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Title: Terrestrial and Celestial Globes Volume 1

Author: Edward Luther Stevenson

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TERRESTRIAL AND CELESTIAL
GLOBES
THEIR HISTORY AND CONSTRUCTION
INCLUDING A CONSIDERATION OF THEIR
VALUE AS AIDS IN THE STUDY OF
GEOGRAPHY AND ASTRONOMY

BY
Edward Luther Stevenson, Ph.D., LL.D.
MEMBER OF
THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA

VOLUME I

NEW HAVEN: PUBLISHED FOR
THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA BY THE
YALE UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON·HUMPHREY MILFORD·OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
MDCCCCXXI

COPYRIGHT, 1921, BY
THE HISPANIC SOCIETY OF AMERICA

Museum of The Hispanic Society of America.

AFFECTIONATELY DEDICATED
TO
MY WIFE GRACE
MY CHILDREN KATHARINE AND EDWARD

Table of Contents

PAGE

List of Illustrations xiii

Foreword xix

Chapter I: Terrestrial Globes in Antiquity 1
The beginnings of astronomical and of geographical science.—Primitive attempts at
map construction, as seen in the Babylonian plan of the world.—Anaximander
probably the first scientific cartographer.—Statements of Herodotus.—The place of
Hecataeus, Hipparchus, Marinus, Ptolemy.—The Romans as map makers.—The
earliest beliefs in a globular earth.—Thales, the Pythagoreans, Aristotle.—
Eratosthenes and his measurements of the earth.—Crates probably the first to
construct a terrestrial globe.—Statements of Strabo.—Ptolemy’s statements
concerning globes and globe construction.—The allusions of Pliny.

Chapter II: Celestial Globes in Antiquity 14
Thales’ ideas, probably not a globe maker.—Eudoxus.—The Atlante Farnese.—
Archimedes.—Allusion of Lactantius.—Pappus’ allusions.—Armillary spheres.—
The astronomer Hipparchus.—Ptolemy.—Globes used for decorative purposes by
the Romans.—Roman coins.—The Byzantine Leontius Mechanicus.

Chapter III: Globes Constructed by the Arabs 26
Followers of Ptolemy.—Early armillary spheres.—Interest of the Califs in globes and
astronomical instruments.—The record of the ‘Fihrist.’—Ibrahim.—Caissar.—
Mohammed ben Helal.—Mohammed el Ordhi.—The Paris globes.—Ridhwan
Efendi.

Chapter IV: Terrestrial and Celestial Globes in the Christian Middle
Ages 35
General attitude of the period toward the theories of the Greeks and the Romans.—
Scripture statements as sources of information.—Inclination of certain early writers
to accept the doctrine of a spherical earth.—The particular attitude of Pope
Sylvester II.—The assertedx interest of Emperor Frederick II in scientific studies.—
Alfonso the Wise and the Alfonsian tables.—Interesting allusions in Alfonso’s work
to globes and globe construction.—Giovanni Campano of Novara and the

statements in his ‘Tractatis de sphera solida.’—The attitude of Albertus Magnus,
Sacrobosco, Roger Bacon, Vincent of Beauvais, Dante.

Chapter V: Globes Constructed in the Early Years of the Great
Geographical Discoveries 46
Increasing interest in geographical discovery and maritime enterprise in the fourteenth
and the fifteenth century.—Awakened interest in globe construction.—Martin
Behaim and his globe of the year 1492.—The Laon globe.—Christopher and
Bartholomew Columbus and their interest in globes.—John Cabot and his globe.—
Globes of Johannes Stöffler.—Conrad Celtes and his part in arousing an interest in
globes.

Chapter VI: Globes of the Early Sixteenth Century 59
Summary of fifteenth century globe characteristics.—Increasing interest in globes—
Globes of Pope Julius II.—Friar Marco da Benevento.—Importance of the Rosselli
family of Florence.—The globe of Barnaba Canti.—Friar Giuliano Vannelli.—
Interest of Trithemius in globes.—The Bunau globe.—Waldseemüller’s map and
globe.—Liechtenstein globes.—Büchlin reference.—Globus Mundi.—Welt Kugel.
—Lenox globe.—Jagellonicus globe.—Hauslab.—Green globe of Paris.—
Nordenskiöld gores.—So-called Leonardo da Vinci gores.—Boulengier gores.—
Acton globes.—Globes of Magellan and of del Cano.—Globes of Schöner.

Chapter VII: Globes of the Second Quarter of the Sixteenth
Century 94
Globes indicating (a) an Asiatic connection of the New World, (b) globes expressing a
doubt of such Old World connection, (c) globes showing an independent position of
the New World.—Franciscus Monachus.—Hakluyt’s reference.—The Gilt globe.—
Parmentier.—Francesco Libri.—Nancy globe.—Globes of Gemma Frisius.—
Robertus de Bailly.—Schöner globe of 1533—-Schiepp.—Furtembach.—Paris
Wooden globe.—Vopel globes.—Santa Cruz.—Hartmann gores.—Important globe
of Ulpius.—Cardinal Bembo’s globes.—Mercator’s epoch-making activity.—
Fracastro.—Ramusio’s references to globes.—Gianelli.—Florence celestial globe.

Chapter VIII: Globes and Globe Makers of the Third Quarter of the
Sixteenth Century 146xi
Revival of interest in globe making in Italy.—François De Mongenet of France and the
reprint of his globe maps in Italy.—Gore map of Antonius Florianus.—Globe
records left by Alessandro Piccolomini.—Ruscelli’s directions for globe
construction.—Reference to the work of Sanuto and Gonzaga.—Armillary sphere of
Volpaja.—Excellent workmanship in the celestial-terrestrial globe of Christian
Heyden.—Metal globes of Johannes Praetorius.—Vasari’s reference to the work of
Ignazio Danti.—The iron globe of Francisco Basso.—Armillary sphere of Giovanni
Barrocci.—The work of Hieronymo de Boncompagni.—Emanuele Filiberto.—
Anonymous globe of 1575.—Laurentian armillary spheres.—Small globes of the
Biblioteca Nationale of Florence.—Mario Cartaro.

Chapter IX: Globes and Globe Makers of the Last Quarter of the
Sixteenth Century 172
Brief summary of sixteenth-century globe making.—The close of the century
introducing us to the great Dutch globe makers.—The clock maker Dasypodius.—
Peter and Philip Apianus.—The armillary sphere of Carlus Platus.—Roll and
Reinhold.—Tycho Brahe and his influence.—Titon du Tillet.—The terrestrial globe
of Rouen.—Globes of Emery Molyneux.—Globes of Bürgi.—Zürich globe.—
Beaker globes.—Ivory globe of Antonio Spano.—The Van Langren globes.—
Santucci.—B. F. globe of Dresden.

List of Illustrations

FIG. CHAPTER I PAGE

1. Fragment Map of Egyptian Gold Mines. From Chabas 2
2. Tablet Representing Babylonian World-Plan. Original in British Museum, London 3
3. Ptolemy World Map. From Ebnerianus manuscript in New York Public Library, ca.
1466 4
4. Sections of Peutinger Tables. Original in Imperial Library, Vienna 6
5. Globe according to Crates. From pen drawing 7
6. Globe according to Strabo. From pen drawing 9

CHAPTER II
7. Atlante Farnese, ca. 200 B.C.From Passari’s Atlas Farnesianus 14
8. Atlante Farnese Constellation Figures. From Passari’s Atlas 16
9. Armillary Sphere according to Ptolemy. From original Vopel globe in National
Museum, Washington 20
10. Bosco Reale Roman Fresco, ca. 50 A.D.From original in Metropolitan Museum,
New York 22
11. Greek and Roman Coins. From originals in collection of American Numismatic
Society, New York 6
12. Roman Gems. From King’s Antique Gems and Rings 6

CHAPTER III
13. Northern Hemisphere of Globe by Mohammed ben Helal, 1275. From Dorn’s
reproduction of original in London Asiatic Society’s collection 28
14.xiv Globe of Mohammed ben Muwajed el Ordhi, 1279. From original in Math. Phys.
Salon, Dresden 30
15. Globe of Diemat Eddin Mohammed, 1573. From original in National Library,
Paris 32
15a. Anonymous Arabic Globe, 1635. From original in Library Professor David E.
Smith, New York 34

CHAPTER IV
16. The Universe according to Cosmas Indicopleustes, Sixth Century. From
reproduction by Montfauçon 36
17. Cosmas’ Illustration Confuting the Existence of Antipodal Peoples. From
reproduction by Montfauçon 37
18. Hereford World Map, ca. 1283 38

19. The Earth Pictured as a Sphere by Nicolas d’Oresme, 1377. From reproduction in
Santarem’s Atlas 38
20. The Constellation Taurus. From Rico y Sinobas’ reproduction of Alfonsian Tables 42

CHAPTER V
21. Globe of Martin Behaim, 1492. From reproduction of original in Library of the
American Geographical Society, New York 46
22. Portrait of Martin Behaim. From Ghillany 48
23. Globe of Martin Behaim in Hemispheres. From Ghillany 50
24. Lorenzo Lotto Portrait of Columbus. From original belonging to James W.
Ellsworth, New York 52
25. Portrait of Sebastian Cabot, Son of John Cabot. From engraving by Rawle 54

CHAPTER VI
26. Title-page of Johann Schöner’s Terrae Descriptio, 1518. From original 60
27. Second Title-page of Mauro Fiorentino’s Sphera Volgare, 1537. From original 61
28. Holbein’s Ambassadors. From original in National Art Gallery, London 62
29. Library of Escorial. From an old print 64
30. Castle of Prince Waldburg de Wolfegg. From original photograph 64
31.xv World Map of Martin Waldseemüller, 1507. From Fischer and von Wieser’s
reproduction 68
32. Globe Gores Attributed to Martin Waldseemüller, 1509. From original belonging
to Prince Liechtenstein 70
33. Globus Mundi, 1509. From original 73
34. Lenox Globe, 1510. From original in New York Public Library 73
35. Lenox Globe in Hemispheres. From pen drawing 72
36. Jagellonicus Globe, 1510. From original in Cracow 74
37. Jagellonicus Globe in Hemispheres. From reproduction by Estreicher 74
38. Green Globe, 1515. From original in National Library, Paris 76
39. Liechtenstein Globe Gores, ca. 1518. From original belonging to Prince
Liechtenstein 78
40. Terrestrial Globe Gores of Boulengier, ca. 1518. From original in New York Public
Library 80
41. Portrait of Magellan. From an old print 82
42. Portrait of Johann Schöner. From an old engraving 84
43. Globe of Johann Schöner in Hemispheres, 1515. From original and Jomard’s Atlas
—pen drawing 84
44. Western Hemisphere of Johann Schöner’s Globe, 1520. From Ghillany 86
44a. Anonymous Globe Gores, ca. 1540. From original in New York Public Library 88
45. Stabius World Globe Map, 1515. From original in Imperial Library, Vienna 88
46. Northern Celestial Hemisphere of Albrecht Dürer. From original in Imperial
Library, Vienna 28

CHAPTER VII
47. Bartholomew Columbus Sketch Map, 1506. From reproduction by von Wieser 95
48. Hemispheres of Franciscus Monachus, 1526. From his De orbis situ 96
49. Gilt Globe, ca. 1528. From Harrisse drawing after the original in National
Library, Paris 98
50. Nancy Globe, ca. 1530. From original in Nancy Museum 100
50a. Globe of Jacob Stamfer, 1539. From original in Zürich 102
50b. Nancy Globe in Hemispheres. From Blau’s reproduction 102
51. Portrait of Gemma Frisius. From an old print 104
52. Terrestrial Globe of Robertus de Bailly—Nine of twelve gores exhibiting the map,
1530. Redrawn for Rosenthal’s Catalogue, No. 100 108
53. Terrestrial Globe of Robertus de Bailly, 1530. From original in Library of J. P.
xvi Morgan, New York 108
54. Schöner’s Terrestrial Globe, 1533 (Probable). From his Opera Mathematica 110
54a. Schöner’s Celestial Globe, 1533 (Probable). From his Opera Mathematica 112
55. Paris Wooden Globe, 1535. From original in National Library, Paris 114
56. Vopel Globe, 1543. From original in the Library of Congress, Washington 116
56a. Western Hemisphere of Vopel Terrestrial Globe. From de Costa’s drawing 98
57. Terrestrial Globe of Euphrosynus Ulpius, 1541. From original in Library New York
Historical Society 118
58. Western Hemisphere of Ulpius Globe, 1541. From the drawing by de Costa 119
59. Gore Map of Alonso de Santa Cruz, 1542. From Dahlgren’s reproduction 122
60. Portraits of Gerhard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius. From an old print 124
61. Six of Twelve Terrestrial Globe Gores by Gerhard Mercator, 1541. From
reproduction by van Raemdonck 128
62. Terrestrial Globe of Gerhard Mercator, 1541. From original in Astronomical
Museum, Rome 134

CHAPTER VIII
63. Terrestrial Globe Gores of François de Mongenet, 1552. From original in New
York Public Library 148
64. Celestial Globe Gores of François de Mongenet, 1552. From original in New York
Public Library 150
65. Globes of François de Mongenet, 1560, and of Gian Francesco Costa, 1784 150
66. Globe Gores of Antonius Florianus, 1555. From Lafreri’s Atlas 152
67. Globe of Christian Heyden, 1560. From original in Math. Phys. Salon, Dresden 156
68. Globe of Johannes Praetorius, 1566. From original in Math. Phys. Salon, Dresden 158
69. Terrestrial Globe of Mario Cartaro, 1577. From original in possession of Mr. Reed,
New York 168

CHAPTER IX
70. Strassburg Clock and Globe of Conrad Dasypodius, 1574. From Schwilgué 174
71. Portrait of Peter Apianus. From an old print 176
72. Globes of Philip Apianus, 1576. From originals in K. B. Hof- u. Staatsbibliothek,
Munich 178
73. Silver-Gilt Globe of Gerhard Emmoser, 1573. From original in Metropolitan
Museum, New York 180
74. Globe of George Roll and Johannes Reinhold, 1586. From original in Math. Phys.
Salon, Dresden 182
75. Portrait of Tycho Brahe. From an engraving by Kornenip 184
76. Interior of Tycho Brahe’s Observatory at Uranienburg. From Blaeu’s Atlas 186
77. Globus Magnus of Tycho Brahe, 1584. From his Astronomiae Instauratae
Mechanica 188
78. L’Écuy Terrestrial Globe, ca. 1578. From original in National Library, Paris 190
79. Terrestrial Globe of Emery Molyneux, 1592. From original in Middle Temple,
London 192
80. Anonymous Terrestrial Globe, ca. 1595. From original in Landesmuseum, Zürich 198
81. Globe-Goblet of Abraham Gessner, ca. 1600. From original in Wolfegg Castle,
Wolfegg 200
82. Gold Globe-Goblet, ca. 1575. From original in Metropolitan Museum, New York 200
83. Ivory Terrestrial Globe of Antonio Spano, 1593. From original in Library of J. P.
Morgan, New York 202
84. South Polar Region on Globe of Antonio Spano. From original in Library of J. P.
Morgan, New York 204
84a. South Polar Region on Globe of Jodocus Hondius, 1600. From original in Library of
Henry E. Huntington, New York 204
85. Terrestrial Globe of Van Langren, 1612. From original in Royal Geographical
Society, Amsterdam 208
86. Armillary Sphere of Antonio Santucci (?), ca. 1580. From original in Library of
Henry E. Huntington, New York 214
87. Celestial Globe of B. F., 1600. From original in Math. Phys. Salon, Dresden 216

CHAP. TAILPIECES PAGE

II. The Egyptian Gnomon. From pen drawing 25
III. Arabic Celestial Globe. From Dorn’s illustration 34
V. Ship. From early portolan chart 58
VI. Honter Globe. From his Rudimenta cosmographica 93
VII. Portuguese Arms 145
VIII. Compass Rose. From Martines Atlas, 1582, 171
IX. Base of Apianus Globe, 1576. 218

Foreword.

H
ITHERTO there has not appeared in English a detailed historical
treatise on globes terrestrial and celestial. The publications are
somewhat numerous, it is true, in which a very general
consideration has been given to the uses of globes, including a reference to
their important structural features, and to the problems geographical and
astronomical in the solution of which they may be counted of service. There
are a few studies, critical and historical, touching certain selected examples
of the early globe maker’s handiwork which can be cited. Attention, for
example, may here be directed to Sir Clements Markham’s valuable
introduction to his excellent English translation of Hues’ ‘Tractatus de
Globis,’ a work originally prepared for the purpose of furnishing a
description of the Molyneaux globes, in which introduction he undertook
“to pass in review the celestial and terrestrial globes which preceded or
were contemporaneous with the first that were made in England (1592) so
far as a knowledge of them has come down to us,” yet the learned author
cites but a fraction of the many globes referred to in the following pages. In
Ravenstein’s ‘Behaim, His Life and His Globe,’ we have perhaps the most
scholarly treatment of its kind in any language, but the study is limited to
the work of one man, the maker of the oldest extant terrestrial globe, which
is dated 1492.
The bibliographical list which is appended gives striking evidence that there
has been a more or less extended interest in the general subject of the use
and the construction of globes in France, in Germany, in England, and in
Italy. The author makes in this place special mention of his indebtedness to
the studies of the distinguished Italian scholar, Professor Matteo Fiorini,
adding that with some propriety his name might have a place on the title-
page. Had there not been a ready access to his important works, had the
Italian Geographical Society not so graciously expressed to the author its
willingness for the free use of as much of his published investigations as
might be desired, for which it stood in the relation of sponsor publisher, a
willingness which Fiorini himself had assured to any who might have
access to the printed results of his studies within this field, the preparation

of this work necessarily would have extended over a considerable period of
time. Special mention must be made of his ‘Sfere Terrestri e Celesti di
Autore Italiano oppure fatte o conservate in Italia,’ and of his ‘Sfere
cosmografiche e specialmente le Sfere Terrestri.’ These works have been of
very signal value for the study of the Italian globes and globe makers. Not
an inconsiderable part of his descriptive details has been appropriated,
being given in free translation or in paraphrase, quotation marks having
been omitted. Special mention may also here be made of Sigmund
Günther’s interesting little volume, which he titles ‘Erd- und
Himmelsgloben nach dem italienischen Matteo Fiorinis frei bearbeitet.’
This has been of special value for its bibliographical references and for its
short chapters on globe-gore construction.
To attempt the listing, with description, of all globes known to have been
constructed from the earliest times to the close of the eighteenth century, the
latter being a somewhat arbitrary date, is pretentious. The fact is fully
appreciated that in many instances the description given is all too brief.
Many of the individual terrestrial globe maps of the period in question, it
should be especially noted, are of the greatest historical and scientific value;
but to have undertaken a more detailed and a more critical study merely of
those which may be called the most important might well have demanded
far more time and special research than could have been fittingly allowed
for a general survey such as has here been planned; in such a course we
should indeed have been led afield from our purpose.
It had been thought when this study was first undertaken that perhaps as
many as one hundred existing examples might be located, and that in
addition to these not a few important references might be found to work
actually done but now lost. Instead of the one hundred, more than eight
hundred and fifty have been listed, and from the interesting experience in
collecting material for the work, the pleasurable hope is entertained that the
published record of this effort will be in some measure the means of
bringing to light not a score but scores of other examples. Indulging this
hope there have been added to each copy of the book a few blank pages for
the insertion of a reference to any not mentioned in the following printed
pages. The author begs in this connection to add an expression of his
grateful appreciation for any word which may be sent to him concerning
unmentioned examples, to the end that in a revised edition such examples

may be fittingly noted. The great war checked the search for existing
examples, and prevented the inclusion of many illustrations which had been
promised, but these were promises which could not be fulfilled.
An attempt has been made, as before noted, to treat the subject historically,
beginning with the earliest references to the belief in a spherical earth and a
spherical firmament encircling it. It is not easy to fix, with anything like a
satisfactory measure of certainty, the beginning of globe construction; very
naturally it was not until a spherical theory concerning the heavens and the
earth had been accepted, and for this we are led back quite to Aristotle and
beyond, back indeed to the Pythagoreans if not yet farther. We find
allusions to celestial globes in the days of Eudoxus and Archimedes, to
terrestrial globes in the days of Crates and Hipparchus. We find that the
Greek geographer Strabo gives us quite a definite word concerning their
value and their construction, and that Ptolemy is so definite in his
references to them as to lead to a belief that globes were by no means
uncommon instruments in his day, and that they were regarded of much
value in the study of geography and astronomy, particularly of the latter
science. There is, however, but one example known, which has come down
to us from that ancient day, this a celestial globe, which is noted below and
briefly described as the Farnese globe. It is of marble, and is thought by
some to date from the time of Eudoxus, that is, three hundred years before
the Christian era.
To the Mohammedans belongs chief credit for keeping alive an interest in
astronomical studies during the so-called Christian middle ages, and we
find them interested in globe construction, that is, in celestial globe
construction; so far as we have knowledge, it seems doubtful that they
undertook the construction of terrestrial globes.
Among the Christian peoples of Europe in this same period there was not
wanting an interest in both geography and astronomy. We are now learning
that those centuries were not entirely barren of a certain interest in sciences
other than theological. In Justinian’s day, or near it, one Leontius
Mechanicus busied himself in Constantinople with globe construction, and
we have left to us his brief descriptive reference to his work. With stress
laid, during the many centuries succeeding, upon matters pertaining to the
religious life, there naturally was less concern than there had been in the

humanistic days of classical antiquity as to whether the earth is spherical in
form or flat like a circular disc, nor was it thought to matter overmuch as to
the form of the heavens. Yet there was no century, not even in those ages we
happily are learning to call no longer dark, that geography and astronomy
were not studied and taught, and globes celestial as well as armillary
spheres, if not terrestrial globes, were constructed. The Venerable Bede,
Notker Labeo, Pope Sylvester I, the Emperor Frederick II, and King
Alfonso of Castile, not to name many others of perhaps lesser significance,
displayed an interest in globes and globe making.
The modern age opens with an interest in the expansion of Europe overland
eastward, with this interest soon to be followed by greater enthusiasm in
transoceanic expansion. With the rapidly increasing knowledge concerning
the hitherto unknown or but little known regions of the earth came a desire
for better map making, came an interest intelligently directed in the
construction of terrestrial globes on which the newly discovered parts might
be represented in their relative positions as they are on the real spherical
earth. To this interest Martin Behaim gave striking expression, producing in
the year 1492 his famous “Erdapfel” referred to above as the oldest extant
terrestrial globe. His century closes with every evidence that the spherical
theory, as Aristotle had expressed it nearly two thousand years before, could
alone be accepted by geographers, and if spherical, the fact could be most
impressively taught by the use of a material representation, that is, by
means of a terrestrial globe.
The sixteenth century opened with a marvelously increased interest in
geography, the result of a climax reached through the transoceanic
discoveries in which Columbus led the way. If the makers of plane maps
became now increasingly active, so the makers of globes were becoming
increasingly numerous, and at first in the countries of trans-alpine Europe.
Globes of metal with engraved maps, as the Lenox and the Jagellonicus
copper spheres, globes with manuscript maps covering a sphere of special
composition, as were those of Schöner, globes in the preparation of which
engraved gore maps were employed; as the Waldseemüller, the Boulengier,
the Gemma, and the Mercator, make their appearance in ever increasing
numbers, the activity encouraged by those interested in a scientific study of
geography and astronomy, and notably by seamen, in whose collection of

navigator’s instruments they were long considered to be of the greatest
importance.
How the globe interest in the several countries of Europe found expression
during the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries is fully set forth
in the following pages, with something of an attempt at a grouping and a
classification of the results, to the end of making more clear the trend of
that interest, now quickened, now retarded, by certain temporary or
permanent national impulses.
It is especially interesting to note how a certain superiority in globe making
exhibited itself, now in one country, now in another, with a lingering favor
exhibited in Italy for the manuscript or the metal globe, while in the North,
globes with copper engraved gore maps found increasing favor from the
first, with a certain climax reached in the Netherlands in the days of
Hondius and Blaeu.
In the appended tabulated list of globes and globe makers, it will be noted
that the makers have been listed alphabetically, that the kind of globe has
been indicated, whether terrestrial, celestial or armillary sphere, with the
date given, though sometimes only approximately, and with the diameter of
each globe recorded in centimeters, so far as obtainable with an acceptable
degree of accuracy, fractions thereof being omitted, these same
measurements being repeated in the text reference to each individual
example or edition.
The author had been ambitious to include in his illustrations a reproduction
of each known example or edition, showing at least the general appearance
of each, but he fully realizes the more or less unsatisfactory character of a
small print, and the unsatisfactory results of an attempt to photograph the
curved surface of a sphere. Not a few of the many examples would prove to
be of the greatest interest and scientific value could the entire map surface
have been given in reproduction and in size to be easily legible. It however
can be readily understood how such an undertaking was necessarily
considered to be unpractical. Out of the author’s collection of about four
hundred globe photographs, a selection has been made of those which it has
been thought would be most suitable for illustrative purposes.

It is hoped that the preliminary study herewith presented may lead to a
number of independent and thorough investigations of important individual
examples, to the end of clearly setting forth their great documentary value.
There have been added to the list of illustrations certain important legends
as they appear in the original, likewise a number of contemporary portraits
of the distinguished globe and map makers of the last three centuries. In
most instances important legends have been cited in the text in the exact
language of the original, to which, with very few exceptions, a translation is
added. The critical student will occasionally be somewhat astounded at the
incorrectness of the language, Latin, Italian, Spanish, French or German, in
the original. The translations into English, not infrequently, have been made
with difficulty; accordingly it will be noted in some instances that the
translation is conjectural. No attempt has been made to correct errors; on
the contrary, the greatest care has been exercised to adhere faithfully to the
original as given by the map or globe maker.
The bibliographical list appended is full, but completeness is not pretended.
Practically all of the works cited have been consulted, and care has been
taken to include those held to be of the greatest importance. It will at least
serve as a working list for those students who may wish to make further
investigations within the field under consideration.
An expression of sincerest thanks is here recorded to the very many
librarians, directors of museums, and private individuals who have so
graciously responded to requests for information concerning the globes
belonging to their several collections. The privilege so readily conceded for
photographing the several examples, and the time and trouble expended in
having this work of reproduction well done, are nothing less than a striking
evidence of the kindliest fraternal spirit existing among those engaged in
scientific and literary pursuits the world over. To the requests presented
even the antipodes have responded.
In concluding, the author might refer to his interest in globes as dating from
his early boyhood days, when, in that country school in western Illinois,
bearing the name Liberty, for it had been established in the first years of the
Civil War, he studied his geography and indeed his astronomy lessons with
the aid of a terrestrial globe and an orrery. Can it be that we have revised

our educational methods so far in this country as practically to have
eliminated the intelligent use of aids so valuable in the study of the
branches which globes concern? They enter in fact but little into modern
methods of instruction. If this work could be made to encourage their
extensive use, and serve in their rehabilitation as aids of inestimable interest
and value in geographical and astronomical studies, it will have served the
purpose which is most pleasing to the author.

Chapter I

Terrestrial Globes in Antiquity
The beginnings of astronomical and of geographical science.—Primitive attempts at map
construction, as seen in the Babylonian plan of the world.—Anaximander probably the first
scientific cartographer.—Statements of Herodotus.—The place of Hecataeus, Hipparchus,
Marinus, Ptolemy.—The Romans as map makers.—The earliest beliefs in a globular earth.—
Thales, the Pythagoreans, Aristotle.—Eratosthenes and his measurements of the earth.—
Crates probably the first to construct a terrestrial globe.—Statements of Strabo.—Ptolemy’s
statements concerning globes and globe construction.—The allusions of Pliny.

T
HE beginnings of the science of astronomy and of the science of
geography are traceable to a remote antiquity. The earliest records
which have come down to us out of the cradleland of civilization
contain evidence that a lively interest in celestial and terrestrial phenomena
was not wanting even in the day of history’s dawning. The primitive
cultural folk of the Orient, dwellers in its great plateau regions, its fertile
valleys, and its desert stretches were wont, as we are told, to watch the stars
rise nightly in the east, sweep across the great vaulted space above, and set
in the west as if controlled in their apparent movement by living spirits. To
them this exhibition was one marvelous and awe-inspiring. In the somewhat
strange grouping of the stars they early fancied they could see the forms of
many of the objects about them, of many of their gods and heroes, and we
find their successors outlining these forms in picture in their representations
of the heavens on the material spheres which they constructed. Crude and
simple, however, were their astronomical theories relative to the shape, the
structure, and the magnitude of the great universe in which they found
themselves placed.1
Then too, as stated, there was something of interest to the people of that
early day in the simple problems of geography; problems suggested by the
physical features of their immediate environment; problems arising as they
journeyed for trade or traffic, or the love of adventure, to regions now near,
now remote. Very ancient records tell us of the attempts they made,
primitive indeed most of them were, to sketch in general outline small areas
of the earth’s surface, usually at first the homeland of the map maker, but to
which they added as their knowledge expanded. The early Egyptians, for
example, as we long have known, made use of rough outline drawings

(Fig. 1)2 to represent certain features of special sections of their country,
and recently discovered tablets in the lower Mesopotamian valley (Fig. 2)
interestingly show us how far advanced in the matter of map making the
inhabitants of that land were two thousand years before the Christian era.3
We are likewise assured, through references in the literature of classical
antiquity, that maps were made by the early Greeks and Romans, and
perhaps in great numbers as their civilization advanced, though none of
their productions have survived to our day. To the Greeks indeed belongs
the credit of first reducing geography and map making to a real science.4
No recent discovery by archaeologist or by historian, interesting as many of
their discoveries have been, seems to warrant an alteration of this statement,
long accepted as fact.

Fig. 1. Fragment Map of Egyptian Gold Mines.

Fig. 2. Tablet Representing Babylonian World-Plan.

The credit of being the first scientific cartographer has been generally
assigned to the Greek Anaximander of Miletus (610-547 B. C.).5 While
there is not a detailed description extant of the maps he is reputed to have
made, we know that he accepted the so-called Homeric idea, that the earth
has the form of a circular disc,6 and is surrounded by the Ocean Stream, an
idea generally approved by the Ionic School of Philosophers.7 It is not
improbable that we have an allusion to the work of Anaximander in the
History of Herodotus (484-400? B. C.), wherein we are told that
Aristagoras, the tyrant of Miletus, when on a mission to Cleomenes, the
King of Sparta, carried with him “a copper plate on which was engraved the
whole circuit of the earth, and likewise all the Seas and Rivers.”8 In another
passage, Herodotus takes occasion to criticise maps of this circular
character. “I laugh,” he says, “when I see that, though many before this
have drawn maps of the Earth, yet no one has set the matter forth in an
intelligent way; seeing that they draw the Ocean flowing round the Earth,
which is circular as if drawn with compasses, and they make Asia equal in

size to Europe. In a few words I shall declare the size of each division and
of what nature it is as regards outline.”9 It is, however, interesting to
observe that the father of historical geography and of history nowhere
records his idea of a properly constructed map, and further that the circular
form, which he condemned, is one which found wide acceptance even to
the close of the middle ages.
We are not definitely informed as to just the course of improvement or
advancement in early scientific map making among the Greeks, yet not a
few names are known to us of those who made it a matter of special
endeavor, as they specifically stated, to improve the work of their
predecessors. We, for example, are told that Hecataeus (550-480 B. C.),10
likewise a native of Miletus, improved the maps of Anaximander, and that
scientists of his day were astonished at his results; that Dicaearchus of
Massina (350-290 B. C.)11 was the first to employ a central line of
orientation on a map, one passing through the Mediterranean east and west,
and that he represented on his map all the lands known since the expedition
of Alexander the Great into the Far East; and further, that Eratosthenes, the
librarian of Alexandria (276-196 B. C.),12 was the first to attempt a
representation of the curved surface of the earth on a plane in accord with
geometrical rules. The scientific cartographical ideas of Eratosthenes were
further developed by Hipparchus (180-125 B. C.),13 who is generally
referred to as the greatest astronomer of antiquity, and by Marinus of Tyre
(fl. ca. 100 A. D.),14 who introduced the idea of inscribing lines of latitude
and longitude on a map, crossing the same at right angles, which lines could
be made to serve the useful purpose of orientation and be of assistance in
giving proper location to all known places on the earth’s surface.
Map making in that early period reached its climax in the work of Claudius
Ptolemy of Alexandria (ca. 87-150 A. D.).15 His ideas, however, seem not
to have found general favor with his contemporaries, nor with the
geographers of the middle ages. (Fig. 3.) It was not until the so-called
period of great geographical discoveries and explorations in the fifteenth
century that he became a real teacher within his chosen field.

Fig. 3. Ptolemy World Map.

Map making and the science of geography were continuously progressive
among the Greeks. Imperial Rome witnessed little progress in either field.
Among those who wrote in the Latin language, Pomponius Mela (fl. ca. 43
A. D.)16 and Pliny (ca. 23-79 A. D.)17 alone have rank of importance. In the
matter of map construction the Romans held to many of the cruder methods
and ideas of the Greeks, a fact which we learn from the fragmentary
references in their literature, and from the itinerary or road maps (Fig. 4), of
the period of the emperors, which have come down to us.18

Fig. 4. Sections of Peutinger Tables.

The idea of a globular earth was at first accepted by the geographers of
antiquity with some hesitancy. That Thales (640-548 B. C.),19 one of the
earliest astronomers and cosmographers, openly supported this theory, as is
sometimes asserted, is hardly probable. It is rather to be assumed that
according to his idea the earth has the form of a cylinder, and that it moves
within a hollow sphere, an idea upheld by Anaximander, his disciple and
successor, to whom reference has been made above. It was the Pythagorean
philosophers who appear to have first transferred to the earth that which had
already been accepted as a theory relative to the heavens, including the
imaginary circles and the circular or spherical form, apparently arguing that
the earth is a sphere because that is the most perfect form, that it is located
in the center of the universe because that is the place of honor, and that it is
at rest because rest is more dignified than motion.20 It however was
Aristotle who undertook, in the manner of a philosopher, an elaborate
defense of the Pythagorean doctrine of a globular earth, supporting his
arguments, first, through a reference to such positive proof as may be found
in gravitation or “the tendency of all particles of matter to form themselves
about the middle and thus make a sphere,” and secondly, through a

reference to the appearance of the earth’s shadow cast during an eclipse of
the moon.21 A third proof, so familiar to us today, that distant objects as we
approach them gradually reveal themselves above the horizon, seems not to
have occurred to Aristotle, but was first employed by Strabo. “It is evident,”
says the latter, “that, when persons on shipboard are unable to see at a
distance lights which are on a level with the eye, the cause of this is the
curvature of the sea; for if those lights are raised to a higher level, they
become visible, even though the distance is increased; and in like manner, if
the beholder attains a greater elevation he sees what was previously
hidden.... Again, when men are approaching the land from the sea, the parts
nearest the shore-line come more and more into view, and objects which at
first appeared low attain a greater elevation.”22
After the attempt had been made to determine the circumference of the
earth, as was done by Eratosthenes with more or less satisfactory results,
the thought, very naturally, was suggested of making an artificial
representation of the entire earth, so far as then understood, that is, of
making a terrestrial globe. There is no intimation, however, in any early
allusion to Eratosthenes that he was a globe maker, or that he knew
anything about globe construction. We know that he thought of the earth as
a sphere placed in the center of the universe, around which the celestial
sphere revolves every twenty-four hours.23 Strabo, at a much later date, in
referring to the geographical ideas of Eratosthenes, censured him for his
unnecessarily elaborate proofs of the earth’s spherical character, apparently
thinking the fact one too well known to require demonstration.

Fig. 5. Globe according to Crates.

It appears to have been the grammarian Crates of Mallos, a contemporary of
Hipparchus, and a member of the Stoic School of Philosophers, who made
the first attempt to construct a terrestrial globe (Fig. 5), and that he
exhibited the same in Pergamum, not far from the year 150 B. C.24 It seems
to have been Crates’ idea that the earth’s surface, when represented on a
sphere, should appear as divided into four island-like habitable regions. On
the one hemisphere, which is formed by a meridional plane cutting the
sphere, lies our own oecumene or habitable world, and that of the
Antoecians in corresponding longitude and in opposite latitude; on the other
hemisphere lies the oecumene of the Perioecians in our latitude and in
opposite longitude, and that of the Antipodes in latitude and longitude
opposite to us.25 Through the formulation and expression of such a theory
the idea of the existence of an antipodal people was put forth as a
speculative problem, an idea frequently discussed in the middle ages, and
settled only by the actual discovery of antipodal regions and antipodal
peoples in the day of great transoceanic discoveries.26 That Strabo, at a later
date, had this Pergamenian example in mind when stating certain rules to be

observed in the construction of globes seems probable, since he makes
mention of Crates’ globe. Strabo alone among ancient writers, so far as we
at present know, treats of terrestrial globes, practically such as we find in
use at the present day. He thought that a globe to be serviceable should be
of large size, and his reasoning can readily be understood, for what at that
time was really known of the earth’s surface was small indeed in
comparison with what was unknown. Should one not make use of a sphere
of large dimensions, the habitable regions (Fig. 6), in comparison with the
earth’s entire surface, would occupy but small space. What Strabo states in
his geography is interesting and may here well be cited. “Whoever would
represent the real earth,” he says, “as near as possible by artificial means,
should make a sphere like that of Crates, and upon this draw the
quadrilateral within which his chart of geography is to be placed. For this
purpose however a large globe is necessary since the section mentioned,
though but a very small portion of the entire sphere, must be capable of
containing properly all the regions of the habitable earth and of presenting
an accurate view of them to those who wish to consult it. Any one who is
able will certainly do well to obtain such a globe. But it should have a
diameter of not less than ten feet; those who can not obtain a globe of this
size, or one nearly as large, had better draw their charts on a plane surface
of not less than seven feet. Draw straight lines for the parallels, and others
at right angles to these. We can easily imagine how the eye can transfer the
figure and extent (of these lines) from a plane surface to one that is
spherical. The meridians of each country on the globe have a tendency to
unite in a single point at the poles; nevertheless on the surface of a plane
map there would be no advantage if the right lines alone which should
represent the meridians were drawn slightly to converge.”27

Fig. 6. Globe according to Strabo.

It is not at all improbable that Strabo and Ptolemy made considerable
advance in the practical construction of terrestrial globes, for it seems
reasonable to conclude that they were in possession of such objects when
writing, as they did, concerning them.
Ptolemy, we may note, expressly allowed that the size of a globe should be
that which one might desire, and that it was not necessary it should be of
large size. It was this great Alexandrian cosmographer who first
demonstrated the scientific value of drawing on the surface of a globe or
map the network of parallels and meridians, and of establishing by means of
the two geographical coördinates the true geographical position of every
known place. To the end of making globes more serviceable he suggested
the use of a meridian circle, such as is today employed in globe
construction, passing through both poles, within which circle the globe
might be made to move freely on its axis. He, however, in this connection,
did not give technical directions for the construction of terrestrial globes,
but he says enough to assure us that the art of globe construction was
measurably well understood in his day, and that the Greeks and the Romans

considered them very useful instruments in the study of the heavens and the
earth.28
The allusions of the naturalist Pliny (23-79 A. D.) to the spherical shape of
the earth give us no particular intimation that he knew of the existence of
terrestrial globes, but they are interesting as indicating a belief of his time in
its spherical form, a belief, judging from the nature of the argument,
apparently drawn from Aristotle. Referring to the shape of the earth, he
observes that “everyone agrees it has the most perfect figure. We always
speak of the ball of the earth, and we admit it to be a globe bounded by the
poles. It has not indeed the form of an absolute sphere, from the number of
lofty mountains and flat plains; but if the termination of the lines be bound
by a curve, this would compose a perfect sphere. And this we learn from
arguments drawn from the nature of things, although not from the same
considerations which we have made use of with respect to the heavens. For
in the heavens the hollow convexity everywhere bends on itself and leans
upon the earth as a center, whereas the earth rises up solid and dense like
something that swells up and is protruded outward. The heavens bend
toward the center, while the earth goes out from the center, the continual
rolling of the heavens about it forcing its immense mass into the form of a
sphere.”29

NOTES
1 Most of the larger general works presenting an historical survey of the science of astronomy give
consideration to its beginnings, noting the interest in the subject exhibited by the early Egyptians,
Assyrians, Babylonians, and by other Eastern peoples. See the introductory pages of such works as
Dalambre, M. Histoire de l’astronomie ancienne. Paris, 1817; Lockyer, J. N. The Dawn of
Astronomy. New York, 1894; Allan, H. A. Star Names and their Meanings; Wolf, R. Geschichte der
Astronomie. München, 1877; Mädler, J. H. Geschichte der Himmelskunde von den ältesten bis auf
die neuste Zeit. Braunschweig, 1873. 2 vols.; Narrien, J. N. An Historical Account of Origin and
Progress of Astronomy. London, 1833.
2 Chabas, F. Ouvres diverses publiées par G. Maspero. Paris, 1902. Tome deuxième, Plate II, p. 208,
“Carte Egyptienne de mines d’or.”
3 Cuneiform Texts from Babylonian Tablets, etc., in British Museum. London, 1906. Vol. 22, Plate
48. This Babylonian plan of the world illustrates the idea concerning the world which was current in
the late Babylonian period. It represents the region of Babylonia, Assyria, and the neighboring
districts as a circular plain surrounded by the Persian Gulf (Ma-ra-tum). The city Babylon (Babylu) is
indicated near the center, and next to it the land of Assyria (Ashshur). The position of certain other
cities is indicated. The district toward the south, bordering the Persian Gulf, is represented as being
full of canals and marshes. Toward the north is marked a district which is referred to as mountainous.

Beyond the circle is represented the Persian Gulf, and a number of triangles pointing outward from
the circular zone, each being labeled “region,” indicating a vague conception concerning the same.
4 Numerous works have been published referring to the geography of the ancients. Mention may here
be made of the following as being important. In each may be found extensive bibliographical
references. Berger, H. Geschichte der wissenschaftlichen Erdkunde der Griechen. Leipzig, 1887-
1894. This work was issued in four parts. Forbiger, A. Handbuch der alten Geographie nach den
Quellen bearbeitet. Hamburg, 1877; Schmidt, M. C. P. Zur Geschichte der geographischen Litteratur
bei den Griechen und Römern. Berlin, 1887; Bunbury, E. H. History of Ancient Geography. London,
1883. 2 vols.; Tozer, H. F. A History of Ancient Geography. Cambridge, 1897. See also The History
of Herodotus; The Geography of Strabo; The Natural History of Pliny; The Geography of Ptolemy.
5 Schmidt, op. cit., p. 12; Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 122; Berger, op. cit., pt. 1, p. 8-14.
6 Iliad, XVIII, 446-447; XXI, 225-228; Odyssey, V, 282; XII, 380.
7 They indulged much in speculation concerning the physical constitution of the world.
8 Herodotus. Historia. Bk. V, chap. 49. Citation from translation by Macaulay, G. C. The History of
Herodotus. London, 1890. 2 vols.
9 Herodotus, op. cit., Bk. IV, chap. 8, 36; II, 21, 23.
10 Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. I, chap. v; Schmidt, op. cit., p. 13; Berger, op. cit., pt. 1.
11 Cicero. Epistolae ad Atticum. vi. 2; Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 617.
12 Berger, op. cit., pt. 3; Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. I, chap. xvi.
13 Berger, op. cit., pt. 3; Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. II, chap. xvii, sec. 1.
14 Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. II, chap. xxvi. Marinus is known to us only at second-hand. Ptolemy extols
him in the highest terms, but he undertook to reform his maps just as Marinus had undertaken to
reform the maps of his predecessors.
15 Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. II, chaps. xxviii-xxix; Mollweide, S. Die Mappierungskunst des Ptolemaus.
(In: Zachs Monatliche Korrespondence zur Beförderung der Erd- und Himmelskunde. Weimar. Bd.
11, pp. 322 ff.); Nordenskiöld, A. E. Facsimile Atlas. Stockholm, 1889. This last-named work gives
consideration to the Atlas of Ptolemy, to the numerous editions of his Geographia, to his geographical
errors. The twenty-seven maps printed in the 1490 Rome edition of the Atlas are reproduced. See also
the printed lists of the editions of Ptolemy’s Atlas by Eames, W., Winsor, J., Philipps, P. L.
16 Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. II, chap. xxviii, sec. 2; Fink. Mela und seine Geographie. Rosenheim, 1881.
Mela titled his work, “De situ orbis.” Excellent tr. into English by Golding, Arthur. London, 1585.
Various printed editions, first in 1471.
17 Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. II, chap. xxiv. Various editions of original; various English translations.
Pliny titled his work, “Naturalis historia.”
18 Miller, K. Die Weltkarte des Castorius, genannt Peutingersche Tafel. Ravensburg, 1887; Porena, F.
Orbis pictus d’Agrippa. Roma, 1883; Desjardins, E. La Table de Peutinger d’après l’original
conservé à Vienne. Paris, 1896.
19 Lewis, G. C. Historical survey of the Astronomy of the Ancients. London, 1862. pp. 80 ff.; Berger,
op. cit., pt. 1.

20 Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. I, chap. iv, secs. 4, 5.
21 A scientific foundation for the spherical theory seems not to antedate Aristotle. See especially his
work, De Coelo, Bk. II, chap. 14, and for a good translation of this work by Taylor, T., bearing title,
On the Heavens, from the Greek with copious elucidations. London, 1807. Plato’s statement in
Phaedo merely observes that the earth, if like a ball, must be suspended without support in the
interior of a hollow sphere. See also the Book of Job, chap. xxvi, v. 7, where reference is made to the
earth hanging upon nothing. There is here probably the expression of an early Assyrian or
Babylonian belief in a spherical earth.

22 Strabo. Geographia. Bk. I, chap. 1, §20. See translation by Jones, H. L. The Geography of Strabo.
New York, 1917. 8 vols.
23 Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. I, pp. 619-620.
24 Wachsmuth, C. De Cratte Mallota. Leipzig, 1860; Berger, H. Entwickelung der Geographie der
Erdkugel bei den Hellenen. (In: Grenzboten, Vol. xxxiv, pp. 408 ff.); Müllenhoff, C. (In: Deutsche
alterthumskunde. Berlin, 1895. p. 248.) Diodorus Siculus attributes the discovery of the use of the
globe to Atlas of Libya.
25 Berger. Geschichte, pt. 2, p. 135; Friedrich, R. Materialien zur Begriffsbestimmung des Orbis
Terrarum. Leipzig, 1887.
26 A belief in the existence of antipodal peoples, very clearly was accepted by Pythagoras,
Eratosthenes, Crates, Posidonius, Aristotle, Strabo, and later by Capella. Numerous others
presupposed the earth to be globular in shape. See Kretschmer, K. Die physische Erdkunde im
christlichen Mittelalter. Wien, 1889. pp. 54-59, wherein the author gives consideration to the doctrine
of the antipodes as held in the middle ages. Berger. Geschichte, pt. 3, p. 129, notes that the idea of the
earth’s division into four parts or quarters persisted for centuries after Crates’ day, if not among
scientific geographers, at least among those who could be said to have possessed general culture.
Cleomedes, Ampelius, Nonnus, and Eumenius mention the idea as one to be accepted. See in this
connection the world map of Macrobius, a reproduction of which may be found in Nordenskiöld,
op. cit., pl. XXXI. See also Miller, K. Die Weltkarte des Beatus, 776 nach Christus. Stuttgart, 1895.
p. 28.
It was thought that Africa did not extend to the equator, or at least was not habitable to the equator.
Below the equator there was thought to be water but beyond the uninhabitable and impassable torrid
zone a habitable region. The map of Lambertus well represents this early theory. Pomponius Mela
called the inhabitants of this southern region “Antichthoni,” their country being unknown to us
because of the torrid zone intervening. Pliny, and after him Solinus, says that for a long time the
island of Taprobana (Ceylon) was thought to be the region occupied by the Antichthoni.
27 Strabo, op. cit., Bk. II, chap. v, §10.
28 Ptolemy. Geographia. Bk. I, chap. 22.
29 Pliny, op. cit., Bk. II, chap. 64; Bk. II, chap. 2.

