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Re: Translation of latin?
From: John Huth
Date: 2010 Jun 4, 15:09 -0400
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Mercator_Septentrionalium_Terrarum_descriptio.jpg
From: John Huth
Date: 2010 Jun 4, 15:09 -0400
Wolfgang -
Many thanks! That clears up the mystery.
George - It's from Wikipedia:
I know it was published a long time after Mercator's death, but it was said to include his ideas on the pole.
It was Peter who quoted the Russian, so I'm afraid he'll have to help out on that one.
If you go to the Wikipedia image, you can blow it up and zoom in on the islands. In fact, it's rather fun to read some of the inscriptions.
George- many thanks for the scans.
John H.
On Fri, Jun 4, 2010 at 2:58 PM, Wolfgang Köberer <koeberer@navigationsgeschichte.de> wrote:
The map with the channels to the North Pole and the island marking one magnetic pole first was an inset in the lower left corner of the famous 1569 Mercator map "ad usum navigantium". But it doesn't show one magnetic pole but two: There are 2 smalls circles as you can clearly on the picture provided by John: one with the inscription "Polus magnetis respectu Corvi insule", the other is located on a small island with a mountain. Its inscription reads: "Polus magnetis respectu insularum capitis Viridis". The first inscription must be translated as: "Magnetic pole with respect to the island of Corvo", the second as: "Magnetic pole with respect to the Cape Verde islands".The explanation for this is given by Mercator in the 1569 map also: In the upper right corner of the map there is an inset where Mercator tries to explain where he starts counting the longitude. Its title reads: "De longitudinum geographicarum initio et polo magnetis" ("Of the beginning of geographic longitudes and the magnetic pole"). Here he refers to the fact that supposedly the line of zero variation passes through the Cape Verde islands, but according to other authors through the Azores/Corvo. And he states that the longitudes must be counted from the line of zero variation i.e. either from Corvo or the Cape Verde islands. And therefore - depending on which place you chose to start counting the longitude - the magnetic pole is located in different places: as shown on his arctic maplet.Regards, Wolfgang
