Article ID: CBB044195091

Nautical Tables for Vasco da Gama, 1497–1500? (2019)

unapi

It is believed that Vasco da Gama carried nautical tables on his first voyage to the Indies, 1497–1499, that had especially been produced for the years 1497–1500 by Abraham Zacut, then Royal Astronomer in the service of the Portuguese court. Maritime history writers have suggested two manuscripts as surviving copies of these da Gama tables. One of them is a set of declination tables in the 1519 edition of Suma de Geographia by Martín Fernández de Enciso. Analysis of all available data shows that these tables are indeed good candidates, though their production from the 1505–1508 astronomical tables of Regiomontanus and of Stöffler and Pflaum would be about equally likely. The other candidate is a set of solar ecliptic longitudes, found in the Livro de Marinharia, attributed to André Pires. It is shown that with certainty these have been taken from 1505 to 1508 of Regiomontanus/Stöffler-Pflaum and therefore cannot have served da Gama on his first voyage.

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Authors & Contributors
Goldstein, Bernard R.
Chabás, José
Brotton, Jerry
Brummelen, Glen Van
Cuyvers, Luc
Folkerts, Menso
Journals
Archive for History of Exact Sciences
Annals of Science: The History of Science and Technology
Cartographica Helvetica
Journal for the History of Astronomy
Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage
Renaissance Quarterly
Publishers
American University and Colleges Press
E. Rauner Verlag
Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca
Edizioni dell'Orso
TV Books
University of Maryland, College Park
Concepts
Travel; exploration
Geography
Astronomy
Tables; catalogs; lists
Nautical astronomy
Arab/Islamic world, civilization and culture
People
Regiomontanus
Zacut, Abraham
Gama, Vasco da
Stöffler, Johann
Bianchini, Giovanni
Botero, Giovanni
Time Periods
16th century
15th century
Renaissance
17th century
Early modern
18th century
Places
Europe
Great Britain
India
Rome (Italy)
Germany
Spain
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