Scientific instruments at the Renaissance Savoy court: Giovanni Battista Benedetti's Trigonolometro and its use

Both the design of scientific instruments and the supervision of their construction was a major part of Giovanni Battista Benedetti’s activity as a court mathematician in Turin. The present study seeks to shed light on the context of this activity, which was intrinsically linked with the constitution of the Kunstkammer at the Savoy court in the early 1560s. The presented analysis focuses on an instrument called ‘trigonolometro’, whose function is described in Benedetti’s hitherto unpublished manuscript "Descrittione, uso et ragioni del trigonolometro" (1578), composed on behalf of the duke of Savoy, Emanuele Filiberto. After an overview on the mathematical instruments in Turin at the time, this paper presents the critical edition of Benedetti’s unpublished manuscript on the 'trigonolometro'.