). P. M.

The letters correspond to the Italian names of the principal winds:

Tramontano North.
Greco North-East.
Levante East.
Sirocco South-East.
Ostro South.
Africo or Libeccio South-West.
Ponente West.
Maestro North-West.

Wind-roses marked with the names of the minor winds are found in
Nautonier's _Mecometrie de l'Eyman_ (Vennes, 1602-1604, pp. 151-152), and
Kircher's _Magnes Siue de Arte Magnetica_ (Colon. Agripp., 1643, p. 432).
The description above given of the early Venetian wind-roses _exactly_
describes the compass-card as depicted by Pedro de Medina in his _Arte de
Nauegar_ (Valladolid, 1545, folio lxxx.), in the sixth book entitled "las
aguias de navegar"; while in the _Breve compendio de la sphera_ of Martin
Cortes (Sevilla, 1551, cap. iii., _de la piedrayman_) a similar wind-rose,
without the letters, is found.

{58} In the _De Ventis et navigatione_ of Michaele Angelo Blondo (Venet.,
1546, p. 15) is given a wind-rose, described as "Pixis uel Buxolus
instrumentum et dux nauigantium," having twenty-six points inscribed with
the names of the winds, there being six between north and east, and six
between south and west, and only five in each of the other quadrants. In
the middle is a smaller wind-rose exactly like the early Italian ones just
mentioned.

In the _Della Guerra di Rhodi_ of Jacobo Fontano (Venet., 1545, pages
71-74) is a chapter _Dei Venti, e della Bvssola di nauicare di Giovanni
Quintino_, giving a wind-rose, and a table of the names of the winds, the
north being indicated by a pointer, at the cusp of which are seven stars,
and the west by an image of the sun. The other cardinal points are marked
with letters.

Barlowe, in _The Navigators Supply_ (Lond., 1597), speaks thus:

"The merueilous and diuine Instrument, called the _Sayling Compasse_
(being one of the greatest wonders that this World hath) is a Circle
diuided commonly into 32. partes, tearmed by our Seamen Windes,
_Rumbes_, or Points of Compasse."

It is a disputed point with whom the method of naming the winds originated.
Some ascribe it to Charlemagne. Michiel Coignet (_Instruction novvelle ...
touchant l'art de naviguer_, Anvers, 1581, p. 7) ascribes it to Andronicus
Cyrrhestes. See Varro, _De Re Rustica_, iii., 5, 17, and Vitruvius, i.,