these are unrelated to Vitruvius.) Medieval Transition The Classical age ended with the struggle between the 12-wind rose and the 8-wind rose unresolved. Loosely speaking, it seemed as if classically minded geographers favored the 12-wind system, but those of more practical bent preferred the 8-wind system. As the Dark Ages advanced, it could be expected for the 8-wind rose to prevail, but the guardians of classical knowledge, such as St. Isidore of Seville, preserved the 12-wind system for posterity. Charlemagne The Frankish chronicler Einhard, in his Vita Karoli Magni (c. 830), claimed that Charlemagne himself adopted the classical 12-wind system, replacing the Greek-Latin names with an entirely new set of Germanic names of his own invention. Einhard's lists Charlemagne's nomenclature as follows (giving their equivalence to the Latin names in St. Isidore's list): (N) Nordroni (NNE) Nordostroni (NE) Ostnordroni (E) Ostroni (SE) Ostsundroni (SSE) Sundostroni (S) Sundroni (SSW) Sundvuestroni (SW) Vuestsundroni (W) Vuestroni (NW) Vuestnordroni (NNW) Nordvuestroni Charlemagne's nomenclature resolves the half-wind dilemma (e.g. NNE vs. NE) by word order – Northeast and Eastnorth – giving neither a priority over the other (thus closer to NNE and ENE, with NE itself absent). The Frankish suffix -roni means "running from" (similar to the modern English "-ern" in "Northern"). The etymology of Nord is uncertain (the suggestion from Sanskrit nara, water, might imply "rainy quarter", but this is speculative); Ost means "place of shining" (dawn, from the same Proto-Indo-European root that yielded the Greek Eos and Latin Auster), Sund, from "Sun-tha" meaning "the sunned place" and Vuest from Vues-tha meaning the "dwelling place" (as in, the place of rest at dusk, same root as Sanskrit vas, dwelling, and Latin vespera, evening)). Charlemagne's nomenclature is clearly the source of the modern cardinal directions (North, East, South, West) as found in most west European languages, both Germanic (German, Dutch, English, etc.) as well as Romance ones (French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese). Arab translators In the Early Middle Ages, Arab scholars came into contact with the Greek works. Abu Yahya Ibn al-Batriq and Hunayn ibn Ishaq translated Aristotle's Meteorology, and scholars like Ibn Sinna and Ibn Rushd provided commentaries on it and expanded on it for their own systems. The 9th-century pseudo-Olympiodorus's Commentary on Aristotle's Meteorology (translated by Hunayn ibn Ishaq) gave the following Arabic names for the 12 Greek winds: (N) šimāl (NNE) mis''' (NE) nis (E) şaban (SE) azyab (SSE) nu'āmā (S) janūb (SSW)