Between Fabrizio Mordente of Salerno (1532-1608) and Nicolas Bion (ca.1652-1733), via Michel Coignet (1549-1623), the compasses (with multiple points, pantometers, proportional compass) quickly evolved, but the geometrical problems proposed by the treatises remained similar. This workshop recounts the early history (second half XVIth – beginning XVIIth centuries) of these various compasses in the frame of the numerous travels and encounters of their inventors, especially Fabrizio Mordente, who has been a mathematician at the service of several rulers (Rudolph II, the Duke of Guise, Alexander Farnese), travelled and met other mathematicians, such Coignet in Antwerp, or Clavius and Grienberger in Rome. As a young man, he also crossed the Mediterranean Sea and the Indian Ocean up to Goa (India). After comparing the peculiarities of the different compasses, we proposed to the participants some mathematical problems to be solved with the help of paper and wood models of compasses.