Accession No

6631

Brief Description

reigle platte, calculating rule, a form of Michiel Coignet’s precursor to the sector, possibly Flemish, c. 17th century

Origin

Belgium [possible]

Maker

unknown

Class

mathematics

Earliest Date

1600

Latest Date

1700

Inscription Date

Material

metal (brass)

Dimensions

144mm (height) x 30mm (width) x 2mm (depth)

Special Collection

Provenance

Purchased from Tesseract, Box 151, Hastings on Hudson, New York 10706, U.S.A. on or before 02/12/2016. Tesseract Catalogue 103, Summer 2016. Item no. 33. Purchased with the aid of a grant from the Arts Council England PRISM grant scheme.

Inscription

Description Notes

Reigle platte, calculating rule; a form of Michiel Coignet’s precursor to the sector, possibly Flemish(?), c. 17th century.

Reigle platte, possibly Flemish, c. 17th century. The reigle platte is a precursor to the sector designed by Michel Coignet. Brass engraved ruler, On end is flat and the other is in a symmetrical recurved design. It is hand-engraved with scales labelled in Latin:
Linea planorum: 0 (1) 64
Polygoni in Circulo: 20 (1) 3
Polygoni aequalia: 12 (1) 3
Corpora in fcriptibilia: D., I, C, O, T S
Corpora aequalia: D, I, C, S, O, T
Subtenfae: 0 (1) 90

From the Tesseract catalogue:

“Most of the scales are nonlinear. The reverse has a grid of lines of equal parts, running from -10 - +90 units, incorporating transversal subdivision to 0.1 unit. Each unit is approximately 0.95mm. Finally there is an arc for a circle, divided 0 (1) 10 (10) 60, giving chords of angels up to 60o.”

Condition: good, complete. In excellent condition.

References

Events

Description
Edited from Josh Nall’s PRISM application:

The Reigle Platte is a rare and significant artefact from the early history of practical mathematics and calculation in early modern Europe. It is one of a group of instruments invented in order to aid calculation around the turn of the seventeenth century. In Italy Galileo developed an instrument to aid military calculations (for fortification, bombardment etc.); in England Thomas Hood devised a general calculating device he called a ‘sector’, and in the Low Countries Michel Coignet devised the ‘Reigle Platte’, which also used the ‘rule of proportion’ to speed up calculation in geometry, trigonometry and simple arithmetic. While something like the Hood/Galileo sector became the standard form, the Reigle Platte played an important role in Coignet’s career and in the establishment of practical mathematics as a legitimate subject of study. Coignet is recognised as one of the most important practical mathematicians working on the continent in the period, and the role of instruments in practical mathematics is increasingly recognised as being decisive in the development of the ‘scientific revolution’.

However, unlike the sector, very few examples of the Reigle Platte have survived. Including the present example, only three are known, one of which is already at the Whipple Museum. The only sustained study of the Platte was undertaken by Ad Meskens in 1997, before any physical examples were known; a short account was then given by the same author in 2004, making reference to the example the Whipple already owns.

One of two reigle plattes in the Whipple collection; these two are of only four known examples of reigle plattes.
03/03/2017
Created by: Joshua Nall on 03/03/2017

FM:47185