Prinsenhof - Wandeling Delft
PRINSENHOF – THE OLDEST TELESCOPE
Walk past the statue of ‘Geertruyt van Oosten 1330-1358’ and cross the bridge. If you walk through the gate, you’ll come to the Museum Prinsenhof and the Prinsenkwartier.
A unique discovery from the city canal, 2014
Although the telescope that Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) built in 1609 allowed him to explore the heave…
PRINSENHOF – THE OLDEST TELESCOPE
Walk past the statue of ‘Geertruyt van Oosten 1330-1358’ and cross the bridge. If you walk through the gate, you’ll come to the Museum Prinsenhof and the Prinsenkwartier.
A unique discovery from the city canal, 2014
Although the telescope that Galileo Galilei (1564-1642) built in 1609 allowed him to explore the heavens and make his revolutionary discoveries, a year earlier, it had been Han Lipperhey (1570-1619) who had sought a patent for a ‘certain instrument for seeing long distances’. He was the first to understand the principle of the telescope with two lenses, and produced a working model. Nothing remains of what he produced, but we do have his patent application. In 2014, however, a 12-cm-long, ugly tube of copper-plated iron, completely consistent with Lipperhey’s design, was by chance fished out of Delft’s city canal. The tube can be considered the oldest telescope in the Netherlands.
Delft rapidly became a centre for lens-grinders and makers of telescopes and microscopes. Telescopes were being produced in Delft as early as 1609. They were probably made by Evert Harmanz Steenwijk, a lens-grinder in Delft.
Johan van der Wyck, a military engineer who had settled in Delft in 1650, established himself as an internationally-celebrated manufacturer of telescopes and microscopes. Antoni would marry three years later, and set up a shop selling linen, yarn and ribbon. The telescope and microscope-makers Evert Harmanz Steenwijk and Johan van der Wyck lived and worked around the corner from Van Leeuwenhoek.
Location
You may also be interested in
-
Huszár
Huszár
The artistic interior perfectly fits the industrial space. From the elevated stage in our light and spacious café, you have a view of the Kolk, one of...
-
Oostpoort - Walkingtour Antoni
Oostpoort - Walkingtour Antoni
The gate was built around 1400 and the towers were heightened in the 16th century. The Oostpoort consists of a land-gate and a water-gate that are connected...
-
Prinsenkwartier Delft
Prinsenkwartier Delft
Prinsenkwartier offers an accessible stage for meaningful expositions, performances, workshops, debates, taste gardens and manifestations. Cultural activities...
-
TU Delft Hortus Botanicus
TU Delft Hortus Botanicus
TU Delft Hortus Botanicus is THE tropical activity for young and old!
-
Bonte Ossteeg- Walkingroute Ceramics
Bonte Ossteeg- Walkingroute Ceramics
Artwork with Delft blue motifs.
-
Homage to Gaudi
Homage to Gaudi
In The Prinsenhof Garden stands Homage to Gaudi, a ceramic Delft blue sofa designed by Marianne Burgers since 1988.
-
Hugo de Groot - Oranje Route
Hugo de Groot - Oranje Route
The statue of Hugo de Groot was placed in 1886 in memory of the Delft-born lawyer and Remonstrant leader Hugo Grotius.
-
Museumhouse van Meerten
Museumhouse van Meerten
Huis van Meerten is located at De Oude Delft in the former house of art and antique collector Lambert van Meerten. The house has a neo-renaissance style.
-
Keramieken kaart van Delft- walkingroute Ceramics
Keramieken kaart van Delft- walkingroute Ceramics
A striking ceramic work of art shines in Papenstraat. The 'Ceramic Map' is a map of Delft from the 17th century, made of ceramic and mosaic.
