WEDNESDAY, MAY 21
I have my Indiana Jones tickets for the morrow. Alicia and the girls are meeting me here at noonish. My parents are also going (naturally). We’ll drive to Alamo, have lunch, then keep up with the Joneses. Sydney has never seen Indiana Jones. That should prove interesting. It looks like I am going to get this blasted blog finished before midnight, for a change. My browser was running slower than it should. I downloaded the new version of Firefox - quite nice.
It just dawned on me that we're pushing Memorial Day. No wonder there are more Texas tags than New Mexico ones. I have Altar Guild this weekend. I can't skip church and watch the race on Sunday.
Did you hear the one about the Monster Bee?
Then there is the one about the Bigfoot Massacre!
A thunderbird Report
CHAMBERS BOOK OF DAYS
Born: Philip II of Spain, 1527, Valladolid; Francis Egerton, Duke of Bridgewater, promoter of canal navigation in England, 1736; Bryan Edwards, historian of the West Indies, 1743, Westbury; John, Lord Lyndhurst, Chancellor of England, 1772, Boston, U.S.
Died: James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, 1650, Edinburgh; Cornelius Tromp, Dutch admiral, 1691, Amsterdam; Jacques Maboul, French preacher, 1723, ilea; Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, prime minister of Queen Anne, 1724; Sir John Hawkins, author of A history of Music, &c., 1789; Dr. Thomas Warton, poet, Professor of Poetry, Oxford, 1790, Trinity College, Oxford; Maria Edgeworth, novelist, 1849.
Feast Day: St. Hospitius, recluse in Provence, 881; St. Godrick, hermit, of Finkley, near Durham, 1170; St. Felix of Cantalicio, 1587.
THE MARINER'S COMPASSDied: James Graham, Marquis of Montrose, 1650, Edinburgh; Cornelius Tromp, Dutch admiral, 1691, Amsterdam; Jacques Maboul, French preacher, 1723, ilea; Robert Harley, Earl of Oxford, prime minister of Queen Anne, 1724; Sir John Hawkins, author of A history of Music, &c., 1789; Dr. Thomas Warton, poet, Professor of Poetry, Oxford, 1790, Trinity College, Oxford; Maria Edgeworth, novelist, 1849.
Feast Day: St. Hospitius, recluse in Provence, 881; St. Godrick, hermit, of Finkley, near Durham, 1170; St. Felix of Cantalicio, 1587.
The history of the mariner's compass in Western Europe furnishes a curious illustration of the danger of forming conclusions upon negative evidence—that is, of supposing a thing did not exist at any time, merely because no known contemporary writer mentions its existence. It had been long believed that this instrument, so important an agent in the progress of man's civilization, had been invented in Italy about the year 1302, by one Flavio Gioia. When the celebrated orientalist, Jules Klaproth, discovered that it had been known to the Chinese from a very early period; that there were reasons for believing that an implement made on the same principles, and for the same object, had been in use among that people at a date prior to the Christian era; but that they certainly had the mariner's compass, in a rather rude form, it is true, before the end of the eleventh century of our chronology; it was immediately concluded that the people of Europe had derived the knowledge of this invention direct from the Chinese.
Subsequent to this discovery, other orientalists have found evidence in a contemporary Arab writer, that this instrument was in use among the Mahometan sailors in the Mediterranean so early as the year 1242; and it was therefore concluded that the Christians of the West derived the mariner's compass from the Chinese, not directly, but indirectly through the Arabs. The more extensive researches into the literature of Western Europe have, however, shown that neither of these suppositions is correct, but that the principles of the mariner's compass were known among our forefathers at a date considerably earlier than the one last mentioned.
A French poet, named Guyot de Provins, wrote a satire on the vices of his time, which is known by the title of La Bible de Guyot de Provins, and which is supposed to have been completed in the year 1205. In speaking of the pope, he uses words which are literally translated as follows: 'I wish he resembled the star which never moves. The mariners who take it for their guide, observe it very carefully, and go and come directing their way by it; they call it the polar star. It is fixed and motionless; all the others move, and change, and vary their position; but this star moves not. They have a contrivance which never deceives them, through the qualities of the magnet. They have an ugly brown stone, which attracts iron; they mark the exact quarter to which the needle points, which they have rubbed on this stone and afterwards stuck into a straw. They merely put it in water, in which the straw causes it to swim: then the point turns directly towards the star, with such certainty that it will never fail, and no mariner will have any doubt of it. When the sea is dark and foggy, that neither star nor moon can be seen, they place a lighted candle beside the needle, and have then no fear of losing their way; the needle points direct to the star, and the mariners know the right way to take. This is a contrivance which cannot fail. The star is very fair, and very bright; and so I wish our holy father (the pope) were.'
