Liuro da Fabrica das Naus (c. 1580)
Background
The Liuro da Fabrica das Naus has been dated to 1580 and is the earliest surviving treatise on shipbuilding in Portuguese. It's author, father Fernando Oliveira had written a previous treatise in Latin, titled Ars Nautica. The Liuro is the theoretical work of a scholar and not the practical work of a shipwright. It is comprised of a clear text, with few illustrations, and is, unfortunately, incomplete. As it survived, it is divided into nine chapters. Father Oliveira defines the dimensions of the primary structural components of a ship - stem, stern post, midship and tail frames - as simple proportions of the length of the keel. He then describes the use of algorithms similar to the ones described by Timbotta - such as the mezzaluna or the incremental triangle - to calculate the narrowing and rising of the floor timbers in the central portion of the hull, between tail frames (almogamas), the first and the last of the pre-designed frames of a vessel.1
References
1. Nautical Archaeology Digital Library
