For all book lovers,
a piece of Oceanic History.
«Il libro è come il cucchiaio, il martello, la ruota, le forbici.
Una volta che li hai inventati non puoi fare di meglio.»
UMBERTO ECO
This site is an offshoot of the ERC Project «RUTTER: Making the Earth Global», led by HENRIQUE LEITÃO. Early modern nautical rutters (sailing directions) are the earliest Western documents that testify to the stable and regular lived experience of traversing the earth’s oceans on a global, planetary scale.
The virtual collection A Sea of Books was born —almost by chance— as a bibliographical resource of the RUTTER Project. It is a useful tool to begin a reflection on a sheer variety of literary genres produced from the Early Modern experience of voyaging in open sea.
The deep affinity shared between traveling long distances and writing kickstarted a colossal printing industry from the very beginning of the 16th century. The open sea influenced the imagination of generations of travelers, explorers, cosmographers, men of letters and common people in vastly different ways, engaging with concepts from marine ecology, science, oceanography, marine policy and environmental history.
In this website you will find a constellation of specialized virtual libraries on maritime literature, organized in various sections. Every section is continuously updated.
All the sources are open–access.
Portuguese printed rutters (17th–18th centuries)
Curated by Luana Giurgevich
In a context where knowledge was reported mostly by word of mouth, the action of writing itself assumes significant meaning. Over the years, the pilots’ routine task of remembering oceanic routes became a well–defined textual genre. The majority of these documents remained unpublished until the 19 century, but there is an important number of them which started to be printed in Europe for a larger audience from the 16 century. In this section, we gather all Portuguese editions of nautical rutters.
These digitized archival sources are a complementary resource of a recently published technical note. See RUTTER Technical Notes Series no. 1
MANUEL
DE FIGUEIREDO
Hydrographia (1608)
Not yet available online
MANUEL
DE FIGUEIREDO
Hydrographia, exame de pilotos... (1632)
Not yet available online
LUÍS SERRÃO PIMENTEL
Roteiro do Mar Mediterraneo... (1675)
Not yet available online
MANUEL
PIMENTEL
Arte de navegar, em que se ensinam as regras praticas (1712)
Source Archive.org / Original from John Carter Brown Library
JACINTO JOSÉ PAGANINO
Roteiro do Neptuno Oriental para uso das cartas (1783)
Not yet available online
JACINTO JOSÉ PAGANINO
Roteiro oriental para a navegação das costas do Grande Oceano (1783)
Not yet available online
JACINTO JOSÉ PAGANINO
Roteiro occidental para a navegação da costa e portos do Brasil (1784)
Not yet available online
Jan Huygen van Linschoten
(1563–1611)
«Soufrir pour parvenir»
Fig. Hand coloured printed portrait of the Author featured in the editio princeps of his Itinerario published in 1596.
Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s Itinerario
Editions & translations (1596–1668)
Curated by Nuno Vila–Santa
Linschoten’s Itinerario fascinated European readers of his times and continues to provide a wealth of details about Portuguese sea routes and trade to India. The book quickly turned into several editions (around 30) and became a 17th–century best–seller of maritime literature. Sailors used it as a navigation manual and this is the reason why it was shipped on board Dutch, English and French vessels.
Dutch Edition
(1604)
Not yet available online
Dutch Edition
Reys–gheschrift
(1604)
Not yet available online
Dutch Edition
Reys–gheschrift
(1614)
Not yet available online
German Edition
Vierder Theil der Orie[n]talischen Indien
(1617)
Not yet available online
Dutch Edition
Itinerarium
(1623)
Not yet available online
Dutch Edition
Reys–gheschrift van de navigatien der Portugaloysers in Orienten
(1623)
Not yet available online
Dutch Edition
Edition by Gillis Joosten Saeghman of Amsterdam
(1668)
Not yet available online
Jesuit travel reports
«Nous établîmes des conférences où l’on apprenoit les élemens d’Euclide, la Geometrie, la navigation, et quelque chose même des fortifications. Ainsi que dans tous nos Vaisseaux nous tachâmes de charmer l’ennuy d’une longue navigation, et encore plus d’en bannir l’oisiveté, qui est la source de tous les desordres. Reprenons le cours de nôtre voyage.»
