Compass grid Cantino planisphere

Illustration of the construction of the compass rhumb lines in the Cantino Planisphere (1502). The construction is based on two focal circles, the western circle centered on Cape Verde, the eastern circle in India. Each focal circle has an implied outer circle, which together cover most of the map. The circumference of each outer circle is ringed with sixteen equidistant 32-point compass roses - sometimes an elaborately drawn compass rose, sometimes a mere confluence of lines (when drawing would conflict with the coastal details). The western and eastern outer circles are tangent to each other at the rose in central Africa. The map also has several scattered scale bars to help measure distances (incuding an untypical diagonal bar for the coast of Mozambique).

Date

1502

Archive

Wikimedia Commons

Type

chart

Original size

3,528 × 1,656 pixels

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