The Dutch Tiphys

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...having learned to navigate with God as his teacher, and since the sea itself was then without shores, Noah original: Noachus was carried upon the waves alone, bearing the remains of the entire world. Afterward, through human ingenuity, sails were also devised to catch the winds and storms, by whose force the ship might be driven forward. But this same human industry also placed a bridle original: frenum; a metaphor for the rudder upon the ship and set a pilot at the helm, so that such a vast weight might be steered by a tiny rudder original: gubernaculo, adjusting its movements according to the pilot's will. In this way, its course could be shifted so that it might even push against the blowing winds, and by this means, it could carry goods back and forth across the globe.

For this very reason, people have long applied themselves so diligently to this single task: that the logic of their courses might be clearly understood, and that a science of steering might exist—one whose rules and guidance would allow them to bring a ship safely into harbor. This has been especially true within the memory of our ancestors, ever since those long voyages across the Great Ocean original: mare Oceanum; referring to the Atlantic and beyond were first attempted with such immense and daring boldness. For then, learned men—those whose wisdom surpassed others—devoted their unique efforts to establishing the art of navigation through a reliable system. This art depends almost entirely on having explored and determined the longitude and latitude original: longitudinem & latitudinem of every location. One of these—latitude—is determined daily without much difficulty from observations of the heavens. However, regarding the investigation of longitude...