Rhumbline network
Navigational aid drawn on early portolan charts / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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A rhumbline network (or windrose network) is a navigational aid consisting in multiple lines in a web-like grid drawn on portolan charts (and other early maps). These nautical charts were used in the medieval age and age of exploration in marine navigation.
Since the invention of the Mercator projection c. 1600, the term rhumb line (or loxodrome) has been redefined to mean a mathematically precise curve of constant bearing on the Earth's surface. To avoid confusion, the lines on earlier sailing charts can be unambiguously called windrose lines, since they are not true rhumb lines by the modern definition.[1] A rhumb line in the modern sense is only straight on a chart drawn with the Mercator projection, but not on charts from the 13th–16th centuries.[2] Older windrose lines were a close approximation on charts of the Mediterranean Sea and surrounding areas, but the rhumb lines on small-scale maps such as the Teixeira planisphere were highly inaccurate.
The grid can be easily spotted (as parchment is quite translucent) by observing a chart from its rear face, with a light source illuminating the other side. The hole in the center of the circle, origin of the whole network, is also clearly visible from the rear.[3]