Chapter II

Celestial Globes in Antiquity
Thales’ ideas, probably not a globe maker.—Eudoxus.—The Atlante Farnese.—Archimedes.—
Allusion of Lactantius.—Pappus’ allusions.—Armillary spheres.—The astronomer Hipparchus.
—Ptolemy.—Globes used for decorative purposes by the Romans.—Roman coins.—The
Byzantine Leontius Mechanicus.

T
HOUGH we find but an occasional reference to terrestrial globes in
the literature of classical antiquity, numerous statements appear
therein which assure us that celestial globes, solid balls as well as
armillary spheres, were constructed in those early centuries, for both
practical and ornamental purposes. There exists, however, considerable
uncertainty as to the exact character of the earliest of these globes.
The information we have concerning the Ionic School of Philosophers, of
which school Thales is reputed to have been the founder, does not give us
any satisfactory evidence that attempts were made by any of their number at
a material representation of their astronomical or geographical theories.
They were content, in the main, with mere philosophical or cosmical
speculations. The statement, therefore, that Thales himself constructed a
celestial globe, on which to represent his notion of the crystal sphere, is not
well authenticated.30
While not assured to us by any positive statement, there appears to be good
reason for believing the astronomer Eudoxus of Cnidos (409-356 B. C.)
made use of a celestial globe on which to represent certain astronomical
theories which he entertained.31 He traveled in Egypt in his later life, where
he carried on his studies, and where he seems to have learned the
construction of star catalogues. On his return to his own country he is
reported to have undertaken the representation of the several constellations
known to him, on a celestial sphere. The astronomical poem of Aratus (fl.
270 B. C.),32 so frequently cited and copied in following centuries, is
considered to be a description of the constellations according to Eudoxus.
In the Royal Museum of Naples there may be found a large marble celestial
globe, 65 cm. in diameter (Fig. 7), which the mythical Atlas bears on his

shoulders, the statue itself being 1.86 m. in height, resting on one knee.33
This very interesting and artistic object was transferred to Naples museum
from the Farnese Palace in Rome, hence is generally referred to as the
Atlante Farnesiano. Forty-two constellations are represented on its surface
(Fig. 8), and the five wanting, including Ursa Major and Ursa Minor,
probably owe their absence to the obliteration which time has brought
about. From the position of the several constellations, relative to the
intersecting points of the ecliptic with the equator, it is thought that it must
have been constructed at least three hundred years before the Christian era.
It seems therefore to date from about the time of Eudoxus, being then the
oldest extant globe.

Fig. 7. Atlante Farnese, ca. 200 B. C.

Fig. 8. Atlante Farnese Constellation Figures.

We learn from Cicero and from other early writers that Archimedes (ca.
287-212 B. C.), the celebrated geometrician of Syracuse, constructed a
globe or contrivance for the purpose of demonstrating the movements of the
heavenly bodies. Cicero’s statements imply that the work of Archimedes
was well known in his day, yet he thought it merited a special word of
commendation from himself. “I shall propose nothing new to you,” he says,

“nor that which I have invented or discovered; but I remember C. Sulpicius
Gallus, a very learned man, as you know, when this appearance (in the
heavens) was spoken of, and he was, by chance, at the house of Marcellus,
who had been consul with him, he described a globe among the spoils of
that opulent and magnificent city of Syracuse, when captured, as the only
thing among all the spoils which he ordered to be carried to his own house;
about which globe I have often heard, on account of the fame of
Archimedes, although the work itself was not very remarkable, for there
was another far more beautiful and more honored by the common people,
made by the same Archimedes, and placed in the Temple of Virtue by the
same Marcellus. But afterward when Gallus began to explain scientifically
the object of the machine, I thought there was more ingenuity in that
Sicilian than human nature was capable of. For Gallus informed me that
there was another ancient invention of a solid and elaborately formed globe
which was made by Thales, the Milesian, to revolve. And afterward the
same was, by Eudoxus of Cnidos, the disciple of Plato, adorned with the
fixed stars of heaven, and with every ornament and embellishment, as
described by Eudoxus, and was many years afterward celebrated by Aratus,
not exactly in the scientific language of astronomy, but with the graces of
poetry. This species of globe indeed, in which the sun and moon were made
to revolve, and five of those stars which have been called travelers, and as it
were wanderers, could not possibly be exhibited on that solid sphere. And
more especially was that invention of Archimedes to be admired, for he had
so contrived that one revolution of the machine served somehow to produce
unequal and varied movements through their different paths. For when
Gallus set the globe in motion, the moon succeeded the sun by as many
turns of the brass wheel of the machine as days in the heavens, so that the
globe represented in the heavens the same eclipse of the sun, when the
moon arrived at a certain place or point, as the shadow of the earth did
when the sun shone from the opposite region.”34
Lactantius’ allusion to Archimedes, at a later date, is perhaps derived from
Cicero, but it is none the less interesting as indicating a belief that such a
globe had existed. In his characteristic vein he refers to the mechanical
device, finding therein a support for his theological arguments. “Was
Archimedes of Sicily able to contrive a likeness and representation of the
universe in hollow brass,” he inquires, “in which he so arranged the sun and

moon, that they effected, as it were every day, motions unequal and
resembling the revolutions of the heavens, and that sphere, while it
revolved, exhibited not only the approaches and with drawings of the sun or
the increase and waning of the moon, but also the unequal course of the
stars, whether fixed or wandering? Was it then impossible for God to plan
and create the original, when the skill of man was able to represent them by
imitation? Would the stoic, therefore, if he should have seen the figures of
the stars painted and fashioned in that brass, say that they moved by their
own design, and not by the genius of the artificer?”35 Günther notes that at
the beginning of the seventh book of the collection of Pappus, geometrician
of Alexandria, may be found a reference to those skilled in mechanical
devices in which it is stated that “Mechanicians are those who understand
how to construct celestial globes and to represent the heavens and the
course of the stars moving in circles by means of like circular movements
of water.”36 It has been thought that in this passage we have a reference to a
globe such as was probably constructed by Archimedes, although the
reference is not to any particular example. It seems not improbable that the
globe of Archimedes was made to revolve by an hydraulic contrivance, and
that it resembled a planetarium or orrery.37 That the science of hydrostatics
had been developed by Archimedes’ time to a high degree is very certain.
Instruments for measuring angles and distances were very early employed
in the field of astronomy as well as in the field of geography. Of these
instruments the Egyptian gnomon appears to have been the oldest.38 In its
best form it consisted of a bowl having a perpendicular rod or staff erected
at the central point of the inner curved surface. This rod cast a shadow upon
the inner surface of the bowl, which had been graduated, giving a reading in
degrees which furnished to the observer the information desired. Time
brought improvements and variations in the construction of simple
instruments of this character. As early as the third century before the
Christian era, adjustable rings, or armillae, for example, were employed by
astronomers to aid them in the solution of their problems, which
instruments later developed, as noted below, into the more elaborate and
complex armillary spheres. The simplest form of such an instrument
appears to have been but a single graduated circle. To this, at a very early
date, a second was added, thus providing an instrument in which one of the
circles was regarded as fixed in the plane of the equator, the other,

intersecting this at right angles, served as a meridian circle, being movable
around an axis which could be called the world axis, the axis of the celestial
sphere, or the axis of the universe. The position of a celestial body in
declination could be determined on the meridian circle, and its right
ascension on the fixed or horizon circle.39 It seems altogether probable that
Eratosthenes made use of such an instrument in his efforts to measure the
obliquity of the ecliptic. He tells us that in his time one of large dimensions
hung in the portico of the academy of Alexandria.40 With the addition of
other circles, and of an adjustable view-tube, that more accurate and
detailed measurements might be made, this device, in Hipparchus’ day,
came to be known as an astrolabe, and, after the addition of other rings in
later years, to be known as an armillary sphere. Even in this last
development it was not a true sphere on which could be represented the
starry constellations, but an arrangement of circles forming a sort of
imaginary sphere, the circles being intended to represent the relative
position of the principal celestial circles. This instrument seems, at first, to
have been suspended, when in use, but later was made to rest upon a base,
the whole adjusted to revolve around an axis and within a graduated
horizon circle. In the earliest examples, the earth at the center of the circles,
it represented the Ptolemaic system (Fig. 9); in the later examples, having
the sun at the center, it represented the Copernican system.

Fig. 9. Armillary Sphere according to Ptolemy.

It is expressly stated by Ptolemy that a celestial globe was constructed by
Hipparchus, who is reputed to have been the founder of spherical
trigonometry,41 and Pliny tells us that Hipparchus was the inventor of the
astrolabe,42 which statement probably means that he greatly improved the
simple armillae used at an earlier date as an instrument for astronomical
calculations.
Ptolemy, in his ‘Syntaxis,’ or ‘Almagest’ as it was called by the Arabs,
devoted a chapter to the method of constructing, and to the use of the
astrolabe, which must have closely resembled the armillary sphere,
describing therein, in terms not altogether easy of comprehension, its
several rings and cylinders, and the method of adjusting the same for
purposes of determining the latitude and the longitude of celestial bodies.
He tells us also how to construct a representation of the sphere of the fixed
stars by means of a solid ball, how to place thereon the several
constellations, and how to use the same in the study of astronomical
problems. Such a globe, he says, “should be of a dark color, that it might
resemble the night and not the day.” His description is detailed as to the
proper method of procedure in marking the position of the celestial circles
on this globe, in arranging the movable rings of “hard and well polished
material,” in graduating the rings and adjusting them to move about an axis
which is likewise an axis of the globe proper. In marking the position of the
fixed stars, we are told that the proper method is to commence at some
constant and invariable point of a certain constellation, and he suggests that
the best starting point is the fixed star in Canis Major, that is, the so-called
dog star, or Sirius. “The position of the other fixed stars, as they follow in
the list, could easily be determined,” he says, “by making the globe to turn
upon the poles of the zodiac, thus bringing the graduated circle to the
proper point of each. The stars could be marked with yellow or with such
other color as one might choose, having due regard for their brilliancy and
magnitude. The outline of each of the constellations should be made as
simple as possible, indicating with light strokes, differing but little in color
from that of the surface of the globe, the figures which the stars in the
several constellations represent, preserving in this manner the chief
advantage of such representation, which should be to make the several stars
very prominent without destroying, by a variety of color, the resemblance of
the object to the truth. It will be easy to make and to retain a proper

comparison of the stars if we represent upon the sphere the real appearance
or magnitude of the several stars. While neither the equator nor the tropics
can be represented on the globe, it will not be difficult to ascertain the
proper position of these circles. The first could be thought of as passing
through that point on the graduated meridian circle which is 90 degrees
from the poles. The points on this meridian circle 23 degrees 51 minutes
(sic) each side of the equator will indicate the position of the tropics, that
toward the north the summer solstitial circle, that toward the south the
winter solstitial circle. With the revolution of the globe from east to west, as
each star passes under the graduated meridian circle, we should be able to
ascertain readily its distance from the equator or from the tropics.”43
That the Romans especially interested themselves in globes, either celestial
or terrestrial, is not at all probable, because of their very practical
inclinations. There is evidence, however, that in the time of the emperors
celestial globes were constructed, especially in the studios of sculptors, but
these were made largely for decorative purposes, having therefore an
artistic rather than a scientific value. In the year 1900 there was found in a
villa at Boscoreale, not far from Pompeii, an interesting fresco (Fig. 10),
this being acquired by the Metropolitan Museum of New York in the year
1903. It has been referred to as a sundial, but was clearly intended to
represent, in outline, a globe exhibiting the prominent parallels and a certain
number of the meridians. It is not at all improbable that such subjects were
frequently selected for wall or floor decoration.44 It appears that astrologers
at times made use of globes in forecasting events.45 It may further be noted
that on certain early Roman coins there may be found the representation of
a globe (Figs. 11, 12), which perhaps had as its prime significance the
representation of universal dominion.46

Fig. 10. Bosco Reale Roman Fresco, ca. 50 A. D.

Fig. 11. Greek and Roman Coins.

Fig. 12. Roman Gems.

Not until the day of the Byzantine Emperors do we meet with a real scholar
who made a particular study of such astronomical apparatus, apparatus
which he describes in a special treatise. Among historical scholars the work
of Leontius Mechanicus seems not to have found the recognition which it
deserves.47 He appears to have been a practical man, very active within the
field concerning which he wrote, and from his remarkably detailed
description we are able to learn something of the extent to which globe
technique was carried in the days of the early Eastern Emperors. We at any
rate learn from him that globes were constructed in his workshop, which
globes, in all important respects, were like those in use at the present time,
being, for example, provided with a meridian circle adjusted to move
through notches in a horizon circle. The information given us by Leontius,
which here follows, is in free translation or paraphrase of his treatise, the
whole being condensed. He appears to have been a student of astronomy, as
represented by Aratus, for he tells us that he had endeavored to construct a
globe on which the constellations and the circles could be made to conform

to the records of the ancient poet astronomer. He tells us further that he
constructed this globe for Elpidius, an estimable man of letters, and one full
of zeal for study; that at the time of its construction, though he had the
leisure, he did not prepare a description of the globe, but on the insistence
of his friends such description he now proposed to write. This appears to be
the raison d’être for his treatise. The importance of adhering closely to the
statements of Aratus he insists upon, though admitting that writer’s errors,
being convinced that most of the globes of which one had knowledge in his
day agreed neither with him nor with Ptolemy. Leontius first directs
attention to Aratus’ threefold plan in describing the several constellations, in
which description that author speaks first of the relation which part bears to
part in each; second, of the position of each constellation relative to the
celestial circles, as, for example, to the tropics, and third, its position in the
heavens relative to the constellations in the zodiac. He follows this
statement with a somewhat lengthy reference to the constellation
Ophiuchus, or the Serpent, in explanation of the method of description.
After having the surface of the globe portioned out for the representation of
the several constellations and the important circles, he then proceeds, as he
states, to consider the execution, by which he means representing in proper
color and outline the several figures, and the mounting of the globe. Upon a
properly constructed support should first be placed the horizon circle,
through which a second circle should be made to pass; this second circle
will serve as a meridian. These circles, he observes, will enclose the ball, all
the points of the surface of which should be equally distant from the inner
surface of the horizon and meridian circles, that is, there should be a perfect
adjustment of the enclosing rings and the enclosed ball. The surface of the
sphere should be painted a dark color, as, for example, azure. He sets forth,
with considerable detail, the proper method of procedure in locating the
several principal circles, each of which should be graduated. The zodiac
should be divided into twelve parts, and the constellations belonging to
each of the several parts should be designated by name, beginning with
Cancer, following this with Leo, Virgo, and so on, one after the other. In
giving the globe a position which actually conforms to the world, the pole
should be set to the north, and the movement of the sky can then be imitated
by turning the globe to the left. Leontius, by way of summary and
definition, at the conclusion of his treatise, speaks of a sphere as a solid
having a surface, from all the points of which, if straight perpendicular lines

of equal length be drawn, they will reach a point within called the center.
This center in the great sphere of the universe is the earth. The poles of the
sphere are the extremities of the axis on which it turns. The horizon cuts the
sphere into two hemispheres, the one superior and the other inferior to the
earth. The sky, which is continually turning, encircles all, one half of it
being above, the other below the earth, which is as far removed from the
superior part of the heavens as from the inferior.48

NOTES
30 Cicero’s allusion to Thales, cited p. 16, is probably a reference to a tradition.
31 Wolf, R. Geschichte der Astronomie. München, 1877, p. 193; Gassendi, P. Opera Omnia. Leipzig,
1658. Vol. V, p. 375. See statement by Cicero, cited below, p. 17.
32 Aratus’ poem bore the title, “Phaenomena.” See, for an excellent edition of this poem, Prince, C.
L. Phenomena. A literal translation of the astronomy and meteorology of Aratus. Lewes, 1895. In his
“Bibliographical remarks,” the translator refers to one hundred and nineteen editions of this poem,
dating from the first printed at Bonn in the year 1474. See also n. 48, below.
33 Passeri, G. B. Atlas Farnesianus Marmoreus insigne vetustatis monumentum. (In: Gori, A. F.
Thesaurus gemmarum antiquarum astriferarum. Firenze, 1750. Vol. III.); Denza, P. F. Globi celesti
della Specola Vaticana. (In: Publicazioni della Specola Vaticana. Torino, 1894. pp. xx-xxiii.)

34 Cicero. De Republica. Bk. I, chap. xiv. The citation is from the translation by Hardingham, G. G.
The Republic. London, 1884.
35 Lactantius. Institutiones divinae. Bk. II, chap. v.
36 Pappus. Collectionum mathematicarum. Edited by Commandino. Urbino, 1588. Bk. VII. See
especially the introduction.
37 Hultsch, F. Uber den Himmelsglobus des Archimedes. (In: Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik.
Leipzig, 1878. Bd. 22. Hist. Litt. Abteilung, p. 106.); Same author. “Archimedes.” (In: Real-
encyklopädie der klassischen Alterthumswissenschaft.)
38 Wolf, op. cit., pp. 122-124.
39 Wolf, op. cit., pp. 160-166.
40 Wolf, op. cit., p. 130.
41 Ptolemy, C. Syntaxis. (Almagest.) Various editions. Bk. VII, chap. 1. This work was first printed
in Venice, 1496; the first Greek text in Basel, 1538. See Hues, Tractatus de Globis, for an analysis of
this work.
42 Pliny. Historia Naturalis.
43 Ptolemy, op. cit., Bk. V, chap. i; Bk. VII, chap. v; Bk. VIII, chap. iii. Ptolemy mentions by name
forty-eight constellations, all of which he probably obtained from the earlier Greeks. These
constellations, the names being still retained, are:

The Zodiac.

Aries Cancer Libra Capricornus
Taurus Leo Scorpio Aquarius
Gemini Virgo Sagittarius Pisces

The Northern Hemisphere.

Andromeda Corona Lyra Ursa Major
Aquila Cygnus Ophiuchus Ursa Minor
Auriga Delphinus Pegasus Sagitta
Boötes Draco Perseus
Cassiopeia Equuleus Serpens
Cepheus Hercules Triangulum

The Southern Constellations.

Ara Cetus Crater Lupus
Argo Navis Centaurus Eridanus Orion
Canis Major Corona Australis Hydra Piscis Australis
Canis Minor Corvus Lepus

44 Visconte, P. E. Nota intorno ad un’ antico globo celeste scolpito in marmo porino. Roma, 1835;
Gaedechens, R. Der marmorne Himmelsglobus des fürstlich Waldechschen Antikenkabinettes zu
Arolsen. Göttingen, 1862.
45 Schanz, M. Geschichte der römischen Litteratur bis zum Gesetzgebungswerk des Kaisers
Justinian. München, 1890. See p. 75 for a reference to the astrologer Nigidius Figulus.
46 Coins on which there appears a representation of a globe were numerous. Attention may also here
be called to the imperial insignia, a part of which was a globe, which the emperor was represented, in
the pictures of the day, as holding in his hand. See King, C. W. Antique Gems and Rings. Vol. II,
plates xxvi and xxxviii.
47 Weidler, J. F. Historia astronomiae. Vitembergae, 1741. This author is of the opinion that Leontius
lived in the eighth century, p. 201; Susemihl. Geschichte der Griechischen Litteratur der alexandriner
Zeit. Leipzig, 1891. See Vol. I, p. 294, for a statement of the belief that Leontius lived in the seventh
century.
48 Halma, N. Les Phenoménes d’Aratus de Soles, et de Germanicus Cesar; avec les Scholies de
Théon, les catasterismes d’Eratosthenes et la sphère de Leontius traduit ... par l’Abbé N. Halma. Gr.
avec Fr. Paris, 1821. pp. 65-73.

Chapter III

Globes Constructed by the Arabs
Followers of Ptolemy.—Early armillary spheres.—Interest of the Califs in globes and astronomical
instruments.—The record of the ‘Fihrist.’—Ibrahim.—Caissar.—Mohammed ben Helal.—
Mohammed el Ordhi.—The Paris globes.—Ridhwan Efendi.

I
N passing from the period of classical antiquity to the so-called
Christian middle ages, attention may first be directed to the activities of
the Arabs in the field of astronomy and geography, in so far as their
activities had to do with the construction of globes.49 The information
which we have, concerning their astronomical studies in particular, is more
detailed than is that which has come down to us respecting any other
peoples who may have been interested in these centuries in the same field
of study.
Doubt may be expressed at the outset that the Arabs were interested in the
construction of terrestrial globes, since with the matter of descriptive
geography they appear to have been very little concerned, a fact which their
imperfect cartographical attempts clearly demonstrate.50 Although the
theory of a globular earth was early accepted by their learned men,51 there
is scarcely a trustworthy allusion in literature to Arabic terrestrial globes
which can be cited. An occasional reference, however, has been made by
modern writers to a globe said to have been constructed for King Roger of
Sicily. Without citing his authority, Freyheer F. v. Zach states that “the
oldest terrestrial globe which is known was made for King Roger II of
Sicily in the twelfth century, and is especially remarkable for the value of
the metal which was used in its construction, this being 400 pounds of
silver. A knowledge of this globe would not have come down to our day had
not Edrisi, a famous geographer of that time, given an especial description
of the same, under the title Nothatol mostak (Pleasure of the Soul).”52 It is
probable that the reference here is to a circular disc made by Edrisi, or an
armillary sphere, but not to a terrestrial globe.53
As to Arabic celestial globes, a different situation presents itself. It is well
known that the inhabitants of Arabia, long before the time of Islam, were in
the habit of observing the stars, many of which, as Dorn has noted, they

knew and designated by names taken from pastoral life, and several of
which they worshiped as visible gods.54
Calif al-Mansur, who began his reign in 754 A. D., appears to have been the
first to show a decided taste for astronomical science, and for many
centuries following him this interest is strikingly pronounced among the
people of his country.55 Scholars were eagerly attracted to the works of
Ptolemy, which were many times translated into Arabic, and commentaries
were written upon his description of the names and figures of the several
constellations. The only alteration they allowed themselves to make in the
names of the stars was to translate them into their own language, or to
substitute for those they could not understand other names that conveyed an
idea to their minds, applicable to the constellation before the eyes.
Andromeda they called “The Chained Lady”; Cassiopeia they called “The
Lady in the Chair”; Orion received the name “The Giant.” They followed in
the construction of their armillary spheres and celestial globes the
description laid down in Ptolemy’s ‘Syntaxis,’ modifying these
astronomical instruments, from time to time, as their studies directed
them.56
The list of califs interested in astronomy is a long one, both of those who
remained in the original homeland, and of those who went to the new home
in the Iberian Peninsula.57 The Mohammedan Hulagu Khan, for example,
erected, about 1264, an observatory in his Mongol capital, Maragha, near
Tabriz, which long remained a noted center for astronomical studies.58 This
observatory, however, was but one of a number of similar institutions
erected either by the Arabs or by the Persians. We are told that the
construction of astronomical instruments was brought to a high degree of
perfection by these peoples in the thirteenth century.59 The names of many
of the Arabic astronomers who were particularly expert as globe makers are
recorded, and there were many who wrote on the subject of celestial
spheres, armillary spheres, and astrolabes, even before the tenth century.60
The author of the ‘Fihrist,’ Ibn Abî Ja’kûb an-Nadîm, tells us that Kurra ben
Kamîtâ al-Harrânî constructed a globe which he himself had seen.61 This,
he says, was made of unbleached material from Dabik, and colored, but that
the colors were much faded. Ibn Alnabdi, who was known as a clever

mechanic, mentions two globes which he had examined and admired for
their excellency of execution, in the public library of Kahira, in the year
1043. One of these globes, he says, was made of brass, by Ptolemy himself;
the other, of silver, was constructed by Abul Hassan Alsufi, for the
immediate use of the king, Adad Eddoula.62
As a visible evidence of the interest of the Arabs in astronomical science,
and of their skill in the construction of astronomical instruments, we have
preserved to us, besides numerous astrolabes, no less than seven globes,
known to have been constructed prior to the year 1600. The oldest one
extant is now in the possession of the R. Istituto di Studi Superiori of
Florence, Italy.63 This fine example of the skill which was attained by the
instrument makers of Valencia, Spain, at one time a flourishing center of
Arabic culture, appears to date from the second half of the eleventh century.
According to an inscription on the globe, we learn that it was made at
Valencia by Ibrahim Ibn Said-as-Sahli, in the year 473 of the Hegira, a date
equivalent to 1080 A. D. This date Professor Meucci finds confirmed by a
careful study of the position of the stars represented on the globe. He notes,
for example, that the star Regulus had been placed at a distance of 16
degrees 40 minutes from the sign of Leo. Ptolemy, in the year 140 A. D.,
gave this distance as 2 degrees 30 minutes. According to Albaregnius, this
star advances about one degree every sixty-six years. Since 140 A.D. the
star, therefore, would have moved 14 degrees 10 minutes, which fact would
lead astronomers to place this star, about 1080, as it appears on the globe.
The globe is of brass, 20 cm. in diameter, having engraved on its surface
forty-seven constellations, as given by Ptolemy, omitting only the Cup, with
1042 stars, each with its respective magnitude indicated.
A second Arabic celestial globe, which dates from the year 1225, has been
described in detail in a monograph by Assemani, which he issued in the
year 1790.64 This remarkably interesting object belonged, at the time, to the
extensive and celebrated collection of antiquities and curiosities of Cardinal
Borgia, in Velletri, but may now be found in the Museo Nazionale of
Naples. It is composed of two brass hemispheres, having both horizon and
meridian circles, the whole resting upon four supporting feet. A Cufic
inscription tells us that it was made by Caissar ben Abul Casem ben
Mosafer Alabiaki Alhanefi, in the year of the Hegira 622. Caissar probably

was an astronomer at the court of Cairo, and the Mohammedan date as
given, translated into Christian reckoning, gives us the year 1225.
In the year 1829 Dorn published a detailed description of an Arabic globe
which had been deposited in the museum of the Asiatic Society of London
(Fig. 13) by Sir John Malcolm.65 It is of brass, has a diameter of 24 cm.,
and is furnished with a substantial mounting. The peculiar features of the
figures which represent the several constellations suggest Persian
workmanship. In the vicinity of the south pole is an inscription in Cufic
characters, telling us that it was “Made by the most humble in the supreme
god, Mohammed ben Helal, the astronomer of Monsul, in the year of the
Hegira 674.” This year answers to the year 1275 of the Christian era, that is,
it was constructed about the same time as the Borgian globe and that
belonging to the Dresden collection, briefly described below. Forty-seven
constellations are represented. On the horizon circle, in their respective
places, we find engraved the words, “East,” “West,” “South,” “North.”

Fig. 13. Northern Hemisphere of Globe by Mohammed ben Helal, 1275.

The Arabic globe, to be found in the Mathematical Salon of Dresden
(Fig. 14), has proved to be one of much interest and scientific value to
students of astronomy.66 Bode, who described it in the year 1808, refers to
its remarkably fine execution and to its Cufic inscriptions as being among
the finest extant specimens of early Arabic writing. The sphere is of brass,
having a diameter of 14 cm., and is composed of two parts, separable on the
line of the ecliptic. It has a brass horizon circle, on which is engraved at the
east the word “rising,” and at the west the word “setting.” It is not supplied
with a movable meridian circle, but within the horizon circle, from north to
south, and from east to west, there are two brass half circles, of the same
diameter as the horizon circle and so adjusted as to form one piece with it.

Through such an arrangement it is made possible to turn the globe in any
desired direction, one half of it being at all times above the horizon. In
addition to the above arrangement, there are two movable half circles,
attached at the zenith point by a pivot. These half circles are graduated, and
are movable, making it possible to find, by means of them, the declination
and right ascension of any star. The base, which must be comparatively
modern, consists of a circular plate, from which rise four turned support
columns, attached at their upper extremities to the two half circles of brass,
on which rests the horizon circle.

Fig. 14. Globe of Mohammed ben Muwajed el Ordhi, 1279.

The date of construction cannot be far from 1279, which is determinable
from the position of the stars engraved thereon, relative, for example, to the
equinoctial points. The maker’s name, “Mohammed ben Muwajed el

Ordhi,” appears near the constellation Ursa Major, and is inlaid in silver.
There appear, very artistically engraved, the lines representing the principal
circles, the outlines of the several constellations, with their names, some of
these being inlaid with silver, some with gold. The equator and the ecliptic
are represented on the surface of the sphere, each by two engraved parallel
lines, and are graduated, the graduation in each instance being represented
by four short and one long line, alternating thus by fives throughout the
entire three hundred and sixty degrees. The equator is inlaid with gold, the
other circles with silver. The names of the twelve constellations in the
zodiac are alternately inlaid with gold and silver, while all star names,
except as indicated, are inlaid with silver. The constellations represented
number forty-eight, the human figures all being clad, turning the front and
right face toward the observer.
The Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris possesses two ancient Arabic globes,
one of which, neither signed nor dated, has been thought to have been
constructed in the eleventh century.67 This was obtained by Jomard, in
Egypt, more than sixty years ago. It has a diameter of about 19 cm., is
furnished with a horizon circle, which is upheld by four semicircular arms,
these, in turn, resting upon a base composed of four flat and rather inartistic
supports. The engraving on the surface of the brass sphere closely
resembles that on the Dresden globe. A detailed description of this globe
has not been obtainable.

A second Paris Arabic globe,68 like the preceding, belongs to the
Bibliothèque Nationale (Fig. 15). It has a diameter of something less than
15 cm., and was constructed by Diemat Eddin Mohammed, in the year of
the Hegira 981, which in the Christian reckoning corresponds to the year
1573.

Fig. 15. Globe of Diemat Eddin Mohammed, 1573.

The Imperial Library of Petrograd possesses an Arabic globe, constructed in
the year 1701.69 It is described by Dorn as a fine example of the globe
maker’s art, closely resembling, in its general features, the Arabic globe in
the collection of the Royal Asiatic Society of London. It has a diameter of
about 19 cm., rests upon an ornamental tripod base, and is adjusted to turn
within a brass circle, which circle is fitted into a larger one, so marked and
graduated as to represent four concentric circles. The first or inner circle,
representing the horizon, is divided into thirty-six divisions of ten degrees
each; on the second circle the degrees are indicated by letters; on the third
circle appear the twelve signs of the zodiac and the four principal
directions, east, west, north, south; the fourth circle is divided into thirty-six

parts, formed by the extension of the lines which divide the first, or horizon
circle, into thirty-six parts. On the last circle the names of one hundred and
four cities and countries are given. Not far from the north pole is an
inscription which gives us the name of the maker and the date of
construction. Therein we read that it was completed in the year 1113 of the
flight of the Prophet, or in the year 1701 of Christian reckoning, by
Ridhwan, for Maulana Hassan Efendi, who, toward the end of the
seventeenth century, was director of the astronomical observatory of Cairo,
and gave substantial encouragement to makers of globes and of other
instruments employed in astronomical studies. The equator, the ecliptic, and
the parallels are represented, the first two by parallel circles which are
crossed or joined by lines dividing them into seventy-two principal parts,
each part being again subdivided into fifths. The close resemblance of this
example to the earlier known Arabic globes suggests that there was little, if
any, progress among those peoples in the art of globe construction since the
eleventh century.

Fig. 15a. Anonymous Arabic Globe, 1635.

NOTES
49 Delambre, J. B. J. Histoire de l’Astronomie ancienne. Paris, 1817. See Vol. I, pp. 372, 516,
containing references to globes, celestial and terrestrial, constructed in India and in China about the
years 450 and 724 A.D.
50 Peschel, O. Geschichte der Erdkunde bis auf C. Ritter und A. V. Humboldt. Berlin, 1877. See
pp. 145-160, wherein reference is made to their lack of interest in descriptive geography; Beazley.
Dawn of Modern Geography. Vol. I, chap. vii.
51 Günther, S. Studien zur Geschichte der mathematischen und physikalischen Geographie. Halle,
1877. Heft 2; Ibn Abî Ja’kûb an-Nadîm. Katâb al-Fihrist (Book of Records), ed. by Gustav Flugel.
Leipzig, 1871-1872. 2 vols. The greater part of this Arabic work was written about the year 987 A. D.
Edrisi states it as “the opinion of philosophers, of illustrious savants, and of skilled observers in the
knowledge of celestial bodies, that the earth is round as a sphere.” See Edrisi, Geography, tr. de
l’Arabe en français par P. Amédée Jaubert. (In: Receuel de voyages et de mémoires. Paris, 1830. 2
vols.) Vol. I, p. 1.
52 Zach, F. v. Monatliche Korrespondenz. Gotha, 1806. Vol. XIII, p. 157; Suter, H. Das
Mathematiker-Verzeichniss im Fihrist. (In: Zeitschrift für Mathematik und Physik. Leipzig, 1892.)
This work contains many references to distinguished oriental scholars who treated in their writings
the doctrine of the sphere, the astrolabe, and the armillary sphere.
53 Wittstein, T. Historisch-astronomische Fragmente aus der arabischen Litteratur. (In:
Abhandlungen zur Geschichte der Mathematik. Leipzig, 1892. Heft 6, p. 98.) The opinion is here
expressed that a terrestrial globe by Edrisi never existed; Hadradauer, C. v. Die Feldzeugmeister
Ritter von Hauslabische Kartensammlung. (In: Mitteilungen der K. K. Geographische Gesellschaft zu
Wien. Wien, 1886. Neue Folge 19, pp. 387-388.) The opinion is expressed that Edrisi constructed a
planisphere and not a globe. Amari, M. Storia dei Musulmani di Sicilia. Firenze, 1868. pp. 453 ff.,
669 ff.
54 Dorn, B. Description of an Arabic celestial globe. (In: Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society.
London, 1829. Vol. II, pp. 371-392.)
55 Dorn, op. cit.
56 Dorn, op. cit.
57 See the list as given in the Fihrist, referred to in note 4. Naser ben Mohamed Abul Gioush, King
of Castile, is referred to as having been much interested in astronomy, in which science he acquired
such proficiency as to enable him to construct a number of very useful astronomical instruments.
58 Lelewel, J. Géographie du moyen âge. Bruxelles, 1857. Vol. I, p. 116; Jourdain. Mémoire sur
l’observatoire de Méragah. Paris, 1810. It is well known that under the direction of Nasr-Eddin, who
was called to the charge of this observatory by Hulagu Khan, astronomical instruments were
constructed.
59 Dorn, op. cit.
60 See the Fihrist, also a list as given by Dorn.
61 Dorn, op. cit.
62 Dorn, op. cit.

63 Meucci, F. Il globo celeste arabico del seculo XI esistente nel Gabinetto degli strumenti antichi di
Astronomia, Mathematica nel R. Istituto di Studi Superiori. Firenze, 1878.
64 Assemani, S. Globus coelestis cufico-arabicus Veliterani Musei Borgiani. Patavii, 1790.
65 Dorn, op. cit.
66 Beigel, W. Nachricht von einer Arabischen Himmelskugel mit Kufischer Schrift, welche im
kurfürstlichen Mathematischen Salon zu Dresden aufbewahrt wird. (In: Bodes Astronomisches
Jahrbuch für das Jahr 1808. Berlin, 1808. pp. 97 ff.); Drechsler, A. Der arabische Himmelsglobus
angefertigt 1279 zu Meragha. Dresden, 1873.
67 Sedillot, L. A. Mémoire sur les instruments astronomiques des Arabes. Paris, 1841. pp. 117 ff.;
same author. Matériaux pour servir à l’histoire comparée des sciences mathématiques chez les grecs
et les orientaux. Paris, 1845. Vol. I, pp. 334 ff.; Jomard, M. Monuments de la Géographie. Paris,
1854. It is very doubtful that a date so early should be given to this globe.
68 Information courteously given by M. L. Vallée.
69 Dorn, B. Drei in der kaiserlichen öffentlichen Bibliothek zu St. Petersburg befindliche
astronomische Instrumente mit arabischen Inschriften. (In: Mémoires de l’Académie Impériale des
Sciences de St. Pétersbourg. St. Pétersbourg, 1865. VII e serie, Tome IX, No. 1.)

Chapter IV

Terrestrial and Celestial Globes in the Christian
Middle Ages
General attitude of the period toward the theories of the Greeks and the Romans.—Scripture
statements as sources of information.—Inclination of certain early writers to accept the doctrine
of a spherical earth.—The particular attitude of Pope Sylvester II.—The asserted interest of
Emperor Frederick II in scientific studies.—Alfonso the Wise and the Alfonsian tables.—
Interesting allusions in Alfonso’s work to globes and globe construction.—Giovanni Campano
of Novara and the statements in his ‘Tractatis de sphera solida.’—The attitude of Albertus
Magnus, Sacrobosco, Roger Bacon, Vincent of Beauvais, Dante.

F
OR many centuries following the fall of the Western Roman Empire,
there appears to have been in Christian Europe but little interest in
the fundamental principles of geographical or astronomical science.
The theories of the Greeks and the Romans respecting a spherical earth and
a spherical firmament encompassing it, in illustration of which they had
constructed globes, were not entirely forgotten, but such theories in general
were considered to be valueless, hindrances rather than helps to the
theological beliefs of the new Christian era.70
Though the early Church Fathers were inclined to reject the idea of a
globular earth,71 there were not a few among them who found the theory of
a circular earth an acceptable one. The latter, it is true, was an early Greek
belief, referred to above as having been entertained in Homer’s day, and as
having been passed down to succeeding centuries, but Christian writers did
not find in the fact of its pagan origin a particular argument for accepting it;
on the contrary, the Bible was held by many to be the fountain of all
knowledge, and a sure guide no less in the solution of problems pertaining
to the physical sciences than in the solution of problems pertaining to faith
and doctrine. What was contained in the Scriptures found a more ready
acceptance than what was to be found in pagan writers.72 Isaiah’s statement,
“It is He that sitteth upon the circle of the earth,” was regarded as one
altogether adequate on which to found a theory of the form of the earth, and
it was accepted by such biblical interpreters as Lactantius, Cosmas
Indicopleustes (Figs. 16, 17), Diodorus of Tarsus, Chrysostom, Severian of
Gabala, by those who were known as the Syrians, by Procopius and

Decuil.73 Men, however, such as Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, and Philoponos
inclined strongly toward the Aristotelian doctrine of a spherical earth.74
Isidore of Seville appears to have been a supporter of the spherical
doctrine,75 as was also the Venerable Bede, who, in his ‘De natura rerum,’
upholds the doctrine of a spherical earth on practically the same grounds as
those advanced by Aristotle.76

Fig. 16. The Universe according to Cosmas Indicopleustes, Sixth
Century.

Fig. 17. Cosmas’ Illustration Confuting the Existence of Antipodal
Peoples.

In illustration of the doctrine of a circular earth, terrestrial globes certainly
could not have been thought of as having any practical value. With a
rejection of the spherical theory of the ancients very naturally went the
rejection of their globes.
The circular or Homeric theory, as noted above, had its supporters, even to
the close of the middle ages, but the inclination is more or less marked,
even as early as the seventh century, to accept again the doctrine of a
spherical earth. It seems to have come into prominence again with the
growing belief in the importance of the place of the earth in the universe.
After the eighth century this theory may be said to have had a very general
acceptance by those who, Faust-like, felt a desire for a larger freedom from
theological restraint than the church encouraged. (Figs. 18, 19.)

Fig. 18. Hereford World Map, ca. 1283.

Fig. 19. The Earth Pictured as a Sphere by Nicolas d’Oresme,
1377.

Attention has been called to the attitude of the writings of the Anglo-Saxon
Church Father, the Venerable Bede. Although we have no unquestionable
proof that Bede, or Alcuin,77 who was greatly influenced by him, insisted
on the use of globes in geographical instruction, there is good reason for
thinking these scholars would have inclined to encourage their use. The
monastic schools, which, in the methods of instruction, rested upon the plan
wrought out by Alcuin for the Palace School of Charles the Great,
considered globes to be apparatus of great educational value. Professor
Günther is inclined to think it probable that celestial globes were used
throughout the early centuries of this mediaeval period in the better schools,
though no positive statement to that effect can be cited.78
We know that an exact knowledge of the movements of the sun, of the
moon, and of the constellations was considered to be of first importance for
the priesthood in the middle ages, since it was through a knowledge of their
movements that the times for the observance of the rigid church rules were
fixed.79 The acquisition of such knowledge could best be secured through
the use of the celestial globe.80 We learn from Notker Labeo (950-1022),
one of the most distinguished teachers of the monastic school of St. Gallen,
that he made use of such globes for astro-geographical instruction, which,
in their important features, were like our modern celestial globes, for he

tells us “they were supplied with all necessary parts.” It seems evident that
those of which he made use could be adjusted to every desired altitude of
the pole.81
One of the most distinguished scholars of the tenth century was Bishop
Gerbert (ca. 940-1003), later Pope Sylvester II, of whose learning we
possess reliable evidence.82 His astronomical knowledge so astonished his
contemporaries that he was thought to be a necromancer and was accused
of being in league with the evil one.83 He was a diligent student of the
literature of antiquity, which had survived to his day, especially surpassing
all others, it is reported, in his acquaintance with the learning of pagan
Rome. In the instruction which he gave in astronomical science he made
use of various instruments, to the end that his pupils might the better
understand the subject, among which instruments were celestial globes and
armillary spheres. These were a source of much wonderment to his
contemporaries. It is said that one of these instruments was so skilfully
constructed that even the untrained by its use, having one constellation
pointed out, would be able to locate all others “with the aid of a globe and
without the aid of a teacher.”84 In a letter to the monastic teacher
Constantius, with whom Gerbert stood in the friendliest relations for many
years at Rheims, he refers to the construction of a celestial globe, and in a
more detailed manner he makes mention of this when writing to Remigius
of Trier. In four of his letters to this last named prelate, Gerbert touches
upon his purpose to construct a globe, but on account of the added duties
which were his, occasioned by the death of Archbishop Adalbero, he seems
not to have been able to complete his work. He expresses himself, in the
third one of these letters, as hopeful that a favorable time might yet come
for him to take up the plan, but the increasing opposition of his enemies left
him no leisure for scientific labors of this character, and it does not appear
that he turned his attention again to globe making.85
The thirteenth century furnishes us with the names of two distinguished
princes who were especially active in advancing scientific studies of their
times. One of these was the Hohenstaufen Frederick II, concerning whom
we are informed that he directed a learned Arabian, who sojourned at his
court, to construct for him a celestial globe of gold on which the stars were
to be represented by pearls.86 We are further told that as an outcome of his

friendly relations with the rulers of the East, the Sultan of Egypt sent to him
an astronomical tent of wonderful construction. In this the sun and the
moon were represented and by means of a skilfully constructed mechanism
they were made to rise and set, marking out the hours of day and night.87
As a ruler of like intellectual and scientific interests, the Castilian, Alfonso
X, who lived in the thirteenth century, known as “The Wise” and as “The
Astronomer,” deserves to be especially mentioned. By his order an
elaborate astronomical work was prepared, which holds a place of first
importance among mediaeval productions of its character. In this work the
construction of globes is discussed in a very detailed manner, mention being
made of every feature regarded as belonging to a properly constructed
celestial sphere. So significant are certain chapters of this work for the
history of globes and of globe making that a free translation is here given of
that part relating to materials of which globes may be constructed.88 “A
sphere may be made of many materials,” says the author, “as of gold, or
silver, or copper, or brass, or iron, or lead, or tin, or of a combination of
these metals; or they may be made of stone, or clay, or wood. They may
also be made of leather, of cloth, of parchment in many layers, and of many
other materials which men employ when they wish to give an exhibition of
their skill. Those, however, who have carefully considered these things,
have decided that there is nothing more suitable than wood and for the
following reasons. If the globe should be made of gold, only a very rich
man would be able to possess it; furthermore it would be very heavy. If it
should be made of thin sheets of gold it could be easily indented and would
not long remain a perfect sphere. If it should be made small, that which was
represented thereon would not appear distinct. The same thing may be said
of silver, although it is a metal stronger than gold, as it is likewise harder,
and therefore is not so easily indented. Copper is a metal harder than either
silver or gold, but is so dry that it can not be easily fashioned into a globe,
which should always be well made. Brass, which is like dark colored
copper, may be more easily fashioned, because it is more malleable than
copper, and is stronger than either gold or silver. If, however, a globe made
of this material should be thin it might easily lose its shape, and if thick it
would be very heavy. Of all metals, however, this is the one most suitable
for use in making spheres, as it is the one most commonly employed. A
globe of iron would be very difficult to make and would be very heavy, and

since the rust would have to be removed from it very frequently, there
would be much danger of destroying the figures. A globe of tin, if made of a
thin sheet, could be easily indented, and would be very heavy if the sheet of
which made were thick. Lead, if thin, would offer less resistance to injury
than tin, and is a material much heavier. Furthermore, as lead is inclined to
turn black, the figures and the stars represented on a globe of this material
would soon become so discolored as to be no longer visible. There is no
way by which it can be cleaned without wiping out the figures. Although
the metal could be combined to form that material of which water jugs and
buckets are made it would be so fragile as to break like glass. Clay, which is
also used for the making of water jugs, mortars, and fountains, is not
suitable for globes, because if thin it would break easily, and if thick it
would be very heavy. Moreover this material when prepared must be baked
in a kiln which fact renders it unsuitable for use in making spheres. A globe
should not be made of stone, since if this were transparent the figures could
not easily be seen, and such material would be very heavy. It would not be
fitting to make so noble an object as a sphere of the material of which jars
are made. Leather would not be suitable, though it might be fashioned into a
permanent spherical shape. Such material shrinks in hot weather or when
brought near a fire. Cloth would not be suitable, though it were made very
strong, since heat would cause it to shrink, and moisture would cause it to
lose its shape, and this same thing may be said of parchment. A sphere of
wood is strong and is of reasonable weight and may be made in the manner
which we shall set forth.” The original manuscript of this work is profusely
illustrated, including representations of the figures of the several
constellations (Fig. 20).

Fig. 20. The Constellation Taurus.

