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Abstract
The so-called mariner’s astrolabe attracts much attention. There are at least 40 publications, dating between 1917 and 2023 dealing directly with the subject plus many treatises on the history of navigation and nautical instruments that mention or describe the mariner’s astrolabe. Common to most of these publications are statements about the origin and/or first use of the mariner’s astrolabe which are mostly superficial, misleading or simply false. Almost all of them rely on prior publications, that are generally not cited, and if references are given they are wrong, poorly understood or misleading. These publications have meant that myths and baseless assumptions on the early history of European navigation have proliferated. This article tries to take stock of what we really know about the origin and the early use of an instrument widely used in navigation in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. The sources of the presumed early dates, myths and assumptions are identified through an investigation of the nomenclature, graphical representations, textual evidence and material evidence relating to the mariner’s astrolabe.
Notes
1 Silva, O astrolábio náutico dos portugueses; Kardasz, An Astrolabe from the Wreck of Santiago, 1585.
2 On the planispheric astrolabe there is a plethora of publications; for a thorough treatment of this instrument see Michel, Traité de l’astrolabe, d’Hollander, L’astrolabe: Histoire, théorie et pratique, and Morrison, The Astrolabe.
3 David King, one of the foremost scholars on astrolabes, vehemently opposes the modern equalization of astrolabes and mariner’s astrolabes; see his web contribution ‘The Astrolabe: What it is & what it is not’ (https://www.academia.edu/92557192/KING_Astrolabe).
4 Michel, Traité de l’astrolabe, 25, “La similitude du nom à causé bien des erreurs: les auteurs les plus sérieux, tout comme ceux qui se laissent séduire par la sonorité des mots, ont souvent confondu l’astrolabe de mer avec l’astrolabe planisphérique”.
5 See for instance Cortes, Breve compendio, 242, ‘De la fábrica y uso del astrolabio con le que los marineros toman las alturas del Sol’ (The fabrication and use of the astrolabe with which the seamen take the altitudes of the sun); García de Palacio, Instrucción Náutica, 350, ‘es un instrumento de metal con que se toma la altura del sol’ (is an instrument with which one takes the height of the sun), Çamorano, Compendio de la arte de navegar, fol. 11v, only talks about the ‘astrolabio’; Davis, in Markham, A life of John Davis, the Navigator, 335,‘A Astrolabie is the representation of a great circle contayning four quadrants, or 360 degrees, which instrument hath beene in long vse among Seamen, . . .but sith the vulgare Astrolabie w(ith) his use is to every seaman sufficiently knowne, . . .’; Brouck, Instructie der zeevaert, title and 105, talks only of the ‘Astrolaby Catholicum’; Metius, Nieuwe Geographische Ondervvysinge, 21, shows a mariner’s astrolabe in the illustration, but calls it simply an ‘Astrolabium’; Lastman, De Schat-Kamer Des Grooten See=vaerts=kunst, 26, deals simply with the ‘Astrolabe’.
6 Chaves, Quatro Partitu en Cosmographia Pratica, (fo. 17), 117.
7 Coignet, Instruction Novvelle, 27.
8 Bourne, An Almanacke and prognostication, (fo. E IIII), 85.
9 Herzogin Anna Amalia-Bibliothek, shelfmark Kt 020–58 S; Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, shelfmark Borgiano III.
10 Medina, Arte de Navegar, fo. xlvii–xlix.
11 Cortes, Breve Compendio de la sphera, (fo. LVIIv), 246.
12 Garcia de Palacio, Instrucción Náutica, (fo. 26r), 139.
13 This was already observed by Price, Two Mariner’s Astrolabes, 342.
14 Paget-Tomlinson and Hill, Instruments of Navigation, 7, ‘it is considered to have been invented by Hipparchus’; Hoffmann and Kaltenbach, Zur Geschichte des Sextanten, 55, ‘. . .von dem griechischen Astronomen Hipparch . . .wurde es benutzt’ (it was used by the Greek astronomer Hipparch).