Père Tachard, Second voyage du père Tachard au Royaume de Siam (1689)
Fig. Printed map from Observations physiques et mathematiques pour servir a l’histoire naturelle & à la perfection de l’astronomie & de la geographie: envoyées des Indes et de la Chine à l’Academie Royale des Sciences à Paris par les Perés Jesuites... A Paris: de l’Imprimerie Royale, 1692, pp. 72–73.
Jesuit travel reports concerning oceanic sailing
Curated by David Salomoni
This selection contains texts related to oceanic voyages made by members of religious orders, mainly Jesuits but also Franciscans and secular priests. Serial publications such as notices and annual reports (Notizie, Relazioni) from the missions have been excluded. Diaries and single reports of voyages which are not part of regular series have been included. These works contain information of scientific or devotional kind concerning the oceanic travel experience of religious people.
These digitized archival sources are a complementary resource of a recently published technical note.
GUY TACHARD (SJ)
Second voyage du père Tachard et des Jesuites envoyez par le Roy au royaume du Syam contenant diverses remarques d’histoire, de physique, de geographie, & d’astronomie.
A Paris: Chez Daniel Horthemels, 1689.
Digitized by Google / Original from
Observations physiques et mathematiques pour servir a l’histoire naturelle & à la perfection de l’astronomie & de la geographie: envoyées des Indes et de la Chine à l’Academie Royale des Sciences à Paris par les Perés Jesuites...
A Paris: de l’Imprimerie Royale, 1692.
Digitized by Google / Original from Biblioteca Universidad Complutense Madrid
BALTHAZAR TELLES
The Travels of the Jesuits in Ethiopia.
London: Printed for J. Knapton, 1710.
Digitized by Google / Original from
ÉTIENNE SOUCIET (SJ)
Observations mathématiques, astronomiques, géographiques, chronologiques et physiques...
Tome II.
Paris: Rollin, 1732.
Digitized by Google / Original from Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
ÉTIENNE SOUCIET (SJ)
Observations mathématiques, astronomiques, géographiques, chronologiques et physiques...
Tome III.
Paris: Rollin, 1732.
Digitized by Google / Original from Bayerische Staatsbibliothek
PIERRE DE CHARLEVOIX (SJ)
Histoire et description generale de la Nouvelle France avec le Journal Historique d’un voyage fait par ordre du Roi dans l’Amérique Septentrionale...
Tome II.
Paris: chez Pierre François Giffart, 1744..
Digitized by Internet Archive / Original from University of Alberta / Available on HathiTrust Digital Library
Martín Fernández de Enciso
Suma de geographía que trata de todas las partidas del Mundo, em especial de las Indias. Y trata largamente del arte de marear (Sevilla: Jacobo Cronberger, 1519).
In the colophon to the Suma, Enciso indicates all his sources and among them included «the experience of our times, which is the mother of all things».
«Fenece la Suma de geographia con la espera en romance y el regimiento del sol y del norte por donde los mareantes se pueden regir y governar en el marear. Assi mesmo va puesta la cosmographia por derrotas y alturas: por donde los pilotos sabran de oy en adelante muy mejor que falta aqui pra descobrir las tierras que ouieren de descobrir, fue sacada esta suma de muchos y auctenticos autores. Conviene a saber dela historia batriana, los dos Tholomeos, Erastotenes, Plinio, Strabon, Josepho, y la experiencia de nuestros tiempos que es madre de todas las cosas. Fue impressa en la nobilissima y muy leal ciudad de Sevilla por Jacobo Cronberger aleman en el año de la encarnacion de nuestro senor. de mil y quinientos y diez y nueue.»
Fig. From Enciso’s Suma (1519), p. 38.
Iberian nautical knowledge
Portuguese and Spanish Editions (16th–18th centuries)
Curated by Luana Giurgevich
This section includes a fundamental corpus of nautical knowledge (manuals, regiments, arts of navigation and treatises). All the editions of the famous Medina’s Arte de navegar constitute an independent section of this site.
