Rose Des Vents

Histoires De carres > Printemps-Ete 2012

Compass rose: it would be a beautiful names for a star. On a map, it shows the cardinal points. The first compass roses date from ancient times. Built for navigation, they helped travellers find their way using the wind and, at times, like that adorning this scarf, they included thirty-two intermediate directions: thirty-two "spheres of the wind". Coloured, to help illiterate sailors decipher them, they were ornamented. They remain opulent compositions attesting to the savior-faire of those pursuers of beauty and precision - the illustrious or anonymous cartographers.