Brass Brunton Pocket Transit Compass 4"

While it is unknown how the mariners compass came to be in Europe, it is thought that it may have travelled from China, via Arabic traders, to the civilizations of the west. Lending credibility to this theory there are two descriptions of the transition of the nautical compass from East to West. The first, in The Book of the Merchants’ Treasure, written by Baylak al-Kibjaki in 1282, Cairo, describes a hand compass that had been seen 40 years prior aboard a sailing vessel. The second indicates that a Venetian by the name of Marcus Paulus travelled to China and returned to Europe with the mariners compass in 1260. However, there is elsewhere mention of a compass-like device used to navigate the English Channel in 1187, a description of a compass by Petrus Peregrinus de Marincourt from 1269, and the crediting of Flavio Gioia with inventing it in 1302. Whichever may be the case, by the beginning of the 13^th century there is indisputable evidence that the mariners compass was known throughout the European world.