Another French poet, supposed to have been contemporary with Guyot de Provins, has left us a short amatory poem on his mistress, whom he compares to the polar star, which, he says, when they can see it, serves them as a safe guide; and he adds: 'Its position is still known for their route, when the weather is quite dark, to all those who employ the following process: they insert a needle of iron, so that it is almost all exposed to view, into a bit of cork, and rub it on the brown stone of the magnet (the loadstone). If this be placed in a vessel full of water, so that nobody thrusts it out, as soon as the water becomes motionless, to what-ever side the point turns, there without any doubt is the polar star.'
The use of this rude kind of mariner's compass must have been generally known, to allow of its being referred to in this manner by the popular poets; and the Bible of Guyot de Provins, at least, was so well known, that Dante's preceptor, Brunette Latino, when he tells in one of his letters how, during a visit to England, he had seen one of these instruments, borrows the words of the poet to describe it. One or two other Latin writers of the same age also allude to it, though rather obscurely.
But a still more curious account has been recently brought to light by the researches of Mr. T. Wright, who has found descriptions of the mariner's compass in two different works by Alexander Neckam, one of the most learned English scholars of the latter half of the twelfth century. He is said to have died in 1217, but one, at least, of the works alluded to was probably compiled when he was young; both of these passages had remained concealed in the obscurity of mediaeval manuscripts until they were published by Mr. Wright. They reveal the fact that already, in the twelfth century, the English navigators used a compass, which was so far an improvement upon that described above by writers of the thirteenth century, that the needle was placed on a pivot as at present, instead of being thrust into a straw or a bit of cork, and made to swim in a basin of water. Neckam speaks of this needle as one of the necessary parts of a ship's furniture.
It is thus quite evident that the mariner's compass, instead of being invented by an Italian at the beginning of the fourteenth century, was well known to English sailors as far back as the twelfth; and, in fact, that we find them using it earlier than any other people in Europe. M. D'Avezac, the eminent geographer, who pointed out the exact meaning and importance of these passages from Alexander Neckam', in several communications to the Society of Geography of Paris, suggests, and we think with great appearance of truth, that the real invention of Flavio Gioia was that of placing the needle permanently in a box, instead of putting it in water, or placing it on a pivot raised permanently for the occasion; and he conjectures that its modern Italian and French name, bussola, boussola, is derived from the box in which it was thus placed, and which was probably made of box-wood.
It appears, therefore, to be established beyond doubt, that the invention of the mariner's compass, instead of being borrowed from the Chinese or Arabs, was one which developed itself gradually and independently in Western Europe. M. D'Avezac has further shown that the card of the compass (called in French the rose des vents, and in the mediaeval Latin stella maris) was in use at the close of the thirteenth century; and that, so early as the year 1268, a French writer, Pierre de Maricourt, describes the variation of the compass, and that allowance was made for it, though this is commonly supposed not to have been observed before the end of the fifteenth century.
It is worthy of note that in England the French and Italian name was never adopted; but we have preserved our original word, 'needle,' which as we have seen, appears at first to have been the only permanent part of the instrument, the other parts being, when it had to be used, made or taken for the occasion."
Subsequent to this discovery, other orientalists have found evidence in a contemporary Arab writer, that this instrument was in use among the Mahometan sailors in the Mediterranean so early as the year 1242; and it was therefore concluded that the Christians of the West derived the mariner's compass from the Chinese, not directly, but indirectly through the Arabs. The more extensive researches into the literature of Western Europe have, however, shown that neither of these suppositions is correct, but that the principles of the mariner's compass were known among our forefathers at a date considerably earlier than the one last mentioned.
