flags and other decorations, the work of George Glockendon, a well-known
illuminator of the time.
[Illustration: FIG. 26.]
The maritime discoveries and surveys of that age of great discoveries
were laid down upon so-called "plane-charts," that is, charts having
merely equidistant parallels indicated upon them, together with the
equator, the tropics and polar circles, or, in a more advanced stage,
meridians also. The astrolabe quadrant or cross-staff enabled the
mariner to determine his latitude with a certain amount of accuracy, but
for his longitude he was dependent upon dead reckoning, for although
various methods for determining a longitude were known, the available
astronomical ephemerides were not trustworthy, and errors of 30° in
longitude were by no means rare. It was only after the publication of
Kepler's _Rudolphine Table_ (1626) that more exact results could be
obtained. A further difficulty arose in connexion with the variation of
the compass, which induced Pedro Reinel to introduce two scales of
latitude on his map of the northern Atlantic (1504; fig. 27).
[Illustration: FIG. 27.]
The chart of the world by Juan de la Cosa, the companion of Columbus, is
the earliest extant which depicts the discoveries in the new world
(1500), Nicolaus de Canerio, a Genoese, and the map which Alberto
Cantino caused to be drawn at Lisbon for Hercules d'Este of Ferrara
(1502), illustrating in addition the recent discoveries of the
Portuguese in the East. Other cosmographers of distinction were Pedro
Reinel (1504-1542), Nuno Garcia de Toreno (1520), to whom we are
indebted for 21 charts, illustrating Magellan's voyage, Diogo Ribero
(maps of the world 1527, 1529),[24] Alonzo de Santa Cruz, of Seville,
whose _Isolario general_ includes charts of all parts of the world
(1541), John Rotz or Rut (1542), Sebastian Cabot (1544), as also Nicolas
Desliens, Pierre Desceliers, G. Breton and V. Vallard, all of Arques,
near Dieppe, whose charts were compiled between 1541 and 1554.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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