In the latter part of the thirteenth century the mathematician, Giovanni
Campano, a native of Novara and it appears a particular friend and
supporter of Pope Urban IV, won distinction for his scholarly attainments in
the field of astronomy.89 In addition to his work, titled, ‘Teorica
planetarum,’ wherein he comments on the subject of astronomy and
geometry, and makes copious references to the Greek geometrician Euclid,
whose works he had translated into Latin, he prepared a treatise which he
called ‘Tractatis de sphera solida.’ In the prologue to this work, after noting

that the number of astronomical instruments which have been constructed is
large, he states that in the main they agree in their representation of the
movements of the heavens, adding that as the heavens are spherical,
spherical instruments are to be preferred. In his first chapter, after alluding
to the astronomical instruments described by Ptolemy, he proceeds to treat
of the composition of solid spheres, which he says may be made of metal,
or better, of wood. He gives rules for making the same by the use of the
lathe, and notes in conclusion it is well to make the sphere hollow in order
to lighten the weight. In the following chapters he treats of the inscription
of the circles of the sphere, of the construction of the several rings
employed in the mounting, such as the horizon and the meridian circles, and
gives consideration to the representation of the several constellations on the
surface of the ball. In the second part of his treatise he gives instruction as
to how to use the instrument in the solution of astronomical problems.
There appears to be only the slightest evidence that Campano was
acquainted with the work of Alfonso. His presentation of the subject, in all
probability, was altogether independent of a knowledge of the Alfonsian
tables. It is interesting to observe that in the day when astrology was in
great favor in the universities of Europe, Campano continued to be
interested in genuine astronomical science.

Albertus Magnus, in his ‘Liber de coelo et mondo,’90 devotes an entire
chapter to a theoretical consideration of gravitation, asserting that the earth
is spherical (Spherica sive orbicularis necessario), and proceeds to a
demonstration of the theory, in which he practically follows the arguments
of Aristotle, that every particle of the earth away from the center is
continually in movement seeking that center, the result being the formation
of a spherical body. He advances further, as argument in proof of a spherical
earth, that the shadow it casts in an eclipse of the moon is circular.

Sacrobosco (John of Holywood or Halifax) (fl. 1230),91 who was active in
the first half of the thirteenth century, much of the time as professor of
mathematics in the University of Paris, prepared a work bearing the title,
‘Tractatus de sphaera,’ being in part a summary of the ‘Almagest’ of
Ptolemy. In this work the theory of a spherical earth is supported in much
the same manner as was done by Campano. The ‘Tractatus’ proved to be
one of the most important quasi scientific geographical and astronomical

textbooks of the later middle ages, being frequently copied, and frequently
printed after the invention of that art.92
Further reference might be made to a belief in a spherical earth, as held by
Roger Bacon (1214-1294),93 by Thomas Aquinas (1225-1274),94 by
Vincent of Beauvais (1190-1264),95 by Dante (1265-1321),96 and still
others of the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth centuries. It should,
however, be stated that nowhere in the works of these authors does there
appear a reference to the construction of terrestrial globes, and only
incidentally the implication that they knew of or approved the construction
of celestial globes.
The increasing interest in geography and in astronomy in the closing years
of the middle ages led most naturally, in time, to much activity in globe
construction, and to this fact attention is directed in the following chapter.

NOTES
70 Beazley’s monumental work, previously cited, considers the geographical knowledge of the
Christian middle ages, from the closing years of the Western Roman Empire to the early years of the
fifteenth century. See especially Vol. I, chap. vi; Vol. II, chap. vi; Vol. III, chap. vi. Marinelli, G. Die
Erdkunde bei den Kirchvätern. Leipzig, 1884; Kretschmer, K. Die physische Erdkunde im
christlichen Mittelalter. Wien, 1889; Cosmas Indicopleustes. Christian Topography, tr. by J. M.
McCrindle. (In: Hakluyt Society Publications. London, 1897); Günther, S. Die kosmographischen
Anschauung des Mittelalters. (In: Deutsch. Rundschau für Geographie und Statistik. Vol. IV, pp. 135
ff.)
71 Zöckler, O. Geschichte der Beziehungen zwischen Theologie und Naturwissenschaft. Gütersloh,
1877. pp. 122 ff.; White, A. D. A History of the Warfare of Science with Theology in Christendom.
New York, 1895-1897. See especially chaps. ii-iii. See also references in note 1.
72 Isaiah, chap. xl, v. 20; Ezechiel, chap. xxxviii, v. 12; Job, chap, xxvi, v. 7, 10; Psalm cxxxvi, 6.
73 Note summary and citations in Kretschmer, op. cit.
74 Note citations in Kretschmer, op. cit.
75 See his works, Etymologia, 3, 24-71, and De natura rerum, 9-27. Brehaut, E. An Encyclopedist of
the Dark Ages. Isidore of Seville. (In: Studies in History, Economics and Public Law, Columbia
University. New York, 1912. Vol. xlviii, No. 1.)
It must be admitted that there is considerable incoherence in the views of the world as expressed by
the great majority of the mediaeval writers. One not infrequently lands in confusion when
undertaking an investigation of their opinions.
76 Beda. Opuscula scientifica. Ed. by J. A. Giles. London, 1843. See De natura rerum, chap. xlvi,
titled, “Terram globo similem.”

77 West, A. F. Alcuin and the Rise of Christian Schools. New York, 1892; Mullinger, J. B. The
Schools of Charles the Great. New York, 1911; Fellner, R. Kompendium der Naturwissenschaften an
der Schule zu Fulda. Berlin, 1879.
The real founder of the monastic schools was Hrabanus Maurus, who was a pupil of Alcuin, and who
carried to the monastery of Fulda that Englishman’s love for the Quadrivium.
78 Günther, S.-Fiorini, M. Erd- und Himmelsgloben. Leipzig, 1895. p. 19.

79 Specht, F. A. Geschichte des Unterrichtswesen in Deutschland von den ältesten Zeiten bis zur
Mitte des XIII Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart, 1885. pp. 127 ff.
80 Günther-Fiorini, op. cit., p. 18, n. 4, refers to a star map made in the monastery of St. Emeran in
the early fifteenth century, and now belonging to the K. K. Hof- und Staats-Bibliothek of Munich,
which was intended for a “Compositio spere solido.”
81 Arx, J. v. Geschichte des Kantons St. Gallen. St. Gallen, 1810. p. 265.
82 Büdinger, M. Über Gerberts wissenschaftliche und politische Stellung. Marburg, 1851; Werner, K.
Gerbert von Aurillac, die Kirche und die Wissenschaft seiner Zeit. Wien, 1878.
83 Büdinger, op. cit., p. 38.
84 Specht, op. cit., pp. 138-139; Dummler, E. Ekkehart IV von St. Gallen. (In: Zeitschrift für
deutsches Altertum. Berlin, 1869. Neue Folge, Vol. 2, p. 23.) The implication in the last named work
seems to be that globes were used in many of the schools of this early day. Mabillon, J. Veterum
analectorum. Paris, 1676. Tom. 2, p. 212. The statement here made clearly refers to the use of globes
in astronomical instruction.
85 Gerbert, Letters of, 983-997, publiées avec une introduction et des notes par J. Havet. Paris, 1889.
See especially Nos. 134, 148, 152, 162. Gerbert refers, in these letters to Remigius, to a globe which
he intended to construct.
86 Lelewel, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 2.
87 Raumer, F. v. Geschichte der Hohenstaufen und ihre Zeit. Leipzig, 1878. Vol. III, p. 493. This
astronomical tent has sometimes been referred to as a globe.
88 Libros del Saber de Astronomia del Rey D. Alfonso X de Castilla. Compilados, anotados y
comentados por Don Manuel Rico y Sinobas. Madrid, 1863-1867. See especially Vol. I, pp. 153 ff.
89 Enciclopedia Universal illustrada, “Campano”; Tiraboschi, G. Storia della letteratura italiana.
Roma, 1782-1785. Tom. IV, lib. ii, cap. ii, §v; Fiorini. Sfere terrestri. pp. 40-56.
There are numerous manuscripts of Campano to be found in the University Library of Bologna, in
the Ambrosiana of Milan, and in the Library of San Marco in Venice. Fiorini refers to a number of
writers who may be said to have followed and in part copied Campano.
90 Albertus Magnus. Liber de coelo et mundo. Lib. II 4, c. 9. For a short biography of Albertus see
Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Albertus Magnus.”
91 Günther, S. Geschichte des mathematischen Unterrichtes, im deutschen Mittelalter bis zum Jahre
1525. Berlin, 1887. pp. 184 ff.
92 Catalogue of Printed Books in the British Museum contains a list of more than fifty editions, the
first being printed in the year 1472.

93 Biographies are numerous. See Dictionary of National Biography, “Roger Bacon,” with
bibliographical list. See Bacon’s Opus Magnus, lib. I, 152-153, “necesse est vero mundum extra
habere figuram spericam ...”; also lib. IV, in which he treats of the form of the earth.
94 See for a short biography Nouvelle biographie. Paris, 1866. “Thomas d’Aquin.”
95 Bourgeat, J. B. Études sur Vincent de Beauvais. Paris, 1856.
96 Biographies of Dante are numerous. See his Purgatorio, Canto XXVII, lines 1-4, referring to
midday on the Ganges when it is dawn in Jerusalem; see also his Aqua et Terra, wherein he gives
expression to a belief in the spherical theory.

Chapter V

Globes Constructed in the Early Years of the Great
Geographical Discoveries
Increasing interest in geographical discovery and maritime enterprise in the fourteenth and the
fifteenth century.—Awakened interest in globe construction.—Martin Behaim and his globe of
the year 1492.—The Laon globe.—Christopher and Bartholomew Columbus and their interest
in globes.—John Cabot and his globe.—Globes of Johannes Stöffler.—Conrad Celtes and his
part in arousing an interest in globes.

T
HE fourteenth century witnessed among the peoples of Italy and of
the Iberian coast regions a rapidly rising interest in maritime
enterprise. The expansion of Europe, which for two centuries had
been overland and eastward, was now becoming oceanic, with an outlook
southward and westward into the Atlantic. In the fifteenth century, under the
inspiration of Prince Henry the Navigator, the Portuguese were feeling their
way down the coast of Africa, adding year by year to their knowledge of
hitherto unknown lands;97 the Atlantic island groups, one by one, were
discovered or rediscovered,98 and in 1487 Bartholomew Diaz turned the
Cape of Good Hope and opened a new way to the Indies of the East.99
Through all these enterprises a new and vigorous stimulus was given to
interest in geographical studies, just as an awakening had followed the
disclosure of the riches of the East by Carpini, Rubruquis, and especially by
Marco Polo in the earlier post-crusading years.100
Out of this lively interest in all that pertained to the expansion of knowledge
concerning the various regions of the earth came a desire for better map
making,101 and attention was again intelligently directed to the construction
of terrestrial globes on which to represent the most recently discovered
seas, islands, and continental coasts.

It was Martin Behaim of Nürnberg (1459-1507),102 who, in so far as we
have knowledge, constructed one of the first modern terrestrial globes
(Fig. 21), and it may, indeed, be said of his “Erdapfel,” as he called it, that it
is the oldest terrestrial globe extant. Behaim (Fig. 22) belonged to the
merchant class of a flourishing South German city. He took advantage of

the opportunities which were offered him for travel, though it is hardly
probable that he is entitled to that renown as an African coast explorer with
which certain of his biographers have attempted to crown him, nor does it
appear that he is entitled to a very prominent place among the men famed in
his day for their astronomical and nautical knowledge. It was doubtless for
reasons primarily commercial that he first found his way to Portugal, where,
shortly after his arrival, probably in the year 1484, he was honored by King
John with an appointment as a member of a nautical or mathematical Junta.
During his earlier years in Portugal he was connected with one or more
expeditions down the coast of Africa, was knighted by the king, presumably
for his services, and made his home for some years on the island of Fayal.
In the year 1490 he returned for a visit to his native city, Nürnberg, and
there is reason for believing that on this occasion he was received with
much honor by his fellow townsmen. It was the suggestion of George
Holzschuher, member of the City Council, and himself somewhat famed as
a traveler, that eventually brought special renown to our globe maker, for he
it was who proposed to his colleagues of the Council that Martin Behaim
should be requested to undertake the construction of a globe on which the
recent Portuguese and other discoveries should be represented. From a
record on the globe itself, placed within the Antarctic circle, we learn that
the work was undertaken on the authority of three distinguished citizens,
Gabriel Nutzel, Paul Volckamer, and Nikolaus Groland.103 It is an
interesting fact that we are able to follow in detail the construction of the
globe through its several stages, as the accounts of George Holzschuher, to
whom was entrusted the general supervision of the work, have been
preserved.104 From his report, presented at the conclusion of the
undertaking, we learn the names of those who participated in the production
of the globe; we learn the amount received by each for his labors, and that
the total cost to the city for the completed product was something less than
seventy-five dollars. Information is given therein as to the division of the
work; how the spherical shell was prepared; how the vellum covering was
fitted to the sphere; how the rings and the globe supports were supplied;
finally, how the artist, Glockenthon, transferred the map to the prepared
surface of the ball and added to the same the several miniatures, illustrating
in rich color a variety of subjects.

Fig. 21. Globe of Martin Behaim, 1492.

Fig. 22. Portrait of Martin Behaim.

The globe, which still belongs to the Behaim family, was removed in the
year 1907, by Baron W. Behaim, from his residence in Egedienplatz,

Nürnberg, to the Germanic Museum, where it may now be found. It
originally stood on a tripod base of wood, but this was later replaced by one
of iron. The iron meridian circle is doubtless the work of Behaim himself,
while its brass horizon circle probably dates from the year 1510.105
In his scholarly work Ravenstein thus describes this remarkable monument
of a period in which there was a rapid expansion of geographical
knowledge. “The globe has a circumference of 1595 mm., consequently a
diameter of 507 mm. or 20 inches. Only two great circles are laid down
upon it, viz., the equator, divided into 360 degrees, and the ecliptic studded
with the signs of the zodiac. The Tropics, the Arctic and the Antarctic
circles are likewise shown. The only meridian is drawn from pole to pole 80
degrees to the west of Lisbon. The sea is colored a dark blue, the land a
bright brown or buff with patches of green and silver, representing forests
and regions supposed to be buried beneath perennial ice and snow. Perhaps
the most attractive feature of the globe consists of 111 miniatures, for which
we are indebted to Glockenthon’s clever pencil. The vacant space within the
Antarctic circle is occupied by a fine design of the Nürnberg eagle with the
virgin’s head, associated with which are the arms of the three chief captains
by whose authority the globe was made.... There are, in addition, 48 flags
(including 10 of Portugal) and 15 coats of arms, all of them showing
heraldic colors. The miniatures represent a variety of subjects. Forty-eight
of them show us kings seated within tents or upon thrones; full-length
portraits are given of four Saints (St. Peter, St. Paul, St. Matthew, and St.
Iago), of missionaries instructing natives, and of travelers. Eleven vessels
float upon the sea, which is peopled by fishes, seals, sea-lions, sea-cows,
sea-horses, sea-serpents, mermen, and a mermaid. The land animals include
elephants, leopards, bears, camels, ostriches, parrots, and serpents.... The
only fabulous beings which are represented among the miniatures are a
merman and a mermaid, near the Cape Verde Islands, and two Sciapodes in
central South Africa, but syrens, satyrs, and men with dogs’ heads are
referred to in some of the legends. Nor do we meet with the ‘Iudei clausi,’
or with a ‘garden of Eden,’ still believed in by Columbus.... The globe is
crowded with over 1100 place names and numerous legends in black, red,
gold, or silver.”106

The legends, in the South German dialect of the period, are very numerous
(Fig. 23), and are of great interest to students of history and of historical
geography. The following will serve to indicate the character of Behaim’s
numerous legends. “Nach cristi unsers lieben hern gepurt 1431 jar also
regiert in portugal jinfante don pedro wurden nach notlusse zegericht zway
schiff auf 2 Jar gespeisst von den hochgeburnen Jnfanten don heinrichen
dess koniks aufs portogalli bruder zu erfahren wass do wer hinder sanct
Jacob finisterre weliche schiff also gerüst segelten alweg nach den
untergang der sonnen bey 500 teutsche meilen zuletst wurden sy ains tags
ansichtig dies 10 inseln und aufs landt trettendt funden nichts dann wildness
und vögel die waren so zam dass sy vor niemandt flohen aber von leutten
oder thieren mit vier füssen war von wegē der wildnuss keins darkhumen zu
wohen um desswillen die vögel mit scheuh waren also wurden sy geheissen
insuln dos azores das ist auf teutsch so vil als der habichen inseln und umb
weliche wellen der könik von portugal das ander jar schikt 16 schiff mit
allerley zame thiere und liess auf jede insel sein tail thun und darzu
multiplieieren.” This legend, which lies to the southeast of the Azores
Islands, reads in translation: “1431 years after the birth of our dear Lord,
when there reigned in Portugal the Infant Don Pedro, the infant Don Henry,
the King of Portugal’s brother, had fitted out two vessels and found with all
that was needed for two years, in order to find out what was beyond the St.
Jacob’s Cape of Finisterre. The ships thus provisioned sailed continuously
to the westward for 500 German miles, and in the end they sighted these ten
islands. On landing they found nothing but a wilderness and birds which
were so tame that they fled from no one. But of men or of four footed
animals none had come to live there because of the wildness, and this
accounts for the birds not having been shy. On this ground the islands were
called dos Azores, that is, Hawk Islands, and in the year after, the king of
Portugal sent sixteen ships with various tame animals and put some of these
on each island there to multiply.”107

Fig. 23. Globe of Martin Behaim in Hemispheres.

The following legend relates to the islands of Antilia. “Als man zelt nach
cristi gepurt 734 jar als ganz hispania von dn̄ heiden auf affrica gewonon
wurdt do wurdt bewont di obgeschriben Insuln Antilia genant Septe citade
von einem erzbischoff von porto portigal mit sech andern bischoffs und
andern cristen man und frawen dj zu sciff von hispanie das geflohen
kommen mit Irem vieh hab und gut anno 1414 ist ein schiff aus hispania
ungefert darbei gewest am negsten.” “In the year 734 of Christ when the
whole of Spain had been won by the heathen of Africa, the above island
Antilia called Septa Citade (Seven Cities) was inhabited by an archbishop
from Porto in Portugal, with six other bishops and other Christians, men
and women, who had fled thither from Spain by ship, together with their

cattle, belongings and goods. 1414 a ship from Spain got nighest it without
being endangered.”108
Through the inspiration of Behaim the construction of globes in the city of
Nürnberg became a new industry to which the art activities of the city
greatly contributed. The chief magistrate induced his fellow citizen to give
instruction in the art of making such instruments, yet this seems to have
lasted but a short time, for we learn that not long after the completion of his
now famous “Erdapfel,” Behaim returned to Portugal, where he died in the
year 1507.
Martin Behaim’s map of the world was drawn on parchment which had
been pasted over a large sphere. The Laon globe,109 apparently following
closely in time the former, is an engraved and gilded copper ball, having a
diameter of 17 cm. There is evidence that at one time it was part of an
astronomical clock.110 The engraved surface, on which appear the outlines
of continents and islands, is well preserved. It has two meridian circles,
which intersect at right angles and which can be moved about a common
axis, likewise a horizon circle which is movable. Numerous circles appear
engraved on the surface of the ball, including meridians and parallels. The
prime meridian passes through the Madeira Islands, a fact which suggests a
Portuguese origin, since these islands are generally thought to have been
discovered by Lusitanian seamen. One hundred and eighty degrees east of
this prime meridian, a second meridian is engraved, equally prominent,
passing through the middle of the continent of Asia, and 90 degrees still
farther to eastward is a third. Each of these meridians is divided into
degrees, which are grouped in fifths and are numbered by tens, starting at
the equator. The meridians are intersected by a number of parallels, lightly
engraved in the northern hemisphere, less distinct in the southern, and
represent the seven climates employed by the cosmographers of the Greek
and Roman period, as well as by those of the middle ages, in their division
of the earth’s surface.
As to its geographical representations, this terrestrial globe appears to be
older than that of Martin Behaim, yet at the southern extremity of Africa we
find the name “Mons Niger,” inscribed with the legend “Huc usque
Portugalenses navigio pervenere 1493.”

The great enterprise of Christopher Columbus (Fig. 24), wherein he may be
said to have achieved a final victory for the doctrine of a spherical earth,
entitled his name to a place of prominence in the history of terrestrial
globes. That Columbus himself constructed globes, as has been sometimes
inferred from a statement of Las Casas, may, however, be questioned, since
this statement touches the reputed correspondence between Columbus and
Toscanelli, which correspondence, in the light of the very searching studies
of Mr. Henry Vignaud, must now be considered to be of doubtful
authenticity.111 It appears, however, from this letter that the famous Italian
cosmographer, Pauolo Toscanelli, himself was accustomed to explain
problems arising in the field of discovery by the use of the globe, and Las
Casas tells us that Columbus resolved to write to him, making known his
intentions, which he desired to be able to fulfil, and sent to him a globe
through Lorenzo Girardi, a Florentine, at that time residing in Lisbon.112
Ferdinand Columbus, referring to this incident, says that “the globe was a
small one.”113 In referring to Bartholomew, the son of Christopher
Columbus, Las Casas observes that “he was a man of prudence and of great
intelligence in all matters pertaining to the seas. I believe not much less
learned in cosmography and in what relates thereto, the making of
navigator’s charts and globes and other instruments of that kind.”114 Again,
we find in a letter which Christopher Columbus directed to their Catholic
Majesties, that he “sent to their Majesties a certain round representation.”115
None of these references to globes, as before stated, necessarily give us to
understand that Christopher Columbus was a globe maker. Certain it is that
none is now known attributed to him or to his son.

Fig. 24. Lorenzo Lotto Portrait of Columbus.

The explorer, John Cabot (1450-1498) (Fig. 25), is likewise reputed to have
been interested in the construction of globes. In a dispatch sent from
London, December 18, 1497, by the envoy Raimondi di Soncino to the
Duke of Milan, we read that “this Master John has a description of the
world on a map, and also on a solid sphere, which he has made, and it
shows where he landed, and that sailing toward the east (west) he had
passed far beyond the region of the Tanais.”116

Fig. 25. Portrait of Sebastian Cabot, Son of John Cabot.

That terrestrial globes were constructed toward the close of the fifteenth
century is of significance, not only as a response to a new desire for more
nearly accurate representation of the earth’s surface than could be set forth
on a plane map, but it is likewise significant by reason of the fact that such
globes as were constructed served to demonstrate the value of globe maps,

and this value once demonstrated, they served to awaken a still further
interest in globe making, which bears abundant fruitage in the following
century.
There is a very remarkable celestial globe of the fifteenth century now
belonging to the Lyceum Library of Constance, Switzerland. It is the work
of Johannes Stöffler (1452-1531),117 at one time a pastor in the town of
Justingen, later a professor of mathematics in the University of Tübingen,
where he achieved renown as mathematician, astronomer, cosmographer,
and mechanic. It appears from the title of a publication attributed to
Stöffler, ‘De artificiosa globi terrestris compositione,’118 that he was a
maker of terrestrial globes, though no such globe of his is now known, and
from his letters to Reuchlin we learn that he made no less than three
celestial globes.119 One of the latter he sent to his friend, Probst Peter Wolf
of Denkendorf, which represented the movements of the sun and of the
moon. A second was constructed for Bishop von Dalberg of Worms, on
which the stars were represented in gold.120 Nothing further is definitely
known of these two globes. A third was constructed for Bishop Daniel of
Constance, which is the one now to be found in that city’s library.121 This
sphere has a diameter of 48 cm., rests upon a wooden base, and is furnished
with a meridian and with a horizon circle. The forty-eight constellations of
Ptolemy are represented on a dark background and are outlined in accord
with recognized traditions. To a few of the constellations double names are
given, as “Hercules” and “Genuflexus,” “Auriga” and “Agitator”. Stars of
the first magnitude are especially distinguished by name, the majority of
which are of Arabic origin, and more than one thousand stars are clearly
indicated.
To the globe makers themselves, who were active agents in creating a
demand for globes, there should here be added the name of Conrad Celtes
(1459-1508),122 the distinguished German humanist, as that of one who
contributed most in the first years of modern times toward arousing an
interest in the use of globes in the schools. Aschbach, in his History of the
Vienna University,123 tells us of the school founded in Vienna in the year
1510 by the Emperor Maximilian I, and of the instruction given in this
school by Celtes. We are informed that in his lectures on mathematical
geography he introduced a good text of Ptolemy in the original Greek; this

he translated into Latin, interpreting the same in German, explaining the
several sentences by reference to a terrestrial and to a celestial globe.
Having no record that such a method had been earlier employed we may
therefore conclude that this distinguished teacher was the first to proceed in
the manner designated, that is, he was the first in modern times to make use
of globes in geographical and astronomical instruction.

NOTES
97 Major, R. H. Life of Prince Henry the Navigator. London, 1868. This is one of the first, and, at the
same time, one of the most satisfactory biographies of Prince Henry; Beazley, C. R. Prince Henry the
Navigator. New York, 1895; Azurara, Gomez Eannes de. Chronicle of the Discovery and Conquest of
Guinea. Tr. and ed. by Charles Raymond Beazley and Edward Prestage. (Hakluyt Society
Publications. London, 1896. 2 vols.)
98 D’Avezac, M. A. P. Description et histoire des îles de l’Afrique. Paris, 1848; same author, Notice
des découvertes faites au moyen âge dans l’Océan Atlantique. Paris, 1845; same author, Les îles
fantastiques de l’Océan occidental au moyen âge. Paris, 1845; Margry, P. La conquête des îles
Canaries. Paris, 1896; Beazley. Dawn of Modern Geography. Vol. III, chap. iv.
The Canary Islands, and perhaps others in the eastern Atlantic, were known to the Romans, but
appear to have been lost to the knowledge of the Europeans during the greater part of the middle
ages, to be rediscovered in the period in which modern geographical exploration was being entered
upon.
99 Ravenstein, E. G. The voyages of Diogo Cão and Bartholomew Diaz. (In: Geographical Journal.
London, 1900. Vol. XVI, pp. 625-655.)
100 Beazley. Dawn of Modern Geography. Vol. II, chap. v; Vol. III, chap. ii; Yule, H. The Book of Sir
Marco Polo, the Venetian, concerning the Kingdoms and Marvels of the East. London, 1903. 2 vols.
101 Nordenskiöld, A. E. Facsimile Atlas. Stockholm, 1889; same author, Periplus. Stockholm, 1897;
Stevenson, E. L. Portolan Charts, their origin and characteristics. New York, 1911; same author,
Genoese World Map, 1457. New York, 1912; same author, Facsimiles of Portolan Charts. New York,
1916.
From the above-named list of works, to which numerous additions might be made, a general notion
of the beginnings of modern cartography can be obtained.
102 Doppelmayr, J. S. Historische Nachricht von den Nürnbergischen Mathematicis und Künstlern.
Nürnberg, 1730. pp. 27 ff. Murr, C. G. v. Diplomatische Geschichte des portuguisischen berühmten
Ritters Martin Behaim aus Originalurkunden. Nürnberg, 1778; Ghillany, F. W. Der Erdglobus des
Martin Behaim von 1492, und der des Johann Schöner 1520. Nürnberg, 1842; same author,
Geschichte des Seefahrers Ritter Martin Behaim, nach den ältesten vorhandenen Urkunden
bearbeitet. Nürnberg, 1853; Ziegler, A. Martin Behaim, der Geistige Entdecker Amerikas. Dresden,
1859; Günther, S. Martin Behaim. Bamberg, 1890; Wieser, F. v. Magalhâes-Strasse und
Australkontinent auf den Globen des Johannes Schöner. Innsbruck, 1881; Gallois, L. Les Géographes
allemands de la renaissance. Paris, 1890. Chap. iii; Ravenstein, E. G. Martin Behaim, His Life and
His Globe. London, 1908; Harrisse, H. The Discovery of North America. London, 1892. pp. 391.

Of the above-named works, that by Ravenstein is the most satisfactory, being a most scholarly and
scientific treatment of his subject. His work is indeed a monument in the field of historical
geography. Of the reproductions of the globe map, none surpasses the excellent facsimile in the form
of globe gores which he prepared to accompany his studies. With the utmost care he deciphered the
numerous legends and place names, admitting, here and there, the possibility of inaccuracy in the
readings due to the damaged condition of the globe. Vignaud, H., in his Toscanelli and Columbus,
pp. 182-186, gives a list of the numerous reproductions of the globe map, with a brief word
concerning each. It may here be added that an excellent reproduction of the globe, mounted as is the
original, and made for Dr. W. B. James of New York, in Nürnberg, the Ravenstein gores being pasted
over the prepared ball, may be seen in the map department of The American Geographical Society. A
similar reproduction of the globe, with mounting of wood instead of iron, was obtained by the author
for exhibition in the Santa Maria, Spain’s Official Replica of the Flagship of Admiral Columbus,
which was to have been exhibited in San Francisco in 1915. It failed, however, to reach its
destination, and was returned to Chicago.
103 See Fig. 23.
104 The itemized statement of expenses, delivered to the Nürnberg Council by George Holzschuher,
was first published by Peitz, J. (In: Mitteilungen des Vereins für die Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg,
Heft 6. Nürnberg, 1886.) It is of sufficient interest in the history of globe making to be cited here.
The translation is Ravenstein’s, pp. 111-112. “Expenditure on the globe. Expenditure, Nürnberg,
August 26, 1494. Below is to be found a statement of what I, George Holzschuher have expended by
order of my lords of the city treasury, upon limning and otherwise, for making the ‘apple,’ or mappa
mundi in the shape of a sphere, and also for making the map for the clerk’s office, which Mr. Marten
Beham, having expended thereon his art and pains, left behind for the enjoyment of my lords of the
worshipful council.
“Item first, to Glockenthon, who painted the sphere, and spent 15 weeks over it, fl. 14; to his wife, fl.
1, facit, fl. 15, lb.-dn.-(£2 10s.)
“Item paid for a loam mould over which the sphere was to have been made, as a guide for Kalberger,
28 dn.; also for linen for the first sphere, 21 dn.; also for wine and beer, and other things, for the
limner’s dinner whilst painting the globe, and occasionally also for Peham; and for bread for
cleansing the globe, and making it nice, fl. 1, lb. 1, dn. 16; also to Gagenhart for lettering, 16 dn.;
fecit, miscellaneous expenses.
fl. 1, lb. 3, dn. 21 (14s. 5d.)
“Item paid Glockengiesser for a mould broken by Kalperger, and round which Kalperger was to have
made a large sphere, both through N. Gross and M. Peham
fl. 2, lb.-, dn.- (£1.)
“Item paid for white vellum (parchment) covering the sphere, 80 dn.; also for a cover lined with skin
to protect the sphere from dust, 3 lb., 20 dn.; also to the smith for two iron hoops within which the
sphere revolves, 4 lb. 6 dn.; also to the joiner for wooden stand of the sphere, 4 lb. 6 dn. facit,
miscellaneous expenses
fl. 1, lb. 6, dn. 10 (17s. 7d.)
“Item paid to Mr. Marten Beham for a printed mappa mundi, embracing the whole world, which was
used for the globe, and is to be hung in the town office, 1 fl. 3 lb.; also for painting, etc., 1 fl.; also for
lining and glueing (mounting) the same, 5 lb. 10 dn.; also to the joiner for a frame and two panels, 1
fl.; also to the starch painter for painting these panels,

4 lb. 6 dn.; facit fl. 4, lb. 4, dn. 6 (£2 5s.)
“Item, Kalperger has not been paid for making the sphere: he demands 3 fl., but owes for the linen
which was used for the old tent over the ‘beautiful fountain,’ in return for which he was to have made
the large sphere; he had also broken the pattern or mould for which 2 gulden (20s) had to be paid to
Glockengiesser; he also promised Mr. Merten that if he taught him the art of cosmography or the
laying out (planning) of the globe he would make another sphere during the time.”
105 An account of October 16, 1510, reads, “Item, 1 lb. Nov for a large brass sign surrounding the
map.” This doubtless is a reference to the globe. Ghillany attributes this work to Werner. See also
Günther, S. Johann Werner von Nürnberg und seine Beziehungen zur mathematischen und
physikalischen Erdkunde. Halle, 1878.
106 Ravenstein, op. cit., pp. 59-60.
107 Ravenstein, op. cit., pp. 75-76.
108 Ravenstein, op. cit., p. 77.
109 D’Avezac, M. A. P. Sur un globe terrestre trouvé a Laon, anterieur à la découverte de
l’Amerique. (In: Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de France. Paris, 1860.)
This work contains an announcement of the discovery of the globe, together with a description of the
same.
Raemdonck, J. v. Les sphères céleste et terrestre de Gérard Mercator. St. Nicolas, 1874. pp. 25 ff.
Nordenskiöld. Facsimile Atlas, p. 73.
110 Britten, F. J. Old clocks and watches and their makers. New York, 1911; Berthoud, F. Histoire de
la mesure du temps par les horologes. Paris, 1849.
Globe clocks, or clocks of which globes were a conspicuous feature, were not uncommon in this
period. See the reference, p. 73, to the Lenox globe, the reference, p. 74, to the Jagellonicus globe,
and the reference, p. 173, to the work of Dasypodius.
111 Vignaud, H. Toscanelli and Columbus. London, 1902.
This is a very remarkable piece of historical criticism. Citation is given for every statement of special
importance, including a reference to those students of the question who do not agree with the
author’s point of view. See also this distinguished author’s work, Histoire critique de la Grande
Entreprise de Christophe Colomb. Paris, 1911. 2 vols.
112 Las Casas, Bartolomè de. Historia de las Indias. Madrid, 1875. Vol. I, p. 92.
113 Ulloa, A. Histoire del S. D. Fernando Colombo. Venice, 1571. Chap. vii, p. 15. See Churchill,
Voyages, also Bourne, E. G., Spain in America. New York, 1904.
114 Las Casas, op. cit., pp. 224 ff.
115 Las Casas, op. cit., p. 48.
116 Harrisse, H. Jean et Sébastien Cabot. Paris, 1862. Doc. X, p. 324; Tarducci, F. Di Giovanni e
Sebastiano Caboto. Venezia, 1892. p. 351; Winsor, J. Narrative and Critical History of America.
Boston, 1884. Vol. III, pp. 54-55.

Harrisse and Tarducci print the letter of Soncino in the original Italian; Winsor gives the first
translation into English (tr. by Professor B. H. Nash). A very superior work for reference to the
Cabots is: Winship, G. P. Cabot Bibliography. London, 1900.
117 Moll, J. C. A. Johannes Stöffler von Justingen, ein Characterbild aus dem ersten Halbjahrhundert
der Universität Tübingen. Lindau, 1877.
118 This work is referred to by Moll in his chapter on “Stöfflers Schriften.”
119 Moll, op. cit., chap. ix, “Stöffler als Mechaniker,” refers to him as globe maker and as clock
maker, with special mention of his three celestial globes.
120 Günther is in error in referring to this globe as the one now in Constance.
121 Moll, op. cit., pp. 49-51.
122 Günther, S. Geschichte. pp. 250 ff.
123 Aschbach, J. v. Die Wiener Universität und ihre Humanisten im Zeitalters Kaiser Maximilians I.
(In: Geschichte der Wiener Universität. Wien, 1877. Vol. II, p. 62.)

Chapter VI

Globes of the Early Sixteenth Century
Summary of fifteenth century globe characteristics.—Increasing interest in globes.—Globes of Pope
Julius II.—Friar Marco da Benevento.—Importance of the Rosselli family of Florence.—The
globe of Barnaba Canti.—Friar Giuliano Vannelli.—Interest of Trithemius in globes.—The
Bunau globe.—Waldseemüller’s map and globe.—Liechtenstein globes.—Büchlin reference.—
Globus Mundi.—Welt Kugel.—Lenox globe.—Jagellonicus globe.—Hauslab.—Green globe of
Paris.—Nordenskiöld gores.—So-called Leonardo da Vinci gores.—Boulengier gores.—Acton
globes.—Globes of Magellan and of del Cano.—Globes of Schöner.

T
ERRESTRIAL globes of the early years of great geographical
discoveries, that is, of the fifteenth century, to which reference was
made in the preceding chapter, appear to have been constructed
either of metal, on the surface of which the map was engraved, of which the
Laon globe is an example; of a composition fashioned into a ball over a
mould on which strips of parchment or paper were then pasted, having the
map drawn by hand, as the Behaim globe; or the ball was of wood with map
in manuscript, as was probably the globe attributed to John Cabot. Here
were beginnings, and the following century witnessed a remarkable
increase of interest in globe construction. As the true position of places on
the earth’s surface, as well as the distance between any two places, could
best be represented on a globe, cartographers and globe makers became
active in their endeavors to meet the desires of those interested in
geography. They no longer confined themselves to such globes as the
Behaim and the Laon, which, in reality, are artistically interesting rather
than scientifically useful, but they sought to make use of the new invention
of printing. Maps giving the outlines of continents, with place names,
rivers, constellations, and star names were printed from wood blocks or
from copper engraved plates on paper gores, which were so fashioned
mathematically that they could be made to fit the surface of a prepared ball,
with careful adjustment and manipulation. In this manner globes in great
numbers could be prepared, with the added advantage that they were all
alike, or similar. The sixteenth century soon furnished rules for globe-gore
construction, and while the methods of globe making hitherto common
were not entirely given over, as many artistic pieces of the period, which
have come down to us, testify, the new method was soon in general favor

and became in the course of time
practically the only method
employed. It is the globe maker’s
method today.
If the actual number of globes
constructed shortly before and
shortly after 1500 appears to have
been small, judging from the number
extant, we often find additional
assurance of interest in such
instruments in the use that was made
of them for illustrative purposes, and
for decoration. Terrestrial and
celestial globes, as well as armillart
spheres, frequently appeared on title-
pages (Figs. 26, 27), in paintings
(Fig. 28), or constituted a part of the
library furnishings (Fig. 29).124
Fig. 26. Title-page of Johann Schöner’s Terrae
Descriptio, 1518.

Fig. 27. Second Title-page of Mauro Fiorentino’s Sphera Volgare,
1537.

Fig. 28. Holbein’s Ambassadors, ca. 1536.

Fig. 29. Library of Escorial.

Among the ducal houses, famous in Italy in this period for interest in
matters geographical, none was more conspicuous than was the house of
Este of Ferrara.125 We have an interesting letter dated Rome, January 17,
1509, and written by Fioramonte Brognoli to Isabel of Este, wife of Francis
II, Marquis of Mantua, daughter of Hercules I, Duke of Ferrara, who was
responsible for the draughting of the Cantino map of the year 1502,126 and
granddaughter of Duke Borso, to whom Donnus Nicholas Germanus
dedicated or addressed, in 1466, his twenty-seven Ptolemy maps.127
Brognoli, having received from the Marchioness an order for a copy of the
globes, terrestrial and celestial, possessed by Pope Julius II, made reply that
“the map and celestial signs which are painted on two solid spheres in the
library of the Pope, of which your Excellency would like to have copies, I
have ordered, and the same to be made by a good painter of the Palace, who
tells me that it will take some time because the matter is quite difficult. I
will not fail in care, and will provide the necessary funds, so that as soon as
possible I will send them to you by a trusty messenger.”128 Again the
Roman correspondent wrote, the letter bearing date February 1, 1505, “That
master painter who would like to make copies of the map and the zodiac
which are in the library of the Pope, about which Your Excellency wrote me

some time ago, tells me that to make them with linen it will cost more than
forty ducats, but to draw them on paper according to a certain design which
is painted on canvas in that place, it would cost very little. I thought I would
inform Your Excellency before giving the order, that I might ascertain your
wishes, for I shall do exactly that which you desire.”129 February 20, 1505,
the Marchioness replied from Mantua, saying that “the expense of forty
ducats will not deter us, if the copy of the map and of the zodiac is well
made and is similar to that found in the library of the Pope. You may order
it to be made with extreme diligence and with exactness.”130
The globe of Pope Julius II, in question, must then have been constructed
prior to 1505, seeing this to be the year of the correspondence to which
reference has been made above. From the partial description given in the
letters we are led to the conclusion that they were not engraved metal
globes, but their maps were manuscript, and were well decorated by hand.
The Vatican Museum is still in possession of a celestial globe which may
well be one of those once belonging to Pope Julius II, the terrestrial globe
having disappeared. From the interesting description of Denza131 we learn
that this remaining one is a hollow wooden ball, 95 cm. in diameter. That
there might be an even surface on which to draw the star map, a covering of
plaster had been provided, 4 mm. in thickness. It is furnished with a
somewhat elaborate base, ornamented with sphinxes with the heads of
eagles and the feet of lions. Its horizon circle, supported by four quarter
circles, is a band 5 cm. wide, the surface of which is divided into five
concentric circles, within which are the names of the several signs of the
zodiac in Latin, the names of the days of the month, and the names of the
eight principal winds in the Italian language. Along the outer edge of this
horizon circle is the following inscription, “Daniel Chassignet. Fecit.
Romae 1617,” a name and date clearly applying only to this circle or to the
globe’s mounting. It has a meridian circle within which the sphere revolves.
On the surface of the ball we find represented the principal circles, that is,
the equator, the tropics, the polar circles, with five meridians, and the
ecliptic, its twelve signs being represented in gilded characters. The coat of
arms, painted near the south pole, is not that of Pope Julius II, but of
Cardinal Gian Stefano Ferrero, Bishop of Bologna, who became a supporter
of Juliani della Rovere in his candidacy for the papal office, and to which
office he was elected, becoming known as Julius II. Fiorini thinks it

probable that the globe was presented by Cardinal Ferrero to the Pope, and
that while in his possession the coat of arms was painted on its surface. It is
indeed not improbable that it was originally constructed for the Cardinal.
Contrary to the opinion of Denza, Fiorini’s conclusion is that the decoration
of the globe is not to be attributed to Giulio Romano, a distinguished pupil
of Raphael, and the arguments presented seem acceptable.132
As proof of an existing interest in globes, in Italy, in the first years of the
sixteenth century, other than that given by the letters of Isabel of Este, and
the globes of Pope Julius, we find an allusion to the subject by Friar Marco
da Benevento, member of the order of Celestini and a renowned
mathematician. In his ‘Orbis nova descriptio,’133 which he added to an
edition of Ptolemy, issued in Rome in the year 1507 or 1508, he alludes to
the difficulty of representing the earth upon a solid sphere, adding that the
greater the size of the same the greater the difficulty there is in moving it,
and that the larger the globe the more difficult it is to take in at a glance any
considerable part of the map. While making no specific mention of any of
the globe makers of the time, his reference to the subject seems to assure us
that globes were objects more or less familiar to students of geography in
his day.
Fiorini cites at some length an inventory relating to the printing
establishment of Alexander Rosselli of Florence, under whose father,
Francesco, this establishment became famous.134 The father died in the year
1510, but it is probable that this artist, painter, and miniaturist, who issued
for his establishment numerous maps, printed, likewise, globe gores. While
the inventory gives us intimation of his great activity, we have no further
knowledge of his work as a globe maker than is contained therein. It may
well have been that the construction of globes with printed gore maps had
its origin in Florence in the very early sixteenth century, and that a credit we
have been accustomed to give to German map makers135 is in reality due
the Rosselli family of Italy, particularly Francesco Rosselli.
Fiorini likewise alludes to a letter written by Friar Zenobio Acciaioli, dated
Lucca, May 12, 1509, and addressed to the Florentine, Luigi Pietro
Guicciardini, brother of the distinguished historian.136 Request is made in
this letter that assistance and advice be given to a brother monk, Barnaba

Canti, who had been asked to describe a map on which the newly
discovered lands were well drawn, there being written on the map the
history of the islands, with a description of the lands and of the customs of
the peoples. Attention is likewise called to a globe which Canti possessed, it
being designated as “sphaerula” or small. The letter further notes, “Cupit
autem illam Joannes teutonicus astrologus, ut ex suis ad me literis quas
inclusas tibi in his mitto, videre poteris.” “John the German astronomer
desires this (map?) as you will be able to see from his letters to me which
enclosed I send to you.”
It is ingeniously argued that the Joannes referred to was none other than
John Schöner, who later became famous as mathematician and as map and
globe maker, and that the globe referred to by Acciaioli was one in the
construction of which the globe gores of Rosselli had been used, since
“Joannes teutonicus” in all probability would not have thought of receiving
from Italy a manuscript globe.
For the history of globe making as practiced in Florence in these early
years, there is in the record of the deliberations of the Florentine Signoria,
dated December 30, 1515, an entry of interest.137 The Priors and
Gonfaloniers directed attention to the sphere, which had been placed in the
orologia or clock room, noting that the terrestrial orb which had been
painted thereon was greatly damaged, “... super qua depicta est figura et
situs orbis terrarum ... devastata et male picta.” They expressed a desire that
it should be fully repaired and be made suitable as an adornment of the
wonderful clock, and in keeping with the remarkable celestial sphere which
was placed near by: “ut similis sit et non discrepet, in sua qualitate, a
mirabili orologio predicto, et a convicina et mirabili palla, ubi apparet
figura et ambitus celi.” Having knowledge of the ability and skill of Friar
Giuliano Vannelli, it was decided to entrust the reconstruction to him. We
learn that on June 28, 1516, the Signoria directed payment of fifty large
florins be made to Friar Giuliano, in addition to the six already paid, for the
painted sphere; that on July 17, 1516, the officers of the Monte Comune
directed the payment of fifty-six large gold florins to “Don Giuliani
Vanegli” “in appreciation of his work, and as a reward for having made one
of the two balls of the clock, which is in the large room of the Signoria,
which ball he both designed and painted, showing on it the entire universe,
according to Ptolemy and other authors who deal with the subject.” Fiorini

notes that as at this time the terrestrial sphere was damaged it probably was
several years old, and that if badly painted (male picta) the inference is, it
failed to record the latest discoveries. If the exact date of the construction of
the spheres which adorn this clock cannot be ascertained, it was at least
before 1500.138
We have further evidence of Vannelli’s interest in globe construction
contained in a letter dated Rome, November, 1524, and addressed to
Cardinal Giovanni Salviati, a legate of Lombardy. “Your Excellency has
asked me to make for you a small ball de situ orbis, of the size and
character of that of Giovanni Ruccellai.... I have made the said ball, and
have varnished it, but the weather being bad it will not be dry for eight or
ten days.... Your Excellency also tells me that you would like to have a large
globe similar to that of Mons. R. Rodulphis, which I have begun. If you
desire that I should go on with the work, I shall willingly do so, putting
aside all other work to serve you.”139
To the interest in globe making north of the Alps in the first quarter of the
sixteenth century attention may next be directed. In a letter written by
Johannes Trithemius to Vuilhelmus Veldicus Monapius, dated August 12,
1507, may be found an early allusion to globes. He says: “Orbem terrae
marisqui et insularum quem pulchre depictum in Vuormotia scribis esse
venalem, me quidem consequi posse obtarum, sed quadraginta pro illo
expendere florenos, nemo mihi facile persuadet. Comparavi autem mihi,
ante paucos dies, pro aere modico sphaeram orbis pulchram in quantitate
parva ...” “I wanted to buy a finely painted globe of the earth, seas, and
islands, which I wrote was for sale in Worms, but I could hardly be induced
to give such a price for it as forty florins. I purchased, however, a few days
since at a low price, a beautiful terrestrial globe of small size.”140 He wrote
further, “Henricum de Bunau dies vita audini defunctum, sed libros eius et
globum cosmographiae quem alim comparavit ex officina tua remanisse
apud Saxoniae Principes, quod tu existimas non audini.” “I am informed
that Henry Bunau died some time ago, but I never heard it said that his
books and the cosmographical globe which he bought in your work-shop
remained with the Princes of Saxony, as you believe.”141 It has been
thought by some that the globe referred to as having been purchased in
Worms was the globe of Waldseemüller.

