A.D. 1302.—Gioia—Goia (Flavio or Joannes), an Italian pilot reported born at Positano, near Amalfi, is said by Flamnius Venanson (“De l’invention de la boussole nautique,” Naples, 1808, pp. 138 and 168) to be the real inventor of the mariner’s compass. This view is supported by Briet (Philippe), “Annales Mundi,” Vol. VI: Géog. et Hydrog., lib. x. cap. 8; by Voltaire (“Essai sur les Mœurs,” 1819, Vol. III. chap. cxli.), and by many others, but Klaproth (“Lettre ...” 1834, pp. 132–136) quotes Anthony of Bologna, called the Panormitan, as saying that Gioia lived in the fourteenth century and wrote both “Prima dedit nautis usum magnetis Amalphis” and “Inventrix præclara fuit magnetis Amalphis.” He adds that a statement to the same effect was made by Arrigi Brechmann in his “Historia Pandectarum Amalphitorum,” Dissertatio I, No. 22, Neapoli, 1735, p. 925, but that both are equally incorrect, for Gioja could not have invented an instrument which had already been in use more than a hundred years before his time.[19]
In his “Essay on Several Important Subjects,” London, 1676, Joseph Glanvill remarks (p. 33): “I think there is more acknowledgment due to the name of this obscure fellow, that hath scarce any left, than to a thousand Alexanders and Cæsars or to ten times the number of Aristotles and Aquinas’. And he really did more for the increase of knowledge and advantage of the world, by this one experiment, than the numerous subtile disputers that have lived ever since the creation of the School of Wrangling.”
In the “Navigator’s Supply,” published 1597, William Barlowe speaks of “the lame tale of one Flavius at Amelphus in the Kingdome of Naples; for to have devised it (the compass) is of very slender probabilitie.”
M. D. A. Azuni says (“Boussole,” 1809, p. 144) that Gioja may have possibly invented the method of suspending the magnetic needle upon a perpendicular pivot so that it would remain horizontal whatever the movements of the vessel. This is very likely; at any rate, it must be admitted that this particular mode of support permits a freer movement to the needle in any direction and admits of more exact observations than when the needle is floating upon the water.
At pp. 487–505, Vol. II of his “Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques,” Guillaume Libri transcribes all he is able to from the almost illegible Peter Peregrinus’ manuscript, No. 7378A, in the Paris Bibliothèque, and refers to the imperfect mode of suspending the magnetic needle therein shown. It is, says he, similar to that spoken of by Francesco da Buti (Libri, Vol. II. pp. 67–68; Bertelli, “Pietro Peregrino,” pp. 63–66), who makes first mention of the compass in the Dante commentary (“Comment, sopra la Divina Commedia”) to be found in the collection of manuscripts No. 29, held by the Magliabechiana Library of Florence. He adds that the suspension of the needle is likewise alluded to by Guerino detto il Meschino, in a work first composed prior to the “Divina Commedia” (an Italian romance, attributed to one Andrew the Florentine) as imbellico, or in bellico, in bilico, meaning in suspense, throughout the editions of Padua, 1473, Bologna, 1475, Milan, 1482 and Venice, 1480, 1498. Mention is also made by Libri of the writings of Adélard de Bath on the compass, at p. 62 of his second volume.
References.—Camillus Leonardus, “Speculum Lapidum”; the notes at p. 180, Vol. I. of Dr. Geo. Miller’s “Hist. Phil. Ill.,” London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 179, note; Venanson, “Boussole,” pp. 158, 160; Knight, “Mech. Dict.,” Vol. II. p. 1398; Collenutius—Collenuccio—“Compendio ... regno di Napoli,” Venice, 1591; “Discussione della leggenda di Flavio Gioia, inventore della bussola” (T. Bertelli, in “Rivista di Fisica Mat. e Sc. Nat.,” Pavia, 1901, II. pp. 529–541); Matteo Camara, “Memorie ... di Amalfi,” Salerno, 1876; “Literary Digest,” July 6, 1901, translated from “Le Cosmos,” Paris, June 8, 1901; Giraldi, “Libellus de Re Nautica,” Bâle, 1540; Admiral Luigi Fincati, “Il Magnete, la calamita e la bussola,” Rome, 1878; “Annales de Géographie,” Vol. XI. No. 59, pp. 7–8 for September 15, 1902, and G. Grimaldi in the “Mem. d. Accad. Etrus. di Cortona”; Paulus Jovius, “Historiarum,” Florence, 1552; Pietro Napoli Signorelli, “Sull’invenzione della bussola nautica ...”; M. A. Blondus, “De Ventis,” Venice, 1546; Cælius Calcagninus, “Thesaurus Græcarum Antiquitatum,” 1697, Vol. XI. p. 761; Houzeau et Lancaster, “Bibl. Gén.,” Vol. II. p. 149; “Riv. G. Ital.,” X. 1903, pp. 1, 11, 105–122, 314–334.
For Briet (Philippe), b. 1601, d. 1668, see Michaud, “Biog. Univ.,” Paris, 1843, Vol. V. p. 527. The best, most complete edition of Briet’s “Annales Mundi” is the Venice, 1693.
A.D. 1327–1377.—It has been claimed by F. M. Arouet de Voltaire, who asserts it at Vol. III. pp. 251–252 of his “Essai sur les Mœurs et l’Esprit des Nations,” Paris, 1809, “that the first well-authenticated use of the compass” was made by the English during this period, which is that of the reign of King Edward III.
By Voltaire, the extraordinary (prodigieuse) antiquity of the Chinese is not questioned. They knew of the compass, but he says “it was not employed by them for its proper use, that of guiding vessels at sea. They travelled only along the shores. Possessed, as they were, of a country that furnished everything, they did not feel the need of going, as we do, to the other end of the world” (Vol. I. pp. 239, 247). Speaking of the Portuguese (Vol. III. p. 257) he says: “It was not before known if the magnetic needle would point to the south on approaching the South Pole; it was found to point constantly to the north during the year 1486.”
From the time of Edward III, the compass was known in England by the names of adamant, sailing needle and sail-stone dial, as has been shown in the writings of Chaucer and others, the most important of which will be duly quoted in their order. The compass was alluded to, more particularly, by John Gower, “Confessio Amantis,”[20] Books I and VI; by Richard Hakluyt, “Voyages,” Vol. I. pp. 213, 215; and by Edward Fairfax, “Godefroy de Boulogne,” Book XV. s. 18.