JOÃO BAPTISTA LAVANHA
Regimento Nautico (Em Lisboa: por Antonio Alvarez, 1606)
Not yet available online
VALENTIM DE SÁ
Regimento da navegaçam
(Lisboa: Pedro Craesbeeck, 1624)
Not yet available online
MANUEL PIMENTEL
Arte de navegar, em que se ensinam as regras praticas (1712)
Digitized by Open Library / Internet Archive –Original from John Carter Brown Library
JOSÉ QUIROGA
Tratado de el arte verdadero de navegar pro circulo paralelo a la equinocial (1784)
Digitized by BNE
FRANCISCO
DE BARREDA
El marinero instruido en el arte de navegar especulativo y práctico que para la enseñanza de los colegiales del Real Seminario de San Telmo (1786)
Digitized by BNE
Astrolabes, quadrants & sea instruments
TEXT
Treatises on sea astrolabe and quadrant
16th – 17th centuries
Curated by Miguel C. Fernandes
Known since antiquity, the astrolabe and the quadrant became pieces of technology of key importance in early modern navigation. These instruments, together with the sextant, the balestilha, and others, kept being used and improved over the centuries.
In this section, we gather the dozens of treatises produced in the 16th and 17th centuries, on the construction and usage of these navigation instruments.
MANUEL DE FIGUEIREDO
Chronographia : reportorio dos tempos, no qual se contem VI. partes, s. dos tempos: esphera, cosmographia, & arte da navegação... E no fim o uso, & fabrica da balhestilha, & quadrante gyometrico, com hum tratado dos relogios (Lisboa: Jorge Rodriguez, 1603)
Digitized by BNP / Biblioteca Nacional Digital
TEOFILO BRUNI
Novo planisferio, o Astrolabio universale istromento, che abbraccia tutti gli istromenti matematici... (Vicenza: Francesco Grossi, 1625)
Available on EUROPEANA / Digitized by Giardino di Archimede-Istituto e Museo di Storia della Scienza, Firenze / Original from Biblioteca di storia delle scienze "Carlo Viganò" Brescia
Pedro de Medina
Arte de navegar (1545)
[Dedication to then crown prince Philip]:
«Lo segundo, serenissimo señor, que a esto me ha mouido fue, que yo muchas vezes he puesto mi memoria en considerar quan gran numero de gentes nauegam: y que no solamente las partes notas y sabidas, mas las muy remotas y apartadas, y que dellas no ay noticia, se procuran nauegando buscar y saber: y viendo quan largos y peligrosos caminos por la mar se hazen, y que pocos de los que nauegan saben lo que a la nauegacion se requiere, la causa es porque ni ay maestros que lo enseñen, ni libros en que lo leam.»
Pedro de Medina’s Arte de navegar
Editions & translations (1545–1634)
Curated by Luana Giurgevich
Some books moved the imagination of all Europe more than others. Pedro de Medina's Arte de navegar is one of them.
The book was translated at least 20 times. Originally published in 1545, it was quickly translated into Italian and French, but, curiously, not to Dutch and English until 1580–1581.
The arte of navigation. Translated by John Frampton (London 1581)
Not yet available online
The arte of navigation. Translated by John Frampton (London 1595)
Not yet available online
Der Zeeuaert, Oft Conste van ter Zee te varen (Amsterdam: 1598)
Not yet available online
L’art de naviguer. Traduction de Nicolas de Nicolay (Rouen: 1607)
Not yet available online
L’art de naviguer. Traduction de Nicolas de Nicolay (La Rochelle: 1615)
Not yet available online
L’art de naviguer. Traduction de Nicolas de Nicolay (La Rochelle: 1618)
Not yet available online
L’art de naviguer. Traduction de Nicolas de Nicolay (Rouen: 1634)
Not yet available online
Fig. From the rutter of Andrés de Poza, Hydrografia, la mas curiosa que hasta aqui ha salido a luz : en que de mas de vn derrotero general, se enseña la navegacion por altura y derrota, y la del Este Oeste con la Graduacion de los puertos, y la navegacion al Catayo por cinco vias diferentes... Bilbao : por Matias Mares, 1585.
Spanish printed rutters
Printed editions (16th–18th centuries)
Curated by Luana Giurgevich
BERNARDINO ESCALANTE
A discourse of the nauigation which the Portugales doe make (London: 1579) Transl. by John Frampton
Not yet available online
GABRIEL CHAVES DE OSORIO
Derrotero y relacion que su señoria el señor preste d. Gabriel de Chaves Osorio
(s.l., [1630])
Not yet available online
FRANCISCO DE SEIJAS Y LOBERA
Theatro Naval Hydrographico, de los fluxos, y refluxos (Madrid: 1688)
Not yet available online
William Bourne (16th century)
Fig. Plans for Bourne underwater boat.