Since the discovery in 1902 of the long-lost Waldseemüller maps of 1507
and of 1516 by Professor Joseph Fischer, S.J., in the library of Prince de
Waldburg-Wolfegg (Fig. 30), great interest has centered especially in the
work of that early German map maker. As the new transatlantic discoveries
of the Spanish and the Portuguese greatly quickened interest in
geographical science and made necessary the construction of new maps in
rapid succession, Germany, already a land in which the renaissance spirit
had found an enthusiastic reception, and whose people were awake to every
new interest, soon became a center for the spread of information concerning
the new regions. Commercially important trade cities of this country had
been for some time in intimate touch with the important maritime trade
centers of Spain and Portugal. Word of the newest discoveries was quickly
carried over the Alps to France and to Germany, and the latest publication
of the writer on matters geographical had its references to the parts of the
world newly found of which Ptolemy had not known.

Fig. 30. Castle of Prince Waldburg de Wolfegg.

One of the first German geographers of the century, and now justly famed
as one of the most distinguished of the period, was Martin Waldseemüller
(ca. 1470-1522 ca.), whose name, according to the practice of the time, was

classicized as Hylacomylus.142 So significant was the influence of
Waldseemüller in the mapping of the New World that a somewhat detailed
word concerning him may here well be given. When Duke René of Lorraine
(1451-1508) became a patron of learning, with particular interest in
cosmography or geography, the cartographical studies of the Germans
began to have a place of far-reaching importance. It was under this
enlightened duke that the little town of St. Dié became a center of culture.
Here was organized the Vosgian Gymnasium,143 a society of learned men
not unlike the Platonic Academy of Florence or the Danubian Society,
Vienna. Of this St. Dié coterie none was more prominent than Jean Bassin
de Sandacourt,144 the translator of the ‘Four Voyages’ of Amerigo Vespucci
from the French into the Latin, Lud, the ducal secretary and author of an
important little work of but few pages, which he called ‘Speculi orbis
succinciss ...,’145 and Waldseemüller, the professor of cosmography, the
author of the ‘Cosmographiae Introductio ...,’146 and a cartographer of great
skill, who, with Ringmann, planned and carried well on toward completion,
as early as 1507 or 1508, an edition of Ptolemy, which in 1513 was printed
in the city of Strassburg.147 It probably was as early as 1505 that the plan
was under consideration for a new translation of Ptolemy from the Greek
into the Latin, and that thought perhaps had its inspiration in the letters of
Vespucci, in which he gave an account of his four voyages, and in the new
chart which but recently had fallen into the hands of Ringmann. These
charts, says Lud, in his ‘Speculum,’ came from Portugal, which, if true,
leads one to the belief that they exhibited genuine Vespucian data.148
Whatever the truth concerning the origin of these charts, that determination
became a starting point for a most important evolution in cartographical
history of the world.149 In April, 1507, Waldseemüller had written to his
friend, Amerbach, in Basel, “Non credo te latere nos Ptholomei
cosmographiam, recognitio et adiectis quibusdam novis tabulis impressuros
in oppido Divi Deodati.... Solidum quod ad generale Ptholomei paravimus
nondum impressum est, erit autem impressum infra mensis spacium.”150 “I
think you know already that I am on the point of printing in the town of St.
Dié (Lorraine), the Cosmography of Ptolemy, after having added to the
same some new maps.... the globe comprising Ptolemy in general, which
we have prepared, is not yet printed, but will be so in a month.” While great
interest centers in these “new maps,” prepared for the proposed edition of

Ptolemy, a greater interest now centers in the map to which Waldseemüller
repeatedly alludes in the years 1507-1511, especially in his ‘Cosmographiae
Introductio’ (Fig. 31), which map it was the good fortune of Professor
Joseph Fischer, S. J., to bring to light in the year 1902, as noted above.151 In
the dedication of his little book to the Emperor Maximilian, he says, “Hinc
factū est ṽt me libros Ptholomei ad exēplar Grecū quorunda ope p virili
recognoscēte & quatuor Americi Vespucii navigationū lustratioēs adiiciēte:
totius orbis typū tā in solido q̄ ȝplano (velut preuiam quandā ysagogen) p
cōmuno studiosorū vtilitate parauerim.”152 “Therefore studying to the best
of my ability and with the aid of several persons, the Books of Ptolemy
from a Greek copy, and adding the Relations of the Four Voyages of
Amerigo Vespucci, I have prepared for the general use of scholars a map of
the whole world, like an introduction, so to speak, both in the solid and on a
plane.” Waldseemüller says further, wherein he gives a description of his
new map, “Propositum est hoc libello quandam Cosmographie
introductionē scribere; quam nos tam in solido q̄ ȝ plano depinximus. In
solido quidem spacio exclusi strictissime. Sed latius in plano....”153 “The
purpose of this little book is to write a description of the world map, which
we have designed, both as a globe and as a projection. The globe I have
designed on a small scale, the map on a larger.”

Fig. 31. World Map of Martin Waldseemüller, 1507.

From the above citation it appears that as early as April, 1507, the same
preparation had been made for a globe that had been made for the issue of a
large world map. The map, as noted, has been found, but neither a globe nor
a set of globe gores is known bearing the indisputable evidence of his
authorship. In the library of Prince Liechtenstein, however, is a somewhat
crudely executed gore map (Fig. 32) which, according to certain
cartographical students, should be accepted as a copy of the work to which
the allusions are made in the ‘Cosmographiae.’154 These gores, twelve in
number, and each 12 cm. in length, this length representing the length of a
meridian of the globe ball which the gores could be made to cover, were
printed from a wood engraved block. They exhibit the Old World, in the
main, in accord with the Ptolemaic idea, and the New World with a close
resemblance to the Canerio map record, and that of Waldseemüller’s world
map of 1507.155 The North American region is nameless, but the South
American region bears conspicuously the name “America.” At intervals of

ten degrees lines of latitude and longitude are marked. As a title to a
lithographic reproduction of this map issued some years since by the Prince,
is the subscription “Erster gedruckter Globus. Martin Hylocomylus
(Waltzemüller). Gehört wahrscheinlich zo seinem 1509 herausgegebenen
Buche Globus Mundi.” “First printed globe. Martin Hylacomylus
(Waltzemüller). Probably belonging to his Globus Mundus which appeared
in 1509.”156

Fig. 32. Globe Gores Attributed to Martin Waldseemüller, 1509.

That which adds special significance to this young German’s
representations of the new lands, so far as our study of globes is concerned,
is the repeated recurrence of his particular outlines or contours in the globe
maps of the first quarter of the century, produced by such cartographers as
Johann Schöner of Nürnberg, and by those of his school, as will be noted
below. Both the globe and the large world map were doubtless printed in
large numbers and widely distributed. Waldseemüller states in a legend on
his marine chart of 1516 that he had printed his map of 1507 in one
thousand copies,157 but one of which is now known.
In a little tract, printed in Strassburg in the year 1509, there appears to be a
reference to a globe which may be that constructed by Waldseemüller. It is
this reference which the Prince of Liechtenstein, as noted above, has taken
as a reference to the gore map, a copy of which is in his collection. The title

of this tract reads, “Diss büchlin saget wie die zwē durchlüchtigstē herrē her
Fernandus, K. zů Castilien und herr Emanuel, K. zů. Portugal haben das
weyte mör ersůchet unnd funden vil Insulen unnd ein Nüwe welt von
wilden nackenden Leüten vormals vnbekant.” “Gedruct zü Strassburg durch
Johānē Grünĭger Im Iar M.CCCCC.IX vff Letare. Wie du aber dye Kugel
dü beschreibung der gantzenn welt verston soltt würst die hernach finden
vnnd lesen.” “This little book relates how the two most illustrious Lords
Ferdinand, King of Castile and Emanuel, King of Portugal have searched
through the wide seas and discovered many islands and a new world and
naked peoples hitherto unknown.” “Printed at Strassburg by Johann
Grüniger. In the year MCCCCCIX on Letaro. But how you shall understand
the globe and the description of the whole world you will hereafter find out
and read.”158 Harrisse thinks it probable that a real globe accompanied and
was sold with this little volume.159
In the same year, 1509, there issued from the press of Grüniger a second
volume, in character somewhat like the preceding, but in the Latin
language. In this the allusion to the globe is more definite, for its title seems
to assure us that it was prepared to accompany a real globe. This title reads,
“Globus mundi Declaratio siue descriptio mundi et totius orbis terrarum.
globulo rotundo comparati vt spera solida. Qua cuiuis etiā mediocriter docto
ad oculū videre licet antipodes esse, quos pedes nostris oppositi sunt.”
“Valete feliciter ex Argentina ultima Augusti. Anno post natü salutatorē.
M.D.ix. Johannes grüniger imprimebat. Adelpho castigatore.” “The world
globe. Exposition or description of the world and of the terrestrial sphere
constructed as a round globe similar to a solid sphere, whereby every man
even of moderate learning can see with his own eyes that there are
antipodes whose feet are opposite ours.... Farewell, Strassburg on the last
day of August A.D. 1509. Printed by Johann Grüniger. Corrected by
Adolphus.”160 Neither the author of this tract nor the maker of the globe is
known of certainty. They have been attributed to Glareanus as well as to
Waldseemüller.
There is still a third volume printed by Grüniger in this year, 1509, which,
however, appears to be but little more than a German translation of the
‘Globus Mundi.’ The title, slightly altered, reads, “Der welt kugel
Beschrybūng der Welt und dess gātzēn Erttreichs hie angezogt ūnd

vergleicht einer rotunden kugeln die dan sunderlich gemacht hie zū
gehōrede darin der Kauffmā und ein ietlicher sehen ūnd mercken mag wie
die menschen undē gegē uns wonē ūn wie die son umbgang, herin
beschriben mit vil seltzamē dinge (wood cut of globe) Getrucht zū
Strassburg. Von Johanne Gruniger in yar. M.D.ix. uff ostern. Johanne
Adelpho castigator.” “Description of the world globe, of the world and the
entire terrestrial sphere here constructed and made to resemble a round ball
and is so arranged that the merchant and every man may clearly see how
that men live underneath us, and here may be seen how the sun moves
about (the earth) with many wonderful things. Printed at Strassburg. By
Johann Grüniger in the year 1509 at easter. Johann Adelpho corrector.”161
This can as confidently be taken to refer to a real globe as the title in the
tract to which reference has just been made. It is probable that we can
obtain some idea of the appearance of the globe from the small woodcut
printed on the title-page of both the Latin and the German editions, of
which a conspicuous feature is the representation of a small land area
southwest of Africa, bearing the inscription “Nüw welt” (Fig. 33). As the
little book was issued in both Latin and German, Harrisse thinks it probable
that two editions of the globe likewise appeared.162

The Lenox globe163 is often referred to as the oldest extant post-Columbian
globe. It is an engraved copper ball of excellent workmanship, 127 mm. in
diameter (Figs. 34, 35), neither signed nor dated, and is without mountings.
A critical study of its geographical records, particularly of the New World
representations, has led to the conclusion that it was made as early as 1510.
The two sections or hemispheres of which it is composed are joined at the
equator. Neither parallels nor meridians are indicated, and though a striking
error appears in giving to the eastern hemisphere, or the Old World, too
great an extension in longitude, the principal latitudes are well given. The
globe was found in the year 1850, in Paris, by Mr. Richard Hunt, by whom
it was presented to Mr. James Lenox, and is now one of the choicest objects
in that great collector’s library, which library constitutes an important part
of the New York Public Library. In its New World representation, South
America appears as a large island having three regional names, “Mundus
Novus,” “Terra Sanctae Crucis,” and “Terra de Brazil.” “Isabel” (Cuba),
“Spagnolla” (Haiti), and a few unnamed islands belonging to the West
Indies have been outlined. In the place of North America there are scattered

islands, one of which, located near
the northwest extremity of “Terra de
Brazil,” bears the name “Zipangri”
(Japan), and one in the far north, but
unnamed, clearly resembles the
Cortereal region, as it appears on the
Cantino and on the Canerio map. A
few of the many islands in the
eastern seas are designated by name
as “Taprobana,” “Madagascar,” and
“Seilan.”

Fig. 33. Globus Mundi, 1509.

Fig. 34. Lenox Globe, 1510.

Fig. 35. Lenox Globe in Hemispheres.

A globe but little known, but resembling in a striking manner the Lenox, is
that belonging to the Jagellonicus University Library of Cracow, Poland.164
It is a gilded copper ball, 7.3 cm. in diameter (Figs. 36, 37), and constitutes
a part of a fine old clock of the sixteenth century. Meridians and parallels
are engraved and numbered on its surface at intervals of ten degrees, the
prime meridian passing through the island Ferro. While it is neither signed
nor dated, there is scarcely a doubt that it is as old as the Lenox globe;
indeed, the geographical features of the two globes are so similar that they
appear to be the work of the same globe maker, or copies of a common
original, yet it is noteworthy that the nomenclature of the Jagellonicus globe
is somewhat richer. The large island which lies southeast of Madagascar
and is nameless on the Lenox appears on the Jagellonicus with a very
interesting inscription, reading “America noviter reperta.” Comparing the
coast of “Mundus Novus” with the coast of this “America noviter reperta,”
Tadeus Estreicher finds support for the belief that the globe was constructed
soon after the year 1507, in which year Waldseemüller suggested the name
America for the region discovered by Amerigo Vespucci. He, however,
seems not to have noticed the possibility that the inscription appearing on
this large island indicated not only an acquaintance, on the part of the
Jagellonicus cartographer, with Waldseemüller’s suggestion as to the name
America, but a belief that America was actually located in this particular
region. In his chapter on climates Waldseemüller says, “Atqȝ in sexto
climate Antarcticù versus & pars extrema Africae nuper reperta & Zamzibar
Iauva minor & Seula insule & quarta orbis pars (quam quia Americus
inveuit Amerigen quasi Americi terrā siue Americā nuncupare licet) sitae
sunt.” “In the sixth climate toward the Antarctic there are situated the
farthest part of Africa, recently discovered, the islands Zanzibar, the lesser
Java, and Seula, and the fourth part of the earth, which, because Amerigo
discovered it, we may call Amerige, the land of Amerigo, so to speak, or
America.”165 Following the above, Waldseemüller notes what Pomponius
Mela has to say concerning “these southern climates,” that is, concerning
this antipodal region.

Fig. 36. Jagellonicus Globe, 1510.

Fig. 37. Jagellonicus Globe in Hemispheres.

In the rich cartographical collection of Prince Liechtenstein there may be
found, in addition to the globe gores referred to above, an interesting globe,
usually referred to as the mounted Hauslab globe. 166 It is of wood, having a
diameter of about 37 cm. and is covered with a preparation on which a
world map has been drawn or painted. It is furnished with a wooden base, a
meridian and a horizon circle of brass, and an axis of iron on which it turns,
all of which furnishings, however, appear to be of later date than the sphere
itself. Though neither signed nor dated, it exhibits many features which
suggest a close relationship with the globes of Johann Schöner; indeed, it is
not improbable that it is an early example of his workmanship. “I am of the
opinion,” says Luksch, “that the globe of Schöner of 1515 and the Hauslab
globe were drawn from one common original sketch,” a conclusion based
largely upon the fact that on the two globes the outlines of the New World
are almost identical. As to the date when constructed, a comparison with
other globes of the second decade of the century has led to the conclusion
that it must have been prior to the year 1515, and perhaps as early as 1513.
In its representation of the Old World, the land is made to extend through
240 degrees, counting from the island of Porto Santo, whose meridian has
been taken as the prime meridian. The northern section of the New World is
given the name “Par(ias),” the last letters of the word having been
obliterated by age, while the southern section is called “America.” The
great austral land south of the apex of the southern continent, appearing on

the Schöner globe of 1515 as “Brasilie regio,” is omitted on the Hauslab
globe. The continents, rivers, and mountains represented are very dark in
color, and were probably originally blue, black, or red, and the seas are a
dark blue. The equator, as drawn on the surface of the sphere, is divided
into degrees, represented alternately in white and black, and every tenth
degree is indicated by an appropriate number, beginning, as stated above, at
the island of Porto Santo. By way of decoration a border of gold is given to
the lines representing the equator, the tropics, and the polar circles.
In the geographical department of the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris is a
globe referred to in cartographical literature as the Green globe, or the
Quirini globe, the first name being given to it by Gabriel Marcel, 167 by
reason of the prominence of the color green employed in painting the seas
(Fig. 38). It is an unsigned and undated wooden sphere, 24 cm. in diameter.
Its surface appears to have been covered with a coating of paint, originally
white, and on this the world map was drawn. There is much artistic skill
displayed in the coast configurations, with the deeply shaded seaboards
making the land appear to rise above the ocean surface, and in the
representation of the islands, most of which are made conspicuous in red or
gold. The inscriptions in dark brown, perhaps originally black, are neatly
written, clearly suggesting that the globe was constructed in the first quarter
of the sixteenth century, perhaps as early as 1513 or 1515. The equator, the
tropics, and the polar circles are traced in gold; the degrees of latitude and
longitude are marked in red, and at intervals of ten degrees. The prime
meridian is made to pass through the Cape Verde Islands, islands referred to
as “Insule Portugalensium invente anno Domini 1472.” This globe shows a
striking resemblance to those of Schöner of 1515, a fact which has led
Marcel to refer it to the Schönerian school, though not to attribute it directly
to Schöner himself. A very important and interesting feature of the globe is
the appearance of the name “America” no less than four times in the New
World; twice in what we now call North America and twice in South
America. It is, indeed, the oldest known cartographical monument on which
the name America is given both to the north and the south continental areas.
In the southern continent we read “America ab inuentore nuncupata,” and
near the Antilles “Iste insule per Columbus genuensem almirantem et
mandato regis castelle invente sunt.” “These islands were discovered by
Columbus, a Genoese admiral, by command of the king of Castile.”

Harrisse observes that it appears the cartographer thought of Columbus as
the discoverer of the West India Islands only, and that he thought the honor
of the discovery of the American continents, north and south, belongs to
Vespucius.168 An austral land appears, though nameless, which Schöner
called “Brasilie regio” on his globe of 1515, and “Brasilia inferior” on his
globe of 1520.

Fig. 38. The Green Globe, 1515.

Nordenskiöld has described a set of twelve globe gores, engraved on wood,
belonging to his own collection, which he assigns to the year 1518.169 Of

these particular gores three sets are known; one being in the collection of
Prince Liechtenstein (Fig. 39), one in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and one,
as noted, in the possession of Nordenskiöld. On these gore maps North
America bears the name “Terra Cuba” and “Parias.” South America has the
name “America” inscribed in large letters, with an accompanying legend
reading “Terra Noua Inuenta est Anno 1497.” “The New World discovered
in the year 1497.”170 The austral land, appearing on the Schöner globes, is
wanting. By reason of the fact that the names of but two European cities are
inscribed, these being “Ingolstadt” and “St. Jacobus,” the suggestion has
been made that the map is the work of Apianus, a celebrated geographer of
Ingolstadt, author of the important map of 1520 and a globe maker.171 In
their general features these gores are of the Schönerian type, which we may
also characterize as Lusitano-Germanic.

Fig. 39. Liechtenstein Globe Gores, ca. 1518.

In the Royal Collections of Windsor Castle may be found a set of eight
globe gores (Fig. 135, attributed by Major to Leonardo da Vinci, but with
very little more reason for the assignment than the fact that they were found

in a collection of papers in the handwriting of that famous artist. They are
drawn as equilateral triangles, each representing one eighth of the earth’s
surface, not as biangles, which is the usual form for early globe gores.172
Major described the map as the oldest known on which the name America
appears, giving as the probable date of construction the year 1514, which
date is thought by Harrisse to be five or six years too early.173 Such a
distinction as was claimed for the record of the name America by Major,
being likewise assigned at various times to other early maps, has at last
been definitely fixed as belonging to the world map of Waldseemüller of
1507.174 The outlines of the New World bear a resemblance to those found
in the Lenox and the Jagellonicus globes. The North American region is
represented by two islands, one of which bears the name “Bacalar,” the
other “Terra Florida.” South America, a large island, has conspicuously
inscribed the name “America,” together with a few prominent coast names.
These gores are chiefly of interest by reason of their peculiar form.
An interesting set of globe gores of the first quarter of the sixteenth century
is that attributed to Boulengier, of which but one copy, now belonging to the
New York Public Library, is known.175 These gores, twelve in number
(Fig. 40), were printed from a copper engraved plate 18 by 36 cm. in size,
but bear neither date nor name of author. The title appearing across the
bottom of the map reads, “Vniversalis cosmographie descriptio tam in
solido quem plano.” They were found in a copy of Waldseemüller’s
‘Cosmographiae Introductio,’ printed at Lyons by Jean de la Place, but
undated. Harrisse gives as the probable date of the publication between
November 27, 1517, and May 26, 1518.176 With this engraved world map
were found two other copper plates, one bearing the title “Astrolabium
Phisicum,” the other “Motus novae spere et trepidacionis spere MDXIV,”
and signed “Artificis Ludovici Boulengier, Allebie, 1514.” As this edition
of the ‘Cosmographiae’ was prepared for the press by Boulengier,177 who in
his day achieved distinction as a mathematician, astronomer, and
geographer, this gore map has been ascribed to him. It appears from a
statement on the verso of a folded plate belonging to Chapter VIII that a
globe had been prepared to accompany it.178 This statement, while not
agreeing in all respects with one to be found in the edition of 1507, is of
similar import. Boulengier states in his dedicatory letter that he had noted

other globes which had been previously published. As a bit of copper
engraving it is very artistically done; its inscriptions, coast outlines, and
rivers are drawn in soft ornamental lines. That region representing North
America bears simply the name “Nova,” while South America is referred to
as “America noviter reperta,” a wording for this information which
elsewhere appears only on the Jagellonicus globe. These gores are of
sufficient dimensions to cover a ball 11 cm. in diameter.

Fig. 40. Terrestrial Globe Gores of Boulengier, ca. 1518.

In the year 1877 or 1878, reports Professor Ferdinando Jacoli, Admiral
William Acton acquired two interesting and scientifically valuable
terrestrial globes of the early sixteenth century once belonging to Count
Piloni of Belluno, Italy.179 That one appearing to be the older of the two
resembles so closely the Paris green globe in size, having a diameter of 24
cm., and in its details, that there is good reason for thinking it to be the
work of the same author. Like the Paris globe it is neither signed nor dated.
The surface of the ball is covered with a preparation of plaster on which the
geographical details have been written. Seas and lands are colored, the
equator, the tropics, and the polar circles are indicated by gilded lines.
Meridians are drawn at intervals of ten degrees, the prime meridian passing
through the Canary Islands, and parallels are likewise represented at
intervals of ten degrees. The metal meridian circle and the stand upon
which the sphere rests retain in places some of the old gilding. Professor
Jacoli expresses the opinion that it may be of Spanish or of Portuguese

origin, an opinion based upon the nomenclature. It seems, however,
probable that the author was an Italian and that he merely employed the
Spanish or the Portuguese sources, as was so frequent, and in so large a
measure necessary, in that day. In Africa the author has represented the
“Peludes nili,” and two lakes into which several rivers flow having their
source in the Mountains of the Moon. To the south-east of the continent is
represented “Zanzibar insula,” and near this are a number of small islands
with the legend “Iste insule ex mandato regis Portugalliae lustrate sunt.”
The islands of Ceylon and Sumatra are laid down but are given the names
“Taprobana” and “Seula” respectively. In the interior of Asia we read
“Carama civitas magna,” near this “Thebet provincia mais,” and below
“Hic dñat prespiter Johannes rex totius Indiae.” In eastern Asia is the name
“Catay” and near this the legend “Zumsay est quedã civitas mag. in medio
lacus magnus,” the Paris globe having “Quinsay” instead of “Zumsay.” The
New World in its outlines bears striking resemblance to the early globes of
Schöner. Along the west coast of South America is the legend “Tota ista
provincia inventa est per mandatum regis Castelle,” near the same “Terra
ultra incognita,” and extending along the west coast of North America
“Terra ulterius incognita,” all of which legends, in identical wording, appear
on the Paris globe. The Antilles are referred to in the legend “iste insule per
Columbum Genuensem Almirantem ex mandato regis Castelle perite sunt,”
and in South America “America ab inventore nuncupata.” Near the west
coast of Africa we find “Insule portugalensium invente—domini 1477,” one
of which is called “visionis insula.” The author has also represented an
Antarctic continent but has made no reference to it by specific name or
legend. If the Paris globe was constructed before 1520, as Marcel
concluded, there is likewise good reason why the Acton globe should also
be assigned to the second decade of the sixteenth century.
Las Casas, in his ‘Historia de las Indias,’ tells us that when Magellan
(Fig. 41) offered his services to the King of Spain for an expedition to the
Moluccas he had a globe to serve him in the demonstration of his plan.
“Traìa el Magallanes vn Globo bien pintado, en que toda la tierra estaba, y
alli señalò el camino que habia de llevar, salvo que el estracho dejò, de
industria, en blanco, porque alguno no se lo saltease.”180 “Magellan had a
well painted globe, which exhibited the entire earth, and he showed thereby

the route which he thought of taking, but with intention he had left the strait
blank so that no one might learn his secret.”

Fig. 41. Portrait of Magellan.

Other allusions to this globe we do not have, unless there is such in a letter
written by Sebastian Alvares to King Don Manuel, dated Seville, July 18,
1519. In giving information concerning the plan of Magellan Alvares states:
“A rrota que se diz que han de levar he dir to ao cabo fryo ficando lhe o
brasy a mão dir ta ate pasar a linha da particâo e daly navegar ao eloeste e
loes noroeste dir tos a maluco a quall tr̃ ra de maluco en vy asentada na poma
e carta que ea fez o f o de Reynell a quall nò era acabada quando caa seu
pay veo por ele, e seu pay acabou tudo e pos estas tr̃ ras de maluco e p este
paderam se fazem todallas cartas as quaêes faz di o Ribeiro e faz as agulhas
quadrantes e esperas, porem nò vay narmada nem q̃ r mais q̃ ganhar de
comeer p seu engenho.” “The course which it is said they are to take is
straight to Cape Frio, Brazil remaining on their right hand until they reach
the line of demarcation, thence they are to navigate to the west and west-
northwest straight to Moluco, which land of Moluco I have seen laid down
on the sphere and map which the son of Reynell made here which was not
complete when his father came here for him; and his father finished it all,
and placed these islands of Moluco; and after this pattern all the maps are
made which Diego Ribeiro makes, and he makes the compasses, quadrants
and globes, but he does not go in the fleet, nor does he wish to do more than
gain his living by his skill.”181
We find reference to a globe of this early period as belonging to Juan
Sebastian del Cano, the reference thereto being contained in his will made
on board the Victoria, June 26, 1526, and reading “Una esfera poma del
mondo.”182 It probably was made of wood and painted, as there is good
reason for believing that such as were carried by early navigators on their
vessels were of this character. Harrisse thinks “this globe would probably
prove to be one of the most interesting of all for that period, exhibiting,
doubtless, the hypothesis of Magellan relative to the configuration of the
southwest coast of South America north of 50 degrees south latitude.”183
Although the will of Del Cano is dated 1526 there is reason for thinking the
globe was constructed prior to 1520.
Among the globe makers of the early sixteenth century none merits greater
distinction than Johann Schöner of Nürnberg (1477-1547) (Fig. 42),

mathematician, astronomer, and geographer.184 He was born in Carlstadt,
Franconia, held a church office for some years in Bamberg, and in the year
1526, upon the advice of Melanchthon, became a professor of mathematics
in the gymnasium of Nürnberg, to the fame of which city, as a scientific
center, Regiomontanus had so greatly contributed in the preceding century.
His activities as a globe maker began as early as the second decade of the
century, and his influence soon became very pronounced. In Nürnberg he
labored until the time of his death in the year 1547, editing, in addition to
his other activities, the literary and scientific works of Regiomontanus and
of Werner, and each year until 1543 issued his so-called Calendars. His
numerous publications, mathematical, astronomical, and cosmographical,
alone entitle him to a place of first importance among German scientific
leaders of his day.

Fig. 42. Portrait of Johann Schöner.

It was as early as 1515, at the cost of a wealthy patron, Johann Seylor, that
he made in Bamberg what has usually been accepted as his first globe, two
copies of which are now known, and for which it has been thought he wrote
his tract bearing title ‘Luculentissima quaedā terrae totius descriptio ... cum
privilegio Invictis Romanorû Impera Maximiliani per acto annos: ne quis
imprimat: aut imprimere procuret codices has: cum globis cosmographicis:
Noribergae 1515.’ ‘A most luminous description of the whole earth ... with

the privilege of the Invincible Emperor of the Romans, Maximilian, for
eight years to the effect that nobody shall print or have any of these books
printed, with the cosmographic globe.’185 On the leaf preceding “fol. 1” is
the representation of a mounted globe.
One of Schöner’s globes of 1515 is to be found in the Grand Ducal Library
of Weimar, and one in the City Museum of Frankfurt (Fig. 43). Wieser,186
after a careful comparison, finds these globes to be practically alike in all
details. Each is 27 cm. in diameter, having the usual mountings of brass, the
whole resting on a wooden base. While neither signed nor dated, they
answer the description contained in Schöner’s little tract referred to above.
That region on the globe which we may designate North America, he calls
“Parias”; the South American continent bears the name “America” and the
austral land the name “Brasilie regio.” In addition to these principal regions
he has represented the land discovered by the Cortereals, designating the
same as “Litus incognitum.” Cuba bears the name “Isabella” and Haiti the
name “Spagnolla.” The feature which seems to give special interest to these
globes of Schöner is the representation of a strait between “America” and
“Brasilie regio.” To the significance of this particular representation Wieser
has given very careful consideration. He cites numerous passages from the
tract of Schöner, and from the ‘Copia der newen Zeitung aus Presillig
Landt,’187 a publication which he finds good reason for believing appeared
before 1515, and in which he finds an acceptable explanation of the origin
of this geographical notion represented by Schöner, which antedates the
Magellan expedition by a period of five years.

Fig. 43. Globe of Johann Schöner in Hemispheres, 1515.

It is a point to be especially noted that the dominant cosmographical idea of
the map makers of the first quarter of the century represented the New
World regions as independent of Asia. It is the idea set forth in the
Portuguese maps, such as the Cantino and the Canerio; it is the idea which
we find represented in the Waldseemüller maps and practically in all the
Lusitano-Germanic maps of the period.188 Schöner had written in his tract
of 1515, “Hunc in modum terra quadriparita cognoscitur, et sunt tres primae
partes continentes, id est terra firma. Sed quarta est insula, quia
omniquoque mari circumdata conspicitur.” “It has now been ascertained
that the earth is divided into four parts, and the first three parts are
continents, that is, main lands, but the fourth part is an island because we
see it surrounded on all sides by the sea.”189 With regard to the relation of
“Parias” to Asia, he states, “Parias insula quae non est pars vel portio
prioris, sed specialis magna portio terrae huius quartae partis mundi.”
“Parias is not a part or portion of the aforesaid country, but a large
independent portion of the earth, in that fourth part of the world.”190
Of the globes constructed by Schöner, none is more important than that
bearing date 1520 (Fig. 44).191 The wooden ball on which the map has been
drawn and colored by hand has a diameter of about 87 cm. and rests upon a
wooden base. Near the south pole is the date 1520 in large gilt letters and an
inscription stating that it was made at the expense of Johannes Seyler by Jo.
Schöner.192 It is apparent that the same sources were used for the drafting of
the map on this globe that had been used in the case of his earlier globes,
but the geographical information on this last globe is much more detailed.
The New World appears in five distinct parts, the first of which is called
“Terra Corterealis,” the second “Terra de Cuba,” the third “Insulae
Canibalorum siue Antiglia,” the fourth “Terra nova, America vel Brasilia
sive Papagelli Terra,” and the fifth “Brasilia inferior.” The globe is richly
decorated in colors, and its numerous descriptive legends, most of them in
Latin, give such geographical information as may be found in most of the
important maps of this early period.193

Fig. 44. Western Hemisphere of Johann Schöner’s Globe, 1520.

In 1523 Schöner issued a little tract of four pages which he called ‘De nuper
sub Castiliae ac Portugaliae Regibus Serenissimis repertis Insulis ac
Regionibus, Joannis Schöner Charolipolitani epistola et Globus
Geographicus, seriem navigationum annotantibus. Clarissimo atque
disertissimo viro Dño Rymero de Streytpergk, ecclesiae Babenbergensis
Canonico dictae. Timiripae, Anno Incarnat. Dni. 1523.’ ‘An epistle of John
Schöner of Carlstadt concerning the islands and regions recently discovered
by the Most Serene Kings of Castile and of Portugal, and a geographical
globe for the use of marking the course of those navigations. Dedicated to
the most distinguished and eloquent Reymer von Streytperg, canon of the
Church of Bamberg. Timiripae (Kirch-ehrenbach). In the year of the Lord’s
incarnation 1523.’194 Though Schöner alone gives us such information as
we possess concerning this globe, it has been the subject of much

controversy, and if recovered it doubtless would prove to be an object of
much interest. There is, in the opinion of the author, scarcely the slightest
ground for accepting the conclusions of Henry Stevens and Professor v.
Wieser, that the globe gores, now in the possession of the New York Public
Library (Fig. 44a), and described by them as the lost globe of Schöner of
1523, are of Schönerian origin. The critical studies of Harrisse are
sufficiently convincing to set this question at rest.195 Schöner concludes his
little tract in the following words: “Ego tam mirifice orbis pervagationi
nonnihil volens adiicere, ut quae lectu videantur mirabilia, aspectu
credantur prohabiliora, Globum hunc in orbis modum effingere studui,
exemplar haud fallibile aemulatus, quod Hispaniarum solertia cuidam viro
honore conspicuo transmisit. Nec ob id quem antea glomeraveram abolitum
iri volens, quippē qui es temporè, quantum phas erat homini abdita mundi
penetrare, abunde expressit, modo sese consona admissione patientur, quod
invenienda inventis non obstent. Accipe igitur hunc a me formatum globum
ea animi benignitate, qua eum laborem ad tui nominis honorem lubens
aggressus sum. Cognoscam profecto meas lucubratiunculas tuae celsitudini
nullatenus despectui fore. Vale.” “Being desirous of making some small
addition to this wonderful survey of the earth, so that what appears very
extraordinary to the reader may appear more likely, when thus illustrated, I
have been at the pains to construct this globe, having copied a very accurate
one which an ingenious Spaniard has sent to a person of distinction. I do not
however wish to set aside the globe I constructed some time since, as it
fully showed all that had, at that time, been discovered: so that the former,
as far as it goes, agrees with the latter. Please then to accept this globe in the
same friendly spirit in which I undertook to construct it for your
gratification. But I am sure you will not despise my humble attempt.
Farewell.”196 This statement assures us that he had constructed a globe at
the time of issuing his tract, and it gives us a fairly definite idea of its New
World configurations, and further, that in the main it agreed with his earlier
globes. It seems probable, however, that in some manner he indicated an
Asiatic connection of the new lands, an idea which is so frequently
expressed in the maps of the next quarter of a century, especially in the
globe maps, an idea not to be finally set at rest until the discovery of Bering
put an end to the controversy.

Fig. 44a. Anonymous Globe Gores, ca. 1540.

How Schöner, and others, came to the conclusion that “Parias” (North
America) is not “a large independent portion of the earth in that fourth part
of the world,” but has an Asiatic connection, and how they set down that
conclusion in their maps will receive consideration in the following chapter.
Though not a maker of globes, in so far as we have definite knowledge,
Albrecht Dürer turned his attention to the drafting of maps, two of which
have for us here a certain interest. In the year 1515 Johannes Stabius
designed a map of the Old World on a stereographic projection (Fig. 45),
one of the first of its kind, which Dürer is said to have engraved. While the
map itself is of little importance it is of interest as an attempt to represent in
perspective a spherical earth.197

Fig. 45. Stabius World Globe Map, 1515.

Dürer likewise undertook the drafting and engraving of a celestial map
(Fig. 46), than which of this character there appears to be none earlier
known. It was not so drawn as to make possible its application to the
surface of a sphere, but its reshaping for that purpose could not have been
for him a difficult proposition. He, with others of this time, was giving
thought to the problem of globe-gore construction.

Fig. 46. Northern Celestial Hemisphere of Albrecht Dürer.

NOTES
124 The illustrations given are typical, and to one familiar with the works of the period on
geographical and astronomical subjects, others suggest themselves.
125 For popular accounts of the Este family of Ferrara, see Gardner, E. G. Princes and Poets of
Ferrara. London, 1904; Cartwright, J. Isabella d’Este. London, 1903.
126 Harrisse. Discovery. pp. 422-425; same author, Les Corte-Real et leur voyages au Nouveau
Monde. Paris, 1883, with reproduction of the western half of the map, in colors; Stevenson, E. L.
Maps illustrating early discovery and exploration in America. New Brunswick, 1906. No. 1 of this
series is a reproduction of the Cantino map in the size of the original.
127 Fischer, J. The Discoveries of the Norsemen in America. London, 1903. pp. 112-118. Professor
Fischer enjoys the distinction of being the foremost living authority on Ptolemy.
128 D’Arco, C. Delle arti e degli artefici di Mantova. Mantova, 1857. Vol. II, p. 53.

129 Bertolotti, A. Artisti in relazione coi Gonzaga Signori di Mantova. Modena, 1885. p. 143. (In:
Estr. dagli Atti e Memorie delle Deputazioni di storia patria per le Provincie Modenesi e Parmensi.
Série III, Vol. III, parte 1.)
130 Harrisse. Discovery. p. 434.
131 Denza, F. Globi celesti della Specola Vaticana. (In: Publicazioni della Specola Vaticana. Torino,
1894. Vol. IV, p. xvii.)
132 Fiorini, op. cit., pp. 88-89.
133 See the edition of Ptolemy. Geographia—MDVIII. Rome. Chap. xii.
134 Fiorini, op. cit., pp. 94-96, the citation being made from Badia, Jodoco del. La bottega di
Alessandro di Francesco Rosselli merciaje e stampatore (1525). (In: Miscellanea fiorentina di
erudizione e storia. Luglio, 1894. Vol. II, p. 14.)
135 Zach, F. v. Monatliche Korrespondence. Gotha, 1806. Vol. XIII, p. 157. Harrisse. Discovery.
pp. 445-446.
136 Fiorini, op. cit., p. 99.
137 Fiorini, op. cit., p. 101.
138 Fiorini, op. cit., p. 72.
139 Fiorini, op. cit., p. 102. Of the further interest taken by Cardinal Salviati in geography, see
Stevenson, op. cit., No. 7.
140 Trithemius. Epistolae familiares. Haganoae, 1536. p. 294.
141 This is part of the letter of August 12.
142 D’Avezac, M. A. P. Martin Hylacomylus Walzemüller ses ouvrages et ses collaborateurs. Paris,
1867; Gallois. Les Géographes. Chap. iv. “L’école Alsacienne-Lorraine”; Schmidt, C. Histoire
littéraire de l’Alsace a la fin du XV e et au commencement du XVI e siècle. Paris, 1879.
143 Schmidt, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 111; Humboldt, A. v. Kritische Untersuchungen. Berlin, 1852. Vol. II,
p. 363; Gallois, L. Le Gymnase Vosgien. (In: Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de l’Est. Paris,
1900. pp. 88 ff.); D’Avezac, op. cit., p. 11.
144 A canon of the cathedral of St. Dié. Lud gives us the information that he was the translator of the
Vespucci narrative from the French into the Latin.

145 Gravier, N. F. Histoire de Saint-Dié. Epinal, 1836. p. 202. The author refers to the character of
Lud and to the influence of the St. Dié press. Copies of Lud’s most important little tract may be
found in the British Museum, and in the Imperial Library of Vienna; it was printed in the St. Dié in
the year 1507.
146 The full title of this significant volume reads: ‘Cosmographiae Introductio cum quibusdam
geometriae ac astronomiae principiis ad eam rem necessariis, insuper quatuor Americi Vespucci
navigationes. Universalis Cosmographie descriptio tam in solido q̄ ȝ plano eis etiam insertis que
Ptholomeo ignota a nuperis reperta sunt.’ ‘Introduction to Cosmography with certain necessary
principles of geometry and astronomy to which are added the Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci a
representation of the entire world, both in the solid (globe?) and projected on the plane, including

also lands which were unknown to Ptolemy, and have been recently discovered.’ Two editions of the
work appeared in 1507, and others at later dates. An excellent reproduction of Waldseemüller’s book
in facsimile, with English translation, was published by the United States Catholic Historical Society
under the title, ‘The Cosmographiae Introductio of Martin Waldseemüller in Facsimile followed by
the Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci with their Translation into English.’ Ed. by C. G.
Herbermann. New York, 1907.
147 This is one of the best of the early printed editions of Ptolemy.
148 May it not have been the Canerio chart to which allusion was made by Lud, or a chart of exactly
that type? See Stevenson, E. L. Marine World Chart of Nicolo de Canerio Januensis (ca.) 1502. With
Facsimile of the unique original, measuring 115 x 225 cm. New York, 1908.
149 Stevenson, E. L. Martin Waldseemüller and the early Lusitano-Germanic Cartography of the
New World. New York, 1904. (In: Bulletin of the American Geographical Society. New York, 1908.
pp. 193-215.)
150 Schmidt, C. (In: Mémoires de la Société d’Archéologie lorraine. Nancy, 1875. p. 227.)
151 Fischer, J. and Wieser, F. R. v. The oldest map with the name America of the year 1507 and the
Carta Marina of the year 1516 by M. Waldseemüller (Ilacomilus). Innsbruck, 1903. Text in German
and English, the maps in facsimile. The authors in their text have considered such matters as the
Wolfegg collective volume, a description of the two maps, the sources of Waldseemüller, and the
influence of the maps on the subsequent cartography, especially of the New World.
152 Printed on fol. “Aii.”
153 Printed on the back of folded leaf at the beginning of “Caput IX.”
154 Gallois. Les géographes. p. 48; Fischer and v. Wieser, op. cit., p. 14.
155 The crude character of the map is in striking contrast with the world map of 1507.
156 This is an excellent reproduction of the gores, copy of which was courteously sent the author by
Prince Liechtenstein.
157 Printed in the lower corner of the chart on the left, “Generalem igitur totius orbis typum, quem
ante annos aucos absolutum non sine grandi labore ex Ptolomei traditione ... in lucem edideramus et
in mille exemplaria exprimi curavinius....”
158 Harrisse. B. A. V. No. 62.
159 Harrisse. Discovery. p. 465.
160 Harrisse. B. A. V. No. 61.

161 Harrisse. B. A. V. No. 32, Ad.
162 Harrisse. Discovery. p. 466.
163 De Costa, B. F. The Lenox Globe. (In: Magazine of American History. New York, 1879. pp. 529-
540.) De Costa had the globe map redrawn and printed in plane projection. See for reproduction,
Winsor, Nordenskiöld, Encyclopaedia Britannica. An excellent reproduction from a direct photograph
of the globe may be found in Stevenson, E. L. Typical early maps of the New World. (In: Bulletin of
the American Geographical Society. New York, 1907. pp. 202-224.)

164 Estreicher, T. Ein Erdglobus aus dem Anfange des XVI Jh. in der Jagellonischen Bibliothek. (In:
Bulletin International de l’Académie des Sciences de Cracovie. Cracovie, 1900. pp. 96-105.)
The construction of the clockwork to be found in this small copper sphere in La Nature, 1892. No.
996, p. 75. The globe is referred to by Stevenson, E. L., in Martin Waldseemüller and the Lusitano-
Germanic Cartography of the New World. (In: Bulletin of the American Geographical Society. New
York, 1904. pp. 193-215.)
165 Waldseemüller, op. cit., Caput vii.
166 Luksch, M. J. Zwei Denkmale alter Kartographie. Wien, 1886. (In: Mitteilung der k. k. Geog.
Gesellschaft. Wien, 1886. pp. 364-373.); Varnhagen, F. A. Jo. Schöner e P. Apianus. Wien, 1872. On
p. 52 the opinion is expressed that the globe was made in Brixen from the fact that this relatively
unimportant town is inscribed. Harrisse. Discovery. pp. 491, 492; Nordenskiöld. Facsimile Atlas.
p. 76.
167 Marcel, G. Un globe manuscrit de l’école de Schöner. Paris, 1889. (In: Bulletin de géographie
historique et descriptive. Paris, 1889. p. 173.); same author, Reproduction de carte et de globes relatif
à la découverte de l’Amérique. Paris, 1894. pp. 11-14.
168 Harrisse. Discovery. p. 490.
169 Nordenskiöld. Facsimile Atlas. p. 76; reproduced on pl. XXXVII; same author, Om en märklig
globakarta frän början af sextonde seklet. Stockholm, 1884. The latter has been translated under the
title, A remarkable globe map of the sixteenth century, with facsimile, by E. A. Elfwing, and
published in Journal of the American Geographical Society. New York, 1884.
170 Here the name “America” is more clearly assigned to the entire continent than in the
Waldseemüller map.
171 See below, p. 176.
172 Major, R. H. Memoir on a mappemonde by Leonardo da Vinci, being the earliest map hitherto
known containing the name America: now in the Royal Collection at Windsor. London, 1865; Wieser.
Magalhâes-Strasse. pl. III, a reproduction of the gores showing the New World, joined in a
hemisphere; d’Adda, Marquis Girolamo. Leonardo da Vinci e la Cosmografia. (In: La Perzeveranza.
Milano, 1870.); Richter, J. P. Literary Works of Da Vinci. London, 1883. Both d’Adda and Richter
doubt the Da Vinci origin of these gores.
173 Harrisse, op, cit., p. 504.
174 See above, p. 67.
175 Nordenskiöld, op. cit., p. 76; reproduced on pl. XXXVIII; Catalogue de livres appartenant à M.
H. Tross. Paris, 1881, item 4924, with a reproduction of the gores.

