 619)

Radio latino (so called because it was invented by Latino Orsini) composed of eight hinged rods equipped with compass and viewers. On the rods are engraved various measurement scales: a scale of 190 equal parts, a geometrical quadrant, a degree scale, a scale for the division of circles and lines, a scale of polygons, a scale of weights and a linear measure in sub-multiples of the Florentine unit of length, the braccio. On the bars forming the central axis are several holes and different types of interchangeable steel points. The instrument is signed by Carlo Doni, about whom we have no certain information: he may have been either the client or the maker. The engravings and the structural characteristics resemble those found on instruments produced in Renaissance Florentine workshops. Provenance: Medici collections.