William Bourne's books on navigation (1567–1631)
Curated by Luana Giurgevich
In this section we present the printed works from the pen of the English mathematician William Bourne, active from 1565 to 1582. The Regiment for the Sea had more than 10 English editions, 4 Dutch editions and an edition for Spanish readers printed in London.
LOST EDITION
An almanacke and prognostication for three yeares... now newlye added vnto my late rulles of nauigation, was pruued iiij yeres past.
London : by Thomas Purfoote, [1567].
An Almanac and Prognostication for Three Years... Lord. 1571. and 1572. & 1573...
[Colophon: Imprinted at London in Paules... by Thomas Purfoote, 1567] [1571].
Not yet available online
Regiment for the Sea.
London: By [Henry Bynneman for] Thomas Hacket, and are to be solde at his shop in the Royall Exchaunge, at the signe of the Greene Dragon, [1574].
Not yet available online
A Regiment for the Sea.
London: by Thomas Dawson and Thomas Gardyner for Iohn Wight, 1577.
Not yet available online
A booke called the treasure for traueilers : deuided into fiue bookes or partes, contaynyng very necessary matters, for all sortes of trauailers, eyther by sea or by lande
1578
Source Archive.org / Digitized by Associates of the Boston Public Library / Original from
LOST EDITION
[Inventions or Devises. Very necessary for all Gener–alles and Captaines, or Leaders of men, as wel by Sea as by Land]
[1578?–printed before 1580]
Listed by Bourne in his Almanacke of 1581
A Regiment for the Sea.
London: T. East, for Iohn Wight, 1580.
Not yet available online
A Regiment for the Sea.
London: T. East, for Iohn Wight, 1584.
Not yet available online
A Regiment for the Sea...
London: T. East, for Iohn Wight, 1587.
Not yet available online
A Regiment for the Sea... Newlie corrected and amended by Thomas Hood...
London: T. East, for Iohn Wight, 1592.
Not yet available online
DUTCH EDITION
Der Const der Zee–vaerdt...
Amstelredam: Cornelis Claesz...:1594.
Not yet available online
Regiment for the Sea.
1596
Not yet available online
DUTCH EDITION
Amstelredam: Cornelis Claesz: 1599.
Not yet available online
Regiment for the Sea.
1601
Not yet available online
Regiment for the Sea.
1606?
Not yet available online
DUTCH EDITION
Amstelredam: Cornelis Claesz: 1609.
Not yet available online
Regiment for the Sea.
London : Weaver, 1611.
Not yet available online
DUTCH EDITION
Amsterdam: Willem Jansz Blaeu, 1614.
Not yet available online
Regiment for the Sea.
1617?
Not yet available online
Regiment for the Sea.
London : Weaver, 1620.
Not yet available online
Regiment for the Sea.
At London: Printed by W. I[ones] for Thomas Weauer..., [1631]. |
Not yet available online
Treatises on Shipbuilding
Fig. Plate XIX: Olandus Carauellam & Cafas Aedificare Curat, or “Lope de Olano Rebuilds His Ship: First Ship Built in America”, circa 1594.
Americae Pars Qvarta. Sive, Insignis & Admiranda Historia de reperta primùm Occidentali India à Christophoro Columbo Anno M.CCCCXCII. Collectiones peregrinatiorum in Indiam orientalem et Indiam occidentalem, XIII partibus comprehenso a Theodoro, Joan-Theodoro de Bry, et a Matheo Merian publicatae. Francofurti. 1590–1634.
Treatises on Shipbuilding
Printed editions (16th–18th centuries)
Curated by Fabiano Bracht & Luana Giurgevich
Presented on 27 November at the European Researchers’ Night 2020.
A Sea of Books. RUTTER Virtual Library (https://www.aseaofbooks.org/) is a site dedicated to the sheer variety of literary genres produced from the Early Modern experience of voyaging in open sea, considering especially, but not only, technical books like sailing directions.
© 2020 RUTTER Project | Luana Giurgevich