periplus

noun

1. An account of a voyage, particularly those of Hanno and Arrian, recording ports and coastal landmarks.

   “Then follows a Periplus of the Euxine-Sea, which bears the name of Arrian, and was undoubtedly written by him in the time of Adrian, as the inſcription ſhews.”

   “The Periplûs of the Erythrêan Sea is the title prefixed to a work which contains the beſt account of the commerce carried on from the Red Sea and the coaſt of Africa to the Eaſt Indies, during the time that Egypt was a province of the Roman Empire.”

   “Another great source of geographical information both for the ancients themselves and, so far as they still exist, for us also, are the Peripli (περίπλοι), that is, descriptions of the coasts of certain seas, in which the towns, ports, and promontories are enumerated, and often with their distances from one another. These peripli were drawn up for the guidance of sailors who had occasion to visit these seas for commercial and other purposes.”

   “[…] the map of the world Ptolemy followed in his geography, finding the longitude that passed through the Gates of Herakles and the island of Rhodes, and placing north and south of it the world as recorded on the periploi of the Phoenician merchants.”

   “A periplus of the Mediterranean: Greek sailing directions The following excerpt from one of the most complete periploi was attributed in the nineteenth century to the Greek merchant Scylax of Caryanda, known to have traded with settlements not only along the Red Sea but also on the shores of the Indian Ocean.”

2. A voyage along a coast.

   “In the great Ocean, California, its gulph, and the Vermilion Sea were known to Cortes; Cabrillo proceeded along the coast of New California as far as the 43d degree of north latitude; Galbi advanced to the 57th degree. Amidst so many real peripluses, Maldonado, Juan de Fuca, and Admiral de Fonte, placed their chimerical voyages.”

   “On the spot where he [Sebastian Cabot] landed he planted a large cross, with the flags of England and of St. Mark, and took possession for the King of England. If the statement be true that he coasted three hundred leagues, he may have made a periplus of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, returning home through the Straits of Belle Isle.”

   “Yes sir, I have seen vessels leaving there for distant peripluses – yes yes: peripluses. Some were going to the poles, and others to the antipodes. Whereas I – I have never even set foot on the boat that goes over the estuary to Trouville.”

3. (uncommon)Synonym of circuit: the path or distance around a coast.
4. (uncommon)Synonym of circumnavigation: a voyage around an island or the world.

   “All the four books and the photograph are, in various degrees of literality or metaphoricity, about a periplus, the circumnavigation of an entire world, be that Homer's Mediterranean, Dante's hell, purgatory and paradise, Joyce's Dublin, or the cosmos of The Cantos, stretching across all the continents and all periods of history, and they are, therefore, the logbook accounts of such a periplus.”