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Among the earliest motives for the specialized collection of scientific instrument was scholarly investigation. The second plate in Nova Reperta depicts the studio of the legendary figure Flavio, who purportedly invented the marine compass in the14th century at the southern Italian coastal town Amalfi. Flavio is fashioned as a studious scientist who uses and has accumulated many instruments, including a sundial, an hourglass, two globes, and a model ship suspended from the ceiling. He fingers an open book, while measuring a magnetic compass with his dividers, a misuse of instruments that nevertheless conveys an air of learned calculation.
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Hans Collaert II
Flemish, 1566–1628
after Johannes Stradanus (Jan Van der Straet)
Flemish, 1523 - 1605
Invention of the Compass (Lapis Polaris, Magnes), Plate 2
c. 1600
Engraving
Sarah Campbell Blaffer Foundation
1998.9.2
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