Editing Armillary sphere (section)

===Renaissance===

Further advances in this instrument were made by Danish astronomer [[Tycho Brahe]] (1546–1601), who constructed three large armillary spheres which he used for highly precise measurements of the positions of the stars and planets. They were described in his ''Astronomiae Instauratae Mechanica''.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.sil.si.edu/DigitalCollections/HST/Brahe/brahe-introduction.htm#book |title=Astronomiæ instauratæ mechanica by Tycho Brahe: Introduction |first=Ronald |last=Brashear |work=Special Collections Department |publisher=Smithsonian Institution Libraries |date=May 1999 |access-date=July 11, 2020}}</ref>

Armillary spheres were among the first complex mechanical devices. Their development led to many improvements in techniques and design of all mechanical devices. [[Renaissance]] scientists and public figures often had their portraits painted showing them with one hand on an armillary sphere, which represented the zenith of [[wisdom]] and [[knowledge]].

The armillary sphere survives as useful for teaching, and may be described as a skeleton celestial globe, the series of rings representing the great circles of the heavens, and revolving on an axis within a horizon. With the earth as center such a sphere is known as Ptolemaic; with the sun as center, as Copernican.<ref name="EB1911"/>
<gallery>
File:Roger-bacon-statue.jpg|Sculpture of 13th-century English scientist [[Roger Bacon]] holding an armillary sphere, [[Oxford University Museum of Natural History]]
File:Jan Gossaert - Portrait of a Young Princess (possibly Dorothea of Denmark).jpg|Young girl with an astronomical instrument, by [[Jan Gossaert]], c. 1520-1540
File:Antoine Crespin.PNG|Portrait in the frontispiece of [[Antoine Crespin]]'s ''Propheties par l'astrologue du treschrestien Roy de France et de Madame la Duchesse de Savoye'', Lyon, France, 1572
Crespi L'Ingegno.jpg|''[[Ingenuity (Crespi)|Allegory of Ingenuity]]'' by [[Giuseppe Crespi]], c. 1695
File:Francesco de Mura - Allegory of Arts, c1750-1775 - Louvre.jpg|''Allegory of the Arts'', by [[Francesco de Mura]], c. 1750
</gallery>

A representation of an armillary sphere is present in the modern [[flag of Portugal]] and has been a national symbol since the reign of [[Manuel I of Portugal|Manuel I]].
[[Image:Genève - La sphère armillaire (1952).jpg|thumb|upright| The Armillary sphere in Geneva]]