176 Harrisse, op. cit., pp. 494-496.
177 Marcel, G. Louis Boulengier d’Alby. Paris, 1890. (In: Bulletin de géographie historique et
descriptive. Paris, 1890.)
178 This statement reads: “Habes candide lector tabellam preinsculptam tibi latitudinem graduum
regionium ... In globo vero diei quantitatem et noctis ... sic comprehendere potes omni de regione tam
per globum quam per sexagenarium.” “You have, dear Reader, before you, a small plate on which are
inscribed the degrees of latitude of the countries ... on the globe (you see) the duration of the day and

night ... thereby you will be able to ascertain (the position of) every country by the globe as well as
by the sexennium.”
179 Tessier, A. Di Cesare Vecellio e de’ suoi dipinti e disegni in una Collezione di libri dei secoli XV
e XVI. Rome, 1876. (In: Bollettino della Societe geografica italiana. Rome, 1876. Série II, Vol. I,
pp. 39-42.)
Tessier’s discourse was delivered at the Venetian Atheneum, 1875. Jacoli, F., likewise refers to this
globe in Gazzetta di Venezia, January 15, 1876. It is not known just what disposition has been made
of the globes by Admiral Acton.
180 Las Casas. Historia. Tomo IV, lib. III, cap. ci, p. 377; Herrera, A. Descriptione las Indias
Ocidentales. Madrid, 1730. Tomo II, lib. II, cap. xix, p. 52.
181 The first voyage around the world by Magellan. Tr. by Stanley of Alderley, Lord. London, 1874.
(In: Hakluyt Society Publications. London, 1874. Vol. 52, p. xliv.); Pigafetta, Antonio. Magellan’s
Voyage around the world. The original text of the Ambrosian MS., with English translation, notes,
bibliography, and index. Ed. by Robertson, J. A. Cleveland, 1906.
182 Documentos ineditos por la Historia de España. Madrid, 1847. Vol. I, p. 265.
183 Harrisse, op. cit., p. 544.
184 Doppelmayr. Nachrichten. pp. 45-50; Varnhagen, F. A. de. Jo. Schöner e P. Apianus (Benewitz)
influencia de um e outro e de varios de seus contemporaneos na adopção do nome America. Vienna,
1872; Stevens, H. Johann Schöner, professor of Mathematics at Nuremberg; a reproduction of his
globe of 1523 long lost; his dedicatory letter to Reymer von Streytperck and the ‘De Moluccis’ of
Maximilianus Transylvanus, with a new translation and notes of the globe. Ed. with an introduction
and bibliography by Coote, C. H. London, 1888. pp. xxxix-xliv contains a short biography of
Schöner; Algemeine Deutsche Biographie, “Schöner.”
185 Harrisse. B.A.V. No. 80. The full title with bibliographical references are here given. In addition
to the mere title we read “Cum Globis cosmographicis: sub mulcta quinquaginta florenorum Rhen. et
amissione omnium exemplarium.” “With a cosmographical globe: under a fine of five hundred
Rhenish florins and forfeiting all copies.”
186 Wieser. Magalhâes-Strasse. See especially chap. iii, “Der Globus Schöners vom J. 1515,” and
reproduction, pl. II; Reproduction in Jomard, Nos. 15-16.
187 Harrisse. B.A.V. p. xlix, note 156; also Nos. 99, 100.
188 Stevenson. Martin Waldseemüller and the early Lusitano-Germanic Cartography.
189 Schöner. Luculentissima. fol. 60.
190 Schöner. Luculentissima. verso of fol. 60.

191 Wieser, op. cit.; Ghillany. Geschichte des Seefahrers Ritter Martin Behaim. pp. 8-12. Ghillany
reproduces the western hemisphere of the globe in the original colors; Kohl, J. G. History of the
Discovery of Maine. (In: Documentary history of the State of Maine. Portland, 1869.) Vol. I, pp. 158-
163. This contains a much reduced reproduction of Ghillany’s facsimile of the western hemisphere;
Nordenskiöld, op. cit., p. 80; Santarem. Atlas. pl. 52 (H. S. A. copy); Lelewel. Géographie du moyen
âge. pl. 46.
192 The inscription reads as given by Ghillany.

193 Practically all of the works cited relating to Schöner treat more or less fully of the geographical
features of Schöner’s globes. Wieser’s work is particularly valuable.
194 Stevens, op. cit., gives this letter in facsimile with translation; Wieser, op. cit., pp. 118-122,
reprints the Latin of this letter.
195 Harrisse, op. cit., pp. 519-528.
196 Wieser, op. cit., p. 121.
197 Oberhummer, E. Leonardo da Vinci and the art of the renaissance in its relation to geography.
(In: The Geographical Journal. London, 1909. See pp. 561-569 on Albrecht Dürer.)

Chapter VII

Globes of the Second Quarter of the Sixteenth
Century
Globes indicating (a) an Asiatic connection of the New World, (b) globes expressing a doubt of such
Old World connection, (c) globes showing an independent position of the New World.—
Franciscus Monachus.—Hakluyt’s reference.—The Gilt globe.—Parmentier.—Francesco Libri.
—Nancy globe.—Globes of Gemma Frisius.—Robertus de Bailly.—Schöner globe of 1533.—
Scheipp.—Furtembach.—Paris Wooden globe.—Vopel globes.—Santa Cruz.—Hartmann gores.
—Important globe of Ulpius.—Cardinal Bembo’s globes.—Mercator’s epoch-making activity.
—Fracastro.—Ramusio’s references to globes.—Gianelli.—Florence celestial globe.

A
S in the first quarter of the sixteenth century, so in the second we
find engraved brass and copper globes, globes with manuscript
maps, and those with printed or engraved gore maps. Since the
latter in this period have especially found favor, attention is more and more
directed toward the shaping of the segments or gores with that mathematical
nicety which, as previously stated, would admit of a perfect or almost
perfect adjustment when they were applied to the surface of a prepared ball.
To the independent position of the New World as represented on the globe
maps prior to 1525 attention has been called in the preceding chapter, but
the idea of such independence, it may here be noted, is one contrary to that
very generally though erroneously entertained by historians who have
written of the period, an error doubtless in large measure due to a failure on
their part to give proper heed to the record of the maps as expressing the
geographical notions commonly accepted. Harrisse has well stated the case
in referring to the geographical opinions of the earliest explorers, observing
that the moment search began for a waterway leading from Oceanus
Occidentalis to Oceanus Orientalis, that moment opinion began to become
conviction that a new continental region had been found, that a New World
had been discovered,198 and practically all of the early explorers had hope
of finding such a waterway. It is very true that more than two hundred years
passed from Columbus’ day before there was positive proof of an
independence of the newly found land, but the earliest map makers outlined
it as if believing in its independence of an Old World or Asiatic
connection.199 The so-called Bartholomew Columbus sketch maps,200

probably drawn in the first decade of the sixteenth century (Fig. 47), alone
can be cited, among the maps of any particular importance in the first
quarter of this century, as distinctly indicating a belief in an Asiatic
connection. Attention was likewise called in the preceding chapter to the
fact that toward the close of the century’s first quarter the idea that a
veritably independent new continent had been found was beginning to be
doubted.201 This doubt seemed to follow close upon the publication of the
report of Magellan’s expedition.202 It indeed appears to be generally
accepted that to the report of that remarkable circumnavigation, to the
letters of Cortes respecting his Mexican expedition,203 and to the failure of
his and of other Spanish attempts to find a strait north of the equator
through which one might pass from Oceanus Occidentalis to Oceanus
Orientalis,204 the changed conception of the geography of the New World
was due.

Fig. 47. Bartholomew Columbus Sketch Map, 1506.

This changed conception seems to have found first expression, on a map, in
a little volume prepared by Franciscus Monachus, a friar of Mechlin, about
1525. The title of this volume reads in part,205 ‘De orbis situ ac

descriptione. ad Reuerendiss. D. archiepiscopum Panormitanum, Francisci,
Monachi ordinis Franciscani, epistola sane quã luculenta ...’ ‘A very
excellent letter from Franciscus, a monk of the Franciscan Order, to the
Most Reverend Archbishop of Palermo, touching the site and description of
the world,’ with a colophon reading “Excudebat Martinus Caesar, expensis
honesti viri Rolandi Bollaert ...” “Martinus Caesar prepared this at the
expense of the upright man Roland Bollert.” Its two small woodcut maps
representing the world in hemispheres, respectively the Old and the New
World (Fig. 48), are of striking historical interest, while the text contains
many references which are of importance for the light they cast upon the
geographical opinions of the time respecting the New World. Here, as
noted, the New World is first represented on a map as having distinctly an
Asiatic connection, the southern continent (South America) being separated
from the northern only by that narrow strait which we find so prominently
represented on the Maiollo map of 1527, and there called “stretto
dubitoso.”206 While these hemispheres cannot themselves be referred to as a
globe, they may serve to give us a general idea of the geographical
representations on the globe, which, as appears probable, was at that time
constructed by the author of the text. To the Ecclesiastical Prince, to whom
Franciscus dedicated his little volume, information was sent concerning his
globe on which he had drawn by hand a map of the world as he said, the
reply to his letter containing the following statement, “Orbis globum, in quo
terrae ac maria luculenter depicta sunt, una cum epistola accepimus.” “We
accept the globe of the world on which the land and the seas are elegantly
depicted, together with the epistle.”207 Being a gift it would seem
reasonable to conclude that the globe was not duplicated and offered for
sale and that the example referred to was therefore probably unique. The
text of the ‘De orbis situ ...,’ as it appears, was printed because it was
thought there was much contained therein that was new and not in harmony
with geographical ideas hitherto expressed. The first edition was undated,
nor was the second dated, but it agreed in practically all particulars with the
first excepting a slight alteration in the title. A third edition was issued in
the year 1565, and is still known in many copies, of which Gallois gives an
excellent reprint in his biography of Orontius Finius.208 It is in the first and
second editions that the hemispheres appear; they are wanting in the third,
but as a substitute therefor a small globe resting on a base appears on the

verso of the title-page, which in its general features may be a representation
of Franciscus’ globe.

Fig. 48. Hemispheres of Franciscus Monachus, 1526.

Hakluyt, in his ‘Discourse on Western Planting,’ alludes to “an olde
excellent globe in the Queenes privie gallory at Westminster which also
seemeth to be of Verarsanus makinge, havinge the coste described in Italian,
which laieth oute the very selfe same streite necke of lande in latitude of 40.
degrees, with the sea joynninge harde on bothe sides, as it dothe on Panama
and Nombre di Dios; which would be a matter of singule importannce, yf it
shoulde be true, as it is not unlikely.”209 To this particular globe we do not
seem to be able to find any other allusion.
In the geographical department of the Bibliothèque Nationale there may be
found an exceedingly well-executed globe, neither signed nor dated, but
which appears to have been constructed about the year 1528.210 It is an
unmounted gilded copper sphere (Fig. 49), having a diameter of about 23
cm. Its title reads “Nova et integra universi orbs descriptio,” “A new and
complete description of the entire world,” which, with all legends and local
names, is engraved in small capitals. Based upon the description we possess
of the Schöner globe of 1523, and upon the close resemblance of its coast
outlines to those of the Weimar globe of 1533, there is reason for assigning

it to the Schönerian school. It, however, is to be noted that the nomenclature
of the northeast coast of North America is very different from that which
appears on the last-mentioned globe, and that it more nearly resembles in
that region the simple cordiform map of Orontius Finius of the year
1536.211 The latest geographical information which it records seems to
relate to the expedition of Verrazano. In the region corresponding to the
present New England, we find the legend “Terra Francesca nuper
Lustrata.” The Gulf of Mexico is called “Sinus S. Michaelis,” and the
Caribbean Sea, “Mare Herbidium.” In South America are the conspicuous
legends “America Inventa 1497,” “Brazilio Regio,” and “Terra Nova.”
The great Antarctic land bears the inscription “Regio Patalis.” The Amazon
appears as a river of considerable length, with numerous tributaries. The
course of Magellan’s voyage, so frequently laid down on the maps of the
period, here finds record in the threadlike line which encircles the globe. As
in the hemispheres of Franciscus, so here, America is laid down as a part of
the Asiatic continent. The workmanship of the globe is equal to the best that
one could find in the Italy, France or Germany of that day, while the few
German words among the numerous Latin names, as “Baden,”
“Braunschweig,” and “Wien,” give some support for the claim that it is of
German origin. A Spanish origin, as has sometimes been claimed for it, can
hardly be accepted.

Fig. 49. Gilt Globe, ca. 1528.

Parmentier, a native of the famous seaport Dieppe, had in his day, as a
maker of charts, a very substantial reputation. Whether one should conclude
from references to him as a cartographer that he busied himself with the
construction of globes cannot be definitely determined, as these references
indicate that his maps were merely constructed on a projection which
enabled him in some measure to represent the curved surface of the earth.
Schefer, in his work ‘Le discours de la navigation de Jean et Raoul
Permentier,’ says, “Permentier estoit bon cosmographe et géographe, et par
lui ont esté composez plusieurs mappes monde en globe et en plat et
plusieurs cartes marines, sur les quelles plusieurs ont navigué seurement.”
“Parmentier was a good cosmographer and geographer, and many maps of
the world both in the form of globes and as plane maps were made by him,

also numerous marine charts by means of which many sailed the seas with
safety.”212
Vasari gives us information concerning one Francesco Libri, member of a
famous Veronese artist family, who won distinction as a globe maker in the
early sixteenth century, and who apparently was most active in this field of
endeavor about the year 1530. Although all trace of the globes he is said to
have constructed is lost, Vasari’s reference is worthy citation.
“Among other things,” says that interesting, if not always accurate, Italian
biographer, “he constructed a large globe of wood, being four feet in
diameter; this he then covered externally with a strong glue, so that there
should be no danger of crack or other injury. Now the globe or ball thus
constructed was to serve as a terrestrial globe. Wherefore when it had been
carefully divided and exactly measured under the direction and in the
presence of Fracastro and Baroldi, both well versed in physics and
distinguished as cosmographers and astrologers, it was afterward to be
painted by Francesco for a Venetian gentleman, Messer Andrea Navagero, a
most learned orator and poet, who intended to make a present of the same to
King Francis of France, to whom he was about to be sent as ambassador
from the Republic. But scarcely had Navagero arrived in France and
entered on his office, when he died. The work consequently remained
unfinished, which was much to be regretted since, executed by Francesco,
under the guidance and with the advice and assistance of two men so
distinguished as were Fracastro and Baroldi, it would doubtless have turned
out a very remarkable production. It remained unfinished, however, as I
have said, and what is worse, even that which had been done received
considerable injury, I know not of what kind, in the absence of Francesco;
yet spoiled as it was, the globe was purchased by Messer Bartolommeo
Lonichi who has never been prevailed upon to give it up, although he has
been frequently much entreated to do so, and offered large sums of money
for it.”
“Francesco had made two smaller globes before commencing the large one;
and of these one is now in the possession of Mazzanti, Archdeacon of the
cathedral of Verona; the other belonging to the Count Raimondo della
Torre, and is now the property of his son, the Count Giovanni Battista, by
whom it is very greatly valued, seeing that this also was constructed with

the assistance and after measurements of Fracastro, who was a very
intimate friend of Count Raimondo.”213
As before noted, the exact date when Francesco constructed his globes is
unknown. Vasari, however, informs us, as noted above, that the large one
was constructed for Andrea Navagero, who wished to present it to the King
of France, and that very shortly after his arrival in France on his special
mission his death occurred, which we know to have been the eighth of May,
1529. It must therefore have been in that year that Francesco completed the
construction of his globe. It would be interesting to know the geographical
configuration of the New World as laid down by Fracastro and Francesco
on this large globe, remembering that it was not long after the mission of
Navagero to King Francis that the first Cartier expedition sailed for the
western continent. We cannot be certain, as stated, of its geographical data,
but it seems probable that it followed the Verrazanian type as represented,
for example, in the Maiollo map of 1527, or in the Verrazano map of 1529.
The Lorraine Museum of Nancy possesses a fine globe, neither signed nor
dated, but which usually is referred to as the Nancy globe (Figs. 50, 50a),
and is thought to have been constructed about the year 1530.214 It is a silver
ball 16 cm. in diameter, divided on the line of the equator into hemispheres,
and is supported on a small statue of Atlas. The equator, the tropics, the
polar circles, the zodiac, and one meridian circle passing through the
western part of Asia in the Old World and through the peninsula of Florida
in the New World, are represented. It is an object of interest not only for its
scientific value in giving us a geographical record of the period, but it is
also of interest for its fine workmanship, having its land areas gilded and its
seas blue enameled, in which sea monsters and ships of artistic design
appear. We have the record that in the year 1662, Charles IV, Duke of
Lorraine, presented it to the church of Nôtre Dame de Sion in his residence
city, and that by this church it was long used as a pyx.215 There is a striking
resemblance of its land configurations, and of its geographical
nomenclature to that of the Gilt globe, of the Wooden globe, and of the
World map of Orontius Finaeus of 1531. The New World is represented as a
part of the Asiatic continent, and the central section of that region, to which
we may refer as North America, is designated “Asia Orientalis” and “Asia
Major.” To the east of these names are numerous regional names,

conspicuous among which are “Terra Francesca,” “Hispania Major,” and
“Terra Florida.” The Gulf of Mexico appears as “Mare Cathayum.” Mexico
bears the name “Hispania Nova,” while the sea to the west is named “Mare
Indicum Australe.” The South American continent is called “America
Nova,” and the names are very numerous which have been given to the
various sections, among which we find “Terra Firma,” “Papagelli,” “Terra
Canibale,” “Parias,” and “Peru Provincia.” The large austral land bears the
name “Brasielie Regio,” which name is placed southeast of Africa, and the
name “Patalis Regio” appears southwest of South America.

Fig. 50. Nancy Globe, ca. 1530.

Fig. 50a. Globe of Jacob Stamfer, 1539.

Fig. 50b. Nancy Globe in Hemispheres.

Gemma Frisius (1508-1555), a native of Docum (Fig. 51), and for a number
of years professor of medicine and mathematics in the University of
Louvain,216 issued a little book, in the year 1530, bearing the title ‘De
principiis Astronomiae et Cosmographiae, deque usu globi, ab eodem editi,
item de orbis divisione et insulis, rebusque nuper inventis ... Antverp,
1530.’217 It seems probable that this was issued to serve as explanatory text
for a globe or globes he had constructed or was preparing to construct. In it
we have one of the earliest technical yet practical explanations of the parts
and uses of the globe, and a somewhat detailed statement how such
instruments may be serviceably employed in cosmographical studies. On
the title-page there appears the representation of a globe resting on a base
having three feet, which has been thought to be a representation of his
completed work.218 We are told in his ‘Epistola salutatoria,’ at least in an
implied manner, that there were to be numerous copies of the globes, seeing
that they were intended for the trade, and Roscelli’s statement would lead us
to believe that they had found their way into Italy. All copies, however,
appear to have been lost until a few years since, when both a terrestrial and
a celestial globe of Frisius’ making was found in the Gymnasium
Francisceum of Zerbst, to which discovery a very considerable interest and

importance attaches. In a paper read before the International Congress of
Americanists in 1904, Dr. W. Walter Ruge, all too briefly, describes them,
from which paper the following information is taken.219

Fig. 51. Portrait of Gemma Frisius.

The terrestrial globe, he notes, is not well preserved, being in certain parts
so injured as to render the inscriptions illegible; but in this fact he, however,

finds a certain compensation, as these injuries are of such character as to
disclose the manner of construction. The globe ball, he finds, consists of
two hemispheres of papier-mâché 3 mm. in thickness over which is a layer
of plaster 1½ mm. in thickness. On the smooth surface thus furnished the
twelve gores of which the map is composed had been pasted, these gores
extending from pole to pole.220 Though undated, the following inscription
gives information concerning the map maker and the engravers. “Gemma
Frisius Medicus ac Mathematicus ex varijs descripsit geographicorum
observationibus, atque in hanc formam redegit; Gerardus Mercator
Rupelmundanus coelavit cum Caspare a Myrica, cui et sumptibus
permaximis et laboribus nequaquam minoribus opus constat.” “Gemma
Frisius, physician and mathematician, made (this globe) from the various
observations of geographers, and fashioned it in this form. Gerhard
Mercator of Rupelmunde with Caspar Miracus engraved (it) and expended
on the work a large sum and no little labor.”
Frisius appears in this legend as the maker of the map, with Mercator and
Myrica as the engravers. The date of construction is not given, but it clearly
does not belong to the issue of 1530 referred to above. We read, for
example, along the west coast of South America such names as “Tumbes,”
“tangara siue s. michaelis,” and “Turicarami fluvius,” and find that this west
coast is sketched as far as latitude 5 degrees south. S. Michaelis was
founded in 1532, and information concerning Pizarro’s discoveries probably
did not reach Europe until 1534. Europe has still many of the Ptolemaic
features, as has also the continent of Asia. North America, which is rather
better drawn than on any of the earlier maps, has the legend “Hispania
Maior a Nuño Gusmaño devicta anno 1530.” The west coast becomes a
very indefinite line at latitude 25 degrees north, at which point we read
“Matonchel siue petra portus.” It then sweeps northeastward in a flattened
curve to “Baccalearum Regio” with its “Promōtoriū agricule seu cabo del
labrador.” From the land around the north pole, which is connected with
Asia, the continent is separated by a narrow strait which is referred to as
“Fretum arcticum siue trium fratrum, par quod lusitani in orientem et ad
Indios et Moluccas nauigare conati sunt.” “The Arctic strait or the strait of
the three brothers through which the Portuguese attempted to sail to the
East and to the Indies and the Moluccas.” No general name is given to
South America, but we find such regional names as “Nw Peru Provincia”

and east of this “Bresilia.” In the interior are such legends and local names
as “Caxamalca fuit regis Atabaliape,” “Cuzco,” “Cincha,” “Collao.” The
nomenclature shows decided Spanish influence, as we find “la laguna
poblada,” “R. de los esclavos,” “R. d. los furmos,” “Cabo corto.”
Ruge further notes the finding in the same Gymnasium of Zerbst of a
celestial globe on which appears the following legend, “Faciebant Gemma
Frisius medicus ac mathematicus, Gaspar a Myrica & Gerardus Mercator
Rupelmundanus anno a partu virgineo 1537.” “Gemma Frisius physician
and mathematician, Gaspar Myrica and Gerhard Mercator of Rupelmunde
made this globe in the year 1537.” A comparison of this legend with that of
the terrestrial globe leads to the somewhat ingenious argument that the
latter, though undated, is the older of the two. We know that Mercator was a
pupil of Gemma Frisius,221 and that after leaving his university studies he
found employment with the master in draughting maps and in the
construction of mathematical instruments. In the dated legend of 1537
Mercator and Myrica appear to have advanced in importance, seeing that in
the undated legend they are merely referred to as the engravers, while
Frisius alone is mentioned as the maker of the map. Since this discovery we
are better informed as to the source of Mercator’s information which he
gives in his map of 1538; the evidence being conclusive that in the main he
followed the records of Frisius, adapting his map, however, to the double
cordiform projection.222
Harrisse describes a gilded copper globe, belonging to the collection of the
Bibliothèque Nationale, having a diameter of 14 cm. and bearing the author
and date legend reading “Robertus de Bailly 1530.”223 It is composed of
two parts rather insecurely joined on the line of the equator, and is entirely
without mountings. The engraving of the names, all in small capitals, has
been remarkably well done. In outlining the contour of the New World the
draughtsman of the map has been influenced by the Verrazanian data, and
although exhibiting minor differences in details there is a striking
resemblance to the map of Maiollo of 1527,224 to that of Verrazano of
1529,225 and to that of Ulpius of 1541.226 The region called by Maiollo
“Francesca,” by Verrazano “Verrazana sive Gallia nova,” by Ulpius
“Verrazana sive Nova Gallia,” Robertus calls “Verrazana.” In addition we
find such names as “Terra Laboratoris,” “Bachaliao,” “La Florida,”

“Tenustitan,” “Parias,” “Mundus Novus,” “America,” “St. Crusis,”
“Terra Magellanica.”
A second globe by Robertus de Bailly may be found in the library of Mr. J.
P. Morgan of New York City (Fig. 52). This example, signed and dated
“Robertus de Bailly 1530,” and acquired a few years since, may be counted
one of the finest metal globes of the period. None can be referred to which
is in a better state of preservation, if we can accept its mounting as the
original.227 In Rosenthal’s catalogue No. 100 it is referred to as a
“Verrazzano-Globus,” which is clearly an error, if there was thought of
ascribing it to Giovanni Verrazano, the explorer, or to his brother
Hieronimus, the chart maker. The outlines of its map of the New World are
clearly of Verrazanian origin (Fig. 53), which therefore give to it a
particular interest and value.
Harrisse, in 1896, called attention to his discovery of two globes apparently
of the early fourth decade of the sixteenth century.
The first of these he refers to as a gilded copper sphere about 12 cm. in
diameter, and fashioned to contain the mechanism by means of which it is
made to revolve. It is neither signed nor dated. At the extremity of the rod
passing through the sphere is an arrangement apparently for attachment to a
second piece of mechanism, probably a planetarium. It is surrounded by a
disc on which the hours are engraved in Roman numerals. The geographical
outlines are clearly of Verrazanian origin, representing the New World
relatively long and narrow and having no Asiatic connection. With few
exceptions the nomenclature is in the Latin language, but we read for
instance “El pasaie de S. Michel” and “Rio de las Amazonas”. The name
“America” appears only on the southern continent, where we also find such
legends as “Francisi Pizarri hoc m(onticu?) lo contra indos insignis victoria
anno 1533,” and off the coast of Peru “Ulterius incognitum.”
The second of these globes is likewise of copper, having a diameter of 21
cm. and carries the inscription “Christoff Schiepp sculpsit. Augusta,” which
is placed around a cartouch especially designed for a representation of the
coat of arms of the Welser family. This family, it will be remembered,
figured conspicuously in connection with the German attempt at the
colonization of Venezuela. The engraved title of the map is practically the

same as that to be found on the Paris gilt globe and reads “Nova et integra
universi orbis descriptio.” It omits, however, the legend “Francesca” and
“Verrazana sive nova Gallia,” which fact may be due to its German origin.
The nomenclature in Mexico and in South America is very detailed. The La
Plata River, for example, as in the Gilt globe and in the Wooden globe, is
called “Sinus Juliani”; the Pacific is called “Oceanus Magnus Gelanicus.”
The austral land is referred to as “Terra australis nuper inventa, sed nondum
plene examinata.”

Fig. 52. Terrestrial Globe of Robertas de Bailly, 1530. Nine of twelve gores
exhibiting the map.

Fig. 53. Terrestrial Globe of Robertas de Bailly, 1530.

While the first of these globes is unmounted, Scheipp’s globe is furnished
with gilded meridian and horizon circle, the whole being supported by a

dolphin on a plinth of ebony.
In the year 1533 Johann Schöner issued a small tract bearing the title
‘Joannis Schoneri Carolostadii Opusculum Geographicum ex diversorum
libris ac cartis summa cura & diligentia collectum, accomodatum ad
recenter elaboratum ab eodem globum descriptiones terrenae.’ ‘A
geographical tract of John Schöner of Carlstadt, extracted from various
books and maps with much care and diligence and arranged for a recently
elaborated globe, being a description of the earth.’228 This little book was
dedicated to John Frederick of Saxony “Ex urbe Norica Id. Novembris
Anno MDXXXIII.” To it more than usual interest attaches. As the title
states, it was issued as an explanatory text for a new globe,229 while in
referring to the geography of the New World it clearly sets forth a reason
for the changed notion concerning that geography, to which allusion has
already been made,230 a change from a belief in the independent position of
the new lands to a belief that these lands were but a part of the continent of
Asia. With reference to this point Schöner says, “Unde longissimo tractu
occidentem versus ab Hispani terra est, quae Mexico et Temistitan vocatur
superiori India, quam priores vocavere Quinsay id est civitatem coeli eorum
lingui.” “By a very long circuit westward, starting from Spain, there is a
land called Mexico and Temistitan in Upper India, which in former times
was called Quinsay, that is the city of Heaven, in the language of the
country.” He adds the statement, “Americus tamen Vesputius maritima loca
Indiae superioris ex Hispaniis navigio ad occidentem palustrans, eam
partem que superiore Indiae est, credidit esse insulam, quam a suo nomine
vocari institituit. Alii vero nunc recentiores Hydrographi eam terram
ulterius ex alia parte invenerunt esse continentem Asiae nam sic etiam ad
Moluccas insulas superioris Indiae pervenerunt.” “Americus Vespuccius,
sailing along the coasts of Upper India, from Spain to the west, thought that
the said part which is connected with Upper India, was an island which he
had caused to be called after his own name. But now other hydrographers of
more recent date have found that that land (South America) and others
beyond constitute a continent, which is Asia, and so they reached as far as
the Molucca Islands in Upper India.” A later passage in this tract is likewise
interesting in this connection. After noting that America had been called the
fourth part of the world he adds, “Modo vero per novissimas navigationes,
factas anno post Christum 1519 per Magellanum ducem navium

invictissimi Caesaris divi Caroli etc. versus Moluccas insulas, quas alii
Moluquas vocant, in supremo oriente positas, eam terram invenerunt esse
continentem superioris Indiae, quae pars est Asiae.” “But very lately, thanks
to the very recent navigations accomplished in the year 1519 A. C. by
Magellan, the commander of the expedition of the invincible, the divine
Charles etc. towards the Molucca Islands, which some call Maluquas which
are situated in the extreme east, it has been ascertained that the said country
(America) was the continent of Upper India, which is a part of Asia.”
It seems very probable that the globe referred to in this tract is one of those
(Figs. 54, 54a), bearing neither date nor name of maker, to be found in the
Grand Ducal Library of Weimar.231 This conclusion, it may be stated, is
based upon the fact of a striking agreement between the configurations on
the globe and the descriptions to be found in Schöner’s tract. The date 1534,
which appears on the support, is doubtless of later origin than the globe
itself, just as the date 1510 inscribed on the horizon circle of the Behaim
globe is known not to indicate the year in which that work was completed.
Wieser expresses the conviction that this globe is an improved reproduction
of the one constructed in the year 1523, and he notes the interesting fact of
its configurations resembling closely those of the Orontius Finaeus map of
1531, believing that it was the latter, however, who was the borrower.

Fig. 54. Schöner’s Terrestrial Globe, 1533 (Probable).

Fig. 54a. Schöner’s Celestial Globe, 1533 (Probable).

The Schiepp globe, referred to above, appears to have been constructed for
a member of the Welser family, a rich patrician of South Germany. To
Raymond Fugger, likewise a South German patrician, a member of a rich

banker family of Augsburg, one Martin Furtembach dedicated a terrestrial
globe which he had constructed in the year 1535.232 This date and the
wording of the dedication we get from a record of the year 1565. “Viro
Magnifico Dn. Raymundo Fuggero, Invictissimorum Caroli V. Imperatoris,
Ferdinandi primi Regis Romanorum a Consilijs, prudentissimo,
studiosorum Mecaenasi, pauperum Christi asylo cantatissimo, Martinus
Furtenbachius Abusiacus, Astrophilus typum hunc Cosmographicum
universalem composuit atque dedicavit Anno a nato Christo M.D.XXXV.”
“To the Magnificent Dn. Raymond Fugger, most competent counselor of
the most invincible Prince Charles V Emperor, and Ferdinand the First King
of the Romans, a Maecenas of scholars, a most provident supporter of the
poor in Christ, Martin Furtembach lover of astronomy, composed and
dedicated this universal cosmographical figure, in the year of Christ 1535.”
This globe, which we learn was taken from the Fugger castle of Kirchbay to
the Vienna Imperial Library, in what year we do not know, seems to have
disappeared some time after 1734, since, as Harrisse notes, no reference to
it can be found after that date. It is described as a gilt copper ball of large
size and an object of real art, being “ornamented on all sides with various
figures of exquisite engraving, and is supported by a figure of Atlas with his
right hand holding a compass, but with the rest of his body supported by his
left hand, in a stooping posture.”
In addition to the globes previously referred to as belonging to the
Bibliothèque Nationale, there is one supposed to have been constructed
about the year 1535. It is neither signed nor dated, but is usually referred to
as the Paris Wooden globe.233 The diameter of the sphere is 20 cm. It is
without the usual mountings of meridian and horizon circles but is
supported by an iron rod attached to a wooden base (Fig. 55), which rod
serves as an axis about which it may be revolved. A thick layer of paint
covers the surface of the ball, on which the geographical names, legends,
and configurations have been inscribed with a pen in a running hand. The
poor calligraphy suggests that it is not the work of an expert cartographer,
but of one who somewhat hastily and carelessly had undertaken to copy a
globe map of the type represented in the work of Franciscus, of the maker
of the Paris Gilt globe, or of Schöner in his globe of 1533. Meridians are
represented at intervals of ten degrees commencing at a prime meridian
which passes through the Cape Verde Islands, while the parallels are

similarly marked, the graduation being indicated on the prime meridian.
The globe maker has retained in his representations the old climatic idea, of
which climates there are nine specifically designated. We find on this globe
such inscriptions as “Baccalarum Regio,” with its neighboring “Pelagus
Baccalarum,” “Terra Francesca,” “Hispania Major,” “Terra Florida,” with
the Gulf of Mexico bearing the name “M. Cathayum” as in the Nancy
globe. The South American continent is conspicuously marked as “America
Nova Orbis Pars,” and contains in addition many regional names. The
western ocean, beginning with that part which washes the coast of Mexico,
thence southward, is called “Mare di Sur,” “Mare Culuacanum,” “Mare
Indicum Australe,” “Mare Pacificum,” and “Oceanus Magellanicus.” The
location of the colony which was planted by Pizarro in 1532, and which is
called “S. Michaelis,” is made prominent.

Fig. 55. Paris Wooden Globe, 1535.

Caspar Vopel,234 born at Medebach near Cologne, in the year 1511, was of
that group of German cartographers and globe makers active in the second
quarter of the sixteenth century in giving to the general public a knowledge
of the great geographical discoveries of the day. Though much of the
information through the maps which they constructed was strikingly
inaccurate, their work is none the less interesting to the student of historical
geography. It appears that Vopel entered the University of Cologne in the
year 1526, that at a later date he became a professor of mathematics in a
Cologne gymnasium, and that he continued to reside in this city until his
death in the year 1561. During these years he became well known as a
maker of maps and globes. Of his very large and important world map,
issued in the year 1558, and which so admirably sets forth his geographical
notion of an Asiatic connection of the New World, an original copy may be
found in the collection of Prince Liechtenstein, which is reproduced, after
Giriva’s redraughting, in Nordenskiöld’s ‘Facsimile Atlas.’235 In the history
of cartography his map of Europe and his Rhine map especially merit a
place of prominence.
Nine of his globes are known, most of which are constructed as armillary
spheres, having within the numerous armillae or circles a small terrestrial
globe, or at least that which passes as a representation of the same. His first
work of which we have knowledge, now belonging to the city of Cologne,
and to be found in the collection of its archives, is inscribed “Caspar
Medebach opus hoc astronomicum fecit 1532 Martii.” It is a credit to the
youthful artist and cosmographer, suggesting, says Korth,236 the possession
of a technic resembling that of Dürer. This is a celestial globe 28 cm. in
diameter, having its star map drawn by hand, which is now somewhat
discolored with age.
Four years later Vopel constructed a second celestial globe, apparently a
reproduction of the first but having its map printed on gores which he
pasted on the surface of the sphere. It bears the inscription “Caspar Vopel,
Medebach, hanc Cosmogr. faciebat sphaeram Coloniae Ao 1536,” has the
same diameter as the one of 1532, and is now its companion in the city
archives of Cologne.237

The National Museum of Washington possesses a fine example of Vopel’s
work (Fig. 9), concerning which Mr. Maynard, curator of Mechanical
Technology, writes that “the globe in this Museum is an armillary sphere of
eleven metal rings, 4½ inches in diameter, with a very small globe in the
center. The rings are elaborately inscribed with astronomical signs and
scales, with names in Latin. On one of the rings is the inscription, ‘Caspar
Vopel, Artium Professor, Hanc Sphaeram Faciebat Colonia, 1541.’”238
In 1542 he constructed his first terrestrial globe, a copy of which is to be
found in the Cologne archives.239 It has a diameter of 28 cm., its map gores,
as in the case of the celestial globe of 1536, being printed from an engraved
plate. Excepting the discoloration of age and a slight indentation near the
north pole, it is well preserved. The title legend reads “Nova et integra
universi orbis descriptio.” “A new and complete description of the entire
globe.” A second legend, placed in the middle Atlantic, reads “Caspar Vopel
Medebach geographicam sphaeram hanc faciebat Coloniae A. 1542.”
“Caspar Vopel of Medebach made this globe in 1542 at Cologne.” His
terrestrial map assures us of his acceptance of the idea that the American
continent could be but an extension of the continent of Asia; that is, like his
predecessor Schöner and others of the second quarter of the sixteenth
century, referred to above, he had concluded after Magellan had found a
termination of the newly found transatlantic region at the south, and no
passageway from the Atlantic to the Pacific north of the equator had been
found though search had frequently been made for the same, this country
could therefore no longer be considered as an independent continent. The
river “Cham,” which on his map he made to empty into the Gulf of Mexico,
he gives as the dividing line between “Hispania Nova” and “Cathay.” There
is striking evidence that Vopel was acquainted with Orontius Finaeus’ map
of 1531 or its source, as, for example, he writes across the great austral
continent, “Terra Australis recenter inventa, sed nondum plene cognita,”
adding the words “Anno 1499,” which also appear on the Paris Wooden
globe of 1535.
In the Old Nordiske Museum of Copenhagen is an armillary sphere of
Vopel, composed of eleven brass rings representing the equator, the ecliptic,
the tropics, the polar circles, etc., within which is a small terrestrial globe,
on the surface of which is a manuscript world map. Quad refers to this

globe in the following words: “Item ein Astrolabium novum varium ac
plenum das auff alle Landschafften (kann) dirigiert werden beide den
Mathematicis unnd Medicis sehr nutz, in funffzehen Stöck und auff acht
bogen gedruckt, darunder auch ein kleine artige Mappa Mundi ins runde
gelegt ist.”240
On the circle representing the Tropic of Cancer is engraved the legend
“Caspar Vopell Medebach hanc sphaeram faciebat Coloniae 1543.” “Caspar
Vopel of Medebach made this globe in Cologne in the year 1543.” On the
bottom of the box in which the globe is kept is a modern label reading
“Nocolaus Copernicus 1543 ... ty ... Brah.” Copernicus died in the year
designated, and Tycho Brahe was born in the year 1546. It appears,
therefore, that this globe once belonged to the great Danish astronomer.
In the Library of Congress, acquired from L. Friedrichsen of Hamburg, is a
fine example of the work of Vopel.241 This armillary sphere of eleven rings,
encircling a terrestrial globe 7.2 cm. in diameter, is mounted on a copper
base. On the circle representing the Tropic of Cancer is the inscription
“Caspar Vopel artiv̄ profes. hanc sphaeram faciebat Coloniae 1543.”
“Caspar Vopel professor of arts made this globe in Cologne in the year
1543,” while on the remaining circles are engraved numerous
cosmographical signs and names. The terrestrial globe is covered with a
manuscript map in colors, and bears the title legend “Nova ac generalis
orbis descriptio,” and the author legend “Caspar Vopel mathe. faciebat.”
Most of the regional names on the map are in red, and a red dot is employed
to indicate the location of certain important cities, the names in general
being omitted. The globe is remarkably well preserved (Fig. 56).

Fig. 56. Vopel Globe, 1543.

Fig. 56a. Western Hemisphere of Vopel Terrestrial Globe.

In the collection of Jodoco del Badia, state archivist of Florence, is a Vopel
armillary sphere of the year 1544.242 The engraved inscription on the Tropic
of Cancer reads “Caspar Vopel Me. Matem. hanc sphaeram faciebat
coloniae 1544.” Within the eleven armillae is a very small wooden sphere
intended to represent a terrestrial globe of wood, about 3 cm. in diameter,
on which the equator and the tropics are represented, but no geographical
details of any value appear because of the small size of the ball.
A Vopel armillary sphere, apparently like the preceding, bearing the same
date and legends, is reported as belonging to the city museum of
Salzburg.243

A somewhat detailed description, by J. H. Graf, of a Vopel armillary sphere
in the possession of the Herr Forstinspector Frey of Bern, appeared in the
year 1894, in the Jahresbericht of the Geographical Society of Munich.244 It
is composed of twelve instead of eleven armillae, and at the common center
is a small terrestrial ball. The inscriptions appearing on each of the several
rings are given by Graf, and the work of Vopel is compared with that of
other map makers of the time. On circle 3, for example, counting from the
outermost, is a citation from Ovid (Amores I. 6. 59), “Night, love, and wine
are not counselors of moderation.” On circle 5, which represents the Tropic
of Cancer, is the author and date legend, reading “Caspar Vopellius Mathe.
Profes. hanc sphaeram faciebat Coloniae 1545.” On circle 7 we read “Fate
rules the world, all stands secure according to unchangeable law, and the
long lapse of time is marked by certain course.” On one of the circles
movable about the pole of the ecliptic is the inscription “The sun, called
Helios, moves through the entire circle of the zodiac in 365 days and about
6 hours.” Graf notes the striking similarity of this sphere to that belonging
to the Old Nordiske Museum of Copenhagen, and adds to his paper a
reproduction of the terrestrial globe map in plane projection.245 The feature
common to all of the Vopel maps, viz., the connection of the New and the
Old Worlds, is particularly emphasized. The name “America” appears only
on South America, and rightly so, if at all, in keeping with his geographical
ideas.
Günther reports that there may be found in the Hof- und Staatsbibliothek of
Munich (Sig. Math. A 41, fol.), a volume of drawings and engravings once
belonging to the Nürnberg mathematician, George Hartmann.246 In this
collection there are two sets of celestial globe gores, the one containing
nine, originally ten parts, dated February, 1535, the other containing ten
undated parts. It is thought by Günther that we have here, in all probability,
the earliest example of engraved celestial globe gores, a second example in
date being that by Vopel of 1536, and referred to above.
In the year 1859 Mr. Buckingham Smith obtained in the city of Madrid an
engraved copper globe of striking scientific value and interest. On the death
of Mr. Smith this globe, now known as the Ulpius globe (Fig. 57), was
purchased by Mr. John David Wolf and later was presented to the Library of
the New York Historical Society, where it may now be found among that

society’s rich collection of historical treasures.247 It is of large size, having
a diameter of 39 cm., rests upon an oak base, and measuring from the
bottom of the base to the top of the iron cross which tips the north polar
axis, its entire height is 111 cm. The hollow hemispheres of which the ball
is composed are made to join at the line of the equator, the parts being held
together by iron pins. In addition to its copper equatorial circle, which is
neatly graduated and engraved with signs of the zodiac, it has a meridian
and an hour circle of brass. On the surface of the globe itself the principal
parallels are drawn, and meridians at intervals of thirty degrees, the line of
the ecliptic being very prominent, and the boundary line proposed by Pope
Alexander VI, marking a terminus for the claims of Spain and Portugal to
newly discovered regions, is strikingly conspicuous, with its legend
reaching from pole to pole, “Terminus Hispanis et Lusitanis ab Alexandro
VI P. M. assignatus.”248 “Limit to Spain and Portugal set by Pope
Alexander VI.”

Fig. 57. Terrestrial Globe of Euphrosynus Ulpius, 1541.

That a globe of such large dimensions, and of date so early, should come
down to our day scarcely injured in the slightest degree, is a source of much
delight to students of early cartography and of early discovery and
exploration.
In a neat cartouch we read the following inscription: “Regiones orbis terrae
quae aut aveterib traditae aut nostra patrūq memoria compertae sint.
Euphrosynus Ulpius describebat anno salutis M.D.XLII.” “Regions of the
terrestrial globe which are handed down by the ancients or have been
discovered in our memory or that of our fathers. Delineated by
Euphrosynus Ulpius in the year of salvation 1542.” The work is dedicated
to “Marcello Cervino S. R. E. Presbitero Cardinali D. D. Rome,”
“Marcellus Cervino, Cardinal Presbyter and Doctor of Divinity of the Holy
Roman Church, Rome,”249 the dedication being inscribed in a cartouch
ornamented with wheat or barley heads, a device to be found in the coat of
arms of the Cervino family, and with the deer which may be taken as an
allusion to the name.
Not the least interesting feature of its geographical record in the New World
is that wherein testimony is given to the voyage of Verrazano in the year
1524. The outline of the North American continent is strikingly like that
given in the Verrazano map of 1529 (Fig. 58), showing an isthmus in the
vicinity of Chesapeake Bay, beyond which stretches a great unnamed sea to
the west, called in some of the early maps the Sea of Verrazano. Ulpius
attests the discovery in the following legend, “Verrazana sive Nova Gallia a
Verrazano Florentino comperta anno Sal. M.D.” “Verrazana or New France
discovered by Verrazano a Florentine in the year of salvation 1500.” The
date in this legend is taken to be an incomplete rather than an erroneous
record, the correct date being obtainable from the following legend
appearing on the map of Hieronimus Verrazano, brother of the explorer,
“Verrazana sive nova gallia quale discopri 5 anni fa giovanni di verrazano
fiorentino per ordine et commandamento del Christianissimo re di francia.”
“Verrazana or New France discovered five years since by Giovanni
Verrazano a Florentine by order and command of the Most Christian King
of France.”250 Ulpius must have made use of this Verrazano map in drawing
the outline of North America, though he did not copy slavishly, as we find

that he greatly improved on that map in the trend he has given the Atlantic
coast line of North America, and in the numerous details he has inscribed.
In very many of the Atlantic coast names, however, there is a practical
agreement between those on the globe and those on the map.

Fig. 58. Western Hemisphere of Ulpius Globe, 1541.

To the continent of South America is given both the name “America” and
“Mundus Novus,” while numerous provincial names appear, as “Peru,”
“Bresilia,” “Terra de giganti.” The land areas of both the New and the Old
World are liberally ornamented with representations of the local animal life,
the traditional belief in the existence of cannibals in Mundus Novus being
especially prominent. The oceans are made to abound in sea monsters, and
vessels sail hither and thither over the courses then followed by navigators.
Though South America has the entire coast line represented, that section
stretching southward from Peru is marked as “terra incognita.” Separated

from the mainland by the Strait of Magellan, marked by the legend,
“initium freti magellanici,” is an extensive land area, that part lying to the
southwest of the strait being called “Regio Patalis,” that to the southeast as
“Terra Australis adhuc incomperta,” while from this particular region there
stretches away to the east, as far as the meridian passing through the
southern point of Africa, a peninsula across which is the legend “Lusitani
ultra promotorium bone spei i Calicutium tendentes hanc terra viderut, veru
non accesserunt, quamobrem neq nos certi quidqȝ afferre potuimus.” “The
Portuguese sailing beyond the Cape of Good Hope to Calicut, saw this land
but did not reach it, wherefore neither have we been able to assert anything
with certainty concerning it.”
In the main Ptolemy served as a source of information for the regions of the
East, although much of the information which the earlier years of the
century had contributed to a knowledge of that far-away country is
recorded.
The large size of the globe gave opportunity for the inscription of numerous
geographical details, and of this opportunity the engraver fully availed
himself. It may well be referred to as one of the most interesting of the early
globes, and its map records as possessing great scientific value.
Tiraboschi alludes to a globe possessed by Cardinal Pietro Bembo (1470-
1547), citing a letter written by Giacomo Faletti at Venice, June 3, 1561, to
Alfonso II D’Este of Ferrara, in which mention is made of the same. “I have
bought,” says Faletti, “the globe of Cardinal Bembo for fifteen scudi which
is the price of the metal composing it, and I have given it out to be
decorated hoping to make of it the most beautiful globe which is possessed
by any Prince in the world. It will cost altogether 25 scudi.”251 This globe
must have been made before the year 1547, in which year occurred the
death of the cardinal. Fiorini expresses the opinion that it probably was
owned by him while making his residence at Padua, when, free from care,
he was giving himself to study and to the collection of scientific and artistic
objects.252
One of Spain’s distinguished chart makers of the middle of the sixteenth
century was Alonso de Santa Cruz (1500-1572).253 Although but few of his
cartographical productions are known, there is to be found in the survivals

abundant evidence of his marked ability. We learn concerning him that by
royal order of July 7, 1536, he was created cosmographer of the Casa de
Contratacion at a salary of 30,000 maravedis, that in this capacity it was his
duty to examine and pass upon sailing charts, that shortly after the above-
named date he became Cosmografo Major, and that some time before his
death, which occurred in the year 1572, Philip II appointed him to the office
of Royal Historian.254 His best-known work is his ‘Yslario general del
mondo,’ of which three signed manuscript copies are known, no one of
which, however, appears to be complete. Two of these copies are to be
found in the Royal Library of Vienna;255 the third, now belonging to the
City Library of Besançon, was at one time in the possession of Cardinal
Granvella.256 The National Library of Madrid possesses a fine manuscript
atlas, which has been generally attributed to Garcia Cespedes, since his
name appears on the frontispiece, but which now is thought by those who
have most carefully examined it to be the work of Santa Cruz. There are
evidences that it has been somewhat altered in parts, which alterations may
have been the work of Cespedes.257
In addition to his ‘Yslario’ we still have his remarkable map of the city of
Mexico, belonging to the University Library of Upsala,258 and one copy of
his world map in gores (Fig. 59), preserved in the Royal Library of
Stockholm. It is this last-named map which especially interests us here.259

Fig. 59. Gore Map of Alonso de Santa Cruz, 1542.