15 Krabinger, Synesii Cyrenaei orationes et homiliarum fragmenta.
16 Michel, Traité de l’astrolabe, 6.
17 Aguiar Aguilar, Los primeros instrumentos de navegación que viajaron a América, n. 54
18 BnF MS Lat 10266 fo. 118; translation in Poulle, Le traité . . . 897.
19 The text is somewhat confusing as it mentions a star in Capricornus (Algedi) but clearly refers to the Pole star and is erroneously situating it in the constellation of the Great Bear.
20 Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen, vol. 1, 235. This claim is repeated by Breusing in Regiomontanus, Behaim und der Jakobsstab, 192.
21 Navarrete, Historia de las cruzadas, 147.
22 Ifland, Taking the Stars, 6.
23 Anderson, The Mariner’s Astrolabe, 4
24 Beaujouan, Histoire des sciences au Moyen Âge, 260.
25 Bensaude, L’ Astronomie Nautique au Portugal, 35. See also Albuquerque, Os guias náuticos, 28–30, and Wagner, Die Entwicklung der wissenschaftlichen Nautik, 112.
26 Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, München Codex Hispanicus 27, transcribed in Baião (ed.), O Manuscrito de Valentim Fernandes.
27 Baião (ed.), O Manuscrito de Valentim Fernandes, 298.
28 Bensaude, L’ Astronomie Nautique au Portugal, 184
29 Dunn, Navigational instruments, 26.
30 Barros, De Asia, fol. 42.
31 Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen, vol. 1, 232.
32 Markham, A life of John Davis, 143.
33 Paget-Tomlinson and Hill, Instruments of Navigation, 8.
34 Hewson, A History of the Practice of Navigation, 71, referring not to Barros, but Purchas, His Pilgrimage, book 1, ch. 9.
35 Mira, Ah! Qu’il fut difficile de partir en mer . . ., 28
36 Barros, De Asia, fo. 42.
37 May, A History of Marine Navigation, 120.
38 Mörzer Bruins, Konst der stuurlieden,15.
39 Williams, From Sails to Satellites, 35.
40 Bensaude, L’astronomie nautique . . ., 106, ‘En 1481 on trouve Diogo d’Azambuja faisant usage de l’astrolabe. . .’ (In 1481 one finds Diogo d’Azambuja using the astrolabe), referring to Ravenstein, Martin Behaim, who himself is citing Telles da Silva; Freiesleben, Geschichte der Navigation, 70, ‘1481 hat Diogo d’Azambuja ein Astrolab benutzt’ (In 1481 Diogo d’Azambuja used an astrolabe); Waters, The Art of Navigation, 46, 656, ‘Earliest use of quadrant by mariner, 1460, of astrolabe, 1481’; Stimson, The Mariner’s Astrolabe, 16, ‘The earliest recorded use of the sea astrolabe was made during a voyage undertaken in 1481 by Diogo d’Azambuja down the west
coast of Africa’; De Hilster, Navigation on wood, 121 (referring to Stimson), ‘The oldest known recorded use of the mariner’s astrolabe on board a vessel dates from 1481’; Sauer, Das ‘Seebuch’, 166 ( referring to Stimson), ‘Das Astrolabium wird 1481 zum erstenmal an Bord bei Diogo d’Azambjos Fahrt entlang der Küste Westafrikas erwähnt’ (The astrolabe is first mentioned on board in 1481 in Diogo d’Azambjos voyage along the coast of West Africa).
41 Telles da Silva, De Rebus gestibus Joannis II, 152–3.
42 Ravenstein, Martin Behaim, 10.
43 Barros, Asia, fol. 42.
44 Albuquerque, Os guias náuticas, 60.
45 Swanick, An Analysis of Navigational Instruments, 85.
46 Maddison, On the Origin of the Mariner’s Astrolabe, 5.
47 Correia, Lendas da India, 263.
48 Albuquerque, Abraham Zacuto, 63.
49 Ravenstein, Martin Behaim, 13; Reis, A Saga dos Astrolábios Portugueses, 32.
50 Cited after Albuquerque, Os Guias náuticos, 60.
51 Albuquerque, Os Guias náuticos, 61.
52 Fournier, Hydrographie, 369, ‘ce qu’ils practiquerent avec tant d’adresse qu’enuiron l’an 1485’ (which they practised with certainty since about the year 1485).