A French poet, named Guyot de Provins, wrote a satire on the vices of his time, which is known by the title of La Bible de Guyot de Provins, and which is supposed to have been completed in the year 1205. In speaking of the pope, he uses words which are literally translated as follows: 'I wish he resembled the star which never moves. The mariners who take it for their guide, observe it very carefully, and go and come directing their way by it; they call it the polar star. It is fixed and motionless; all the others move, and change, and vary their position; but this star moves not. They have a contrivance which never deceives them, through the qualities of the magnet. They have an ugly brown stone, which attracts iron; they mark the exact quarter to which the needle points, which they have rubbed on this stone and afterwards stuck into a straw. They merely put it in water, in which the straw causes it to swim: then the point turns directly towards the star, with such certainty that it will never fail, and no mariner will have any doubt of it. When the sea is dark and foggy, that neither star nor moon can be seen, they place a lighted candle beside the needle, and have then no fear of losing their way; the needle points direct to the star, and the mariners know the right way to take. This is a contrivance which cannot fail. The star is very fair, and very bright; and so I wish our holy father (the pope) were.'
Another French poet, supposed to have been contemporary with Guyot de Provins, has left us a short amatory poem on his mistress, whom he compares to the polar star, which, he says, when they can see it, serves them as a safe guide; and he adds: 'Its position is still known for their route, when the weather is quite dark, to all those who employ the following process: they insert a needle of iron, so that it is almost all exposed to view, into a bit of cork, and rub it on the brown stone of the magnet (the loadstone). If this be placed in a vessel full of water, so that nobody thrusts it out, as soon as the water becomes motionless, to what-ever side the point turns, there without any doubt is the polar star.'
The use of this rude kind of mariner's compass must have been generally known, to allow of its being referred to in this manner by the popular poets; and the Bible of Guyot de Provins, at least, was so well known, that Dante's preceptor, Brunette Latino, when he tells in one of his letters how, during a visit to England, he had seen one of these instruments, borrows the words of the poet to describe it. One or two other Latin writers of the same age also allude to it, though rather obscurely.
But a still more curious account has been recently brought to light by the researches of Mr. T. Wright, who has found descriptions of the mariner's compass in two different works by Alexander Neckam, one of the most learned English scholars of the latter half of the twelfth century. He is said to have died in 1217, but one, at least, of the works alluded to was probably compiled when he was young; both of these passages had remained concealed in the obscurity of mediaeval manuscripts until they were published by Mr. Wright. They reveal the fact that already, in the twelfth century, the English navigators used a compass, which was so far an improvement upon that described above by writers of the thirteenth century, that the needle was placed on a pivot as at present, instead of being thrust into a straw or a bit of cork, and made to swim in a basin of water. Neckam speaks of this needle as one of the necessary parts of a ship's furniture.
It is thus quite evident that the mariner's compass, instead of being invented by an Italian at the beginning of the fourteenth century, was well known to English sailors as far back as the twelfth; and, in fact, that we find them using it earlier than any other people in Europe. M. D'Avezac, the eminent geographer, who pointed out the exact meaning and importance of these passages from Alexander Neckam', in several communications to the Society of Geography of Paris, suggests, and we think with great appearance of truth, that the real invention of Flavio Gioia was that of placing the needle permanently in a box, instead of putting it in water, or placing it on a pivot raised permanently for the occasion; and he conjectures that its modern Italian and French name, bussola, boussola, is derived from the box in which it was thus placed, and which was probably made of box-wood.
It appears, therefore, to be established beyond doubt, that the invention of the mariner's compass, instead of being borrowed from the Chinese or Arabs, was one which developed itself gradually and independently in Western Europe. M. D'Avezac has further shown that the card of the compass (called in French the rose des vents, and in the mediaeval Latin stella maris) was in use at the close of the thirteenth century; and that, so early as the year 1268, a French writer, Pierre de Maricourt, describes the variation of the compass, and that allowance was made for it, though this is commonly supposed not to have been observed before the end of the fifteenth century.
It is worthy of note that in England the French and Italian name was never adopted; but we have preserved our original word, 'needle,' which as we have seen, appears at first to have been the only permanent part of the instrument, the other parts being, when it had to be used, made or taken for the occasion."
Dime con quien andas y te digo quien eres.
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