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
Chabás, José
Goldstein, Bernard R.
Mario Negri
van der Werf, Siebren
Maria de Lurdes Correia Fernandes
Luís Fardilha
Journals
Archive for History of Exact Sciences
Suhayl: Journal for the History of the Exact and Natural Sciences in Islamic Civilisation
Royal Historical Society. Transactions
Renaissance Studies
Renaissance Quarterly
Journal for the History of Astronomy
Publishers
Universidade do Porto Press
University of Maryland, College Park
Universitat de València
TV Books
Edizioni dell'Orso
Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca
Concepts
Travel; exploration
Geography
Astronomy
Tables; catalogs; lists
Nautical astronomy
Arab/Islamic world, civilization and culture
People
Zacut, Abraham
Regiomontanus
Gama, Vasco da
Copernicus, Nicolaus
Peurbach, Georg von
Zheng, He
Time Periods
16th century
15th century
Renaissance
17th century
Early modern
Medieval
Places
Spain
Germany
Europe
Mediterranean region
Northern Europe
Prague (Czechia)
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