Arsenio, Gualtero

Walter Arsenius, from Leuven; not much is known about this maker of mathematical instruments who was the nephew of the illustrious Gemma Frisius, as the latter acknowledges in his De astrolabio catholico… liber (Antuerpiae, 1556), ff. 14v-15r: «Astrolaba quae nostro instinctu per nepotem nostrum Gualterum Arsenium constructa sunt». Brother of Regnier and Remi, he was renowned as one of the best makers of instruments for constructing astrolabes with internal compasses, especially adapted for calculations on a plane table. Plantin paid 36 florins for Arsenius's large copper astrolabe, intending to sell it for between 40 and 50 florins. BAM also acquired other instruments from the illustrious Arsenio, such as un báculo astronómico o radio de metal», which corresponds to the cross-shaped or «de Jacob», an instrument used to measure altitudes (Arias Montano to Juan de Ovando, December 23, 1569, letter 1569 12 23 O ).

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