Wikipedia:Featured picture candidates/Jorge de Aguiar compass rose

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[edit] Jorge de Aguiar compass rose

Replica of a compass rose from the chart of Jorge de Aguiar (1492), the oldest known signed and dated Portuguese nautical chart. It is a 32 point compass rose, meaning that the lines that irradiate from its centre indicate 32 different geographic directions. The original chart is in the Beinecke Library, Yale University, USA.

Reason: It is a beautiful and high quality depiction of a 15th century compass rose, typical of the portolan charts of the time. This is a modern replica of an old drawing, in the sense that some imperfections were corrected and the lettering improved in order to make it readable and more easily interpreted. A copy of the original is here. A svg version is also available here but the Wikipedia system is not able of showing it correctly (however it can be downloaded and used).
Articles this image appears in: Compass rose
Creator: Joaquim Alves Gaspar

Support as nominator — Alvesgaspar 16:55, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
weak support - I like the concept, a lot. I am sure many people with prefer an svg - I'm fine with PNG. I think the caption is much too focused on "how I made the image" and not enough on what makes compass roses interesting, the map it appeared on, or, for example, how long compass roses pre-existed this one on other maps. Debivort 17:50, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
- Also, was the compass on the original aligned in parallel with the vertical and horizontal edges of the map, and if so, did it point to geographic north or magnetic north? Such details are much more interesting than fixed up letters :-). Debivort 17:52, 22 June 2007 (UTC)
- Info - OK, here it is some additional information (I will write an article on the subject when I have the time :)): Compass roses (or wind roses, as they were known at the time), have been part of nautical charts almost since its appearance, in the end of the 13th century (the Carta Pisana, of about 1285, is the oldest known portolan-chart of the Mediterranean). A chart normally contained several wind-roses from whose centres a series of straight lines irradiated (usually, but wrongly, known as rhumb-lines). With the help of a pair of marine compasses, these lines could be used to measure and mark the routes between places (no pencils existed at the time!). Magnetic declination was unknown until the beginning of the 16th century and the pilots were convinced that the magnetic compasses indicate the true North (as well as the wind roses in the charts). It didn’t really matter because the navigation was based on magnetic directions. The only visible effect of this error was the variable tilt of the lands represented on the charts, which vary according to the spatial distribution of the magnetic declination. Only in the middle o the 18th century was the phenomenon sufficiently known so it could be taken into consideration, with the necessary accuracy, in nautical cartography. The chart of Jorge de Aguiar is one of the last Portuguese “portolan-charts”, based on magnetic directions and estimated distances only. It was replaced, in the beginning of the 16th century, by the “chart of equal degrees”, or "latitude chart", based on observed latitudes, after the introduction of navigational astronomy by the Portuguese. The oldest known latitude chart is the famous Cantino planisphere, made in 1502 by an anonymous Portuguese cartographer. The wind roses have survived, in the nautical cartography, from the 13th century to our days. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Alvesgaspar (talk • contribs) 11:06, June 22, 2007
Support Interesting and encyclopedic. Cacophony 04:14, 24 June 2007 (UTC)
Support Encyclopedic and very fine picture. – Esurnir 12:59, 24 June 2007
Support, well done and encyclopaedic.--Svetovid 09:31, 26 June 2007 (UTC)
Support Great image.Bewareofdog 18:33, 26 June 2007 (UTC)