Though the form of the map suggests that it had been the author’s intention
to paste it on the surface of a prepared sphere, there appears to be good
reason for thinking that this particular copy was not intended to serve him
in a terrestrial globe construction. It is surrounded with an ornamental
border finely executed in gold and white, and stretching across the top is a
waving scroll in which has been written the inscription “Nova verior et
integra totius orbis descriptio nunc primum in lucem edita per Alfonsum de
Sancta Cruz Caesaris Charoli V. archicosmographum. A.D. M.D.XLII.” “A
very new and complete description of the whole world now first prepared
by Alfonso de Santa Cruz Cosmographer Major of the Emperor Charles V.
1542.” The original map is drawn on three connected sheets of parchment,
as Dahlgren states in his excellent monograph, the total dimensions of
which are 79 by 144 cm. In the lower corner on the left is the dedication:
“Potentiss. Caes. Carlo V. Usi sumus et hic ad terrae, marisque simul,
demonstractionem, sectione alia, Augustiss. Caesar, per equinotialem
lineam Polum quemque, dividui ipsius globi, singula medietas obtinens,
depressoque utroque in planum Polo, equinotialem ipsam secantes,
rationem prospectivam servavimus, quemadmodum et in alia, veluti solutis
Polis, itidem in planum discisis meridianis propalavimus, neque
pretermissis hic longitudinum latitudinumque graduum parallelorum
climatumque dimensionibus. Vale.” “O powerful Caesar! we have, here also
in this map of land and sea, made use of a new division of the globe;
namely, at the equator, so that each half of the globe thus divided has one of
the poles as its center. By depressing the pole to the plane of the equator
and by making incisions from the equator to the pole, we have made a
projection similar to that presented to the public on the other map with
detached poles and with the meridians separated on the same plane, without
disregarding the correct dimensions of the longitude, latitudes, degrees,
parallels, and climates. Farewell.”
The map represents the world in two hemispheres, a northern and a
southern, each drawn on thirty-six half gores or sectors. The following
appears to have been the method of construction. With the poles as centers,
and with a radius equal to one fourth of the length of a meridian circle of
the globe he drew his large circle or circles representing the equator and
forming the bases of each of the half gores. Each of the large or equatorial
circles he divided into thirty-six equal arcs, and from the points establishing

such divisions he drew a meridian line extending in each hemisphere to the
pole or center of his circle. These meridian lines were graduated and lines
or arcs representing parallels of latitude were drawn intersecting them at
intervals of ten degrees, having the pole as the common center in each
hemisphere. Marking off on each of these parallels or arcs both to right and
left a distance representing five degrees of the earth’s longitude, he thus
established the points through which to draw his meridians which marked
the boundaries of each sector, leaving between the sectors equal spaces to
be cut away should the sectors be used for pasting on the surface of a
sphere. Every fifth meridian and every tenth parallel is drawn in black; the
equator, the tropics, the polar circles, and the prime meridian are gilded.
The prime meridian runs somewhat to the west of the Island of Fayal. At
longitude 20 degrees west is the papal line of demarcation which is called
“Meridianus particionis,” crossing South America south of the mouth of the
Amazon. On the one side of this line in the southern hemisphere appears the
flag of Spain, on the other that of Portugal, thus designating specifically the
“Hemisperium Regis Castelle,” and the “Hemisperium Regis Portugalie.”
California is referred to as “y a q̄ descubrio el marq’s del valle,” “island
discovered by the Marquis del Valle,” and the coast north of this point is
called “ter̄ a q̄ cnbio(?) a descubrio dē ant o d’ mēdoca,” “land to discover
which Don Antonio de Mendoza sent out an expedition.” In drawing the
outlines of his continents he seems to have made use of the best available
sources. The New World follows the Sevillan type, as represented in the
Ribeiro maps, particularly the eastern or Atlantic coast regions, including,
though in somewhat abbreviated form, the references to Gomez, Ayllon,
and Narvaez. There is no distinct coast line north of California, which line
follows the meridian of 105 degrees as far north as the Arctic circle, hence
there is no positive representation of an Asiatic connection, but rather the
indication of a doubt, as was indicated on maps of the type.
If Santa Cruz intended his peculiar gores to serve in the construction of a
terrestrial globe, we cannot find that he impressed his method on the globe
makers of the period. We seem to have but one striking imitation of his
work, viz., in the gore map of Florianas, to which reference is made
below.260

To that striking feature of many of the globe maps of the second quarter of
the sixteenth century, in which an Asiatic connection of the New World is
represented, attention has been called in the preceding pages; there likewise
has been noted the fact that not a few of the map makers of the period
expressed a certain degree of doubt as to whether the prevailing idea of the
first quarter of the century (that the lands discovered in the west constituted
a veritable New World) should be given over, preferring to omit altogether
the west and northwest coast line of North America, or to make very
indefinite allusion to the geography of the region.
We now come to the consideration of a map and globe maker who carries us
back to the geographical notion of the earlier years of the century, namely,
to the idea that the New World was nothing less than an independent
continent. The activities of Gerhard Mercator (1512-1594) (Fig. 60) were
epoch making, and a reference to him more detailed than has been accorded
his predecessors is fitting.261 He was a native of Rupelmunde, a small town
situated in the Pays de Waes in East Flanders, not far from the city of
Antwerp. His parents died while he was still a mere lad, but in a great-uncle
he found a faithful guardian and a generous benefactor, who took care that
his education should be the best that was afforded by the schools of the
Netherlands. In 1527, at the age of fifteen, he entered the College of Bois-
le-Duc in Brabant, where he studied for three and one half years, and in
1530 he was matriculated as a student in the University of Louvain, famous
throughout Europe at that early date as a center of learning.262 During his
university career he appears to have given much thought to the problems of
science, including the “origin, nature, and destiny” of the physical universe.
While these studies did not bear directly upon that branch of science in
which he was to win for himself such marked distinction in later years, they
indicate the early existence of a desire for knowledge scientific rather than
for knowledge theological, notwithstanding the fact that his guardian and
patron was an ecclesiastic.

Fig. 60. Portraits of Gerhard Mercator and Jodocus Hondius.

In Gemma Frisius, an eminent professor of mathematics in the University
of Louvain, and at one time a pupil of Apianus, he appears, as before noted,
to have found a sympathetic friend and counselor.263 It probably was Frisius
who suggested a career for the young scientist, since we find him, shortly
after graduation, turning his attention to the manufacture of mathematical
instruments, to the drawing, engraving, and coloring of maps and charts,
wherein he found a vocation for the remainder of his life. In 1537 his first
publication, a map of Palestine, appeared, to which he gave the title
“Amplissima Terrae Sanctae descriptio.”264 Immediately thereafter, at the
instance of a certain Flemish merchant, he undertook the preparation of a
map of Flanders, making for the same extensive original surveys. This map
was issued in the year 1540.265 Mercator’s first published map of the world
bears the date 1538. This map was drawn in the double cordiform
projection which seems first to have been employed by Orontius Finaeus in
his world map of 1531.266 In this map Mercator departed from the
geographical notions generally entertained at this particular period which
made America an extension of Asia. He represented the continent of Asia
separated from the continent of America by a narrow sea, an idea which
increased in favor with geographers and cartographers long before actual

discovery proved this to be a fact. This map is one to which great
importance attaches, but it is not the first world map on which there was an
attempt to fasten the name America upon both the northern and the southern
continents of the New World, although it frequently has been referred to as
such; this honor, so far as we at present know, belongs to a globe map
referred to and briefly described above.267 His large map of Europe, the
draughting of which appears to have claimed much of his time for a number
of years, was published in the year 1554, and contributed greatly to his
fame as a cartographer.268 In 1564 appeared his large map of England,269
and in the same year his map of Lorraine based upon his own original
surveys.270 In the year 1569 a master work was issued, this being his
nautical chart, “ad usum navigantium,” as he said of it, based upon a new
projection which he had invented.271 It is the original chart setting forth the
Mercator projection which is now so extensively employed in map making.
In the year 1578 he issued his revised edition of the so-called Ptolemy
maps, and eight years later these same maps again, revised with the
complete text of Ptolemy’s work on geography. Mercator expressly stated it
to be his purpose, in this last work, not to revise the text in order to make it
conform to the most recent discoveries and geographical ideas, but the
rather to have a text conforming, as nearly as possible, to Ptolemy’s original
work. This edition still ranks as one of the best which has ever been issued.
His great work, usually referred to as his ‘Atlas of Modern Geography,’ the
first part of which appeared in 1585, and a second part in 1590, was not
completed during his lifetime, though but four months after his death, in the
year 1594, Rumold Mercator published his father’s collection of maps,
adding a third part to those which previously had been issued. It was this
publication which bore the title ‘Atlas sive cosmographicae meditationes de
fabrica mundi et fabricati figura.’ Apparently for the first time the term
“atlas” had here been employed for a collection of maps, a term which we
know had its origin with Gerhard Mercator himself. A reference to his
general cartographical work more detailed than the above cannot here find
place. It is his globes which call for special consideration.
There is reason for thinking it was Nicolás Perrenot, father of Cardinal
Granvella, who suggested to Mercator the construction of a globe; it at least
was to this great Prime Minister of the Emperor Charles V that he dedicated
his first work of this character, a terrestrial globe dated 1541.272 That

Mercator had constructed such a globe had long been known through a
reference in Ghymmius’ biography, yet it had been thought, until 1868, that
none of the copies of this work had come down to us. In that year there was
offered for sale, in the city of Ghent, the library of M. Benoni-Verelst and
among its treasures was a copy of Mercator’s engraved globe gores of the
year 1541, which were acquired by the Royal Library of Brussels, where
they may still be found. Soon thereafter other copies of these gores,
mounted and unmounted, came to light in Paris, in Vienna, in Weimar, in
Nürnberg, and later yet other copies in Italy, until at present no less than
twelve copies are known.
These gores were constructed to cover a sphere 41 cm. in diameter, and the
map represents the entire world, with its seas, its continents, and its islands.
The names of the various regions of the earth, of the several empires, and of
the oceans are inscribed in Roman capital letters; the names of the
kingdoms, of the provinces, of the rivers, are inscribed in cursive Italic
letters, while for the names of the several peoples he employed a different
form of letter. The gores, twelve in number, were engraved and printed in
groups of threes (Fig. 61), each gore having an equatorial diameter of thirty
degrees. Mercator worked out mathematically the problem dealing with the
proper relation of the length of each of the gores to its width, or of its longer
diameter to its shorter, in his endeavor to devise a map as nearly perfect as
possible in shape for covering a ball, knowing full well the difficulty of
fitting a flat surface to one that is curved. Each of the gores he truncated
twenty degrees from the poles, and for the polar areas he prepared a circular
section drawn according to the rule applicable to an equidistant polar
projection. It appears, as before noted, that he was the first to apply this
method in globe construction.

Fig. 61. Six of Twelve Terrestrial Globe Gores by Gerhard Mercator, 1541.

The ecliptic, the tropics, and the polar circles are represented at their proper
intervals, with other parallels at intervals of ten degrees, and meridians at
intervals of fifteen degrees. As in his double cordiform map of 1538, his
prime meridian passes through the island of “Forte Ventura,” one of the
Fortunate Islands of the ancients, but which had long been known as the
Canary Islands. To his globe map he added a feature of special value to
seamen. From the numerous compass or wind roses, distributed with some
regularity over its surface, he drew loxodromic lines, or curved lines cutting
the meridians at equal angles.273 This feature could not have failed to win
the approval of navigators, since they well knew that the previous attempts
to represent these rhumbs as straight lines on maps drawn on a cylindrical
projection, led to numerous errors in navigation. A second somewhat
curious and interesting feature of his globe, a feature which I do not recall
to have noticed in any other, is the representation in various localities on
land and on sea of certain stars, his idea being that he could thus assist the
traveler to orient himself at night. In his list of stars on his globe map, we

find, for example, “Sinister humerus Boötes” near latitude 40 degrees north,
longitude 210 degrees; “Corona septentrionalis” near latitude 29 degrees
north, longitude 227 degrees; “Cauda Cygni” near latitude 44 degrees north,
longitude 305 degrees; “Humerus Pegasus” near latitude 12 degrees north,
longitude 340 degrees; “Crus Pegasi” near latitude 26 degrees north,
longitude 339 degrees; six of the important stars in “Ursa Major,” including
“Stella Polaris,” and in the present California, somewhat strangely
prophetic, “Caput Draconis.”
On the ninth gore, counting from the prime meridian eastward, is a legend
giving the author’s name, the date of issue, and a reference to the
publication privilege, reading “Edebat Gerardus Mercator Rupelmundanus
cum privilegio Ces Maiestatis ad an sex Lovanii an 1541.” “Published by
Gerard Mercator of Rupelmunde under the patent of His Imperial Majesty
for six years at Louvain in the year 1541.” In a corresponding position on
the seventh gore is the dedication “Illustris: Dnō Nicolao Perrenoto Domino
à Granvella Sac. Caesaree Ma ti à consiliis primo dedecatũ.” “Dedicated to
the very distinguished Seigneur Nicholás Perrenot, Seigneur de Granvella;
first counselor of His Imperial Majesty,” over which is the coat of arms of
the Prime Minister. On gore six we read “Ubi & quibus argumentis Lector
ab aliorum descriverimus editione libellus noster indicabit.” “Reader, where
and in what subjects we have copied from the publications of other men
will be pointed out in our booklet,” in which there appears to be a reference
to an intended publication wherein his globe was to be described and its
uses indicated. No such work by Mercator is known to exist, although we
find that in the year 1552 he issued a small pamphlet bearing the title
‘Declaratio insigniorum utilitatum quae sunt in globo terrestri, caelesti et
anulo astronomico. Ad invictissimum Romanum Imperatorus Carolum
Quintum.’ ‘A presentation of the particular advantages of the terrestrial,
celestial, and armillary spheres. Dedicated to the invincible Roman
Emperor Charles Fifth.’274
He tells us in one of his legends how to find the distance between two
places represented on the globe, observing, “Si quorum voles locorū
distantiā cognoscere ... trāsferto, hic tibi, q̄ libet particula ĭtercepta millaria
referet, Hisp: 18, Gal: 20, Germ: 15, Milia pass; 60, Stadia 500,” from
which it appears that he gives as the value of an equatorial degree 60 Italian

miles or 500 stadia, equivalent to 18 Spanish miles, to 20 French miles, and
to 15 German miles. Finding numerous errors in Ptolemy’s geography of
the Old World, he tells us that he undertook to correct these errors from the
accounts of Marco Polo, whom he calls “M. Paulo Veneto,” and from the
accounts of Vartema, whom he calls “Ludovico, Rom Patricii.” Between
parallels 50 degrees and 60 degrees south latitude and meridians 60 degrees
and 70 degrees east longitude is the inscription “Psitacorum regio a
Lusitanis anno 1500 ad millia passum bis mille praetervectis, sic appellata
quod psitacos elat inaudite magnitudinis, ut qui ternos cubitos aequent
longitudine.” “Region of parrots discovered by the Portuguese in 1500 who
sailed along 2000 miles; so called because it has parrots of unheard-of size,
measuring three cubits in length.” America, he notes, is called New India,
“America a multis hodie Noua India dicta.” In the Antarctic region an
inscription tells of the notion entertained by many geographers of his day
and by some in an earlier day, that in addition to the four known parts of the
world, Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, there is here a fifth part of large
size stretching for a number of degrees from the pole, which region is called
“terra Australe.” Mercator undertook, in Chapter X of his ‘Atlas,’ to
demonstrate that a large Antarctic continent must of necessity exist as a
balance to the weight of the other four continents or parts of the world lying
in the northern hemisphere.275
In 1551 he issued his copper engraved gores for a celestial globe, dedicating
the same to Prince George of Austria, natural son of the Emperor
Maximilian, who was Bishop of Brixen, Archbishop of Valencia, and
Bishop of Liège in the year 1544. A set of these gores was likewise acquired
by the Royal Library of Brussels at the same time it acquired the terrestrial
globe gores referred to above.276 The dedication reads “Ampliss: Preculi
Principiqȝ Ill mo Georgio ab Austria Dei dispositione Episcopo Leodiensi,
Duci Bullonensi, Marchioni Francimotensi, Comiti Lossensi &c̃ mecaenati
optime merito dd. Gerardus Mercator Rupelmundanus.” “To the
Magnificent Protector and Prince, the very distinguished George of Austria,
by the Grace of God, Bishop of Liège, Duke of Bouillon, Marquis of
Francimontensi, Count of Lossensi, the very splendid patron of arts and
science, dedicated by Gerard Mercator of Rupelmunde.” Near the above
inscription we find the date and place of issue given as follows, “Lovanii
anno Domini 1551 mense Aprili,” and a reference to his privilege

“Inhibitum est ne quis hoc opus imitetur, aut alibi factum vendat, intra fines
Imperii, vel provinciarum inferiorum Caes: Mt̄ is an: te decennium, sub
poenis & mulctis in diplomatibus cotentis. Oberburger & Soete subscrib.”
“All persons are forbidden to reproduce this work or to sell it when made
elsewhere within the Empire or the Low Countries of His Imperial Majesty
until after ten years, under the penalties and fines prescribed in the patent.
Signed by Oberburger and Soete.” It clearly was the intention that this
should serve as the companion of his terrestrial globe of 1541, described
above, since the gores are of the same size, each of the twelve being
truncated in the same manner, and the circular section being prepared for
the polar areas. Mercator’s merits as an astronomer by no means equaled
his merits as a geographer. However, his celestial globe, by reason of the
exactness of the composition, by reason of its simplicity, and by reason of
the artistic skill exhibited in the workmanship, is a most worthy work of
that great scientist. On this globe are represented the forty-eight
constellations of Ptolemy, to which have been added three which he calls
Antinous, Lepus and Cincinnus, the first formed of six stars and located on
the equator below the constellation Aquila, the second in the southern
hemisphere under the feet of Orion, and the third in the northern
hemisphere near the tail of Ursa Major.277 His constellations, as well as the
principal stars in the same, have, in the majority of instances, Greek, Latin,
and Arabic names. It does not appear that Mercator felt himself bound to a
strictly scientific representation and interpretation of the celestial bodies,
for he pays more or less homage to astrology, inscribing on the horizon
circle of his globe the horoscope as used by astrologists in calculating
nativities, perhaps recognizing, from a business standpoint, the advantage
of an appeal to certain superstitions which he found still lingering among
both the learned and the unlearned.
By reason of their size and the great care with which they had been
prepared, his globes must have found general favor, not only with those of
rank and distinction, for whom copies de luxe were issued, but with
geographers and scholars in general, who found it possible to obtain at a
comparatively small price the more modest copies. That they found favor in
Germany is assured us by Mercator’s correspondence with Camerarius of
Nürnberg, in which mention is made of the sale of six pairs of his globes in
that city, and of others at the Frankfort book market.278 Thomas Blundeville

tells us in his ‘Exercises’ that Mercator’s globes were in common use in
England until 1592,279 and the number of his globes which have become
known since 1868 in various parts of Europe assure us that copies of that
master’s work must have been easily obtainable by those interested.
Ruscelli, in referring to printed spheres; notes that they usually were made
small, and that those of large size are not exact, but he adds that he had seen
some that were three and one half palms in diameter, such as that which
years ago Aurelio Porcelaga sent to him to examine, printed in Germany,
and given to him by Monseigneur Granvella, to whom or to whose father,
not recalling which, it had been dedicated, but which he remembered was
very beautiful and very exact, being evidently engraved by one very expert,
judged by the beauty of the design and the artistic quality of the letters.280
Fiorini is of the opinion that these globes were Mercator’s, and that they
were carried into Italy in the late years of the sixteenth century when a
friendly relationship existed between certain Italian princes and the Spanish
authorities then ruling in Flanders.281
Attention has been called above to the acquisition by the Royal Library of
Brussels of a copy each of the terrestrial and the celestial globe gores, and
that the discovery of the same having created an especial interest in his
work, other examples were soon brought to light in Italy, in Spain, in
France, in Germany, and in Austria. A pair may be found in the Muséum
Astronomique of Paris, a pair in the Royal Library of Vienna, a pair in the
Germanisches National Museum in Nürnberg, a pair in the archives of the
town of St. Nicholas de Waes, a copy of the terrestrial globe in the Grand
Ducal Library of Weimar, a copy of the celestial in the Convent of
Adamont, Istria, and a copy of the terrestrial in the Convent of Stams,
Tyrol. Dr. Buonanno, director of the Biblioteca Governativa of Cremona, in
1890 briefly described a pair of Mercator’s globes belonging to that library,
and what he was able to learn as a result of their damaged condition of
Mercator’s method of construction is not without interest. He found that
over a framework composed of thin, narrow strips of wood had been pasted
first a cloth covering, over this a thin layer of plaster and that to this was
added a covering of a pastelike substance about six or seven millimeters in
thickness, consisting of plaster, wood fiber, or sawdust, and glue. On this
prepared surface had then been pasted the engraved gores. The learned
librarian’s conjecture as to the manner in which these globes found their

way into Italy, if correct, is of interest, pointing as it does to the formation
of a great art collection in that period. He recalls that Caesar Speciano,
Bishop of Cremona, had been sent in 1592 as nuncio to Germany, and that
he had occasion, during his mission, to attend to certain matters pertaining
to the inheritance of William, Duke of Cleves, in whose country there must
still have existed the workshop of Mercator. The opinion is expressed that
on the return of the Bishop to Italy he carried with him many books and art
objects, which had come into his hands either through purchase or through
gift, and that the same passed into the possession of the Cremona Library, a
library belonging to the Jesuits until the time of the suppression of that
order.282
The Biblioteca Municipale of Urbania possesses a pair of Mercator’s globes
of 1541 and 1551, which are reported to be in a fair state of preservation. It
is thought that they may have come into the library’s collection through the
last reigning member of the house, Duke Francesco Maria.
In the Museo Astronomico of Rome two copies of the terrestrial globe of
1541 may be found, and a copy of the celestial of the year 1551. These, it
will be seen from the reproduction (Fig. 62), are not in a good state of
preservation, although a very considerable portion of the map records can
be read.

Fig. 62. Terrestrial Globe of Gerhard Mercator, 1541.

In addition to the globes of Mercator referred to above, it is known that
after taking up his residence in Duisburg he constructed a small celestial
globe of glass, on the surface of which he engraved with a diamond the
several constellations, and that he likewise constructed a very small
terrestrial globe of wood, apparently such as were later called pocket
globes, having all geographical records given as accurately presented as on
the larger globes.283

How great was the direct influence of Mercator on globe making activities,
it may not be easy to trace, but the evidence seems to be conclusive, as
Breusing has noted, that his should be counted the greatest, among those
active within this field, for fifty years and more, following the issue of his
first work in the year 1541. It is among the Italian globe makers, and those
in the peninsula interested in such instruments, that we seem to find the first
and most striking evidence of his influence, which will be noted in the
following pages.
Giovanni Gianelli of Cremona is referred to, by certain early Italian writers,
as a clock and globe maker of remarkable ability,284 the justice of which
estimate is abundantly supported by the character of the one example of his
handiwork extant, belonging to the Biblioteca Ambrosiana of Milan, to
which it came from the collection of Canon Manfred Settàla about the
middle of the seventeenth century. This is an armillary sphere of brass, the
diameter of its largest or zodiacal circle being 14 cm. This circle is
graduated and has engraved on its outer surface the names of the twelve
constellations. It is likewise provided with a graduated equatorial circle,
with polar circles and those representing the tropics. At the common center
of the several rings is a small ball, 5 cm. in diameter, which is made to serve
as a terrestrial globe. On one of the circles is the inscription “Janellus
MDXLIX Mediolani fecit,” and we further find inscribed the name
“Hermetis Delphini,” which perhaps tells us of a one-time possessor. In a
volume describing the museum of Canon Settàla, and issued in the year
1666, Gianelli and his work are thus referred to:
“To that great man Gianelli of Cremona there is due great honor, whose
personal qualities made him an especial favorite of His Catholic Majesty
Philip II. Among the many globes which he constructed our museum
possesses one of surpassing excellence, in that it exhibits, in addition to
other movements, that which astrologers call the movement of trepidation,
and which movement was set forth in theory by Thebit.”285
The Emperor Charles V, when in Pavia, we are told, had his attention
directed to an armillary sphere constructed by Dondi in the fourteenth
century. On finding this sphere much injured by rust and usage he called
upon Giovanni Gianelli to restore it, but it was reported to be beyond repair.
Thereupon the Emperor gave direction to have the sphere reproduced,

which, when completed, was carried by His Majesty to Spain. No trace of
this work by Gianelli can now be found.
Girolamo Fracastoro, a distinguished Italian physician, a famous man of
letters, and a great philosopher of the first half of the sixteenth century, was
also a skilful globe maker, as we learn from Ramusio,286 and from the
sketch of his life which usually appears as an introduction to his collected
works.287
Vasari also gives us certain information concerning him, noting that he
assisted Francesco dai Libri in the construction of his large globe,288 and we
are led to believe that he was often consulted as an expert by globe makers
of his day. While none of those he may have constructed are extant, what is
known of his interest in these aids to geographical and astronomical studies
entitles him here to a word of reference.

Ramusio says289 that on the occasion of a visit, with the architect Michele
S. Micheli, to the home of their common friend, Girolamo Fracastoro, at
Caffi, they found him in the company of a gentleman, a very distinguished
philosopher and mathematician, who was showing him an instrument based
on a newly found movement of the heavens; that after they had considered
for some time this new movement, they had brought before them a large
and very detailed globe of the entire world, and about this the distinguished
gentleman began to speak. Fiorini argues, somewhat ingeniously, that this
globe may have been one constructed by Mercator in 1541, if not one by
Libri, in the making of which Fracastoro himself had assisted. The letters of
Fracastoro assure us that he made use of globes in his geographical and
astronomical studies, and that his friends did likewise. January 25, 1533, he
wrote Ramusio, “If you should chance to speak to that master who made
your metal spheres, I should like you to ascertain how much a simple but
perfect one, one foot in diameter, would cost.” Writing again to Ramusio
January 10, 1534, concerning the “Southern Cross,” he adds: “Just reflect a
little, and if you have not sent away the celestial globe, look at that
Centaurus and you will find all that I am writing to you. You might perhaps
write about these doubts to Mr. Oviedo, or perhaps I might; it would be a
good idea and we might ask him about the very prominent star in the right
foot to ascertain whether it is a separate star or is one of those in the

‘Southern Cross.’” On the twenty-fifth of January, 1548, he again wrote to
Ramusio: “On my globe Zeilan is just below the Cape of Calicut, on the
equinoctial line, and it may be that which Jambolo discovered was Zeilan or
Taprobana; I am inclined to believe it was Taprobana.” His letter of May 10,
1549, also to Ramusio, is of special interest, indicating, as it does, his
estimate of the value of terrestrial and celestial globes in the study of
astrology (astronomy) and geography. “In regard to what you write me
about M. Paolo, I thoroughly approve of his taking up the sacred study of
astrology and geography, subjects of study for every learned gentleman and
nobleman, as he would have as his guide and teacher the very well-known
Piedmontese to whom we owe so many excellent things, but first I should
advise you to have M. Paolo construct two solid spheres. On one of these
should be represented all the celestial constellations, and the circles should
all have their place, that is to say, not as Ptolemy represents the stars as they
were located in his time, but according to the investigations of our own
times, that is, about twenty degrees further east. The other should be a
terrestrial globe constructed according to modern ideas, which he should
always follow in his studies. He will use the first globe for a thousand and
one things; it will be his guide by day and by night, and by making use of
the quadrant he will be able easily to locate the things to be seen in the
heavens. Then when he shall have been well started I want that you should
have him read that little book of mine on homocentricity, wherein he will be
able to learn what astrology is, but for the present let him learn ordinary
astrology which has been treated in so barbarous a manner as to lose much
of its dignity.” Writing again from Verona January 21, 1550, to Paolo, after
telling him what he should point out to his father, he says: “You will tell
him also that M. Michele di San Michele has seen my globe and that he
likes it.... When I come I will make note of the principal places, for I desire
very much to verify them with the report of navigators telling what they
have found, concerning which matter, I think, no one knows more than you
do, or especially your distinguished father. As to the celestial sphere, I
should like very much to compare one I have with the one your father is
having made, that I may learn how the constellations compare, and how
many more of the fixed stars have been inserted. I have changed their
position twenty degrees. Whether he agrees with me or not I do not know.”

NOTES

198 Harrisse. Discovery, p. 247.
199 This is clearly recorded in such important maps as the Cantino, Canerio, Waldseemüller, Schōner
globe maps of 1515 and 1520, Boulengier gores, Liechtenstein gores, et al.
200 Wieser, F. R. v. Die Karte des Bartolomeo Columbo über die vierte Reise des Admirals.
Innsbruck, 1893.
201 See above, p. 88.
202 A letter written by Maximilianus Transylvanus to the Cardinal of Salzburg, dated Valladolid,
October, 1522, and published in Cologne in January, 1523, under the title ‘De Molucca insulis ...,’
gave the first printed notice of Magellan’s voyage. See Harrisse. B. A. V. Nos. 122, 123, 124. There
are numerous editions of Antonio Pigafetta’s account of the Magellan voyage, which account is the
principal original source of information concerning that eventful circumnavigation. See J. A.
Robertson (Ed.), Pigafetta, Antonio. Magellan’s Voyage around the World.
203 MacNutt, F. A. Letters of Cortes to Charles V. New York, 1908. This English edition of the
letters of Cortes contains a brief biographical sketch with valuable notes. Cortes, to the last, appears
to have believed in the existence of a strait through which one might find a shorter way from Spain to
the Indies of the East than was hitherto known. Sanuto Livio. Geographia distincta. Venitia, 1588.
Argument against the idea of an Asiatic connection is advanced by Sanuto on the ground that the
natives were frightened at Cortes’s horses. Asiatics were acquainted with the horse.
204 Estevan Gomes, who had sailed with Magellan, undertook in 1524, under a royal commission,
“the search for a new route leading to Cathay between the land of Florida and the Baccalaos,” says
Peter Martyr. Decad VI, lib. x.
205 In this volume, verso of seventh leaf, Franciscus states that in attempting to prepare his
description of a globe, he had collected all the maps of the world he could find. He especially
commends one attributed to Maximilianus Transylvanus, and although constructed with much skill,
he could not agree with its geographical representations, admitting, however, that many did accept
the same, but objecting to the separation of Calvacania (Mexico) from the eastern country because he
believed it to be joined to the kingdom of the Great Khan. See Harrisse. Discovery. pp. 281, 548.
206 Stevenson. Maps illustrating early discovery. No. 10 of this series is a reproduction of Maiollo’s
map in the size and in the colors of the original.
207 Harrisse. Discovery. p. 546.
208 Gallois, L. De Orontio Finaeo. Paris, 1890.
209 Hakluyt, R. Discourse on Western Planting. Ed. by Charles Deane, with introduction by Leonard
Wood. (In: Maine Historical Society, Collections, second series, ii, and printed as Documentary
History of the State of Maine. Vol. II. Cambridge, 1877. Chap. XVII, §11, p. 116.)
In chapter 10 of the Discourse Hakluyt refers to the Locke map and its configurations, which map
clearly is a modified reproduction of Verrazano’s map of 1529.
210 Harrisse. Discovery. pp. 562-568.
211 Nordenskiöld. Facsimile Atlas. p. 89. The author reproduces the Finaeus map from a 1566
reprint, observing that he was unable to locate a copy of the 1536 edition.

212 Schefer, C. H. A. Le discours de la navigation de Jean et Raoul Parmentier. Paris, 1883. p. ix.
The citation is from a contemporary source.
213 Vasari, G. Lives of the painters. Tr. by Mrs. J. Foster. London, 1850-1885. (In: Bohn Library,
Vol. III, pp. 449-450.)
214 Blau, M. Mémoires de la Société Royal de Nancy. Nancy, 1836. pp. xi-xiv, 107. An excellent
reproduction of the globe in hemispheres accompanies this article; Vincent, R. P. Histoire de
l’ancienne image miraculeuse de Nôtre-Dame de Sion. Nancy, 1698. This work contains the first
description of the globe; De Costa, B. F. The Nancy Globe. (In: The Magazine of American History.
New York, 1881. pp. 183-187.) A representation of the globe in hemispheres is presented with this
article, being a slightly reduced copy of the Blau illustration; Nordenskiöld. Facsimile Atlas. p. 82;
same, Periplus, p. 159; Winsor. Narrative and Critical History. Vol. II, p. 433, also Vol. III, p. 214;
Compt-Rendu, Congrès des Americanistes. Paris, 1877. p. 359.
215 The probability is it was not originally constructed for this purpose, although globe goblets were
not uncommon in this century. See below, p. 199.
216 Quetelet, L. A. J. Histoire des sciences mathématiques et physiques chez les Belges. Brussel,
1871, pp. 78 ff.; Ruscelli, G. La Geografia di Claudio Tolomeo. p. 32, there is reference to a “Globo,
grande”; Kästner, Vol. II, pp. 579 ff.; Breusing, A. Leitfaden durch das Wiegenalter der Kartographie
bis zum Jahre 1600. Frankfurt, 1883. p. 32.
217 This book appears to be one of the earliest works treating of the scientific construction of globes,
and of the use of trigonometry in the preparation of the globe gores.
218 The representation closely resembles that given by Schöner. See Fig. 54.
219 Ruge, W. Ein Globus von Gemma Frisius. (In: Internationaler Amerikanisten-Kongress,
vierzehnte Tagung. Stuttgart, 1904. pp. 3-10.)
220 See below, p. 128, for the novelty introduced by Mercator, in which he truncated the gores near
the poles.
221 Raemdonck, J. van. Gérard Mercator, sa vie et ses oeuvres. St. Nicolas, 1869. p. 38.
222 Nordenskiöld. Facsimile Atlas, pp. 87-90. On map projection in general, see Wagner, H.
Lehrbuch, der Geographie. Leipzig, 1903. Chap. iv; Zondervan, H. Allgemeine Kartenkunde.
Leipzig, 1901. Chap. iii. See also references below to Mercator’s world map of the year 1538, p. 125.
223 Harrisse, H. Un nouveau globe Verrazanien. (In: Revue de Géographie. Paris, 1895. pp. 175-
177.) An extensive Verrazanian bibliography may be found in Phillips, P. L. Descriptive list of maps
of Spanish possessions in the United States. Washington, 1912. pp. 39-40.
224 See Stevenson reproduction, n. 9, above.
225 See Stevenson reproduction, n. 9, above.
226 See references to Ulpius below, p. 117.
227 Compare this mounting with that of Schöner as seen in Fig. 26.
228 This is a tract of 44 pages.
229 Schöner, J. Opera Mathematica. Norimbergae, 1551. See p. 127 for what has been thought to be
a representation of Schöner’s terrestrial and celestial globes of 1533. It will be noted that the maps in

each of these globe pictures have been reversed.
230 See above, p. 96.
231 Wieser. Magalhâes-Strasse. p. 76, and Tab. V, which is a copy of the southern hemisphere;
Harrisse. Discovery. pp. 592-594, and pl. XVII, which is a copy of the western hemisphere;
Santarem, V. de. Notice sur plusieurs monuments géographiques inedits.... (In: Bulletin de la Société
de Géographie. Paris, 1847. p. 322.); Stevens, H. Notes. New Haven, 1869. p. 19; Nordenskiöld.
Facsimile Atlas, pp. 80, 83; Winsor. Narrative and Critical History. Vol. VIII, p. 388.
232 Harrisse. Discovery. p. 610.
233 Harrisse. Discovery. p. 613, and pl. XXII, which is a representation of the western hemisphere.
234 Michow, H. Caspar Vopell ein Kölner Kartenzeichner des 16 Jahrhunderts mit 2 Tafeln und 4
Figuren. (In: Hamburgische Festschrift zur Erinnerung an die Entdeckung von Amerika. Hamburg,
1892. Vol. I, pt. 4.); Graf, J. H. Ein Astrolabium mit Erdkugel aus dem Jahre 1545, von Kaspar
Volpellius. (In: Jahresbericht d. Geographischen Gesellschaft zu München. 15 Heft, p. 228);
Nordenskiöld, op. cit., p. 83, and pl. XL, which gives a representation of the globe of 1543, twelve
gores in colors; Merlo, J. J. Nachrichten vom Leben und den Werken Kölner Künstler, Köln, 1850.
p. 493.
235 Nordenskiöld, op. cit., pl. XLV.
236 Korth, L. Die Kölner Globen des Kaspar Vopelius. (In: Globus. Braunschweig, 1883. Vol. XLIV,
pp. 62-63.)
237 Described briefly by Michow, op. cit., p. 12.
238 Letter of August 12, 1913.
239 Described briefly by Michow, op. cit., p. 13.
240 Described by Michow, op. cit., p. 14. Michow cites a letter written by Postell to Abr. Ortelius,
April 9, 1567, in which the accusation is made against Vopel that merely to please the Emperor
Charles V he had joined America and Asia in his globe map. In this letter the New World is called
Atlantis.
241 Such globes, it will be noted, represent the Ptolemaic system.
242 Fiorini. Sfere terrestri e celesti. p. 214.
243 Wieser, F. R. v. A. E. Nordenskiöld’s Facsimile Atlas. (In: Petermanns Geographischen
Mitteilungen. Gotha, 1890. p. 275.)
244 Graf, op. cit., n. 37.
245 Compare with that reproduced by Nordenskiöld, n. 38 above.
246 Günther. Erd- und Himmelsgloben. p. 57; Doppelmayr, op. cit., p. 56. Hartmann was a noted
manufacturer of globes and mathematical instruments in Nürnberg. In his youth he spent several
years in Italy, probably in Venice.
247 De Costa, B. F. The Globe of Ulpius. (In: Magazine of American History. New York, 1879.
pp. 17-35.) Accompanying the article is a re-draughted representation of the western hemisphere;
same author. Verrazano the Explorer. New York, 1881. (In: Magazine of American History. New

York, 1881. p. 64.); Winsor, op. cit., Vol. III, p. 214; Harrisse, H. Notes sur la Nouvelle France. Paris,
1872. p. 222; Murphy, H. C. Inquiry into the authenticity of Verrazano’s claims. New York, 1903.
p. 114.
248 Thatcher, J. B. Christopher Columbus. New York, 1903. Vol. II, pp. 93-209. In these pages may
be found a critical consideration of questions relating to the subject of the Line of Demarcation.
Linden, H. V. Alexander VI and the demarcation of the maritime and colonial domains of Spain and
Portugal, 1493-1494. (In: American Historical Review. 1916. pp. 1-21.)
249 Polidori, P. De vita gestis et moribus Marceli II, Pontificis Maximi commentarius. Romae, 1744;
Cordella, L. Memorie storiche dei Cardinali della Sancta Romana Chiesa. Roma, 1792. Vol. IV,
p. 225.
Marcello Cervino was born in the year 1501. For his attainments in the field of literature, Italian,
Latin, and Greek, in philosophy, jurisprudence, and mathematics he held a place of great distinction
among his contemporaries. In the year 1539 he was made a cardinal prefect of the Vatican, and the
year 1555 he was elevated to the Papacy, but died twenty-one days thereafter.
250 Hall, E. H. Giovanni da Verrazano and his Discoveries in North America. (In: Fifteenth Annual
Report of the American Scenic and Historical Preservation Society. New York, 1910.)
There is an extensive Verrazano literature. The original letter written by the explorer to Francis I of
France, under whose auspices he had sailed on his voyage of discovery in the year 1524, seems to
have been lost, but copies of the same, it may have been with alterations, were sent to Verrazano’s
relatives and friends in Italy. Ramusio, in the year 1556, and Hakluyt, in the year 1582, published one
of these copies, and it has since been frequently printed.
In addition to the above, there exists a manuscript copy, sometimes referred to as the Florentine or
Magliabechian codex, a fragmentary copy in the Academy of Cimento, and a manuscript copy
recently discovered, which from the name of its present owner may be called the Cellere codex. Hall
has printed the original document and has given an excellent translation of the same.
251 Tiraboschi. Storia. Tom. VII, pt. i, p. 205.
252 Fiorini, op. cit., p. 117.
253 Navarrete, M. F. de. Noticia biografia de Alonso de Santa Cruz. Madrid, 1835. Reprinted in his
Opúsculos. Tom. II; Nicolao, A. Biblioteca Hispana. Romae, 1672. Tom, I, p. 37; Harrisse.
Discovery, p. 736; also in his Jean et Sébastian Cabot, p. 173; Espada, J. de la. Relaciones
geograficas de Indias, publicalas el Ministerio de Fomento Perú. Madrid, 1885. Tom. II, p. xxi;
pp. xxx-xxxvi.
In the second reference is a reprint of an inventory, made at the time of the death of Santa Cruz, of
his collection of maps, pictures, and manuscripts and especially referred to in the receipt given by
Juan Lopez, his successor as Royal Cosmographer, mention being made of no less than eighty-seven
items.
254 He seems to have produced nothing of special importance in his capacity as “Historicus Regius,”
giving, however, some attention to the subjects of heraldry, and genealogy. The question of the
determination of longitude interested him, and there is still preserved, in the Royal Library of
Madrid, his manuscript bearing the title “Libro de las longitudes y manera que hasta ago se ha tenido
en el arte de navegar con sus demonstraciones y examplos.” At the time of his death there was also
left a paper in manuscript, treating of the subject of longitude, which probably contains a summary of

suggestions made to the Junta in Sevilla in the year 1536 “sobre la orden que se ha tenido en el dar de
la longitud.”
255 Wieser, F. R. v. Die Karten von Amerika in den Islario General des Alonso de Santa Cruz
Cosmografo Mayor des Kaisers Karl V, mit der spanischen original Texte und einer Kritischen
Einleitung. Innsbruck, 1908. This work was reviewed by Stevenson, E. L. (In: American Historical
Review. 1910. pp. 392-394.)
256 Catalogue Général des Manuscrits des Bibliothèques Publiques de France. Department Tom.
XXXII. Paris, 1897. p. 399; Harrisse. Discovery. p. 621.
257 Schuller, R. R. Arcerca del “Yslario General” de Alonso de Santa Cruz. London, 1913. (In:
Proceedings of the XVIII Session of the International Congress of Americanists. London, 1913. Vol.
II, pp. 415-432.); Islario general de todas las islas del mundo dirigido á la S. C. R. M. del rey don
Phelipe miestro Señor por Al o de Santa Cruz su cosmographo mayor, con grabados en el texto y
varias láminas. (In: Boletin de la Sociedad Geografica de Madrid. Madrid, 1918, 1919.)
258 Harrisse. Discovery. p. 624; Nordenskiöld, Facsimile Atlas, p. 109, gives an excellent
reproduction of this map.
259 Dahlgren, E. W. Map of the World by Alonzo de Santa Cruz, 1542. Stockholm, 1892. Dahlgren
has given us an excellent facsimile of this map, with critical text including a summary of the work of
Santa Cruz and a list of the names on the map.
260 See p. 150.
261 Raemdonck, J. v. Gérard Mercator, sa vie et ses oeuvres. St. Nicolas, 1869; Wauvermans, H. E.
Histoire de l’école cartographique belge et anveroise au XVI siècle. Anvers, 1895. Vol. II, pp. 37-
109; 174-213; Breusing, A. Gerhard Kremer, genannt Mercator, der deutsche Geograph. Duisbourg,
1869; Raemdonck, J. van. Gérard de Cremer ou Mercator, Géographe Flamand. Réponse à la
Conférence du Dr. Breusing, tenue à Duisbourg le 30 mars, 1869. St. Nicolas, 1870; Hall, E. H.
Gérard Mercator, his Life and Work. New York, 1878. pp. 163-196.
262 The University Library is reported to have possessed many of the original Mercator manuscripts.
One cannot at present tell the fate of these manuscripts. They may have been destroyed at the time of
the recent German invasion, or have been carried away with other material by the booty-loving
invaders.
263 See p. 102.
264 Raemdonck, J. v. La Géographie ancienne de la Palestine. Lettre de Gérard Mercator, mai 22,
1567. St. Nicolas, 1884. This map of Palestine, published in large folio size, was dedicated to
François Craneveld, Counseiller to the Grand-Conseil of Malines, and published at Louvain in the
year 1537. A copy of this cannot now be located.
265 Raemdonck, J. v. De groote kaart van Vlaanderen vervaardidg in 1540 door G. Mercator, bij
middel van lichtdruk weergeg. naar het ex. behoorende aan het Museum Plantin-Moretus ... en
voorzien met eens verklarende inleiding. Antwerp, 1882. This map, in four sheets, measuring 110 by
80.6 cm., was dedicated to Charles V and published at Louvain.
266 Raemdonck, J. v. Orbis Imago. Mappemonde de Gérard Mercator. St. Nicolas, 1882. (In:
Annales du Cercle Archéologique du Pays de Waes. St. Nicolas, 1882. Tom. X, 4 me Livr.)

On the title-page of a separate of this article we read “Notice publiée à l’occasion de la reproduction
par la phototypie du seul exemplaire connu de la susdite mappemonde conserve par la Société de
géographie d’Amérique, à New-York, reproduction due à la sollicitude éclairée et généreuse de cette
même société.” “Seul exemplaire connu” is not correct. A fine example of the original 1538 edition
may be found in the New York Public Library.
In addition to the reproduction prepared by The American Geographical Society a fine facsimile may
be found in Nordenskiöld. Facsimile Atlas. pl. XLIII; also by Lafrere about 1560.
A comparison with the Orontius Finaeus double cordiform map of the year 1531 is interesting. It has
been stated that Mercator copied the work of Finaeus. The projections appear to be practically
identical, but it will be noted that Mercator represents the New World as independent of the Old
World, whereas Finaeus represents the Asiatic connection. Fiorini, M. Le projezioni cordiformi nella
cartografia. Rome, 1889. (In: Boll. della Societa Geografica Italiana. Roma, 1889.)

