The following are the passages referred to in the introductory notice:
Abbot Neckam (1157-1217), in hisDe Naturis Rerum, writes:
“The sailors, moreover, as they sail over the sea, when in cloudy weather they can no longer profit by the light of the sun, or when the world is wrapped up in the darkness of the shades of night and they are ignorant to what point their ship’s course is directed, these mariners touch the lodestone with a needle, which (the needle) is whirled round in a circle until when its motion ceases, its point looks direct to the north. (Cuspis ipsius septentrionalem plagam respiciat.)”
In hisDe Utensilibus, we read:
“Among other stores of a ship, there must be a needle mounted on a dart (habeat etiam acum jaculo superpositam) which will oscillate and turn until the point looks to the north, and the sailors will thus know how to direct their course whenthe pole star is concealed through the troubled state of the atmosphere.”[5]
Alexander Neckam was born at St. Albans in 1157, joined the Augustinian Order and taught in the University of Paris from 1180 to 1187, after which he returned to England to take charge of a College of his Order at Dunstable. He was elected Abbot of Cirencester in 1213 and died at Kemsey, near Worcester, in 1217.
The satirical poem of Guyot de Provins, written about 1208, contains the following passage:
The mariners employ an art which cannot deceive,By the property of the lodestone,An ugly stone and brown,To which iron joints itself willinglyThey have; they attend to where it pointsAfter they have applied a needle to it;And they lay the latter on a strawAnd put it simply in the waterWhere the straw makes it float.Then the point turns directTo the star with such certaintyThat no man will ever doubt it,Nor will it ever go wrong.When the sea is dark and hazy,That one sees neither star nor moon,Then they put a light by the needleAnd have no fear of losing their way.The point turns towards the star;And the mariners are taughtTo follow the right way.It is an art which cannot fail.
The mariners employ an art which cannot deceive,
By the property of the lodestone,
An ugly stone and brown,
To which iron joints itself willingly
They have; they attend to where it points
After they have applied a needle to it;
And they lay the latter on a straw
And put it simply in the water
Where the straw makes it float.
Then the point turns direct
To the star with such certainty
That no man will ever doubt it,
Nor will it ever go wrong.
When the sea is dark and hazy,
That one sees neither star nor moon,
Then they put a light by the needle
And have no fear of losing their way.
The point turns towards the star;
And the mariners are taught
To follow the right way.
It is an art which cannot fail.
Provins, from which Guyot took his surname, was a small town in the vicinity of Paris.
Cardinal Jacques de Vitry, in hisHistoria Orientalis, Cap. 89, writes:
“An iron needle, after having been in contact with the lodestone, turns towards the north star, so that it is very necessary for those who navigate the seas.”
Jacques de Vitry was born at Argenteuil, near Paris, joined the fourth crusade, became Bishop of Ptolemais, and died in Rome in 1244. He wrote his “Description of Palestine,” which forms the first book of hisHistoria Orientalis, in the East, between 1215 and 1220.
Albertus Magnus (1193-1280) in hisDe Mineralibus, Lib. II., Tract 3, Cap. 6, writes:
“It is the end of the lodestone which makes the iron that touched it turn to the north (ad zoron) and which is of use to mariners; but the other end of the needle turns toward the south (ad aphron).”
This illustrious Bavarian schoolman joined the Dominican Order in his youth, lectured to great audiences in Cologne, became bishop of Ratisbonne in 1260, and died in 1280. Thomas Aquinas the greatest of schoolmen, was among his pupils.
In the Spanish code of laws, begun in 1256, during the reign of Alfonso el Sabio, and known asLas Siete Partidas, we read:
“Just as mariners are guided during the night by the needle, which replaces for them the shores and pole star alike, by showing them the course to pursue both in fair weather and foul, so those who are called upon to advise the King must always be guided by a spirit of justice.”
Brunetto Latini, in hisTrésor des Sciences, 1260, writes:
“The sailors navigate the seas guided by the two stars called the tramontanes, and each of the two parts of the lodestone directs the end of the needle to the star to which that part itself turns.”
Brunetto Latini (1230-1294) was a man of great eminence in the thirteenth century; Dante was among his pupils at Florence. For political reasons, he removed to Paris, where he wrote hisTrésorand also hisTesoretto. He visited Roger Bacon at Oxford about 1260.
In his treatiseDe Contemplatione, begun in 1272, Raymond Lully writes:
“As the needle, after having touched the lodestone, turns to the north, so the mariner’s needle (acus nautica) directs them over the sea.”
Lully was born at Palma in the Island of Majorca in 1236; he joined the Third Order of St. Francis, dying in 1315.
Ristoro d’Arezzo, in hisLibro della Composizione del Mundo, written in 1282, has the following:
“Besides this, there is the needle which guides the mariner, and which is itself directed by the star called the tramontane.”[6]
The following metrical translation of a poem by Guido Guinicelli, an Italian priest, 1276, is from the pen of Dr. Park Benjamin, of New York:
In what strange regions ’neath the polar starMay the great hills of massy lodestone rise,Virtue imparting to the ambient airTo draw the stubborn iron; while afarFrom that same stone, the hidden virtue fliesTo turn the quivering needle to the BearIn splendor blazing in the Northern skies.
In what strange regions ’neath the polar star
May the great hills of massy lodestone rise,
Virtue imparting to the ambient air
To draw the stubborn iron; while afar
From that same stone, the hidden virtue flies
To turn the quivering needle to the Bear
In splendor blazing in the Northern skies.
The above extracts show that the directive property of the magnetic needle was well known in England, France, Germany, Spain and Italy in the thirteenth century. In the passage from Neckam, theacum jaculo superpositamhas been construed by some to mean a form of pivoted needle, while in the letter of Peregrinus, 1269, the double pivoted form is clearly described.
[1]With very few exceptions all the works referred to in this notice will be found in the Wheeler Collection in the Library of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, New York.[2]It is probable that Flavio Gioja, an Italian pilot, some fifty years later, added the compass-card and attached it to the magnet.[3]Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata, 1865.[4]A terrella, or earthkin.[5]The Chronicles and Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, by Thomas Wright (1863).[6]The pole-star was thus named in the south of France and the north of Italy because seen beyond the mountains (the Alps).
[1]With very few exceptions all the works referred to in this notice will be found in the Wheeler Collection in the Library of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers, New York.
[2]It is probable that Flavio Gioja, an Italian pilot, some fifty years later, added the compass-card and attached it to the magnet.
[3]Annali di Matematica Pura ed Applicata, 1865.
[4]A terrella, or earthkin.
[5]The Chronicles and Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland during the Middle Ages, by Thomas Wright (1863).
[6]The pole-star was thus named in the south of France and the north of Italy because seen beyond the mountains (the Alps).