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Christoph Schissler (14 September 1608) was a German builder of high precision scientific instruments.
Career
His professional life was largely spent inAugsburg
Augsburg ( , ; ; ) is a city in the Bavaria, Bavarian part of Swabia, Germany, around west of the Bavarian capital Munich. It is a College town, university town and the regional seat of the Swabia (administrative region), Swabia with a well ...
where he made navigational instruments such as astrolabes
An astrolabe (; ; ) is an astronomical instrument dating to ancient times. It serves as a star chart and physical model of the visible half-dome of the sky. Its various functions also make it an elaborate inclinometer and an analog calculati ...
, quadrants
Quadrant may refer to:
Companies
* Quadrant Cycle Company, 1899 manufacturers in Britain of the Quadrant motorcar
* Quadrant (motorcycles), one of the earliest British motorcycle manufacturers, established in Birmingham in 1901
* Quadrant Privat ...
, and armillary sphere
An armillary sphere (variations are known as spherical astrolabe, armilla, or armil) is a model of objects in the sky (on the celestial sphere), consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centered on Earth or the Sun, that represent lines o ...
s. He also invented a portable sundial
A sundial is a horology, horological device that tells the time of day (referred to as civil time in modern usage) when direct sunlight shines by the position of the Sun, apparent position of the Sun in the sky. In the narrowest sense of the ...
that adjusted to operate on different latitudes between England and Italy.
In 1571 Schissler travelled to the court of Augustus of Saxony
Gaius Julius Caesar Augustus (born Gaius Octavius; 23 September 63 BC – 19 August AD 14), also known as Octavian (), was the founder of the Roman Empire, who reigned as the first Roman emperor from 27 BC until his death in ...
in Dresden
Dresden (; ; Upper Saxon German, Upper Saxon: ''Dräsdn''; , ) is the capital city of the States of Germany, German state of Saxony and its second most populous city after Leipzig. It is the List of cities in Germany by population, 12th most p ...
and in 1583, to the court of Rudolf II
Rudolf II (18 July 1552 – 20 January 1612) was Holy Roman Emperor (1576–1612), King of Hungary and Croatia (as Rudolf I, 1572–1608), King of Bohemia (1575–1608/1611) and Archduke of Austria (1576–1608). He was a member of the H ...
in Prague.
In his later years he focused on mapping and surveying Augsburg. He had his own specialist workshop, where his son Hans Christoff would later continue his work.
Legacy
Over a hundred of his instruments are preserved today in various museums across the world, including theMuseo Galileo
Museo Galileo (formerly ''Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza''; Institute and Museum of the History of Science) is located in Florence, Italy, in Piazza dei Giudici, along the River Arno and close to the Uffizi Gallery. The museum, dedicat ...
and the Victoria and Albert Museum
The Victoria and Albert Museum (abbreviated V&A) in London is the world's largest museum of applied arts, decorative arts and design, housing a permanent collection of over 2.8 million objects. It was founded in 1852 and named after Queen ...
.
A rare gilt brass astrolabe by Schissler was due to be auctioned with an £80,000-120,000 ($119,170-178,756) estimate at Bonhams London on May 19, 2015.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Schissler, Christoph 1608 deaths People from the Holy Roman Empire People from Augsburg Year of birth uncertain Engineers from Bavaria Globe makers