267 See p. 76.
268 Heyer, A. Drei Mercatorkarten in der Breslauer Stadtbibliothek. (In: Zeitschrift für
Wissenschaftliche Geographie. Weimar, 1890. pp. 379-389; 474-487; 507-528.); Drei Karten von
Gerhard Mercator, Europa, Britische Inseln, Weltkarte. Facsimile-Lichtdruck nach den Originalen der
Stadtbibliothek zu Breslau. Herausgegeben von der Gesellschaft für Erdkunde zu Berlin. 41 Tafeln.
Berlin, 1891. With title “Europae descriptio.”
The map of Europe in six sheets, four of which were engraved at Louvain and two at Duisbourg, was
dedicated to Antoine Perrenot, Bishop of Arras, and published at Duisbourg in the year 1554. The
only original example now known is that belonging to the Breslau Library.
269 This map with title “Britannicarum insularum descriptio” was published at Duisbourg in the year
1564. Reproduction of the only known original example noted in n. 71.
270 This was prepared with great care and offered in person by Mercator to Duke Charles of Lorraine
at Nancy. Apparently no original copy is in existence.
271 Raemdonck. Orbis Imago; Breusing, A. Das Verebnen der Kugeloberfläche. Bremen, 1893.
pp. 31-48; Steinhauser, A. Stabius redivivus, eine Reliquie aus dem 16 Jahrhundert. (In: Zeitschrift
für Wissenschaftliche Geographie. Wien, 1885. pp. 289-291.); D’Avezac, M. A. P. de. Coup d’oeil
historique sur la projection des cartes de géographie. Paris, 1875. (In: Bulletin de la Société de
Géographie de Paris. Paris, 1865. Tom. V.); Wright, E. The correction of certain errors in navigation.
London, 1599.
There may be found numerous references to the principle underlying the Mercator projection. See in
addition to above references Wagner, op. cit.; Zondervand, op. cit.; Hall, op. cit., each with noted
citations.
This map, with title “Nova et aucta orbis terrae descriptio ad usum navigantium emendate
accommodata,” was dedicated to Duke William of Cleves, and was published at Duisbourg in the
year 1569. Original copies may be found in the Bibliothèque Nationale, and in the Stadtbibliothek of
Breslau, the former reproduced by Jomard, the latter as noted in n. 71. A long inscription on the map
explains the principle of the new projection and its use for navigation.
272 Raemdonck, J. van. Les sphères terrestre et céleste de Gérard Mercator (1541-1551). Notice
publiée a l’occasion de la reproduction de ces sphères a l’aide de facsimilé de leurs fuseaux
origineaux, gravés par Mercator et conservés a la Bibliothèque Royale a Bruxelles. St. Nicolas, 1875;

Fiorini M. Globi di Gerardo Mercatore in Italia. Rome, 1890. (In: Bollitino della Societe Geografica
Italiana. Roma, 1890.); Breusing. Gerhard Kremer, p. 9. Gérard Mercator, p. 9.
This author writes: “Auch seine mechanischen Arbeiten hatten bei den Männern der Wissenschaft
eine so günstige Aufnahme gefunden, dass er dadurch ermutigt wurde, sich an ein grösseres Werk,
einen Erdglobus, zu machen, den er nach anderthalbjähriger Arbeit im Jahre 1541 vollendete und
dem kaiserlichen Geheimrate und Reichssiegelbewahrer Granvella widmete. Und wenn Ruscelli uns
erzähle, er habe mit Staunen einen herrlichen Globus von drei und halben Palme im Durchmesser
betrachten müssen, der von deutscher Arbeit und Granvella gewidmet gewesen sei und an Schönheit
der Zeichnung und Schrift alles früher Geleistete übertreffe, so ist wohl kaum ein Zweifel, dass dies
der fragliche Globus Mercators gewesen ist. Ich will hier gleich hinzufügen, dass im ganzen XVI
Jahrhundert, wenn von ausgezeichneten Globen die Rede ist, diejenigen Mercators immer als die
besten genannt werden.”
273 Günther, S. Geschichte der loxodromischen Kurve. Halle, 1879. (In: Studien zur Geschichte der
mathematischen und physikalischen Geographie. Halle, 1879. Heft 6.); Grünert, J. A. Loxodromische
Trigonometrie. Leipzig, 1869; Hues, R. Tractatus de globis; Markham, Ed. See pp. 127-147.
274 This was edited by Van Raemdonck and published at St. Nicolas, 1888.
275 Ghymmius, op. cit. Caput decimum, Gerardi Mercatoris De mundi creatione ac fabrica;
Raynaud, A. Le Continent Austral, hypothèses et découvertes. Paris, 1893; Wieser, Magalhâes-
Strasse, Chap. VI, with references.
276 See references in n. 75.
277 Baily, F. The Catalogues of Ptolemy, Ulug Beigh, Tycho Brahe, Halley, Hevelius, deduced from
the best authorities. London, 1843. Consult for lists of the several constellations.
278 See a reference to the sale of Mercator globes. (In: Zeitschrift für Wissenschaftliche Geographie,
I Jahrgang, p. 180.)
279 Blundeville, T. Exercises, pp. 204-243.
280 Ruscelli, op. cit., Cap. IV.
281 Fiorini. Sfere terrestre et celeste, p. 144.
282 Fiorini. Sfere, etc. p. 140.
283 Mercator, G. Declaratio insigniorum utilitatum. St. Nicolas, 1888. Ed. by Raemdonck, J. v.
284 Sacco, B. De italicarum rerum varietate et elegantia. Papiae, 1565, lib. x, fol. 76.
285 Thebit, an Arabic astronomer, to whom reference is here made, lived in the latter part of the ninth
century. He was chiefly distinguished for his revision of the ‘Almagest.’
286 Ramusio, G. B. Navigationi et Viaggi. Vol. III.
287 Hieronymi Fracastorii Veronensis opera omnia. The biography is thought to have been written by
Adamo Fumano.
288 See above, p. 100.
289 Ramusio, op. cit., Vol. I.

Chapter VIII

Globes and Globe Makers of the Third Quarter of the
Sixteenth Century
Revival of interest in globe making in Italy.—François De Mongenet of France and the reprint of his
globe maps in Italy.—Gore map of Antonius Florianus.—Globe records left by Alessandro
Piccolomini.—Ruscelli’s directions for globe construction.—Reference to the work of Sanuto
and Gonzaga.—Armillary sphere of Volpaja.—Excellent workmanship in the celestial-terrestrial
globe of Christian Heyden.—Metal globes of Johannes Praetorius.—Vasari’s reference to the
work of Ignazio Danti.—The iron globe of Francisco Basso.—Armillary sphere of Giovanni
Barrocci.—The work of Hieronymo de Boncompagni.—Emanuele Filiberto.—Anonymous
globe of 1575.—Laurentian armillary spheres.—Small globes of the Biblioteca Nationale of
Florence.—Mario Cartaro.

A
MONG those interested in map and globe making, in the third
quarter of the sixteenth century, none seems to have surpassed the
Italians. In the art of map engraving they attained to a high degree
of merit, and much of the finest work of the middle of the century is the
product of the peninsula. With few exceptions it is the Italians who hold the
field in this line of scientific activity. There can undoubtedly be traced here
the influence of Mercator, but there appear to have been not a few who
worked on what might be called independent lines. The interest of
illustrious personages in the construction and the possession of globes
prompted activity in this field. While the number extant, of those
manufactured in this period, is not large, there are not a few references in
letters and in scientific works assuring us of the construction of many which
cannot now be traced.
We may call attention first to François De Mongenet, who appears to have
been a native of Franche-Comté and well known in his day as a globe
maker. He was, however, quite forgotten until a few years since, when a
copy each of his terrestrial and celestial globe gores was purchased by the
antiquarian Rosenthal of Munich,290 and sold to Mr. Kalbfleisch of New
York, from whose collection they passed into the possession of the New
York Public Library. Since this discovery of De Mongenet’s interesting
work, a number of copies of the same or of subsequent editions have come
to light, both of the terrestrial and of the celestial globe, some of which
copies are mounted, some remain unmounted, some are of his first edition

of the year 1552, others are of the second edition, undated, somewhat
altered, and printed in Italy. All of his globes are of small size, having each
a diameter of about 85 mm.
De Mongenet was born at Vesoul in France, and in the university of his
town he studied medicine, mathematics, and probably geography or
cosmography. There seems to be but little known concerning the family to
which François belonged, but such details as it was possible to gather
Marcel brought together in a carefully prepared paper.291 This author thinks
it probable that he could be counted among the circle of learned and
distinguished men whom Granvella was accustomed to bring together in his
palace at Besançon on frequent occasions during the five years he passed in
that city after he had given over his administration of the Netherlands. If
true, there may here be found a connecting link between De Mongenet and
Mercator, remembering that the latter dedicated his globe of 1541 to the
father of the distinguished cardinal statesman.292 The suggestion of
Mercator’s influence on De Mongenet appears quite evident on a
comparison of the outlines of their globe maps.
The Lenox copy of the terrestrial gores (Fig. 63) is dedicated to “Eximio
Viro: D:I:P: A Monte Maiore,” while the celestial gores (Fig. 64) carry the
dedication “Eximio Viro D. Gabrieli a Tiesbach.” Marcel is of the opinion
that the dedication of the first to “Monte Maiore” refers to a prelate of the
illustrious house of Granmont, whose name in the sixteenth century was
often spelled Grandmont, and that Gabrieli Tiesbach (Diesbach) belonged
to a family of Besançon, originally from Freiburg, and that he was a knight
of St. George. The author and date legend of the first reads “Faciebat
Franciscus De Mongenet anno 1552,” while that of the second reads
“Elaborabat Franciscus De Mongenet. Anno 1552.” The gores of each map
as printed measure from pole to pole 13.7 cm., the length of the equatorial
line being 27.5 cm. Around each set there is a narrow black border. A
zodiacal circle is likewise printed on the first sheet 5 cm. in width, and of
sufficient length to encompass the gores when mounted, being divided into
twelve parts, in which, in regular order, are the figures of the twelve
zodiacal constellations. With but few exceptions the several inscriptions are
in small capitals, and are well executed.

Fig. 63. Terrestrial Globe Gores of François de Mongenet, 1552.

Fig. 64. Celestial Globe Gores of François de Mongenet, 1552.

The draughtsmanship which the terrestrial map exhibits in all parts, as well
as that exhibited by the celestial, displays skill of very considerable merit.
The general outline of the New World’s coasts is quite as well done as on
any of the maps of the day, the Pacific coast line of North America
sweeping in a great curve northward and northeastward, while a great broad
stretch of ocean separates the continent from Asia. In North America we

find only the inscriptions “Hispania maior” and “baccalea.” South America
bears the inscription “America,” so extended as to cover the continent. The
names of geographical localities are comparatively few, the size of the
globe making it impossible to insert many details.
On a second pair of De Mongenet’s globes, referred to by Marcel, the
dedications and inscriptions differ slightly from those given above. On the
terrestrial gores we find “Illustr. Ac Rever. D. D. CL. A. Bauma Arch. Bis.,”
and the signature, “Elaborabat Francis. De Mongenet. V. E. V.” On the
celestial gores we read “Illustr. Ac Rever. D. D. CL. A. Bauma Arch. Bis. E.
V.,” the signature “Elaborabat Franciscus De. Mongenet. V.,” and the
privilege “Cum privilegio Pont. Max. Sqe. Ven.” Citing again Marcel’s
opinion, the Claudio de la Baume referred to was Archbishop of Besançon,
and the letter “V” placed after the name of the globe maker doubtless refers
to Vesoul, his birthplace; the letters “E. V.” may stand either for “Excusum
Venetiis,” indicating the city in which the work was done, or for “Enea
Vico,” the name of the actual engraver of the gores, who is known as
having been at that time an engraver of medals, being now especially
remembered for his medals of the first twelve Emperors of Rome.293
The gores of the first edition were printed from engraved wooden blocks;
the second were printed from engraved copper plates which exhibit a very
superior workmanship, and it is to be noted that many more names appear
on the terrestrial gores than on those of the first edition. Ruscelli, in his
edition of Ptolemy of 1561, makes mention of “a little globe, published
lately by Francesco Mongonetto Borgonone,”294 which allusion would
seem to indicate a reference to the second edition and to its issue near 1561.
Although this second edition contains more names than does the first, it
gives little indication that the author had knowledge of discoveries
subsequent to the first edition. Like Mercator he represents North America
as separated from Asia, as before noted, by a wide expanse of ocean, to
which no name has been given, and like Mercator he lays down a large
austral continent. His globes could hardly have been received with as much
favor as were those by his Flemish contemporary, since they were so small
as to appear like mere playthings.
Of the first edition, other than those gores to be found in the New York
Public Library, a set of the terrestrial and the celestial gores is in the British

Museum, and of the terrestrial in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum of
Nürnberg.
Of the second edition, copies of the unmounted gores may be found in the
Bibliothèque Nationale, in the British Museum, in the private library of
Prince Trivulzio of Milan. A mounted pair of the second edition may be
found in the Osservatorio Astronomico of Rome (Fig. 65), and in addition a
second example of the celestial globe, which is described as having
excellent mountings of brass, so arranged as to make possible a revolution
of the globe both on an equatorial axis and an axis of the ecliptic. Its
horizon circle is supported by two brass semicircles, the whole resting on
four wooden columns of modern construction, and these in turn resting on
representations of lion’s paws in bronze. An example of the mounted
terrestrial globe is said to belong to the collection of Sr. Bazolle of Belluno,
which example once belonged to the Counts of Pilloni.

Fig. 65. Globes of François de Mongenet, 1560, and of Gian Francesco Costa,
1784.

Attention has been called to the peculiar gore map of Santa Cruz,295 and to
the fact that his method of construction seems not to have won favor. We,
however, find among the map makers of Italy, in the period of which we are
now speaking, one Antonius Florianus,296 who, if not copying the plan of

Santa Cruz, followed closely his scheme. His map, of which numerous
copies are known (Fig. 66), seems to have been prepared for mounting on a
ball, although no such mounted example can now be located. With the poles
as centers, and with a radius equal to one quarter of the circumference of
the sphere he proposed to construct, he drew his equatorial circles, which
thus gave him two hemispheres, respectively, a northern and a southern; in
the same manner he drew his parallels at intervals of ten degrees, using for
each the common polar centers. In each of the hemispheres he drew thirty-
six sectors, each sector being made to represent ten degrees of longitude,
and they were so shaped mathematically that their combined width at the
equator would equal the circumference of the sphere of which the selected
radius, referred to above, represented one quarter of that circumference.
When prepared for mounting, the vacant space between the several sectors
could be cut away, leaving the thirty-six engraved sectors, on which the
world map appeared, to be pasted on the surface of the sphere. The scheme
which Florianus devised was practically that employed by Werner in his
equivalent cordiform projection, and likewise that of Finaeus and
Mercator.297

Fig. 66. Globe Gores of Antonius Florianus, 1555.

It was the eighteenth of January, in the year 1555, that Florianus obtained a
copyright from the Venetian senate for his map,298 but it is probable he died

before the map appeared in print, since there is evidence of incompleteness
in the known copies. In the spaces, with artistic borders, which had been
designed for inscriptions, nothing appears, and in but two of the four
cartouches evidently intended for portraits do such portraits appear, viz.,
that of Ptolemy and of the author himself.
The geographical outlines of the map closely resemble those of De
Mongenet, as well as those of Mercator. North America is given practically
the same shape. The great expanse of ocean lying between this continent
and Asia is called “Oceanus orientalis indicus,” and midway between the
continents, in latitude 45 degrees, is “Sipango.” North America is called
“Americae,” also “Hispania maior,” while South America is likewise called
“Americae.” The great austral land is represented but is unnamed. The
whole is indeed a fine example of Italian copper engraving.
Numerous copies of Florianus’ map are known. It usually appears in the
Lafreri collection, and Fiorini notes that copies may be found in the Archivo
di State of Turin, in the Marciana of Venice, in the Biblioteca Vittorio
Emanuele of Rome, in the Biblioteca Comunale of Treviso, in the private
library of Professor Marinelli of Florence, in the British Museum, in the
private library of Nordenskiöld. To the above may be added the New York
Public Library, the Library of Congress, and the Harvard Library, which
likewise possess copies.
Among the numerous references appearing here and there in the literature
of Italy, assuring us of the interest in that country in globe construction,
reference may be made to the record left by Alessandro Piccolomini, a
native of Siena, and author of a work on the extent of the land and water,299
who, in the preparation of his work, made extensive study of the records to
be found in plane maps and globes. In his work published in Venice in the
year 1558, though his dedication to M. Jacomo Cocco, Archbishop of
Corfu, reads August 28, 1557, “Della mia casa di S. Giorgio, di Siena, il di
XXVIII di Agosto MDLVII,” he tells of several globes which it had been
his privilege to examine. “I have zealously examined geographical maps,
both plain and spherical, and especially those which are reputed to be most
faithful, for example, among others, a solid terrestrial sphere shown me by
Cardinal Viseo.300 Another I saw at the home of the Cardinal of Carpi,301
exhibiting mountain elevations in a new and excellent manner, and still

another much larger kept at present at the home of Cardinal of Urbino.302
There is also a globe having a diameter of about an arm’s length, which I
saw two years since at the home of the Archbishop of Corfu, and still
another I have recently seen about the same size or about one arm’s length
in diameter, which had been presented to His Excellency the Duke of
Paliano.” He adds that he had made careful geographical computations in
his investigations, employing the last-named sphere. As to his method of
procedure in his studies he states that “first of all having placed before me a
solid sphere of about three feet in diameter, the most exact I have been able
to find among those referred to above, namely, the one with the equinoctial
circle and with the meridian passing through the Canaries of the Fortunate
islands where Ptolemy located the prime meridian, I have divided it into
four equal parts—two northern and two southern.” It seems probable that
the globe here referred to is that which he stated belonged to the Cardinal of
Urbino, and which he noted was larger than was that belonging to Cardinal
Viseo or to the Cardinal of Carpi, the diameter of which he stated to be an
arm’s length. Piccolomini gives us no intimation as to the authorship of the
five globes he says he examined. He adds an interesting word concerning
the character of the globe of Cardinal Carpi, seeming to imply that it was
not a printed globe, since it represented “mountain elevations.” We perhaps
are justified, says Fiorini, in concluding from this and other evidence that
the maps on these globes were not printed, since they were of very large
size, and we know that Mercator’s globes 41 cm. in diameter were then
considered to have special value because larger than others constructed in a
similar manner, that is, having their maps engraved or printed.

We may here again refer to Ruscelli’s directions for globe construction,303
to which he added certain suggestions for globe adornment, that they might
appeal to princes and nobles. “Globes of copper, bronze or silver,” he says,
“such as princes would desire to possess, to be fine, durable and rare should
be plated, that is, the circles, the letters, the outlines of the countries should
first be engraved and then there should be added gold or silver plating.” “A
generous prince,” he adds, “could have them made in Asimino or Tausia
style, as they say, that is, have the copper surface engraved, and the grooves
filled with silver or gold thread. By forcing this in the work can be made
very strong.” He states in one of his chapters that globes so constructed are
usually small, but he adds that he had seen globes three and a half palms in

diameter, such as that sent to him by Zurelio Porcelaga. Of this last he
speaks in words of praise, passing on to refer to two large ones then under
construction in Venice. “One of these,” he says, “is of copper being made
by Giulio Sanuto, which it is hoped will be one of the best as one of the
most beautiful of any constructed up to the present time.” The implication
seems to be, from the words of Ruscelli, that at least some part of the
printing was to be made directly on the surface of the sphere. Further
information given by Ruscelli touching Sanuto and Gonzaga in this
connection is here of interest. He states “besides the fact that Giulio Sanuto
is very skilful in drawing and engraving, especially in geographical maps of
the world and its parts, he is, in this task, being aided by Livio Sanuto,304 a
Venetian nobleman, his brother, among whose many good qualities he
possesses to a degree above the ordinary, are his attainments in the
profession of geography. Both are giving so much attention to this globe
that it is expected, in both matter and form, it will be perfect. Another globe
three arm’s length in diameter has, since last year, been begun by Curtio
Gonzaga, which he intends shall contain all of those things that Taisnero
has included in his globe as well as many other things that the said
gentleman intends to add, hoping to make one of the most beautiful and
perfect spheres to be seen for many years to come. This can easily be
believed, for he will do everything himself, and as the greater diligence will
thus be exercised we will have all of the advantages of his great knowledge
of geography, to which subject as ever, he is giving all of his attention, and
the advantage of his great skill in lettering and designing.”305
Ruscelli maintained that globes are preferable to ordinary maps in
geographical studies, stating that “although maps of three or four arm’s
length and width are to be found they are not numerous and are not of great
value, and furthermore we have globes, which, in extent of space exhibited,
surpass them. Granting that some Princes and certain others do have maps
very large, as for example, such as Pope Paul II had made for the palace of
S. Marco in Rome, there are also Princes and private persons who have
globes which in size much surpass the plane maps that I have ever seen or
heard of.” “Until a few years since no one knew how to print such globes,
and all were made with pen and brush, ... later geniuses have found a way
for printing globe maps very accurately, which, in a wonderful way they
can place over the surface of a sphere; a way has also been found for

making the spheres round and exact, and a method for computing
measurements for the coverings to fit the sphere, and for the construction of
such other things as belong thereto.”306
The Volpaja family of Florence achieved considerable distinction in the late
fifteenth and in the sixteenth century, through those members who were
interested in the construction of astronomical instruments and particularly
in armillary spheres. Vasari tells us that “in the chapel of Santa Trinita, in
fresco, is a picture of the Magnificent Lorenzo de’ Medici, father of Pope
Leo X.... In the same picture is Lorenzo della Volpaja, a most excellent
master in the art of making watches, and a distinguished astrologer, by
whom a most beautiful clock was made for Lorenzo de’ Medici, which the
most illustrious Duke Cosimo now has in his palace, and wherein all of the
movements of the planets are perpetually shown by means of wheels, a very
rare thing, and the first that was made in that manner.”307
At the time of its founding there came to the Museo di Strumenti Antichi di
Astronomia e di Fisica of Florence a fine armillary sphere inscribed
“Hieronimus Camilli Vulpariae Florent: fe: 1557.” It is of gilded metal,
having five spheres or rings ranging from 60 to 75 mm. in diameter, and in
addition eighteen circles, including polar, tropical, and equatorial circles
with meridian and horizon, the latter having a diameter of 144 mm. Further
information recorded by Fiorini tells us that it is mounted on a wooden
base.308 On the equatorial circle of the smallest sphere is engraved
“Deferens Augiem,” on the next, “Deferens Epiciculum,” on the third,
“Deferens Augiem,” on the fourth, “Deferens Dragonem.” The fifth sphere
is composed of six large circles and four small ones. The circles which
represent the meridians, the equator, the ecliptic, and the horizon are
graduated, while on the ecliptic appear the names of the twelve zodiacal
constellations, and on the horizon the names of the principal winds or
directions. This globe is referred to as one of special interest because of its
peculiar and somewhat complicated construction; it is mounted on a
wooden base, which is more modern than the globe proper, and in many
parts gives evidence of restoration.
In the same museum there is a second armillary sphere constructed by a
member of the Volpaja family, perhaps by the same one who constructed the
preceding. It is inscribed “Hieronimus Vulpariae Florentius Fe.

A.D.MDLXIIII” and was a gift to the museum by the Grand Duke Leopold
I. The diameter of its horizon circle, including the attached parts, is 41 cm.,
and its height, including its base, 76 cm. It has been described as follows:
“An armillary sphere, the armillae of which are of gilded brass. The small
globe within the circles representing the earth is of the clearest crystal. The
horizon is of gilded brass and rests on a branched support ornamented with
human heads in relief. The lower part of the branches is attached to a base
resting on three lion’s paws. The branches, the heads, the base, and the
paws are all of brass. In the northern and southern sections of the horizon
there are attachments containing receptacles for holding the magnetic
needle, but which needle in both places is wanting. The equator, the tropics,
and the polar circles are not zones but are triangular prisms bent in the form
of circles. Furthermore a part of the ecliptic, that is to say, one of its zones,
is of gilded brass and is graduated, and shows the names of the months and
the signs of the zodiac. The diameter of the sphere is 12.6 pollici
(inches?).”309
There is to be found in the Mathematical Salon of Dresden a fine example
of the work of Christian Heyden (1525-1576), son of a rector of the St.
Sebaldus School of Nürnberg. Doppelmayr310 tells us that after years of
study in Leipzig and Wittenberg, he returned to his native city, became
interested in making mathematical instruments, and in 1564 he was
appointed to a professorship of mathematics in the famous Nürnberg
gymnasium. His biographer does not refer to his activity as a globe maker,
but tells us that about the year 1570 he constructed for the Emperor
Maximilian II a mechanical device for illustrating the movement of the sun
and the moon, which instrument, he notes, especially interested the noted
Frenchman, Petrus Ramus, who carefully examined it on the occasion of a
visit to Nürnberg. The Dresden example of his work (Fig. 67), the only
example known, consists of a brass celestial globe encased in a covering of
brass, on the surface of which is engraved a terrestrial map. It has a
diameter of 72 cm., the whole being furnished with a horizon, a meridian,
and an hour circle. This is indeed a choice specimen of a sixteenth-century
engraved metal globe, of which we have numerous examples, but it is rather
an ornamental piece than one of great scientific value.

Fig. 67. Globe of Christian Heyden, 1560.

Doppelmayr likewise gives us a brief biographical note referring to one
Johannes Praetorius, a globe maker, born at Joachimsthal in the year
1537.311 After a considerable period of study, chiefly at Wittenberg, where
he turned his attention to the philosophical and mathematical sciences, he
took up a residence in Nürnberg in the year 1562. Here he became
interested in the construction of mechanical and astronomical instruments,
and soon won the favor of the Emperor Maximilian II, which favor he
enjoyed to the end of that Emperor’s reign. It was about the year 1576 that
he became a professor of mathematics at Altdorf, where he died in the year
1616. Doppelmayr refers to a number of the mathematical and astronomical
instruments constructed by him, noting that in the year 1566 he completed
two globes of metal richly gilded, each having a diameter of 11¼ inches,
that each was furnished with an hour circle, a movable quadrant and
semicircles, and that a compass was set in the base of each. We learn also
from the same biographer that in the year 1568 he completed a brass
astrolabe having a diameter of “one schuh” (foot?), three and one half
inches, and that it was supplied with all parts essential to a complete
apparatus of its character. We are further informed that shortly after the
beginning of his career in Altdorf he undertook the construction of a large
celestial globe of wood and paper, having a diameter of four Nürnberg feet,
that he was assisted in this work by the artist and draughtsman, Christopher
Heinrichs, and that on the surface of the sphere one thousand six hundred
and fifty stars were indicated with appropriate accompanying inscriptions.
Two pairs of Praetorius’ globes are now known, one pair in the
Mathematical Salon of Dresden (Fig. 68),312 and the other in the
Germanisches National Museum of Nürnberg. These globes are of brass,
each having a diameter of 28 cm.; each is supplied with meridian, horizon,
and hour circles and rests on a tripod base. They are richly engraved pieces,
the terrestrial example being remarkably well preserved, the celestial being
slightly injured, through rubbing which has removed parts of certain figures
of the constellations.

Fig. 68. Globe of Johannes Praetorius, 1566.

Among those Italians who, in the sixteenth century, acquired well-merited
fame as globe makers may be mentioned Ignazio Danti (1536-1586),313

known as Pellegrino before he entered the order of the preaching friars in
his nineteenth year. The name Danti appears to have been given him chiefly
on account of his great learning, particularly in the field of mathematics and
astronomy. In the same branches of science his father had achieved
distinction, and likewise his grandfather, Vicenzo de Rinaldi, who, in the
year 1571, issued a translation of the ‘Sfera’ of Sacrobosco, and who
constructed, as we are told, an astrolabe and an armillary sphere.314 It seems
to have been early in the year 1563 that Danti was called to Florence by
Duke Cosimo for the purpose of constructing, under his patronage, nautical
and astronomical instruments and geographical maps. Of his work which is
still known to us there may be first mentioned an astronomical quadrant
placed on the façade of the church of Santa Maria Novella, and an
equinoctial armilla placed within the same church. We have first mention in
Vasari’s ‘Lives’ of the globe and map work of his which especially concerns
us here. It is an interesting account of his activity in this field, an account
worthy of citation. “Fra Ignazio Danti is very learned in cosmography and a
man of distinguished ability in letters, in so much that the Duke Cosimo has
committed to his care a work than which none more perfect in design, or
more important in the results to be expected from it, has ever been executed
in that kind. His excellency has caused a room of considerable extent to be
prepared on the second floor of his palace, as a continuation of, and an
addition to the guardaroba; around this room he has had cabinets arranged
seven braccia high, and richly carved in walnut wood, intending to place
within them the most valuable and beautiful works of art in his possession;
and on the doors of the same he has caused fifty-seven pictures, about two
braccia in height and of proportionate width, to be painted in oil on wood in
the manner of miniatures. The subjects delineated are the Ptolemaic Tables,
measured by Don Ignazio with the most exact perfection, and corrected
according to the latest authorities; sea-charts of the utmost accuracy are
added, the scale and the degrees being adjusted with all possible care, and
all having the ancient, as well as the modern, names; the division made of
these works being as follows. At the principal entrance into the room are
seen four pictures executed on the sides of the cabinets, and representing in
perspective the halves of four spheres, those below showing the earth, and
those above the heavens with all their signs and celestial figures.
Proceeding toward the right we have all Europe depicted in fourteen
compartments, the pictures succeeding each other to the center of the wall

which is at the head of the room, and opposite to the principal door, that
namely whereon is placed the horologue with its wheels, and the daily
motions made by the planets in their spheres; I mean that so much
renowned clock made by the Florentine Lorenzo della Volpaja. Above the
compartments representing Europe, are those of Africa in eleven divisions;
these extend to the horologue itself, beyond which and on the lower part is
Asia, which occupies a consecutive range of four compartments, extending
to the principal door. There are besides the West Indies, which commence
from the clock, and continue to the principal door; the whole series forming
the fifty-seven divisions before mentioned. On the lower part of the walls
and immediately beneath the geographical delineations, in an equal number
of compartments will be the various plants and animals produced by the
respective countries, all depicted from nature. Over the cornice of the said
cabinets, which completes the decorations, there are to be niches dividing
the pictures, and in these will be placed certain antique busts in marble,
representing the Emperors and Princes by whom these lands have been
possessed, so far as those portraits are known to exist or can be procured.
The ceiling is entirely in carved wood-work, and within the compartments
of the same are twelve large pictures, in each of which are to be four
celestial signs, making in the whole forty-eight; the figures are to be but
little less than life size, each accompanied by its stars. On the walls beneath
are three hundred portraits of distinguished persons belonging to the last
five centuries, or somewhat more; they are painted in oil; but, that I may not
make too long a story, I refer the mention of their names to the tables of my
work. All have frames of similar size, very richly carved in oak, and
producing an exceedingly fine effect.”
“In the two pictures occupying the center of the ceiling, each of which is
four braccia wide, are the celestial signs; these can be thrown back by
means which cannot be perceived; and in a space representing the concave
are to be two large spheres, one representing the earth: this will be made to
descend by a concealed windlass, and will then be balanced on a support
adequate to that purpose, so that when fixed, all the pictures and the maps
on the cabinet will be reflected therein, each part being thus readily found
on the sphere. On the other globe the forty-eight celestial signs will be
arranged, in such sort that all the operations of the astrolabe may be
performed most perfectly by the aid thereof. The plan of this work has

proceeded from the Duke Cosimo, who desired to have all these parts of the
earth and heaven brought for once fairly together in their just positions,
exactly and without errors, to the end that they might be observed and
measured, either apart or all together, as might be desired by those who
study and delight in this most beautiful science. I have therefore thought
myself bound to make a memorial of the same in this place, for the sake of
Fra Ignazio; and that his ability, with the magnificence of that great Prince,
who has judged us worthy to enjoy the benefits of so honorable a labor,
may be made known to all the world.”315
Danti must have undertaken this great work shortly after his arrival in
Florence, since one of his maps, to which Vasari refers, is dated 1563, and it
appears that the terrestrial globe must have been finished by 1567, since the
general Depositaria of that year, as cited by Badia, records that twenty lire
were paid to the gold-leaf maker, Taddeo di Francesco, for the five hundred
leaves of gold to be used for the globe, and there is no succeeding entry
referring to this particular piece of work.316 We know that he never
completed the task which had been assigned to him. Duke Cosimo’s death
occurred in the year 1575, and his son and successor, Francesco, manifested
but little interest in furthering the cause of science. It was perhaps at the
instance of Francesco that the general of the Dominican Order directed
Danti to leave Florence, and he passed the remainder of his days in
Bologna. Apparently but thirty of the fifty-seven maps which were to be
made by Danti were completed at the time of his dismissal, and only the
terrestrial globe. As evidence that he did not construct the celestial globe,
Badia cites a letter written by Antonio Lupicini to the Grand Duke
Ferdinand, dated October 27, 1587. After reference to certain great works
planned by Cosimo in the last years of his life, such as those referred to by
Vasari, he adds that “when it seemed that nothing else was to be seen in the
room, at a certain sign these historical representations disappeared and the
cosmography of the whole mechanism, constructed after the manner of
Ptolemy, was uncovered; in doing so they opened the ceiling and let down
the representations of the planets, resting them on a stand which came out
of the floor, and from the floor also appeared a terrestrial and a celestial
globe each three and a half braccia in diameter, one of which had been
made by Fra Ignazio, and the model of which I myself have.”317 The
terrestrial globe, at first placed in the room for which it was intended, was

later removed to the gallery, where on account of much handling it was
greatly injured, and in the year 1595 the cosmographer, Antonio Santucci,
was entrusted with its restoration.318 Admired as it has been for more than
three hundred years, on account of its size and excellent workmanship,
repeatedly handled through all these years by careless visitors, a second
restoration was undertaken a few years since by Ferdinando Meucci,
director of the museum to which it finally passed. Meucci directed this
work with great care, studying minutely the construction of the globe under
the opportunity thus offered. Fiorini, citing information especially given
him by Meucci,319 says that the diameter of this globe is 2.04 m.; that the
ball is of wood having a papier-mâché covering, protected without by a
wrapping of cord and metal plates, and that it is very substantially braced
within. Danti himself in describing the construction of the globe, on
receiving an order for a similar one, says that “the surface of this globe is
thirty-six square braccia and it is supported within by an iron frame, as a
globe of this size would not stand without bracing; it represents a new
invention by means of which, though large, it can be moved in every
direction with a single finger, and its pole can be easily elevated or
depressed.”320 These Medici globes, it seems, attracted much attention, and
not alone in Italy. Pontanus, in the preface of his edition of Hues’ ‘Tractatus
de Globis,’ after a reference to the celestial globe of Tycho Brahe, six feet in
diameter, adds that Ferdinand I of Tuscany possessed two globes, one
terrestrial and the other an armillary sphere with circles and orbs, and that
these globes were constructed by the same hand.321 This last statement we
now know to be an error, since the terrestrial globe alone was the work of
Ignazio Danti, the armillary sphere being the work of Antonio Santucci.
The Biblioteca Nationale of Turin possesses a unique and highly interesting
globe signed “Franciscus Bassus Mediolanensis feccit 1570,” called Basso
in his day, although his name appears to have been Francesco Pelliccioni or
Pilizzoni.322 In this we have one of the finest examples of the style of
constructing and ornamenting metal globes, described by Ruscelli as
agemina, in which gold and silver threads and plates are forced into the
engraved outlines on the surface of the ball.
The globe, a hollow iron sphere about 56 cm. in diameter, is in an excellent
state of preservation. The engraved parallels and meridians are indicated at

intervals of ten degrees, the prime meridian passing through the Canary
Islands. It has thus been described by the librarian, Francesco Carta:323
“The parts of the globe in gold are the equator, the tropics, the polar circles
and many mountain chains; the known and the unknown polar regions are
flaked with gold. In gold are the crowns which designate the several
kingdoms, the small islands and the graduated prime meridian. In gold and
silver are the ships which sail the seas, the smaller being entirely of gold.
The ecliptic, the meridians excepting the prime meridian, the parallels, the
majority of the mountain chains of the unknown lands, the rivers, as well as
the outlines of the lands and the seas. On the graduated horizon circle are
the Latin names of the winds in silver capital letters. These are the twelve
winds of Timostene. A graduated metal meridian passes through the poles
and is attached to the rational horizon which is supported by four small
pyramidal columns having quadrangular bases. At the top, and fastened to
the framework of the globe with a silver ribbon, is a silver heart having
extended wings, the feathers of which are of gold and silver. From this heart
rises a small gilded design representing an olive branch, having leaves of
gold. From the lower part of the support hang silver ribbons flaked with
gold.” Practically all inscriptions are in silver capital letters, the majority
being in Latin, but a few are in Italian and in Spanish. To North America
which is connected with Asia, in accord with the idea so prevalent in the
second quarter of the century, is given the name “Asia magna quae India
borealis,” and to South America the name “America Nova.” In addition to
the above inscriptions we find such as “Hispania Major,” “G. d. Anian,”
“Oceanus Indicus,” “Sinus Magnus Aphricae.” In Brazil is the inscription,
“His Leoni Copia.” The inscription “Terra Australis recenter inventa anno
1499, sed nondum plene cognita terra,” closely resembles an inscription
similarly placed on the world map of Orontius Finaeus of 1531, which reads
“Terra Australis recenter inventa sed nondum plene cognita.”324 It does not
appear that great scientific value attaches to this globe, since there clearly
was no attempt to produce a terrestrial map to date. It, however, is a most
interesting example of globe construction in a day when globes were so
much in favor.
The Lancisiana Biblioteca of Rome possesses an artistically constructed
armillary sphere, apparently the work of Giovanni Maria Barrocci, who, in
the second half of the sixteenth century, achieved distinction as a maker of

watches and of mathematical instruments. Fiorini gives reason for thinking
this to be of about the year 1570, as well as reason for attributing the work
to Barrocci,325 finding it in an epitaph of a member of the family in which
there is allusion to the construction of a celestial globe for Pope Pius V.
Two globes, one celestial attributed to Hieronymo de Boncompagni, and
one terrestrial attributed to Emanuele Filiberto and probably constructed
about the year 1570, are briefly referred to by Fiorini as belonging to the
Osservatorio del Collegio Romano.326 Further reference to these globes has
not been obtainable, there being no mention of the same in a
communication received by the author from this observatory.
The Biblioteca Nationale Vittorio Emanuele of Rome possesses two
remarkably fine manuscript globes, a terrestrial and a celestial, the latter
bearing the inscription “Anno Jobel327 1575 ad que supputatae sunt stellae.”
“In the Jubilee year for which the positions of the stars have been
computed.” While not giving with certainty the exact date of their
construction, it seems that it could not have been later than that given in the
legend. The globes bear the coat of arms of the Jesuits, which may only
suggest that the maker was a member of that order. Each of these globes, or
globe balls, is constructed of a wooden framework, covered with a
preparation of plaster, over which has been added a coat of thick varnish.
On the surface thus prepared the map has been drawn and painted in colors.
Each has a diameter of about 70 cm., is mounted on a pyramidal base, 77
cm. in height, from which rises a rod 45 cm. in length, supporting two
semicircles which serve as a direct base support for the iron horizon circle.
The celestial globe has represented on its surface the equator, the tropics,
the polar circles, the colures, the ecliptic, and the zodiac, and the figures
representing the several constellations. These figures are very artistically
painted, having their several names written in gold in the Latin language;
some figures and names unfortunately are wanting by reason of injury to
the surface of the globe. On the terrestrial globe the equator, the tropics, and
the polar circles are represented, while but two meridians are indicated, the
prime meridian passing through the Canary Islands while the other has been
drawn ninety degrees from this, that is, cuts it at right angles at the poles.

The Biblioteca Laurentiana of Florence possesses four small armillary
spheres, bearing neither date nor author legends.328 The larger of these has a
diameter of about 32 cm., is of brass, and rests upon an artistic support
composed of a group of bronze satyrs. The other three, by reason of their
close resemblance, appear to be the work of the same artist. Each has a
diameter of about 23 cm. and a base of brass on which stands a small
bronze statue, which bears on its shoulders a globe. This globe supports the
several circles composing the armillary sphere. The supporting statue in one
of these is clad and is represented as wearing sandals on the feet,
supposedly representing the mythical Atlas. In another of these the statue is
that of a man resting on the right knee with the left hand uplifted, while in
the third the statue is that of a woman resting upon the left knee, having the
right hand uplifted. These globes are reported as not being in good
condition, but each exhibits artistic merit of a high order.
There is likewise to be found in the Biblioteca Nationale of Florence a
small celestial globe of bronze, and a celestial and terrestrial globe of silver.
These globes are neither signed nor dated but are thought to belong to the
period now under consideration. The bronze globe has the constellations
represented in relief. It is exceedingly small, having a diameter of about 10
cm. The silver globes have diameters about half the preceding, or about 4.5
cm. They are furnished with horizon and meridian circles, and have
mountings which clearly are modern. The several constellations represented
on the celestial globe are exceedingly well done, as are all of the decorative
figures appearing on the terrestrial globe. Geographical names are
necessarily few because of the size of the globe.
Attention has been called to the references which Ruscelli makes in his
‘Geografia’ to globe construction.329 Notice may likewise here be called to
a similar reference, though much more brief, made by Francesco Maurolico,
a native of Messina, and often referred to as the new Archimedes, because
of his great fame acquired in the field of mathematics and astronomy. In his
work, published in the year 1575,330 he devoted part of one chapter to the
subject “De sphaera solida,” describing the construction of a celestial globe,
and the use of the same. We have no evidence that he was ever engaged in
the construction of such instruments as aids in the study of his science.

Lastly, in this chapter, mention may be made of the work of Mario Cartaro.
It appears that with his work that of the Italian globe makers of the century
practically came to a close; the names of but two or three appear in the last
quarter.
Cartaro first achieved distinction as a designer and engraver in Rome,
where he issued a work containing the portraits of the first twenty-four
Roman Emperors.331 From Rome it appears that he went to Naples, where
he continued to reside until the time of his death. That he was much favored
in Naples is attested by the fact that he was given a commission to design or
to represent all places and plants in the kingdom, and to receive for the
same “ten scudi per month.”332 It is probable that as a result of this
commission we have that fine manuscript atlas of thirteen maps now
belonging to the Biblioteca Nationale of Naples, representing the provinces
of the kingdom and signed “M. Cartaro F. 1613.”333 This manuscript gives
striking evidence of his cartographical ability. The manuscript is of paper,
its first map representing the ancient kingdom of Naples, on which is placed
the Spanish coat of arms. The remaining twelve represent the following
named provinces: Terra di Lavorro, Principato Citra, Principato Ultra,
Basilicata, Calabria Citra, Calabria Ultra, Terra d’Otranto, Terra di Bari,
Capitanata, Contado di Molise, Abruzzo Citra, Abruzzo Ultra.
Cartaro’s globes are of solid wood about 16 cm. in diameter, the balls being
covered with engraved gore maps. On his celestial globes appears the
inscription, “Marius Cartarus Viterbensis Autor incidebat Romae cũ priv.
1577.” The twelve or rather twenty-four half gores, since they are cut on the
line of the ecliptic, are copper engraved. The equator, the tropics, the polar
circles, and the colures are represented, the ecliptic and the equator being
graduated, the degrees being alternately colored red and yellow. The several
constellations are well drawn, are colored yellow with shading, and stand
out prominently against a blue background representing the sky. His
terrestrial globes bear the inscription “Marius Cartarus Viterbensis Autor
incidebat Romae MDLXXVII cum privilegio,” the gores being divided, as
in the preceding, into twenty-four. Meridians and parallels are drawn at
intervals of fifteen degrees, alternate degrees being colored red and yellow,
the prime meridian passing through the Canary Islands and being graduated.
In the Osservatorio del Collegio Romano may be found two copies of the

celestial and one example of the terrestrial globe, one of the former once
belonging to the astronomer, Virgilio Spada, and later to the Biblioteca
Vallicelliana. Neither of these globes is well preserved, the original
mountings are wanting, and each rests on a base of wood which has been
merely designed to serve as a support.
A copy of the celestial globe may be found in the Museo di Strumenti
Antichi of Florence, which was presented to the museum by the Grand
Duke Leopold I. This example is reported to be in good condition, being
mounted on a base of wood, and having a horizon and a meridian circle of
wood, both of which are graduated. On the horizon appear the names of the
eight principal winds, with representations of the wind heads having
distended cheeks.
A fairly well-preserved example of the terrestrial globe (Fig. 69) was
recently purchased by Mr. Reed of New York City, by whose courteous
permission it was photographed for reproduction in this work. It has a
single pedestal base which is gilded, is furnished with horizon and meridian
circles, the former being supported by two semicircles, which in turn rest on
the pedestal base. Practically all of the inscriptions are in capitals, and all of
the work of the engraver has been very artistically done. The outline of the
New World resembles closely that given by Mercator and by Zaltiari. In
North America we find interestingly represented a great lake drained by two
rivers, apparently, but not accurately drawn as the Mississippi and the St.
Lawrence. The southwestern part is called “Nova Spagna,” Mexico is
designated as “Nova Galitia”; in the northeast we find “La Nova Franza,”
and “Terra de Norũbeca,” and in the southeast “Florida,” although the
peninsula is not well drawn. South America bears the name “America,” so
drawn as practically to cover the continent, and in addition we find
“Castiglia de Loro,” “Para,” “Peru Provin,” “Chili,” and lake “Tichia,”
located well inland. It will be noted in the reproduction that the sphere is
well shot through by the industrious book- or woodworm.

Fig. 69. Terrestrial Globe of Mario Cartaro, 1577.

NOTES
290 See his catalogue No. XLII, item 133; also catalogue No. L, item 327. Nordenskiöld. Facsimile
Atlas. Plate XL reproduces the terrestrial globe gores.
291 Marcel, G. François De Mongenet, géographe franc-comtois. (In: Bulletin de géographie,
historique et descriptive. Paris, 1889. pp. 31-40.); Günther, S. Die mathematischen Sammlung des
Gesmanischen Museums zu Nürnberg. (In: Leopoldina, Heft 14, p. 110.)
292 See above, p. 129.

