Life

Cole was, according to his own description, a native of the north of England. From his employment at the mint and the general character of his work he appears to have been a mechanician. Edward Dyer

Edward Dyer

Sir Edward Dyer was an English courtier and poet.-Life:The son of Sir Thomas Dyer, Kt., he was born at Sharpham Park, Glastonbury, Somerset. He was educated, according to Anthony Wood, either at Balliol College, Oxford or at Broadgates Hall , and left after taking a degree...

 acted as his patron, and he was commended as artisan by Gabriel Harvey

Gabriel Harvey

Gabriel Harvey was an English writer. Harvey was a notable scholar, though his reputation suffered from his quarrel with Thomas Nashe...

.

For the second edition of the Bishops' Bible

Bishops' Bible

The Bishops' Bible is an English translation of the Bible which was produced under the authority of the established Church of England in 1568. It was substantially revised in 1572, and this revised edition was to be prescribed as the base text for the Authorized King James Version of...

, published in 1572, he engraved a map of Palestine

Palestine

Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....

, as Canaan

Canaan

Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...

, thought to be based on a 1557 map by Tilemann Stella or Stoltz. On it he describes himself as 'Humfray Cole, goldsmith, a Englishman born in ye north and pertayning to ye Mint in the Tower, 1572.'

Poorly paid at the mint, Cole took outside commissions; he undertook to supply any of the instruments shown in the 1571 Pantometria of Leonard Digges and Thomas Digges

Thomas Digges

Sir Thomas Digges was an English mathematician and astronomer. He was the first to expound the Copernican system in English but discarded the notion of a fixed shell of immoveable stars to postulate infinitely many stars at varying distances; he was also first to postulate the "dark night sky...

. He supplied instruments to Martin Frobisher

Martin Frobisher

Sir Martin Frobisher was an English seaman who made three voyages to the New World to look for the Northwest Passage...

. He was employed in engraving mathematical and astronomical instruments in brass, of which there are specimens in the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

. One of these is an astrolabe

Astrolabe

An astrolabe is an elaborate inclinometer, historically used by astronomers, navigators, and astrologers. Its many uses include locating and predicting the positions of the Sun, Moon, planets, and stars, determining local time given local latitude and longitude, surveying, triangulation, and to...

, at one time in the possession of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales

Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales

Henry Frederick Stuart, Prince of Wales was the elder son of King James I & VI and Anne of Denmark. His name derives from his grandfathers: Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley and Frederick II of Denmark. Prince Henry was widely seen as a bright and promising heir to his father's throne...

. He also made an armillary sphere

Armillary sphere

An armillary sphere is a model of objects in the sky , consisting of a spherical framework of rings, centred on Earth, that represent lines of celestial longitude and latitude and other astronomically important features such as the ecliptic...

. James Gregory purchased examples of Cole's work in London in 1673, for the University of St Andrews

University of St Andrews

The University of St Andrews, informally referred to as "St Andrews", is the oldest university in Scotland and the third oldest in the English-speaking world after Oxford and Cambridge. The university is situated in the town of St Andrews, Fife, on the east coast of Scotland. It was founded between...

.

William Bourne

William Bourne (mathematician)

William Bourne was an English mathematician, innkeeper and former Royal Navy gunner who invented the first navigable submarine and wrote important navigational manuals...

 also mentions Cole as an innovator in the design of a ship's log

Pitometer log

Pitometer logs are devices used to measure a ship's speed relative to the water. They are used on both surface ships and submarines...

.

External links

• Objects by Cole at the British Museum
• Objects by Cole at the National Maritime Museum
• Page at the Museum of the History of Science

Attribution