Compass rose, 16th century artwork. The text labels are in Latin and Old French, marking the four compass points and twelve intermediate points. The Old French labels are: North, Est, Su and Oest. The Latin labels are Septentrio, Oriens, Meridies and Occidens. The English equivalents being: North, East, South and West. This artwork is from the 1552 edition of Sphaera Mundi, by the French mathematician and cartographer Oronce Fine (1494-1555). Fine was a writer of many books popularising mathematics and astronomy. Sphaera Mundi (Sphere of the World) was an astronomy textbook with woodcut illustrations by Fine. It was first published in 1542.