Existing comment:
Surveying table for plotting fortifications
17th century
German
The ornate marquetry on this instrument's top pictures an octagonal fortress layout. Using it as a pattern, a surveyor could position the instrument to establish crucial points on the terrain. During the wars of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, fortifications were crucial to territorial defense. Princes eagerly supported their instrument makers in the production of prototypes for new surveying instruments like this one. |