Astronomical Images : Template for a paper quadrant

Oronce Fine

Astronomical Images

Oronce Fine (1494-1555) was a prolific author on mathematics, instruments and astronomy, among other things, and held, from 1531, the chair of mathematics at the newly established CollÃ¨ge Royal (known since 1870 as the CollÃ¨ge de France) in Paris. He is credited with the promotion of mathematics through his numerous publications and instruments. He also made and sold his own instruments, encouraged others to make their own by cutting out pages from his practical manuals, and worked as editor and overseer in printing houses. Fine published on a range of topics, and was interested in practical concerns as well as abstract debates, so while he is remembered for theoretical achievements, such as giving the value of pi correct to four significant figures, he also worked extensively with instruments and maps. While traditionally Fine's competence as a mathematician has been questioned, recent assessments have emphasised how he represented Renaissance mathematical culture, encompassing geometry, surveying, optics, cosmography, cartography, and astronomy. In cartography, Fine produced a cordiform, or heart-shaped, projection which was often used by later map-makers. De solaribus horologiis et quadrantibus was in fact drawn from one of Fine's earlier works, his Protomathesis of 1532, published shortly after his appointment to the chair at the CollÃ¨ge Royal. Originally published as the fourth book in the Protomathesis, in which Fine also treated arithmetic, geometry and astronomy, De solaribus horologiis et quadrantibus dealt with many instruments including various types of sundial as well as the astrolabe quadrant shown here. The astrolabe quadrant condensed the plate of an astrolabe into a quarter-circle, making the mathematical and astronomical features of the astrolabe available in a much smaller instrument. Such an instrument would enable the user to find the time of the day and to make calculations based on the position of the Sun so as to determine, for example, the length of the day. The quadrant and ruler shown here could have been mounted onto a wooden or metal quadrant and thus used as the basis for a working instrument. Note the instruction at the bottom of the page, which states that this plate was to be inserted at the end of the third book of the work, in which the astrolabe quadrant was introduced, between pages 204 and 205. For a description of the construction of this quadrant, see the translation accompanying the image in Fine's Protomathesis (1532), 'Woodcut of an astrolabe-quadrant'.