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Gary LaPook writes;

I posted that chart in message 3197 on Sept. 17 (and again now) and 
discussed the longitudes of various points in England derived from that 
chart as compared with their modern values. That chart explicitly states 
that the prime meridian used is the western most point of Africa, which 
is Cape Verde, with a modern longitude of 17º 31' west. For example 
Wright's chart shows the Lizard at 10º 05' east of Cape Verde while its 
modern longitude of 5º 12' west of Greenwich places it 12º 19' east of 
Cape Verde (17º 31' - 5º 12') a difference of only 2º 14'  from Wright's 
value or 83 NM at that latitude, pretty remarkable.

 In message 3247 on Sept. 21 I discussed Wright's book and in it he used 
22º for the longitude of London which didn't comport with a value you 
could derive from this chart. I wondered if he had used a different 
prime meridian for the determination of London's longitude. Looking at 
Moxon's chart (and assuming he copied Wright's chart accurately) it does 
appear that Wright used the eastern most point of Bona Vista in the Cape 
Verde Islands at 22º 40' west  as the prime meridian for his world chart 
rather than Cape Verde itself. This makes a discrepancy of 5º 19' when 
comparing the longitudes derived from these two Wright charts. Since 
Bona Vista is 22º 40' west of Greenwich (modern value) and Wright gives 
London as 22º east of that island, the discrepancy is only 40' between 
Wright's value and the modern value, (25 NM at the latitude of London) 
which is also pretty amazing.

This brings up the question of how were these longitudes determined by 
Wright. If only by dead reckoning then it is truly amazing how 
accurately they were determined. Anybody have any information about this?

gl




Wolfgang Köberer wrote:

>Sorry, pushed the wrong button and Outlook did not ask me whether I want to
>send it yet. So:
>
>Well, it's Moxon's chart of 1655, which Moxon claims to be based on Wright's
>World Chart of 1599. They differ in several important features: the shape of
>South America, lands to the North of Canada, the inclusion of California as
>an island etc.
>
>A clearer illustration of Wright's ideas about the longitude (and latitude)
>of the Scillies can be taken from his chart depicting "The voyage of the
>right Honorable the Earle of Cumberland to the Azores A.D. 1589" which
>accompanies his "Certaine errors...". It embodies a nice demonstration of
>latitude sailing, by the way.
>
>Wolfgang
>
>-----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
>Von: NavList@fer3.com [mailto:NavList@fer3.com]Im
>Auftrag von glapook@pacbell.net
>Gesendet: Donnerstag, 29. November 2007 02:11
>An: NavList
>Betreff: [NavList 4157] Wright's 1599 Chart showing Scillies
>
>
>
>Here is a link to Edward Wright's world chart originally published in
>1599 showing the Scillies. His choice for the prime meridian appears
>to be in the Cape Verde Islands, about 22º west of Greenwich.
>
>
>http://maps.bpl.org/id/06_01_000090/
>
>
>>
>
>  
>


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