Mich(a)el Coignet (1549 - 1623)

Field(s) of interest: scientific instruments| mathematics | surveying | geography
Gender: male

Born: Antwerpen, 1549
Died: Antwerpen, 24-12-1623

Biography:
Mathematician and instrument maker from Antwerp, son of Gilles Coignet. He was a versatile person, who taught mathematics (from 1568 to 1580) and made instruments (from 1572 on). Coignet also served as a mathematician to Archduke Albrecht VII of Austria and his wife, Archduchess Isabella (sovereigns of the Habsburg Netherlands). Coignet participated in sieges of Hulst (1598) and of Oostende (1602-1604). He supervised the building of several fortresses near the Schelde and wrote several books, among others revisions of mathematical books written by V. Mennher, W.Raets and A.Ortelius. His most famous work is Nieuwe Onderwijsinghe (Antwerp 1580). Coignet also made astronomical and mathematical instruments, such as compasses, armillary spheres, astrolabes and geographical maps.

Collections: Museum Boerhaave Leiden; Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (Hamburg).


Occupations:
instrument maker and mathematician: 1549 - 1623 (Antwerpen)

Sources:
Albuminscriptie / van Michael Coignetus voor Aegidius Antonisz Anselmus, Antwerpen 21 okt. 1601 (Den Haag, KB : 71 J 57).

Meskens, A., 'Een kaart van M. Coignet', Gewina 20, nr. 1 (1997), 32-34.

Ortelius A., & M. Coignet, L'épitome du Théâtre de l'Univers (Antverpiae 1609).

Gunther, R.T., Early Science in Oxford, vol. 1 (1925), 377.

Zinner, E., Deutsche und Niederländsche astronomische Instrumente des 11.-18. Jahrhunderts (München 1956)

Meskens, A. 'M. Coignet's contribution to the development of the sector', in: Annals of Science 54, nr. 1 (1997), 143-160.

Coignet, M., De zee-vaert of Conste van ter zee te varen (Amsterdam 1589, 1592 and 1598).).

Wauwermans, W.E., Histoire de l'Ecole cartographique Belge et Anversoise (Bruxelles 1895).

Daumas, M., Les instruments scientifiques aux XVIIe et XVIIIe siècles (Paris 1953), translated into English as Scientific instruments of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and their makers (Batsford 1972).

Ackerman, S., 'Familia Universalis Coignet', Bulletin of the Scientific Instrument Society 59 (1998), 33.

Meskens, A., Familia universalis: Coignet: een familie tussen wetenschap en kunst (Antwerpen 1998).

Coignet, M., Instruction nouvelle des poincts plus excellents et necessaires, touchant l'art de naviguer (Anvers 1581).

Michel, H., Traité de l'astrolabe (Gauthier-Villars 1947), 165.

Coignet, M., Tabula geographica indicans iter novum inter Mediolanum et Antverpiam (Antwerpen 1621 ?).

Rooseboom, M., Bijdrage tot de geschiedenis der instrumentmakerskunst in de noordelijke Nederlanden (Leiden 1950).