Museo Galileo
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Virtual Museum
Surveying compass
    • Setting:
      Room VI
    • Maker:
      unknown
    • Place:
      Italian
    • Date:
      17th cent.
    • Materials:
      brass
    • Dimensions:
      length 210 mm
    • Inventory:
      1471
    • Surveying compass (Inv. 1471)

Surveying compass with two flat steel-tipped legs. The hinge houses a magnetic compass used to orient the instrument for measuring position angles in surveying work. The magnetic compass lacks a magnetic needle and is surrounded by a windrose. The graduated disk around the hinge bears the names of the winds in Italian. Provenance: Medici collections.