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Article A VIEW OF THE PROGRESS OF NAVIGATION. ← Page 3 of 5 →
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A View Of The Progress Of Navigation.
loborate his opinion , and therefore they both with reason rejoft him . These two authors , and Pancirol . 1 . z . tit . II , do not forgetjhe verse © ften urged out of Plautus in Mercat . Hie secundus ventus nunc est , cape modo Versoriam . Which Versoria some will have to be the compass . But there is nothing
solid in this argument , it is only catching at straws , when all history . and praftice of former ages make against it . History , because it could not but have made some mention of a thing so universally useful and necessary ; and praftice , because it is well known no such voyages were then performed , as are now daily by the help of the compass . It has sufficiently been proved , before that in all former ages they were but coasters , scarce
daring to venture out of sig ht of land ; that if out at night they had . no other rule to go by but the stars : and what is still more , it is manifest they scarce ventured at all to sea in the winter months . That this is so , appears by Vegetius , lib . 4 . where speaking of the months , he says , the seas are shut from the third of the Ides of November , to the sixth of the Ides o £ Marchand from that time till the Ides of May it is dangerous venturing
, to sea . Thus much may suffice to show the compass was not known to antiquity , let us see when it first appeared in the world . Its ancient use being rejefted by general consent , there have still been some who have endeavoured to rob the discoverer of this honour ; among them Goropius , quoted by Morisotus , will have this invention attributed to the Cimbrians , Teutonicks or Germans , for this weak reason , because
die names of the 32 winds about it are Teutonic ! - * :, and used by almostall Europeans . Others will not allow this to be the produfr . of any part of Europe , and therefore go as far as China for it , alledg ing that M . Paulas Venetus brought it from thence about the year 1260 : but this is asserted without any the least authority , only because Paulus Venetus travelled into China , and when afterwards the Portuguese came thither , they found the use of the needle common among all those eastern nationswhich they
, , affirmed they had enjoyed for many ages . Not to dwell upon groundless suppositions , the general consent of the best authors on this subject : is , that the magnetical needle or compass was first found out in Europe by one John Gioia , whom other call Flavio Gioia , of the city of Amalsi , on the coast of that part of the kingdom of Naples called Terra di Lavoro . This happened about the year of our Lord 1300 , and though the thing be of such
stupendous advantage to the world , yet it did not prove so greatly profitable tothefirst finder , whosebarenameisallthat remains to posterity , without the least knowledge of his profession , or after what manner he made this wonderful discovery . So wonderful that it seems to contradict the opinion of Solomon , who so many ages since said there was nothing new under the sunwhereas this certainlappearsthough so long after himto be
; y , , altogether new , and never so much as thought of before , which cannot so plainly be made out of any other of those we look upon as modern inventions or improvements . For to instance in a few things , we find the use . of iireships among the Tyrians in the time of Alexander the Great , as was mentioned before out of Ctirtius , lib . 4 . and therefore not repeated
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
A View Of The Progress Of Navigation.
loborate his opinion , and therefore they both with reason rejoft him . These two authors , and Pancirol . 1 . z . tit . II , do not forgetjhe verse © ften urged out of Plautus in Mercat . Hie secundus ventus nunc est , cape modo Versoriam . Which Versoria some will have to be the compass . But there is nothing
solid in this argument , it is only catching at straws , when all history . and praftice of former ages make against it . History , because it could not but have made some mention of a thing so universally useful and necessary ; and praftice , because it is well known no such voyages were then performed , as are now daily by the help of the compass . It has sufficiently been proved , before that in all former ages they were but coasters , scarce
daring to venture out of sig ht of land ; that if out at night they had . no other rule to go by but the stars : and what is still more , it is manifest they scarce ventured at all to sea in the winter months . That this is so , appears by Vegetius , lib . 4 . where speaking of the months , he says , the seas are shut from the third of the Ides of November , to the sixth of the Ides o £ Marchand from that time till the Ides of May it is dangerous venturing
, to sea . Thus much may suffice to show the compass was not known to antiquity , let us see when it first appeared in the world . Its ancient use being rejefted by general consent , there have still been some who have endeavoured to rob the discoverer of this honour ; among them Goropius , quoted by Morisotus , will have this invention attributed to the Cimbrians , Teutonicks or Germans , for this weak reason , because
die names of the 32 winds about it are Teutonic ! - * :, and used by almostall Europeans . Others will not allow this to be the produfr . of any part of Europe , and therefore go as far as China for it , alledg ing that M . Paulas Venetus brought it from thence about the year 1260 : but this is asserted without any the least authority , only because Paulus Venetus travelled into China , and when afterwards the Portuguese came thither , they found the use of the needle common among all those eastern nationswhich they
, , affirmed they had enjoyed for many ages . Not to dwell upon groundless suppositions , the general consent of the best authors on this subject : is , that the magnetical needle or compass was first found out in Europe by one John Gioia , whom other call Flavio Gioia , of the city of Amalsi , on the coast of that part of the kingdom of Naples called Terra di Lavoro . This happened about the year of our Lord 1300 , and though the thing be of such
stupendous advantage to the world , yet it did not prove so greatly profitable tothefirst finder , whosebarenameisallthat remains to posterity , without the least knowledge of his profession , or after what manner he made this wonderful discovery . So wonderful that it seems to contradict the opinion of Solomon , who so many ages since said there was nothing new under the sunwhereas this certainlappearsthough so long after himto be
; y , , altogether new , and never so much as thought of before , which cannot so plainly be made out of any other of those we look upon as modern inventions or improvements . For to instance in a few things , we find the use . of iireships among the Tyrians in the time of Alexander the Great , as was mentioned before out of Ctirtius , lib . 4 . and therefore not repeated