Reynier Pietersz. van Twisch and the “golden compass”

What the sources say

• Reynier (Rienier) Pietersz. van Twisch was a pilot who lived in Hoorn, after many years at sea. The patent of the States General of 1597 calls him “stierman, woonende binnen Hoorn”, that is, pilot, living in Hoorn. ^{[1], [2], [3], [7]}
• Busken Huet writes, following the memoir of the young Steven van der Haghen (the Avonturen), that in 1584 or 1585 Van der Haghen met at Calais a skipper from Hoorn: Reynier Pietersz. van Twisch, who sailed for Hoorn shipowners, his fellow townsmen, and was known for unusual skill as a navigator. Van Twisch took him to Hoorn, introduced him to the owners and had him appointed clerk (commies) aboard the Witte Leeuw, which Van Twisch was to sail to Genoa. ^[4]
• On July 12, 1595 the States of Holland granted him, for twelve years, a patent for an instrument to measure the height of the stars and the sun accurately at sea (and, separately, one for an appliance for bakers). On March 5, 1597 a committee was named to examine it; Lucas Wagenaar was one of its members. ^[3]
• In early 1597 he asked the States General for a patent on two instruments: one for finding the declination of the compass and the longitude from sightings of the sun, and one for finding latitude from the sun or the stars when the horizon cannot be seen. ^[2]
• On March 8, 1597 the States General granted him a patent of twelve years, valid in the United Netherlands only. The 1912 dictionary quotes the grant as for a device “to know, when measuring the sun, the deviation of the needle, and also the longitude”. De Jonge’s printed summary of the request says he asked for six years; the resolution itself, as transcribed, grants twelve. ^{[2], [3], [7]}
• That second instrument, which the inventor called “Gulden compas”, was an azimuth compass kept floating horizontally, with a quadrant placed on the compass “in the form of a double quadrant”. Sunlight fell through a sight onto a circular scale and was to show, given the supposedly constant deviation of the needle, how far east or west one was. ^[3]
• On March 13, 1598 the States of Holland were asked to help pay for building the instruments; one is called a “double quadrant”. They named Scaliger, Snellius, Stevin and Ludolph van Ceulen, together with deputies of Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Hoorn and Enkhuizen, to examine them. The transcription records no outcome. A note by its editor says the instrument is pictured in Stevin’s Havenvinding. ^[2]
• In the Latin edition of the Havenvinding (Limeneuretikē, Leiden 1599), on printed pages 18 and 19, the instrument is a quadrant standing upright on a horizontal circle divided into 360 degrees, with a magnetic needle in a glass-covered box. The text says it was made “from the invention of Reginaldus Petraeus”, which we read as Reynier Pietersz.; it hangs on two axes in the manner of ship’s compasses (so the Dutch text of the Havenvinding; the Latin says “ad instar Haloscopii”), with a weight of 25 or 30 pounds underneath, so that the circle stays level when the ship moves. Printed page 19 shows it in a full-page drawing; our own drawing after it is below. ^{[5], [6]}
• Stevin described and pictured the instrument in his Havenvinding (1599). Van Twisch had tried it himself on a round trip through Holland, Utrecht and Friesland; at Enkhuizen it won the approval of J.H. van Linschoten, and several seafarers found that it worked without a miss on voyages to the coast of Guinea and to the East and West Indies. According to De Jonge (Opkomst I, p. 85, a passage Busken Huet also quotes in a footnote), the Havenvinding appears to be a report, written by Stevin on the orders of Prince Maurits, setting out the ideas of Reynier Pietersz. and Petrus Plancius for finding longitude from the deviation of the compass. ^{[3], [4], [7]}
• Albert Hayen objected to the ideas on practical grounds in a Corte onderrichtinge (Amsterdam 1600). An offer of 5,000 guilders, and after that a pension of 1,000 guilders a year, from the States General was refused by the inventor. The year is 1600 according to its title page (as given by Naber; we have not seen the title page ourselves) and to the ADCS and a pamphlet catalogue of 1866 (“int Gulden Iubile laar 1600”); the 1912 dictionary and De Grijs (2021) say 1599. ^{[3], [8]}
• Around 1598, the Van der Aa dictionary says, he came upon the idea of giving east and west distances in degrees and minutes, as was already done for south and north. He made “something of his own making”, which he called the golden compass (gulden kompas). It was used successfully on several voyages and found to be without error. ^[1]
• In October 1600, while the States were looking for a way to find longitude at sea, they asked Jacob van Straten to bring Van Twisch’s invention to The Hague together with his own. ^[2]
• On July 19, 1603 two patents were granted for inventions to do with ships’ sails; the editor’s note says they were not for a compass. ^[2]
• On September 3, 1611 he submitted a request to the States General again, together with Gerrit Pieters, and again a committee of examination was decided. He is described as old and of small means, and even as having fallen into poverty. He died in Hoorn in 1613. ^{[1], [3]}

What we do not know

• What the golden compass looked like in detail: we read pages 18 and 19 of Stevin’s Latin edition (1599) in a scan, as images, and only one reader did so. We do not show the scan: it may be used for non-commercial purposes only and must keep its watermark, and we have not found a scan that we may use. Below the list of statements is our own line drawing after page 19, with the letters of the original. No drawing by Van Twisch himself has turned up.
• Which ships and years the voyages were: the Van der Aa dictionary names none, and the 1912 dictionary names only the coast of Guinea and the East and West Indies.
• How the examinations of 1598 and 1611 ended: the transcription records no outcome, and the 1912 dictionary says only that committees were decided.
• The year of the voyage to Genoa: Busken Huet says 1584 or 1585. A list sent to us dated it 1586, after Kernkamp; we did not find Kernkamp, and we did not read Van der Haghen’s memoir itself. The story rests on Busken Huet alone.
• How the instrument was kept level: the 1912 dictionary says it was kept “floating horizontally”; Stevin’s Latin text of 1599 says it hung on two axes with a weight. We do not know whether these are two descriptions of one instrument or two versions of it. Both describe a quadrant placed over a horizontal compass circle.
• A resolution of June 26, 1598 is mentioned in an editor’s note in the transcription of the States’ resolutions, but it concerns Petrus Plancius and Mathys Syvertsz. and does not name Van Twisch; we have not treated it as a second step in his case.
• What Hayen objected to and what Robbertsz answered: we know Robbertsz’s reply (Onder verbeteringhe: Een waerschouwinghe der Zeeluyden, voor Albert Haijen dolinghe, 28 pages, with a closing note dated March 20) only from a catalogue entry of 1866. It mentions one point: Hayen said Willem Barentsz had found with the graadboog the opposite of what Plancius and Robbertsz had written, which Robbertsz denies. The entry does not mention Van Twisch. We have read neither booklet.
• We take the Van Twisch of the dictionaries and the pilot in the States’ records to be one man; all three tie him to Hoorn.

Hoorn

Both sources tie him to Hoorn. About forty years later, in 1637, Andreas Cellarius became rector of the Latin School there. No source connects the two men; the link is the town.

• Who was Cellarius?