Rutter (nautical)
Mariner's handbook of written sailing directions / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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"Portolano" redirects here. For the nautical chart, see Portolan chart.
A rutter is a mariner's handbook of written sailing directions. Before the advent of nautical charts, rutters were the primary store of geographic information for maritime navigation.
It was known as a periplus ("sailing-around" book) in classical antiquity and a portolano ("port book") to medieval Italian sailors in the Mediterranean Sea. Portuguese navigators of the 16th century called it a roteiro, the French a routier, from which the English word "rutter" is derived. In Dutch, it was called a leeskarte ("reading chart"), in German a Seebuch ("sea book"), and in Spanish a derrotero.[1]