B chapter.indd - Charles Babbage Institute - University of Minnesota

Erwin Tomash Library
Bramer, Benjamin Bramer, Benjamin
Joost Bürgi, B 226
clock and instrument maker Joost (Jobst) Bürgi. He
spent five years with Bürgi at the imperial court in Prague,
returning to Kassel in 1604. In 1612, he was appointed
master builder in the court at Marburg. He is known
for earlier publications on mathematics and surveying
instruments that are almost unique in that he credits his
predecessors (including Bürgi) with the ideas he expands
upon—this in an era in which most instruments makers
were very secretive about their sources and techniques.
In this work Bramer continues his unusual
acknowledgement of the work of his predecessors,
particularly Bürgi, whose portrait appears in the
frontispiece. Leone Battista Alberti (1435), Albrecht
Dürer (1525) and Joost Bürgi (1604) had each
investigated the problem of how to create an instrument
that would allow one to produce accurate geometric
perspective drawings. Bramer continued this tradition
by developing his own set of instruments, particularly
one to draw conic sections. The device was evidently an
improvement on one devised by Christoph Scheiner.
After describing conic curves and instruments for
drawing ellipses, Bramer introduces his universal conic
instrument and then illustrates its use. The latter part of
the book is mainly concerned with the production of
sundials on all orientations of surfaces—a process that
makes use of many conic section curves.
Illustrations available:
Title page – color
Frontispiece – Joost Bürgi portrait
Conic instrument
B 227
Bramer, Benjamin (ca.1588–1650)
Bericht und gebrauch Eines Proportional Linials:
Neben kurtzem Underricht Eines Parallel Instruments
Year: 1617
Place: Marburg
Publisher: Paul Egenolff
Edition: 1st
Language: German
Figures: 3 engraved plates, (2 folding)
Binding: modern full morocco
Pagination: pp. 58
Collation: A–G 4 H 1
Size: 189x149 mm
Reference: Cro CL, #133
Bramer’s sector, one of the three main instruments
described in this work, is interesting for its use of a
removable arm, hinged with a pin through a hole at the
end of each scale, which avoids the problem of making
a complex hinge. This innovation also allowed him to
construct each scale on an individual line, thus avoiding
the problem of interfering scale graduations near the
hinge (where all scales come together at a point in the
Hingeless sector, B 227
191