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Articles

1977: Vol. LIV, No. 1

The Development of the Mariner's Chart

Submitted
August 7, 2015
Published
2015-07-09

Abstract

The key to the problem of projecting rhumb-Iines as straight lines — the chief requirement of a navigational chart — was suggested by the Flemish cartographer and cosmographer Gerard Mercator. There is no evidence, however, that Mercator understood the mathematical principle of the projection which now bears his name. This principle was discovered independently by Thomas Hariot (whose investigations were not published) and Edward Wright after Mercator’s death. The principal aims in this paper are : first, to trace the development of the plane chart from the portolan chart; second, to discuss the contributions made in particular by Pedro Nunez, John Dee and Mercator, in the quest for a chart suitable for navigation, especially in high latitudes, which would be free from the defects of the “plane chart” , the “navigation globe" and the “ polar zenithal charts" used or suggested up to the end of the sixteenth century; and, third, to emphasize the essential link between Nunez, Dee and Mercator, which appears to have been forged at the University of Louvain at which all three men studied during the sixteenth century. By the beginning of the seventeenth century the problem of the mariner’s map had been solved following the introduction of Edward Wright’s Table of Meridional Parts.