Bonet de Lates was a Provençal physician and astrologer who settled in Rome, where, in addition to acting as physician to Popes Alexander VI and Leo X, he served the Jewish community as a rabbi. He is best known for his invention of the ring-shaped astronomical dial, described in this work, which could measure the altitudes of the sun and stars, as well as the time of day or night. This is said to be the first printed illustration of a scientific instrument. Bonet also wrote a treatise entitled “Prognosticum” (Rome, 1498), in which he predicted the coming of the Messiah in 1505. Excerpt showing the first printed illustration of a scienctific instrument from Bonet de Lates' Anulus astronomicus [Astronomical dial], and the woodcut frontispiece of the same work
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