In Paradiso XII, 28-30, Dante compares himself to the compass when, attracted by a voice, he turned toward it like the magnetic needle toward the Pole Star. The compass was the main instrument for Mediterranean navigation from the twelfth century on.
Divina Commedia
Dante Alighieri
Il Purgatorio di Dante
Alessandro Allori
Mappamondo genovese
Anonimo
Fra Mauro
Mappamondo
Carta nautica del Mediterraneo, del Mar Nero, dell’Oceano Atlantico e del Mar Baltico
Anonimo
Mappamondo
Andreas Walsperger
Mappamondo
Richard di Haldingham
Astrolabium. Americus Vespuccius, cum quattuor Stellis crucem silente nocte repperit