aptista Porta the Neapolitan, who
wrote forty years before Gilbert, discredited the legend. "_Flavius_ saith,
an Italian found it out first, whose name was _Amalphus_, born in our {57}
Campania. But he knew not the Mariners Card, but stuck the needle in a
reed, or a piece of wood, cross over; and he put the needles into a vessel
full of water that they might flote freely." (Porta's _Natural Magick_,
English translation, London, 1658, p. 206.) See also Lipenius (_op. citat._
p. 390).

The pivotting of the needle is expressly described in the famous _Epistle_
on the Magnet of Peter Peregrinus, which was written in 1269. Gasser's
edition, _Epistola Petri Peregrini ... de magnete_, was printed in Augsburg
in 1558. In Part II., cap. 2, of this letter, a form of instrument is
described for directing one's course to towns and islands, and any places
in fact on land or sea. This instrument consists of a vessel like a turned
box (or _pyxis_) of wood, brass, or any solid material, not deep, but
sufficiently wide, provided with a cover of glass or crystal. In its middle
is arranged a slender axis of brass or silver, pivotted at its two ends
into the top and the bottom of the box. This axis is pierced orthogonally
with two holes, through one of which is passed the steel needle, while
through the other is fixed square across the needle another stylus of
silver or brass. The glass cover was to be marked with two cross lines
north-south and east-west; and each quadrant was to be divided into ninety
degrees. This the earliest described pivotted compass was therefore of the
cross-needle type, a form claimed as a new invention by Barlowe in 1597.
The first suggestion of suspending a magnetic needle by a thread appears to
be in the _Speculum Lapidum_ of Camillus Leonardus (Venet., 1502, fig. k
ij, lines 25-31): "Na tacto ferro ex una [=p]te magnetis ex opposita eius
[=p]te appropinquato fugat: ut ex[=p]i[~e]tia docet de acu appenso filo."

The earliest known examples of the "wind-rose" are those in certain
parchment charts preserved in the Biblioteca Marciana in Venice. These go
back to 1426 or 1436, the best being ascribed to Andrea Bianco. They have
the North indicated by a fleur-de-lys, a trident, a simple triangle, or a
letter T; while the East is distinguisht by a cross. The West is marked
with a P. (see Fincati, _op. citat._). The eight marks in order, clock
wise, run thus,

[Lily] (or T). G. [Cross] (or L) S. O. A (or L