European Longitude Prizes. III. The Unsolved Mystery of an Alleged Venetian Longitude Prize

TL;DR

This paper investigates the historical claims of a Venetian longitude prize, concluding that there is little evidence for its existence and cautioning against referencing it alongside well-documented awards from other European nations.

Contribution

The paper critically examines the historical references to a Venetian longitude prize, arguing it was likely a myth and clarifying its dubious status compared to established awards.

Findings

Lack of contemporary evidence for the Venetian prize

Contrasts with well-documented European longitude awards

Recommends avoiding references to the Venetian prize in scholarly work

Abstract

Despite frequent references in modern reviews to a seventeenth-century Venetian longitude prize, only a single, circumstantial reference to the alleged prize is known from contemporary sources. Edward Harrison's scathing assessment of the conditions governing the award of an alleged Venetian longitude prize simultaneously disparages the rewards offered by the Dutch States General. However, the latter had long run its course by 1696, the year of the citation, thus rendering Harrison's reference unreliable. Whereas other longitude awards offered by the leading European maritime nations attracted applicants from far and wide, often accompanied by extensive, self-published pamphlets, the alleged Venetian prize does not seem to have been subject to similar hype. The alleged existence of seventeenth-century Venetian award is particularly curious, because the city's fortune was clearly in decline, and longitude determination on the open seas does not appear to have been a priority; the city's mariners already had access to excellent "portolan" charts. It is therefore recommended that authors refrain from referring to a potentially phantom Venetian longitude prize in the same context as the major sixteenth- to eighteenth-century European awards offered by the dominant sea-faring nations.