53 For the development of the tables, see Albuquerque, Astronomical navigation, 57–111.
54 Albuquerque, Os Guias, 62.
55 Fontoura da Costa, A marinharia dos descobrimentos, 37.
56 Ifland, Taking the Stars, 7; Fisher, Latitude Hooks, 26, ‘Columbus had an astrolabe on his first voyage, but apparently never got accurate readings from it.’; Dunn, Navigational instruments, 26, ‘Christopher Columbus also carried an astrolabe and a quadrant on his famous transatlantic voyage of 1492’.
57 Dunn and Kelley, The Diario of Christopher Columbus’s First Voyage to America, 356–7.
58 See, among others, Fontoura da Costa, A marinharia dos descobrimentos, 22–3; Albuquerque, Os Guias náuticos, 65–6.
59 Barros, Asia, Decada I, IV, ii, fol. 42.
60 Köberer, Das älteste niederdeutsche Navigationshandbuch, 25. More than a century later Diego Ramírez de Arellano and the brothers Nodal in 1619 wrote that a measurement was taken by astrolabe and on land (‘Tomé el sol en tierra. . .’)
61 First printed in Revista do Instituto Histórico e Geográfico Brasileiro, Rio de Janeiro, 1843, tomo V, n° 19, 342–4; also in Fontoura da Costa, A marinharia dos descobrimentos, 120–2.
62 Kelley, Old Nautical Charts, 236–51.
63 This must be the earliest report of a calculation of a noon latitude. It is correct. With a height observed of 56°, the shadow towards the north and a solar declination of 17°N on the southern hemisphere one arrives according to the rules of the ‘Regimento do estrolabio’, which is evidently referred to here (see Albuquerque, Astronomical Navigation, 62) at a latitude of 17°S, which in general agrees with the position of the fleet. The ‘Regimento’ gives a solar declination of 16°42' which raises the question whether Mestre João rounded off this figure or used a different table which seems unlikely as he used the title of the manual verbatim or just did not want to confuse his king by an exact figure. The statement about the ‘height of the Antarctic Pole’ being 17° refers to the fact that they were in south latitudes.
64 This lack of reliability is echoed almost a century later by John Davis, ‘the Astrolabie and Quadrant being instruments very uncertaine for Sea observations’, see Markham, A life of John Davis, the Navigator, 240.
65 There were three mariner’s astrolabes found at the site of the shipwreck of the ‘Bom Jesus’ that occurred in 1533; see Castro et al., Marine Astrolabes Catalogue nos 91–93 and Pereira, The Archaeology of the Nautical Astrolabe: News from a shipwreck in Namibia.
66 Waters, The Sea- or Mariner’s Astrolabe.
67 See the total in Castro et al., Marine astrolabes catalogue.
68 Castro et al., Marine astrolabes catalogue, no. 108.
69 Castro et al., Marine astrolabes catalogue, no. 47.
70 Mearns et al., An Early Portuguese Mariner’s Astrolabe, 505.
71 See the description by Amparo Sebastián, in, Hierro, Carlos V: la náutica y la navegación, 270, 273.
72 Mearns et al., An Early Portuguese Mariner’s Astrolabe, 502.
73 On Chart 32 of the Cornaro Atlas (mid- to late 1480s) south of the Niger there is an inscription in Latin, hic non apar polus. This is an indication to the practice of ascertaining the latitude by taking the height of the pole star which was only possible with a quadrant. See Gaspar and Krtalic, A Cartografia de Magalhães, 69 and 71 The inscription warns that the method of taking the pole star (by quadrant) fails south of the equator.
74 Biblioteca Estense Universitaria Modena, C.G.A. 12.
75 An email to the Museo de Colón asking for a photograph of the back side of the Las Palmas astrolabe was not answered.
76 A good example is Andres de San Martín who accompanied Magellan on his voyage to the Moluccas but was killed there in a skirmish with indigenous people.
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Wolfgang Köberer
Wolfgang Köberer attended law school in Frankfurt and worked as defence counsel from 1984 to 2016. He has published on the history of navigation since the 1980s. He is an associate member of the Academia de Marinha in Lisbon, the scientific institute of the Portuguese navy, and a member of the Society for Nautical Research.