Editing Compass rose (section)

== Depiction on nautical charts ==

In the earliest medieval [[portolan chart]]s of the 14th century, compass roses were depicted as mere collections of color-coded compass [[rhumb lines]]: black for the eight main winds, green for the eight half-winds and red for the sixteen quarter-winds.<ref>Wallis, H.M. and J.H. Robinson, editors (1987) ''Cartographical Innovations: An international handbook of mapping terms to 1900''. London: Map Collector Publications.</ref> The average portolan chart had sixteen such roses (or confluence of lines), spaced out equally around the circumference of a large implicit circle.

The cartographer [[Cresques Abraham]] of [[Majorca]], in his [[Catalan Atlas]] of 1375, was the first to draw an ornate compass rose on a map. By the end of the 15th century, Portuguese cartographers began drawing multiple ornate compass roses throughout the chart, one upon each of the sixteen circumference roses (unless the illustration conflicted with coastal details).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mill |first=Hugh Robert |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=glw5AQAAIAAJ&pg=PA693 |title=Report of the Sixth International Geographical Congress: Held in London, 1895 |date=1896 |publisher=J. Murray |language=en}}</ref>

The points on a compass rose were frequently labeled by the initial letters of the mariner's principal winds (T, G, L, S, O, L, P, M). From the outset, the custom also began to distinguish the north from the other points by a specific visual marker. Medieval Italian cartographers typically used a simple arrowhead or circumflex-hatted T (an allusion to the compass needle) to designate the north, while the [[Majorcan cartographic school]] typically used a stylized [[Pole Star]] for its north mark.<ref>Winter, Heinrich (1947) "On the Real and the Pseudo-Pilestrina Maps and Other Early Portuguese Maps in Munich", ''Imago Mundi'', vol. 4, pp. 25–27.</ref> The use of the [[fleur-de-lis]] as north mark was introduced by [[Pedro Reinel]], and quickly became customary in compass roses (and is still often used today). Old compass roses also often used a [[Christian cross]] at Levante (E), indicating the direction of [[Jerusalem]] from the point of view of the Mediterranean sea.<ref name="Dan">Dan Reboussin (2005). [http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/cm/africana/windrose.htm Wind Rose.] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160901030047/http://web.uflib.ufl.edu/cm/africana/windrose.htm |date=2016-09-01 }} [[University of Florida]]. Retrieved on 2009-04-26.</ref>

The twelve Classical winds (or a subset of them) were also sometimes depicted on portolan charts, albeit not on a compass rose, but rather separately on small disks or coins on the edges of the map.

The compass rose was also depicted on [[traverse board]]s used on board ships to record headings sailed at set time intervals.

<gallery>
File:Portolan windrose (plain).jpg|Early 32-wind compass rose, shown as a mere collection of color-coded rhumblines, from a Genoese nautical chart ({{Circa|1325}})
File:Compass rose from Catalan Atlas (1375).jpg|First ornate compass rose depicted on a chart, from the [[Catalan Atlas]] (1375), with the [[Pole Star]] as north mark
File:WInd Rose Aguiar.svg|More ornate compass rose, with letters of traditional winds, a [[cross pattée]] (referring to Jerusalem) for east, and a compass needle as north mark, from a nautical chart by Jorge de Aguiar (1492)
File:Compass rose Cantino.svg|Highly ornate compass rose, with [[fleur-de-lis]] as north mark and cross pattée as east mark, from the [[Cantino planisphere]] (1502)
</gallery>