On the other hand, the knowledge of the compass by the Arabs in the thirteenth century has been most decidedly contested by E. Renaudot (“Anciennes Relations des Indes et de la Chine,” Paris, 1717, p. 3); by D. A. Azuni (“Dissertation sur l’origine de la Boussole,” Paris, 1809, pp. 102, 127); by Giovanni Battista Ramusio (“Coll. Voy.,” 1554, Vol. I. p. 379); by A. Collina (“Considerazioni,” etc., Faenza, 1748, p. 121, etc.). Buffon says (“Théorie de la Terre,” Paris, An. VIII. tome i. p. 300): “I know that some pretend the Arabs have invented the compass and have used it long before the French (see ‘Abrégé de l’histoire des Sarrazins,’ de Bergeron, p. 119) ... but that opinion always appeared to me devoid of reason; for there is no word in the Arabian, Turkish or Persian tongue which can be made to signify the compass.... They employ the Italian word bossola....”

The same view is entertained by Dr. William Robertson, principal of the University of Edinburgh, who, after announcing in his “History of the Reign of Charles V,” London, 1769, Vol. I. p. 78, that the mariner’s compass was invented soon after the close of the Holy War, gives at pp. 333–335 of his “Historical Disquisition,” London, 1812, a translation of the above passage taken from an early edition of that illustrious French naturalist George Louis Le Clerc, Comte de Buffon. Robertson adds: “This shows that the knowledge of this useful instrument was communicated to them (the Arabs) by the Europeans. There is not one single observation of ancient date made by the Arabians on the variation of the needle, or any instruction deduced from it for the assistance of navigators.... When Mr. Niehbuhr was at Cairo, he found a magnetic needle in the possession of a Mohammedan which served to point out the Kaaba, and gave it the name of el magnetis, a clear proof of its European origin.”

The claims of France to the discovery of the compass have been laid by some to the fact that the north point of the early instruments was generally drawn in the form of a fleur de lys, but Voltaire says (“Essai,” etc., Vol. III. p. 251), that the Italians drew this in honour of the sovereigns of Naples, a branch of the French royal family. The able writer in the English Cyclopædia (“Arts and Sciences,” Vol. III. p. 102) considers the design to be only “an ornamented cross which originated in devotion to the mere symbol; though, as the compass undoubtedly came, he says, into Europe from the Arabs, the fleur de lys might possibly be a modification of the mouasala, or dart, the name by which the Arabs called the needle” (“Phil. Mag.,” Vol. XVIII. p. 88).

References.—Hallam, “Middle Ages,” Vol. III. chap. ix. part ii.; Klaproth, “La Boussole,” pp. 53, 54 and 64–66; Davis, “The Chinese,” Vol. III. p. 12; “Silliman’s Journal,” XL. 242–250; “Nautical Magazine,” April 1903; “Ciel et Terre,” Juin 1, 1904, pp. 156–158; “Histoire de la Boussole,” par P. D. M. Boddært; Libri, “Hist. des Sc. Mathém.,” Paris, 1838, Vol. I. pp. 136–137, 382, etc.; Article “Bussola” in “Nuova Encycl. Italiana,” by Bocardo, Vol. IV. Torino, 1877, p. 377, poesia di Ugo di Sercy (Bercy) e di Giovanni di Mehun; “Harper’s Magazine,” New York, for February, 1904; V. Molinier, “Notice ... boussole au xiiie siècle,” Toulouse, 1850; G. Grimaldi, “Dissert. ... della bussola,” Roma, 1741; McCulloch, “Traités ... boussole,” Paris, 1853; Magliozzi, “Notizie ... bussola,” Napoli, 1849; Dr. Geo. Miller, “Hist. Phil. Illust.,” London, 1849, Vol. I. p. 180, note. For Edrisi, see “Journ. des Savants,” issued in April and August 1843, and in December 1846.

A.D. 1391.—Chaucer (Geoffrey), the father of English poetry, thus expresses himself in “The Conclusions of the Astrolabie” (“English Poets,” London, 1810, Vol. I): “I haue giuen thee a sufficient astrolabye for oure orizont compowned after the latitude of Oxenforde.... Now hast thou here, the fower quarters of thin astrolabie, deuided after the fower principall plages or quarters of the firmament.... Now is thin Orisonte departed in XXIIII partiez by thi azymutz, in significacion of XXIIII partiez of the world; al be it, so that ship men rikne thilke partiez in XXXII.”

“Now maugre Juno, Aneas

For all her sleight and her compas

Atcheiued all his auenture.”

“House of Fame,” B. I.

“The stone was hard of adamaunt,