Maker Info
Michel Coignet
Michael Coignet was an instrument maker, mathematician, and military engineer who worked in Antwerp. He was the son of a goldsmith and instrument maker Gillis Coignet. He served Archduke Albert of Austria (1598-1621) as a siege engineer and builder of forts. He was a friend of Gerard Mercator and influenced by his work and that of Arsenius. He corresponded with Galileo.
Coignet published books on arithmetic, cartography, gauging, and related topics.
In 1580, he published a treatise on navigation (Nieuwe Onderwijsinghe) in which he presented a method for determining longitude at sea by means of portable clocks.
Coignet's workshop produced sundials, astrolabes, armillary spheres, theodolites, and mathematical instruments. He devised a type of sector independently of Galileo and Hood.