Pantographice, or the Art of Drawing All Things Whatsoever by a Linear or Hollow, Mechanical, Mobile Parallelogram

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Original title: Pantographice, seu Ars delineandi res quaslibet per parallelogrammum lineare seu cavum, mechanicum, mobile A Latin quarto printed in Rome by Lodovico Grignani presenting an art of drawing any visible thing by means of a jointed parallelogram of rods — later called the pantograph — with a fixed centre, a tracing index and a drawing pen so arranged that the copy is produced equal in size, enlarged or reduced according to the placement of the three collinear points. The work is divided into two books: the first, Epipedographice, treats the delineation of plane figures; the second, Stereographice (or Scenographice), the imitation and projection of solid visible things, including oblique and anamorphic images and projection onto vaults and ceilings. Each book pairs praxis, the rules for constructing and using the instrument, with speculatio, the postulates, propositions, problems and lemmas that demonstrate them, supported by an optics of radiant points, visual angles, optical rather than physical contact, and a fixed eye-station maintained by head-clamps, forehead band, girdle and peephole board, together with a defence of local motion as a legitimate principle of mathematics. It opens with a dedication to Paolo Savelli, prince of Albano, elaborating the Savelli genealogy, and includes an invention narrative recounting Scheiner's 1603 encounter at Dillingen with a lame painter named Georgius who guarded the device as a trade secret, along with Jesuit approbations and the licence of the Master of the Sacred Palace. 👉 Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here 📜 View the original source file This text was transcribed and translated as part of the ExLatinis project—an effort by Leo to make English translations of every published text in Latin in early modern Europe (between 1450 and 1750) available to the public for free online.

• Read our introductory primer, full report, and finding guide here
• View the original source file

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