This rotary flexure bearing consists of concentric inner and outer hubs connected by compound flexure stages. These compound flexure stages provide the angular compliance required for bearing rotation as well as compliance for flexure foreshortening while holding a constant axis of rotation over the entire range of motion. This design offers large angular displacement, low operating stress, low operating torque, and high stiffness in the five noncompliant degrees of freedom. The rotary flexure bearing described herein has applications in precision mechanics, particularly opto-mechanics. Specific applications include but are not limited to wafer and reticle alignment stages used in microlithography systems, mirror pointing and scanning mechanisms used in tactical and spaceborne systems, as well as flip-in mechanisms used in multiple field of view optical systems.