Les roses des vents latines

Overview & Synopsis

The object of this article is to extract in Latin literature compass cards mentioned with a scientific or technical purpose; then to present them with uniformity and coherence, making a distinction between Latin and Greek tradition. We will study the texts of nine writers: Vitruvius, Manilius, Seneca, Pliny the Elder, Aulus Gellius, Apuleius, Ampelius, Vegetius, Isidorus Hispalensis. The object of compass cards was of course to name each wind according to its direction, but they were also used to determine landmarks on the horizon. That aim was not satisfactorily reached in Roman times: several wind names «move» on the horizon according to writers and times; variations can go from 30 to 60°. Those cards are nevertheless interesting remnants of a meteorological literature which partly came down to us in Greek, but have almost completely disappeared in Latin, In each text there are style conventions, but a precise study reveals that, unlike what has sometimes been said, it is impossible for all those texts to have a common source.