THE CARDINAL POINTS

On ancient maps and compasses (see picture at right), North was usually represented with a fleur-de-lis i.e. the heraldic lily. A reason for this could be the fact that the makers of nautical compasses who lived in Naples (Italy)  may have chosen this symbol because it was in the coat-of-arms of the "Anjou Empire"  (i.e. France) whom the Kingdom of Sicily and Naples then belonged (13th C.). The East, which was the sacred direction of Jerusalem, the holy city for Christians, was also indicated, either by the letter E or by means of a cross-shaped symbol even on compasses like the example shown at right (click on the picture for an enlarged view). This information, which only had a religious background, is no longer used on contemporary maps or just for decoration. The most recent that we know of was printed on a Corfu (Greece) tourist map for the year 1990.
Compass Rose - This print was parrt of an ancient book by the French cartographer Nicolas Sanson d'Abbeville (1600/1667), re-edited bei TERRES in Naples in 1794.
Below: various roses on ancient maps.

Map of Puerto Rico
(drawn South up)



(Click on the picture for an enlarged view)		 Portuguese map
(1590)

 Spanish map
(1583)

 Dutch map
(c. 1700)

 Greek map (Corfou, 1990)

The rose of the winds (or windrose) got its name because the divisions of the circle were first given the names of the main winds blowing in the Mediterranean. These names were noted with their initial letter (examples: see above the Span. map dated 1583 and in Nautical Compasses the instruments signed by BAUDUF and ROUX). The names are indicated in full words in different languages on some descriptions like on the print at the top of page) generally in italian, but also in Spanish, Provençal or Latin. These letters were (clockwise in 45° steps):
- where no fleur-de-lys was used, North was represented by a T for Tramontane (some presume that the fleur-de-lys design evolved from the capital letter T). Other names: bise, septentrio.
- N-E: G for Grec, Graeco, a wind blowing from Greece to Italy,
- the symbol for the East was a cross showing the way to Jerusalem but also the letter E for este, see above, the map of Puerto Rico) or L for levante, the direction of the rising sun,
- S-E: S for Sirocco, a warm wind blowing from Africa,
- South: O for Ostro, (south - think of Australia...) also called meridio, vent marin, de midi (mezzogiorno),
- S-W: L for Libeccio, labech, lebeche, a wind crossing Italy and Corsica,
- West: P for Ponant, ponente (setting sun),
- N-W: M for Maestro, Maestrale, Mistral.

The windrose at the top also gives names for a further subdivision (32 points) like aquilin or zéphyr which are well-known to those who learned the famous French poems written by La Fontaine Le chêne et le roseau: " Tout vous est aquilin / Tout me semble zéphyr " (The oak and the reed: "what for you is a North wind is for me but a Zephyr").
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Nowadays, the cardinal points of almost all compasses in the world are written in English (N-E-S-W for North - East - South - West). In ancient times though, the abbreviated Latin designations were used by Westerner compass makers and in many countries the cardinals were indicated in the national language. Here are some examples:

LATIN ARABIC BULGARIAN CHINESE CZECH DANISH
DUTCH FRENCH GERMAN HUNGARIAN INDIA JAPANESE
POLISH ROMANIAN RUSSIAN SERBO-CROATIAN SWEDISH TURKISH

LATIN

North: SE = septentriones
East: OR = oriens
South: ME = meridies
West: OC = occidens


(Picture by courtesy of seattlesbestart)

ARABIC

North: shamal, etymology: Sham-al = a statue / god which stood North of Arabia
South: janoub, etym.: janb = side
East: sharq (q = hard k), etym. shoroq = sunrise
West: raRb (pronounce the 1st r like in French and the 2nd like in Spanish), etym.: ghorob = sunset
(source: Yahoo! Q/A - Hakim)

See also category Religion (Islam)


 pts_card_arab   

In the picture above, East is written in the old way with the letter Q for qibla but on the compass dial the letter SHIN was used for both North and East.

BULGARIAN

Like Russian except for the East which is called (pronounce iztok) instead of BOCTOK (pronounce vostok).

CHINESE (= Japanese)

The different ancient systems are described in RELIGION / Chinese Tradition and in Nautical / China.
Below: written names on compasses. Each sign is to be read from the compass' center point.
NOTE: The transcripted phonetic value can strongly differ in the different languages (see the words used by J. Klaproth in 1834).
Traditional symbols in astronomy:
North = black turtle; East = blue dragon; South = red bird; West = white tiger.
At left: classical; at right: modern (milit.)

            (Click to enlarge)
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CZECH

North = SEVERNÍ
East = WÝCHOD
South = JIH
West = ZAPÁD

DANISCH


North : norden
East : øst
South : syd
West : vest

DUTCH

Like German, except South which is called Zuiden


FRENCH

Nord - Est - Sud - Ouest
These letters were also used in most roman languages like Spanish, Italian and Portuguese.
Romanian is a little bit different (see below)
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GERMAN

Norden
Osten
Süden
Westen

HUNGARIAN

North: észak
East: kelet
South: dél
West: nyugat

INDIA

North: ...
East: ...
South: ...
West: ...

This compass dial features cardinals (only E, S and W, North being represented by a fleur de lis) both in Urdu and Sanskrit languages.
  

(Picture by courtesy of The Boreal Arrow)

JAPANESE (= Chinese)

 (see examples of wrist compasses, Japan)

POLISH

North = PÓŁNOC
East = WSCHÓD
South = POŁUDNIE
West = ZACHÓD


ROMANIAN

Nord,
Est,
Sud,
Vest

(IOR version, see also Bézard)
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RUSSIAN

(Compare with Bulgarian and Serbo-Croatian)

SERBO-CROATIAN

North: sever
East: istok
South: jug
West: zapad

(At left: latin letters, at right: cyrillic letters)
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SWEDISH

North: norden
East: öster
South: söder
West: väster

TURKISH

The cardinal points in Turkish on an old compass written in the Arabic alphabet. North is marked by a fleur de lis (heraldic lily)

Picture by courtesy of Kornelia Takacs
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