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 Mécometrie 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.
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., 6, 4.