Flavio Gioja

Flavio Gioia or Gioja (Italian pronunciation: [ˈflaːvjo ˈdʒɔːja]; c. 1300 – ?) is reputed to have been an Italian mariner and inventor, supposedly a marine pilot, and has traditionally been credited with perfecting the sailor's compass by suspending its needle over a fleur-de-lis design, and enclosing it in a little box with a glass cover. He was also said to have introduced such design, which pointed North, in deference to Charles of Anjou, the French king of Naples.[1][2]

Statute of Flavio Gioia in Amalfi by Alfonso Balzico, 1900

Flavio Gioia's birthplace is alternately given as Amalfi, Positano, Naples, or Gioia, a town in Apulia, hence the derivation of the reputed surname.

The lunar crater Gioja is named after him.[3]

References
  1. "Manners, Customs, and Observances: Their Origin and Significance: Naval and Military". sacred-texts.com. Retrieved 2020-04-15.
  2. Winter, Henrich. "Who invented the compass?." The Mariner's Mirror 23, no. 1 (1937): 95-102.
  3. "Gioja crater". www.esa.int. Retrieved 2020-08-27.


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