293 Vasari, op. cit., Vol. III, pp. 500, 512, 514.
294 Ruscelli, G. La geografia di Claudio Tolomeo Alessandrino monumente tradotta di greco in
italiano. Venezia, 1561. p. 32.
295 See above, p. 122.
296 Joppi, V. Pittori e scultori. Venezia, 1881. p. 86.
297 Fiorini, M. Le projezioni delle carte geografiche. Bologna, 1881. Chap. vi, §5; same author. Le
projezioni cordiformi nella Cartografia. (In: Bolletino della Società Geografica Italiana. Roma, 1889.
pp. 554-579.)
298 Joppi, op. cit., pp. 71 ff.
299 The title-page reads, Della grandezza della terra et dell’ acqua. Trattato di M. Alessandro
Piccolomini, nuovamente mandato in luce all’ Illustr. et Rev. S. Monsig. M. Jacomo Cocco
Arcivescovo di Corfù. Con privilegio. In Venetia MDLVIII.
300 Cardella. Memorie storiche del Cardinali della Santa Romana Chiesa. Roma, 1792. Tom. IV,
p. 233.
301 Cardella, op. cit., Tom. IV, p. 173.
302 Cardella, op. cit., Tom. IV, p. 287.
303 Ruscelli, op. cit. See that section appearing as a second part or appendix to this work titled
“Espositioni et introductioni.” Chap. ii.
304 Sanuto. Geografia di Livio Sanuto distinta in XII libri. Vinezia, 1588.
305 Ruscelli. Espositioni. Chap. iii.
306 Ruscelli. Geografia. pp. 58, 59.
307 Vasari, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 65.
308 Fiorini. Sfere terrestri e celesti. p. 218.
309 Inventario del Reale Gabinetto redatto nel 1776, Vol. II, n. 175.
310 Doppelmayr, op. cit., p. 75; Gerland, E. Beiträge zur Geschichte der Physik. (In: Leopoldina,
Heft 18, p. 69.); Weidler, J. F. Historia astronomiae. Vitembergae, 1741. p. 390; Drechsler, A.
Katalog der Sammlung des Königl.-Mathematisch-Physikalischen Salon zu Dresden. Dresden, 1874.
p. 53.

311 Doppelmayr, op. cit., pp. 83-90.
312 Drechsler, op. cit., pp. 53, 54; Gerland, op. cit., p. 68.
313 Del Badia, J. Egnazio Danti cosmografo e matematico. Firenze, 1882; Marchese, R. Memorie dei
più illustri pittori, scultori ed architetti Dominicani. Bologna, 1879. Vol. II, p. 357; Porena, F. La
Geografia in Roma e il mappamondo Vaticano. (In: Boll. della Società Geografica Italiana. Roma,
1888. pp. 221 ff.)
314 Uzielli, G. L’epistolario Colombo-Toscanelliano e di Danti. (In: Boll. della Società Geografica
Italiana. Roma, 1889. p. 836.) In this the author refers to the numerous editions of Sacrobosco
translated by Rinaldi.
315 Vasari, op. cit., Vol. V, pp. 493-496.
316 Del Badia, op. cit., p. 30.
317 Del Badia, op. cit., p. 28.
318 Del Badia, op. cit., p. 31.
319 Fiorini. Sfere terrestri e celesti. p. 179.
320 Tiraboschi, G. Storia della litteratura italiana. Roma, 1873. Tom. VII, pt. I, lib. ii, p. 439.
321 Hues, R. Tractatus de globis coelesti et terrestri eorumque usu. Amstelodame, 1617. Ed. by
Joannis Isaci Pontanus. See the Preface.
322 Moriggia, R. P. F. La nobilita di Milano. Milano, 1595. Lib. V, cap. xvii.
323 Fiorini. Sfere terrestri e celesti. p. 184; Kretschmer, K. Die Entdeckung Amerikas in ihrer
Bedeutung für die Geschichte des Weltbildes. Berlin, 1892. p. 436, and Tav. xxix.
324 Nordenskiöld. Facsimile Atlas, plate XLI.
325 Fiorini. Sfere terrestri e celesti. p. 220.
326 Fiorini. Sfere terrestri e celesti. p. 284.
327 The word “Jobel” is thought to mean jubilee.
328 Fiorini. Sfere terrestri e celesti. pp. 497-500.
329 See above, n. 294, 303.
330 His work bears the title D. Francisci Maurolyci Abbatis Messanensis Opuscula mathematica
nunc primum in lucem edita. Venetiis, 1575.
331 Gori-Gandellini, G. Notizie storiche degli intagliatori. Siena, 1771. Tom. I, p. 25.
332 Archivo Storico della Provincie Napoletane. Anno primo Napoli. 1876. p. 405.
333 Fiorini. Sfere terrestri e celesti. p. 191. See for catalogue reference Sala dei MSS. Scaffale XII,
palchetto D, n. 100.

Chapter IX

Globes and Globe Makers of the Last Quarter of the
Sixteenth Century
Brief summary of sixteenth-century globe making.—The close of the century introducing us to the
great Dutch globe makers.—The clock maker Dasypodius.—Peter and Philip Apianus.—The
armillary sphere of Carlus Platus.—Roll and Reinhold.—Tycho Brahe and his influence.—Titon
du Tillet.—The terrestrial globe of Rouen.—Globes of Emery Molyneux.—Globes of Bürgi.—
Zürich globe.—Beaker globes.—Ivory globe of Antonio Spano.—The Van Langren globes.—
Santucci.—B. F. globe of Dresden.

I
N the last three chapters attention has been called to the globes and
globe makers of the earlier years of the sixteenth century, special
mention having been made in Chapters VI and VII of the notions
entertained concerning the geography of the New World as exhibited in the
terrestrial globe maps. In the first quarter of the century, as was stated, the
newly discovered lands were represented as having no geographical
connection with the Old World, and with few exceptions the two continents
of the western hemisphere were separated from each other either by a strait
or by a wide expanse of ocean. In the second quarter of the century the
belief seemed to have found very general acceptance that the New World
was but a prolongation or eastward extension of the Asiatic continent, a
belief which found expression in the plane as well as in the globe maps.
Exceptions to such belief were likewise noted, as was also the inclination
manifesting itself in this second quarter to return to the earlier notions, that
a great body of water separated Asia from the northern continent, in the
spread of which notion Mercator seems to have exerted a dominating
influence. In the third quarter of the century the globe maps indicate that a
belief in the independent position of the New World had again found very
general acceptance, although there appeared now and then an expression in
the maps that the theory of an Asiatic connection still lingered. In this third
quarter it was the Italian globe makers who were the most active, yet it must
be admitted that the majority of the globes produced in these years in the
peninsula were not of striking importance. In the literature of the period,
references to globes which were constructed, and which appear to have
been well known, are not infrequent, but one is inclined to a belief, based

upon these references, and upon those globes which are extant, that time
has destroyed the best of them.
The records of the last quarter of the century, of which we come now to
speak in this chapter, seem to show a decline of interest in globe making
among the Italians, the examples of their work left to us being exceedingly
few. We note a rising interest and activity in globe making in the North in
this period, which reaches a climax during the early years of the
seventeenth century in the splendid work given out by the great masters of
the Netherlands. A well-merited fame especially crowns the labors of
members of the Van Langren, the Blaeu, and the Hondius families.334
Although remembered chiefly for his part in the construction of the famous
Strassburg cathedral clock, Conrad Dasypodius (1530-1600) can also claim
a place among the globe makers of his day, that is, of the period we now
have under consideration.335 He was the son of Petrus Dasypodius, a native
of Frauenfeld in Switzerland, whose name originally was Rauhfuss or
Hasenfuss, and who for some years held a position as professor of the
Greek language in Zürich. In the year 1530 he removed to Strassburg to
accept a similar position in the Strassburg Academy, where he died in the
year 1559. Young Conrad, after an association for a period with the then
famous Strassburg mathematician, Christian Herlin,336 as his favorite pupil,
traveled extensively, going to Paris and later to Lyons, where he continued
his mathematical studies. In October, 1562, he became the successor of
Herlin, and in the year 1563 canon of St. Thomas. To the impulse which he
contributed to mathematical studies is due the high place held for a
considerable period by the Strassburg Academy.337 It is a part of his great
service that he not only encouraged the study of the Greek mathematicians,
but he also was especially interested in having their works brought to the
attention of the public through their reissue, especially the works of Euclid.
The list of Dasypodius’ publications338 is a long one and is such as to place
him among the foremost scholars of his day, but it was, however, his
astronomical clock, noted above, which brought him special renown in the
larger circles. It was near the middle of the fourteenth century that the first
clock, which was of wood, was constructed for the cathedral, but time had
wrought its destructive work, and as early as 1547 a commission was
appointed to consider the question of its restoration, and of this commission

Christian Herlin was a prominent member. His death in the year 1562 left
the plan incomplete, and eight years passed before his pupil, Dasypodius,
was successful in urging the magistrates of the city to take up the work
anew. In the year 1570, through his advice, two young globe makers of
Schaffhausen, Isaac and Josias Habrecht,339 who had given aid to their
father in the construction of the “Frohnwaagthurm Uhr” of the last-named
city, together with the Schaffhausen artists, Tobias and Josias Stimmer,340
were invited to take up the work under his supervision. At the end of three
years the clock was completed and soon came to be referred to as one of the
seven wonders of Germany. “Truly a masterpiece,” said Montucla, “and the
first of its kind in all Europe by reason of the numerous movements which
it executes.”341 In the year 1580 a description of the same was prepared and
published by Dasypodius himself.342 Although calling for frequent repairs
the clock continued running until the year 1789, when it ceased, and after
fifty years had passed the old mechanism was replaced by new, the work of
Schwilgué.343 Remarkable as is the entire masterpiece, it is the globes with
which Dasypodius furnished it that especially interest us here. At the base
of the clock is placed a celestial sphere (Fig. 70) three feet in diameter,
supported by four columns of wood richly carved. On the surface appear the
forty-eight Ptolemaic constellations, each constellation having its
appropriate figure, and the 1022 stars which had been located in Ptolemy’s
day. The globe is so connected with the machinery, by which the various
parts of the clock are made to perform their functions, that it makes one
revolution on its axis every twenty-four hours, thus representing the rising
and the setting of the several celestial bodies. Two circles were added, one
carrying the sun and the other the moon, adjusted so as to turn about the
globe, the first in twenty-four hours, and the second in about twenty-five.
The arrangement of the movements, it appears, was not greatly altered in
the reconstruction of 1838-1842, and the clock, as it now stands, is thus
described by Britten: “On the floor level is a celestial globe indicating
siderial time. In its motion round its axis the globe carries with it the circles
that surround it—namely, the equator, the ecliptic, the solstitial and
equinoctial colures, while the meridian and horizon circles remain
motionless, so that there are shown the rising and the setting, as well as the
passage over the meridian of Strassburg, of all stars that are visible to the
naked eye, and which appear above the horizon. Behind the celestial globe

is the calendar; on a metallic band, nine inches wide and thirty feet in
circumference, are the months and the days of the months, Dominical
letters, fixed and movable feast days. The band is shifted at midnight, and a
statue of Apollo points out the day of the month and the name of the saint
corresponding to that day. The internal part of the annular band indicates
true solar time, the rising and the setting of the sun, the diurnal motion of
the moon around the earth, and its passage over the meridian, the phases of
the moon and the eclipses of the sun and moon. Adjacent compartments are
devoted to a perpetual calendar, solar and lunar cycles and other periodic
occurrences, solar and lunar equations, etc. Above the calendar appear
allegorical figures, seated in chariots, and representing the days of the
week. These chariots, drawn by such animals as are assigned as attributes of
the divinities, run on a circular railway and appear each in order. In the
story above the globe is a planetarium in which the revolutions of the
planets are represented upon a large dial plate, and above the planetarium,
and upon a star-decked sky, is a globe devoted to showing the phases of the
moon. In the second story of the clock has been placed a terrestrial globe,
which likewise is adjusted to revolve in representation of the revolution of
the earth.”344

Fig. 70. Strassburg Clock and Globe of Conrad Dasypodius, 1574.

Peter Apianus (Bienewitz or Bennewitz) (1495-1552) was a native of
Leisnig, Saxony.345 His earliest education was received in the village of
Roschlitz, but at the age of twenty-three he entered the University of
Leipzig, where it appears that astronomy and mathematics chiefly claimed
his interest (Fig. 71). In 1527 he received and accepted an appointment as
professor of mathematics in the University of Ingolstadt, and in 1541, for
his distinguished abilities, he was ennobled by the Emperor Charles V. In
addition to the fame acquired through his mathematical treatises he became
widely known as a maker of physical and astronomical instruments, among
which were celestial globes. Numerous as appear to have been these globes
of his construction, no example at present is known bearing the
unmistakable evidence of his workmanship. Clemens, in his description of
the Library of the Escorial,346 gives us to understand that it possessed at one
time one or more Peter Apianus globes, which were probably carried to
Spain by the Emperor himself. It seems probable that a diligent search
through public and private libraries and museums in that country would
lead to the discovery of some of his globes or mathematical instruments.

Fig. 71. Portrait of Peter Apianus.

Kepler tells us of an Apianus globe which he saw on a journey from
Würtemberg to Gratz, noting that it was so constructed that the stars could
be removed at pleasure from the sphere.347 Of this particular globe nothing
seems now to be known. It is thought hardly probable that the one referred
to by Kepler is that fine celestial Apianus globe (Fig. 72) belonging to the
K. B. Hof- u. Staats Bibliothek of Munich. There seems to be scarcely a

doubt that this, as its companion, a terrestrial globe, is the work of the son
Philip. Repeated inquiry has not resulted in obtaining definite answer as to
the dimensions of these globes nor a description of such detailed features as
would here prove of interest. The photographic reproductions show them to
be of remarkably artistic workmanship. Each is furnished with a heavy
meridian circle, and with a similarly designed horizon circle supported by a
semicircle which rests upon an elaborately constructed base.348 The history
of these globes seems not to be known, as stated above. We have an
inventory of the Herzoglich-Bayrische collection of mathematical and
astronomical instruments, prepared by the Jesuit, Fickler, which contains,
page 147, the following entry relative to the globes to be found therein:
“Folget die Tafl. Nr. 34. Daraus stehen drey grosser hulzinen Globi
Coelestes, davon d. ain in einem messingen gestell, mit ainem messingem
zodiaco, der dritt von mettall. 1777. Sechs grosser Globi terrestres von
Holz. mit mettallinen zodiacis 1778. Zwei claine Globi der ain Coelestis der
ander Terrestris, auf gedraxelten holzen fuesslen.”349 “Next in order is table
No. 34. On this there stand three large celestial globes of wood, one of
which has a base of brass, with a brass horizon circle, the third of metal,
1777. There are six large terrestrial globes of wood, with metal horizon
circles, 1778. Two small globes, one celestial, the other terrestrial, resting
on turned wooden feet.” It will be noted, however, that there is no mention
therein of Apianus globes. Kobalt tells us that Apianus “vertigte allerley
mathematische instrumente, als Cosmolabium, Globos duos Caeli et Terrae
maximos, und Planisphaerium,” “constructed many kinds of mathematical
instruments such as astrolabes, two large globes celestial and terrestrial and
planispheres.” This same author gives us the information that “in der k. b.
Central-Bibliothek befinden sich zwei grosse, von Apian ververtigte und
von Johann Mielichs gemalte Globi Coelestes et Terrestres, worauf
folgende Inschrift zo lesen ist, ‘Illustrss Seren. Principi ac Domino D.
Alberto Com. Pal. Rheni. Sub. Inf. que Bar. Duci Domino suo
Clementissimo Globum hunc geographicum cels. ejus jussu juxta veterum
ac recentium Historiographorum Observationes Traditionesque Descr. et
Ded. Philippus Apianus M. D. Anno Salutis 1576.’” “In the K. B. Central
Library there are two large globes celestial and terrestrial constructed by
Apianus and painted by Johan Müelichs, on which is the following
inscription: ‘To the Most Illustrious, Most Serene Prince and Lord D. Albert
Count of the Rhenish Palatinate, etc. His Most Clement Lord this celestial

globe by his command, fashioned according to the observations and
traditions of both ancient and modern historiographers dedicates Philip
Apianus in the year of Salvation 1576.’”350 It seems, therefore, probable,
from the above citation, that it was the son Philip who constructed these
Munich globes. It was in the year 1552 that he followed his father as
professor of mathematics in the University of Ingolstadt and like his father
soon won distinction for himself as cartographer, producing his famous
Bayrische Landtafeln as his first work of note. It seems further probable
that shortly after this work he became interested in globe construction, in
which line of activity he made for himself a place of first rank.

Fig. 72. Globes of Philip Apianus, 1576.

The celestial globe referred to above has represented on its surface the
several Ptolemaic constellations, exquisitely colored, and the stars have
been given names in Greek, Latin, and Arabic. The terrestrial globe map is
considerably injured, especially in the polar regions, but the continental and

other outlines are all clearly traceable. Three large compass roses, of
ornamental pattern, are placed along the Line of Demarcation. The coast
outline of Europe is, in the main, well done, as is that of Africa and the New
World. The Nile and the Niger rivers no longer find their source in the same
common lake. The representations of the far eastern regions indicate that
Apianus had a fairly good knowledge of the records of the Holland
explorers.
A fine example of the metal worker’s art of this period may be found in a
silvered bronze celestial globe (Fig. 73) belonging to the Morgan collection
recently placed in the Metropolitan Museum of New York. On the meridian
circle we find the maker and date legend reading “Gerhard Emmoser, sac.
caes. meis horologiarius, F. Viennae 1579.” The sphere, which can be
opened on the line of the ecliptic, has a diameter of about 13 cm. Within has
been placed a delicately constructed mechanism by means of which the
sphere is made to rotate once in twenty-four hours on its equatorial axis, the
key winding stem for this machinery projecting at the north pole through an
engraved hour plate with pointer. With its meridian and its horizon circle it
is adjusted to make one revolution in three hundred and sixty-five days. A
stationary ring, about 2 cm. in width, which closely surrounds the horizon
circle and in its same plane, fits the instrument as a calendar. This ring has
engraved on its surface crossing lines, one for each day of the year, to each
month there being assigned its proper number of days or lines, as, for
example, “October habet 31 dies,” “November habet 30 dies.” As the
sphere with its circles revolves, a pointer attached to the horizon circle
indicates on the calendar ring each day of each month in succession. The
surface of the sphere is exquisitely engraved with representations of the
several constellations, the name of each being given in Latin. The
instrument is made to rest upon the back of a winged horse in silvered
bronze, this in turn standing upon an artistic circle base. It is well preserved
and is a choice example of such instruments, which in this period were in
particular favor.

Fig. 73. Silver-Gilt Globe of Gerhard Emmoser, 1573.

Carlus Platus, a maker of metal globes in the last quarter of the sixteenth
century, is known to us through two fine extant examples of his work.351
The first of these, inscribed “Romae a. 1578 Car. Pl.,” may be found in the

Museo di Strumenti Antichi of Florence, having been added to this
collection by its former distinguished director, F. Meucci. The horizon
diameter of this armillary sphere is about 21 cm. It has been described as
one beautifully constructed of brass and mounted on a carved wooden base.
The circle representing the course of the sun and that made to represent the
course of the moon are made to revolve on the axis of the ecliptic, and a
small ball, of recent construction, representing the earth, is placed in the
common center of the armillae, and is made to revolve on the axis of the
equator. A dial attached to the axis of the earth below the meridian circle
marks the hours, which are engraved on the Arctic polar circle. A few points
marked on the colures indicate the position of the principal stars. All of the
circles have been carefully graduated. On that one representing the zodiac
have been engraved the names of the months and the pictures of the several
zodiacal figures, while on the horizon circle are the names of the principal
winds in Greek, Latin, and Italian.
A second globe of Platus, signed “Carolus Platus Romae Anno 1598,” may
be found in the Biblioteca Barbarini of Rome. It is composed of two hollow
brass hemispheres, making a ball 14 cm. in diameter, which is surrounded
by a brass meridian and a brass horizon circle, the whole resting on a tripod
base. It is a fine example of an early metal engraved globe, the
representation of the figures of the constellations in particular being done in
a very superior manner. On the surface of the sphere the equator, the
ecliptic, the equinoctial, and the solstitial colures are represented. The
history of the globe seems not to be known, but it is probable that it came to
the Barbarini Palace in the time of Pope Urban VIII, who, before filling his
pontifical office, was known as Maffeo Barbarini.
Of the celestial globes constructed by George Roll and Joannes Reinhold
three examples are known.352 One of these may be found in the collection
of the Mathematical Salon of Dresden (Fig. 74) one in the Osservatorio di
Capodimonte of Naples and one in the K. K. Hofbibliothek in Vienna. The
Roll and Reinhold globe of the Dresden collection, bearing the inscription
“Georg Roll et Joannes Reinhold elaborabant Augustae 1586,” is an
exceedingly interesting instrument, unique in the manner of its construction
and remarkably well preserved. It is of brass, having a diameter of 36 cm.,
and is furnished with numerous movable circles, a large meridian circle
surmounted with an armillary sphere, and a brass horizon circle on which

are marked the old and the new calendars, the names of the twelve months
and of the important holy days. The globe base, very artistically wrought,
rests upon four griffin’s feet, between which a small terrestrial globe 10 cm.
in diameter has been placed, this having been furnished with its own
independent support. The large celestial sphere is furnished with a clocklike
mechanism by means of which it is made to revolve in representation of the
diurnal motion of the heavens. According to existing records it was
purchased in the year 1593 by order of the Elector Christian II, and by him
was presented to the Academy of Arts of Dresden. Zeiller tells us that this
and the Heyden globe were those “with which the Prince Elector Augustus
was accustomed to amuse himself.”

Fig. 74. Globe of George Roll and Johannes Reinhold, 1586.

It has not been possible to obtain a description of the Vienna globe. It
appears that it was constructed in the year 1588, and that, like the Dresden
example, the celestial sphere is made to revolve by means of clockwork.
The Roll and Reinhold globe belonging to the Osservatorio di
Capodimonte, according to Fiorini, is one especially worthy of mention.353
This is described as a hollow ball having a diameter of about 21 cm. The
sphere itself is made of copper, the remaining parts of gilded brass. The
horizon circle is composed of several overlapping brass plates. A clockwork
mechanism is supplied, by means of which the sphere and certain circles
may be made to revolve. The surface of the copper sphere is artistically
engraved, having numerous circles representing the ecliptic system with its
parallels and meridians, and the equatorial system including its five zones.
The Ptolemaic constellations are represented, the figure of each being
engraved in outline with the name in Latin. The several stars are not named
but near each is an engraved number to indicate its magnitude, these
numbers ranging from 1 to 6. Nebulae are distinguished by small circles,
and the Milky Way by numerous dots. The meridian circle, in which the
sphere revolves, has the usual graduation from 0 to 90, but has in addition a
climatic graduation designed “Climata ex Ptolomeo,” and a division into
zones called “Torrida Zona,” “Zona habitabilis temperata,” and “Frigida
zona.” On the convex surface of the horizon circle we find engraved the
names of the four cardinal points, and on the upper surface of this circle are
engraved the Julian and the Gregorian calendars, the names of the saints,
the dates on which the sun enters the various signs of the zodiac, and the
ancient names of the principal winds. The globe mountings, all of brass, are
artistic and well preserved. Like the Dresden example it rests upon a four-
branched support, the extremities of each branch representing the claws of
the griffin. Including the base, the instrument is 43 cm. in height. It seems
not to be known when or how this globe, constructed in Augsburg, found its
way to the Naples Museum, where it is treasured as one of the choicest of
ancient astronomical instruments.
Tycho Brahe, the great Danish astronomer (Fig. 75), was a native of
Knudtstrup near Helsingborg, born in the year 1546.354 The care of his early
education was assumed by an uncle, George Brahe, who in the year 1559
sent him to the Academy of Copenhagen with the intention of fitting him

for the legal profession. Three years later we find him registered at the
University of Leipzig, then famous for its department of jurisprudence. Like
many another of the world’s great men for whom, in the days of his youth,
interested relatives or friends have chosen a life career only to find in later
life the choice not well made, Tycho’s bent was not for the legal profession
but for science, that is, for mathematics and astronomy. While yet a student
in Copenhagen an eclipse of the sun which occurred August 21, 1560,
interested him greatly, and here we seem to find the beginning of that great
future which was to be his. Forbidden by his schoolmaster to give his time
to a study of the stars, in the quiet of the night he would secretly betake
himself into the open, there to watch with unaided eye the movements of
the heavenly bodies, or to follow these movements as best he could with the
assistance of a simple astronomical circle and a small celestial globe which
he had been able to purchase. It probably was in his Leipzig days that he
became intimate with Bartholomaus Scultetus (Schultz), lecturer on
mathematical subjects, and by him was encouraged to pursue further his
astronomical studies. Among the first practical results of his activities in
this field we have his correction table for readings with the Jacob staff. The
death of his uncle in the year 1565 occasioned his return to his native
country, but Germany offering him special opportunities for continued
study in his favorite field, we soon find him in Wittenberg, later in Rostock,
where in a quarrel with a peasant he lost part of his nose and thereafter to
the end of his days wore a silver substitute. In 1567 we find him in
Lauingen engaged in the study of astronomy with the distinguished Cyprian
Leowitz, in 1568 in Basel with Peter Ramus, and for two years thereafter in
Augsburg with the brothers Johan and Paul Hainzel, with whom he
constructed a large quadrant having a radius of seventeen and one half feet.
While in Augsburg it appears that he began the construction of a celestial
globe four feet in diameter, but there is some uncertainty as to his
completion of this work. A short but unhappy sojourn in his native town
followed his years of congenial study in Germany, and we soon learn of his
visit to the observatory of Landgraf Wilhelm of Cassel, an event of great
significance for him. His travels carried him to other cities of Germany,
including the city of Regensburg, where he witnessed the coronation of the
Emperor Rudolf II. Landgraf Wilhelm, a Maecenas of wide repute in his
day, had been greatly impressed with the abilities of Tycho, and he urged
upon the Danish King Frederick that he should make suitable provision for

the further astronomical studies of his distinguished subject, which
suggestion the King generously met. In the year 1575 the documents were
signed and sealed granting to Tycho full possession for life of the little
Island of Hveen, lying between Seeland and Schonen; in addition he was
furnished with all the means necessary for the erection of an observatory
and the adequate equipment of the same (Fig. 76). The Uranienburg, as his
observatory was called,355 became a great center for astronomical studies,
and students came to him from various European lands, among these being
Arnold van Langren, Willem Jansz. Blaeu, and Longomontanus (Christian
Severin of Longberg). The death of his patron, King Frederick II, in the
year 1588 brought misfortune to Tycho, in so far as his life and studies on
the Island of Hveen were concerned, since the succeeding ruler, Christian
IV, was but little interested in the further promotion of astronomical
science. Enduring court intrigue for nine years, he determined, in the year
1597, to leave the scenes of his remarkable successes, and after a brief
sojourn with Count Henry of Ranzau near Hamburg, he accepted an
invitation from the Emperor Rudolf II to become imperial astronomer and
counselor at Prague. Thither he went with his family in the year 1599, at the
same time taking with him those astronomical instruments which had
served him in his studies in the northern island home. While preparations
were under way for the erection of a new observatory for him he died in the
year 1601. From Tycho’s heirs the Emperor Rudolf purchased his
instruments and manuscripts, the latter passing into the hands of Kepler, his
successor at the Imperial Court, but as to the fate of his instruments little
seems to be known. Kästner tells us that in 1619, during an uprising in the
city of Prague, some of these were destroyed while others were carried
away, and at present only an iron quadrant, once in his observatory, remains
in that city.

Fig. 75. Portrait of Tycho Brahe.

Fig. 76. Interior of Tycho Brahe’s Observatory at Uranienburg.

His large brass celestial globe, six feet in diameter, was carried back to
Copenhagen in the year 1623 by King Christian’s son, Ulrich, and there it
was carefully kept until the year 1728, when with the castle in which it had
been placed it was destroyed by fire.
Recalling the far-reaching influence of Tycho Brahe on astronomical studies
and on celestial globe making, it cannot be without interest to quote here his
own reference to his great globe, wherein he describes its construction.

“This globe,” he says,356 “which is a very large one, we have made with
great care, but with none the less than we have employed in all of our
others. The interior is of wood with many intersecting circles and special
supports, strengthened here and there from the center, and being then
fashioned into a spherical shape. As for its parts of wood, these were made
at Augsburg in the year 1570 before I returned to my native land, as I found
there a capable workman, having sought for a long time elsewhere in vain
for such an one. There, on account of its size, which made it difficult to
move, it had remained for five years, when I returned to Augsburg; this was
in the year 1575 as I came out of Italy on my way to Ratisbon to be present
at the coronation of the August Emperor Rudolf II, when I found the globe
had been finished some time previously. But its shape (sphericity) did not
altogether satisfy me, moreover certain cracks could be seen. In the
following year, and not without much difficulty I had it carried to Denmark.
There the cracks were filled in and the sphericity made more nearly perfect
by laying over the surface about one hundred skins. There followed a
testing for a period of two years to ascertain whether the cracks would
reappear after two summers and two winters. When, after this test, I saw
that it retained its sphericity, I covered it over with thin brass plates of
uniform thickness without mishap, and this I did with such care and skill
that you would be led to say the globe was made of solid brass, the joinings
of the plates being scarcely visible. I next fashioned it into a perfect sphere
and marked thereon the zodiac, and the equator with its poles, also the
degrees each of sixty minutes by engraved lines as we do in such work. I
then left it for the space of one year, as there was some doubt after putting
on the brass plates as to whether the globe would retain its sphericity in
winter and in summer. When it had been sufficiently tested not only did I
indicate the circles of which I have spoken but also all the stars of the
eighth sphere I represented in their proper places, as many stars as were to

be seen in the heavens, and I increased their number more and more in
succeeding years up to 1600. Thus I with purpose added all the stars visible
to the naked eye, in their proper places adapted to the year 1600 which was
near at hand. And so there passed nearly twenty-five years from the first
work on this globe until it was finished, by the addition of its proper
divisions and its stars. This delay, although it might seem tedious, was not
without its value; for all things were thus done more carefully and better.
‘Work quickly only if you work well.’ Then the outer circles were fitted to
it, that is, a meridian and after that a horizon circle. This meridian is made
of brass, and each degree is divided into minutes, and the horizon has the
width of a palm of the hand, being covered with brass having the degrees
and minutes marked. The vertical quadrant passing from the zenith to the
horizon is of brass.
“The globe rests on a firm base having two iron supports crossing each
other, two of which you see on one side and two on the other. These are for
the purpose of giving strength lest the horizon of the instrument should not
be firm because of its bulk and weight.
“The entire support is five feet high, and on the lower part of the structure
various mathematical devices are to be seen skilfully painted for the sake of
ornamentation, and with the other features adding beauty to the whole. The
globe itself is approximately six feet in diameter, and from this dimension
the size of the meridian, of the horizon and of the rest of the instrument can
be obtained.
“Such a globe, so solidly made, so finely wrought, and in every part so
finely constructed and properly constituted never before in any part of the
world, so I believe and say without the thought of arousing envy, has been
completed. It is an immense and a magnificent work; so much so that many
have come from various countries to Denmark that they might have a view
of it together with my other instruments, while the Kingdom of Urania and
its far-famed citadel were standing.
“Around the horizon circle one could read in letters of gold ‘In the year of
Christ CIƆ IƆ XXCIV (1584), Frederick II reigning in Denmark, this globe
like unto a celestial machine, in which are fixed the stars of the eighth
sphere as set down on his globe each exactly in its place, also the wandering

stars as they appear among these, Tycho Brahe, to all on earth who desire to
understand this matter, shows the heavens by this mechanical device which
he perfected for his sons, for himself and for posterity.’
“The date 1584 is inscribed hereon because that is the middle of the period
of time in which it was in the process of construction, and further it is the
year before the death of King Frederick of most worthy memory, who
liberally supported both myself and my work, and his princely love
followed me as long as he lived. I will add only this one thing—this globe
has a canopy indicated by Y Z (Fig. 77) circular, and concave within to
enclose the upper half of the globe, which canopy, fastened to the roof by a
chain, may be let down as a protection from dust and from other injury. The
use of the globe is the same as is that of others, and this use I have decided
to describe in a special work during my leisure time, since it cannot be done
in few words. This globe has, on account of its great size, an advantage over
all others, namely that all details on it can be given with the utmost
exactness and minuteness. And those points concerning the doctrine of the
primum mobilum and the study of the heavenly bodies in their relations to
the position of the ecliptic and the equator and of certain other circles on the
globe, are easily determined with a minimum of trouble and without any
laborious effort, by the machine.”

Fig. 77. Globus Magnus of Tycho Brahe, 1584.

Van Raemdonck refers to a globe by Titon du Tillet, of the year 1584, citing
a reference to this work to be found in “Memoirs lus à la Sorbonne.” We
have been unable to obtain concerning Titon any additional information to
that given in the above citations.357
In March, 1861, the Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris acquired by purchase a
copper engraved globe mounted on a metal base.358 The record referring to
the purchase reads “Trouvé à Lignières (Cher) et provenant de l’abbé
L’Écuy.” (Fig. 78.)

Fig. 78. L’Écuy Terrestrial Globe, ca. 1578.

Aside from its geographical interest it is particularly significant in that it is
the only globe of metal known to have been made in Rouen in that period.
It is neither signed nor dated, but its inscriptions seem to assure us that it
was not made prior to 1578, yet in all probability before 1600. It seems not
to be known how the globe found its way into the locality designated. The
Abbé L’Écuy died in Paris in the year 1634 at the age of eighty-four, Vicar
General of the Prebendary of Nôtre Dame. It is probable that at the death of
the Abbé the globe was taken to the province of Cher by some dealer or
purchaser, as he was born in the town Yvoi-Carignan in French
Luxembourg. Of the earliest history of this remarkably interesting object we
know only that it was made in Rouen, at a date we cannot definitely fix.
It has a diameter of 25.6 cm. In an oval cartouch one finds the inscription
“Nova et integra universi orbis descriptio. Rothomagi.” “A new and
complete description of the world. Rouen.” Below the last line there
appears to be space left for the insertion of the author’s name, a thought
suggested by the arrangement for the inscription, and underneath the
cartouch is engraved a representation of Neptune driving his sea horses and
chariot and armed with a trident. There are numerous vessels represented on
the globe, sailing the seas, in the style of the sixteenth century. The prime
meridian passes through the Canary Islands. The author seems to have
drawn largely from Spanish sources, but to some extent from the
Portuguese.
The outlines of the several countries of the Old World are not particularly
well drawn, and it does not appear that the author thought of making an
especial point of accuracy. Africa has the outlines of the maps of the
sixteenth century, but with an indifference to details. The Senegal and the
Niger are made to unite to form the Nile. Asia is not particularly well
drawn. Below the island of Cipango the author has engraved the following
legend, “Hoc loco secuti sumus recentiores hanc partem verius a continente
separantes.” “In this place we have followed the most recent (observers)
who rightly separate this part from the continent.”
The western coast of America gives evidence of a want of detailed
knowledge. Here we read “Haec littora nondum cognita,” “this coast is not
yet known,” and below this, “Novus orbis,” and “Hispania major a Nuño
Gusmano devicta anno 1539,” “Greater Spain conquered by Nuño Gusman

in the year 1539.” California is represented as a peninsula and not an island
as on so many of the maps of the closing years of the sixteenth century. The
nomenclature along the coast of Mexico is exceedingly rich. Pizarro’s
conquest is referred to, but Chili is unknown, “Ulterius incognitum.” The
estuary of La Plata is represented as very large. The coast names north of
Florida seem to have been obtained from the Verrazano sources of 1524. In
the region of Newfoundland, which is represented as a region of numerous
small islands, we find “Baccalearum regio,” “Gamas,” “insule Corteralis,”
“terro de laborador.” The strait separating Greenland from the mainland is
referred to as “Fretum arcticum per quod Lusitani in orientem et ad Indos et
Molucas navigare conati sunt,” “Arctic strait through which the Portuguese
attempted to sail to the east and to the Indies and the Moluccas,” an allusion
to the unhappy results of the Cortereal expedition. Along the coast of the
strait which forms the northern boundary of North America we read “Terra
per Britannos inventa,” “Land discovered by the British.” A very curious
legend along the east coast of Greenland reads “Quii populi ad quos Joañes
Scovus Danus pervenit anno 1476,” “These are the people to whom the
Dane John Scovus came in the year 1476.” Humboldt was one of the first to
call attention to this expedition, and Gomara was actually the first to
mention it, that is, to give a reference to the Dane Skolnus.359
There are no more interesting survivals among the globes of the late
sixteenth century than are those constructed by Emery Molyneux, now
belonging to the Middle Temple Library of London (Fig. 79), which Sir
Clements Markham refers to as “their burial place,” considering this to be
“a strange depository for geographical documents of such interest and
importance.” In the address “To the Reader” or preface to his ‘Voyages,’
Hakluyt gives the first reference in print to these globes. “Nowe,” he says,
“because peraduenture it would bee expected as necessarie, that the
descriptions of so many parts of the world would farre more easily be
conceiued of the Readers, by adding Geographicall, and Hydrographicall
tables thereunto, thou art by the way to be admonished that I have contented
my selfe with inserting into the worke one of the best generall mappes of
the world onely, untill the coming out of a very large and most exact
terrestriall Globe, collected and reformed according to the newest, secretest,
and latest discoueries, both Spanish, Portugall, and English, composed by
M. Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, a rare gentleman in his profession,

being therein for diuers yeeres, gratly supported by the purse and liberalitie
of the worshipfull marchant M. William Sanderson.”360 It was not until near
the close of the year 1592 that the globes were completed, and soon
thereafter we have their first printed description, which description was
given by Dr. Hood of Trinity College, Cambridge, a lecturer on
mathematics and navigation in the city of London.361 Blundeville, in his
‘Exercises,’362 refers to them, and in 1594 Robert Hues published the first
edition of his most valuable and interesting treatise on globes, bearing the
title, ‘Tractatus de Globis et eorum usu, accomodatus iis qui Londini editi
sunt anno 1593,’ taking the Molyneux globes as the basis for his
observations.

Fig. 79. Terrestrial Globe of Emery Molyneux, 1592.

Very little is known of the life of Molyneux. He appears to have been a
member of the Cavendish expedition of the years 1586-1588, as is
suggested by one of the legends on his terrestrial globe. He was known to
Sir Walter Raleigh, to Richard Hakluyt, to Edward Wright, and to John
Davis. To the suggestions of the last-named we perhaps owe the existence
of these globes.363 As noted by Hakluyt in his preface, the globes were

constructed at the expense of William Sanderson, a merchant prince of
London, a liberal and patriotic citizen, one interested in geographical
exploration, who had fitted out the Davis Arctic Expedition.
Sir Clements Markham, in his edition of Robert Hues’ ‘Tractatus de
Globis,’364 edited for the Hakluyt Society and published in the year 1889,
gives in his introduction the following brief but adequate description of
these globes: “The Molyneux globes are 2 feet 2 inches in diameter, and are
fixed on stands. They have graduated brass meridians, and on that of the
terrestrial globe a dial circle or ‘Horarius’ is fixed. The broad wooden
equator, forming the upper part of the stand, is painted with the zodiac
signs, the months, the Roman calendar, the points of the compass, and the
same in Latin, in concentric circles. Rhumb lines are drawn from numerous
centers over the surface of the terrestrial globe. The equator, the ecliptic, the
polar circles are painted boldly; while the parallels of latitude and
meridians, at every ten degrees, are very faint lines. The globe received
additions, including the discoveries of Barents in Novaya Zemlya, and the
date has been altered with a pen from 1592 to 1603. The constellations and
fixed stars on the celestial globe are the same as those on the globe of
Mercator, except that the Southern Cross has been added. On both the
celestial and the terrestrial globes of Molyneux there is a square label with
this inscription ‘This globe, belonging to the Middle Temple, was repaired
in the year 1818 by J. and W. Newton, Globe Makers, Chancery Lane.’
“Over North America are the arms of France and England quarterly;
supporters, a lion and dragon; motto of the garter; crown, crest, and
baldrequin; standing on a label, with a long dedication to Queen Elizabeth.
“The achievement of Mr. William Sanderson is painted on the imaginary
southern continent to the south of Africa. The crest is a globe with the sun’s
rays behind. It stands on a squire’s helmet with baldrequin. The shield is
quarterly; 1st, paly of six azure and argent, over all a bend sable for
Sanderson; 2nd, gules, lions, and castles in the quarters for Skirne alias
Castilion; 3rd, or, a chevron between 3 eagles displayed sable, in chief a
label of three points sable for Wall; 4th, quarterly, or and azure, over all a
bend gules for Langston. Beneath there is an address from William
Sanderson to the gentle reader, English and Latin, in parallel columns.

“In the north polar regions there are several new additions, delineating the
discoveries of English and Dutch explorers for the first time. John Davis
wrote, in his ‘World’s Hydrographical Discovery’: ‘How far I proceeded
doth appear on the globe made by Master Emerie Molyneus.’ Davis Strait is
shown with all the names on its shores which were given by its discoverer,
and the following legend ‘Joannes Davis Anglus anno 1583-86-87 littora
Americae circumspectantia a quinquagesimo quinto grado ad 73 sub
polarem scrutando perlegit.’ (‘John Davis, an Englishman in the years 1583-
86-87, gave these names when he mapped the shores of America lying
between the parallels of 55 degrees and 73 degrees north latitude.’) On
another legend we have ‘Additions in the north parts to 1603’; and below it
are the discoveries of Barents, with his Novaya Zemlya winter quarters
—‘Het behouden huis.’ Between Novaya Zemlya and Greenland there is an
island called ‘Sir Hugo Willoghbi his land.’ This insertion arose from a
great error in longitude, Willoughby having sighted the coast of Novaya
Zemlya; and the island, of course had no existence, though it long remained
on the maps. To the north of Siberia there are two legends, ‘Rd. Cancelarius
et Stephanus Burrow Angli Lappiae et Coreliae oras marinas et Simm. S.
Nicolai vulgo dictum anno 1553 menso Augusto exploraverunt’ (‘Richard
Chancelor and Stephen Burrow Englishmen explored the shore of Lapland
and Corelia, and of Simm. S. Nicolai commonly so called, in the month of
August 1553’), and ‘Joannes Mandevillanus eques Anglius ex Anglia anno
1332 Cathaiae et Tartariae regiones penetravenit.’ (‘John Mandeville an
English knight from England in the year 1322 entered the regions of Cathay
and Tartary.’)
“Many imaginary islands, in the Atlantic, are retained on the globe:
including ‘Frisland,’ ‘Buss Ins,’ ‘Brasil,’ ‘Maidas,’ ‘Heptapolis,’ ‘St.
Brandan.’ On the eastern side of North America are the countries of Florida,
Virginia, and Norumbega; and also a large town of Norumbega up a gulf
full of islands.
“The learned Dr. Dee had composed a treatise on the title of Queen
Elizabeth to Norumbega; and in modern times Professor Horsford has
written a memoir to identify Norumbega with a site up the Charles River,
near Boston. On the Atlantic, near the American coast, is the following
legend ‘Virginia primum lustrata, habitata, et cultu ab Anglis impensis D.
Gualteri de Ralegh Equitis Aurati ammenti Elizabethae Angliae Reginae.’

(‘Virginia first surveyed, inhabited and cultivated by the English at the
expense of Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight, subsidized by the gold of Elizabeth
Queen of England.’)
“A legend in the Pacific Ocean furnishes direct evidence that information,
for compiling the globe was supplied by Sir Walter Raleigh. It is in Spanish:
‘Islas estas descubrio Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa por la Corona de
Castella y Leon desde el ano 1568 llamolas Islas de Jesus aunque
vulfarmente las llaman Islas de Salomon.’ (‘Pedro Sarmiento of Gamboa
discovered these islands in the year 1568 for the crown of Castile and Leon
calling them the Islands of Jesus though they are commonly called the
Salomon Islands.’)
“Pedro Sarmiento was the officer who was sent to fortify the Strait of
Magellan after Drake had passed through. He was taken prisoner by an
English ship on his way to Spain, and was the guest of Raleigh in London
for several weeks, so that it must have been on information communicated
by Raleigh that the statement respecting Sarmiento on this legend was
based.
“Besides ‘Insulae Salmonis’ there are two islands in the Pacific, ‘Y
Sequenda de los Tubarones,’ and ‘San Pedro,’ as well as the north coast of
New Guinea, with the names given on Mercator’s map.
“Cavendish also appears to have given assistance, or possibly Molyneux
himself accompanied that circumnavigator in his voyage of 1587. The
words of a legend off the Patagonian coast seem to countenance this idea,
reading, ‘Thomas Caundish 18 Dec. 1587 haec terra sub nostris oculis
primum obtulit sub latitud 47 cujus seu admodum salubris Incolae maturi ex
parte proceri sunt gigantes et vasti magnitudinis.’
“The great southern continent is made to include Tierra del Fuego and the
south coast of Magellan’s Strait, and extends over the greater part of the
south frigid zone.
“S. Matheo, an island in the Atlantic, south of the line, was visited by the
Spanish ships under Loaysa and Sebastian del Cano, but has never been
seen since. It appears on the globe. In the south Atlantic there are painted a
sea-serpent, a whale, Orpheus riding on a dolphin, and ships under full sail

—fore and main courses and topsails, a sprit sail, and the mizzen with a
long lateen yard.
“The track of the voyage of Sir Francis Drake and Master Thomas
Cavendish round the world are shown, the one by a red and the other by a
blue line. That these tracks were put on when the globe was first made is
proved by the reference to them in Blundeville’s ‘Exercises.’
“The name of the author of the globe is thus given: ‘Emerum Mullineus
Angl. sumptibus Guilelm Sanderson Londinensis descripsit.’”
Markham likewise tells us that the celestial globe, in its general features,
closely resembles the terrestrial. It carries the same arms of Sanderson, and
the same label of Newton, but a briefer dedication to the Queen. It appears
that the map was engraved and printed by Hondius of Amsterdam, since it
carries the brief legend “Judocus Hondius Fon. Sc.” In addition to the
Molyneux globes in the Middle Temple, a pair may be found in the Royal
Museum of Cassel. A detailed description of this pair it has not been
possible to obtain.
Jost Bürgi, a native of Lichtensteig in the Toggenburg, Switzerland, was
born in the year 1552 and died in Cassel in the year 1632.365 Early in life he
became a clock maker’s apprentice, and for some time was engaged with
Dasypodius in the construction of the famous Strassburg Cathedral clock. In
the year 1579 he was called to the court of Landgrave William IV in Cassel,
under whose patronage he won great distinction as a maker of astronomical
and mathematical instruments. In the year 1603 he was called into the
service of the Emperor at Prague, but in the year 1631 he returned to
Cassel, where he died in the following year. Bürgi, skilful workman that he
was, seems not to have found time to tell in words of his various activities.
“He found pleasure in work,” says one of his biographers, and left it for
others to write of his attainments, which, it may here be said, they seem not
to have done in a very detailed manner.
Landgrave William’s interest in the promotion of scientific studies led him
to the founding of a museum to which he made numerous contributions of
apparatus, mathematical and astronomical. This museum, in the course of
years, became one of the most famous of its kind in all Europe, and indeed
remains such to this day. In its collections the work of Bürgi is well

represented, which in the quality of the workmanship exhibited, as in the
interest it awakens by reason of its place as a nucleus around which so
much of value has been gathered, is unsurpassed.
Among the first of his instruments may be mentioned an astronomical
clock, elaborately wrought, with movable discs and circles for illustrating
the movements of the heavenly bodies, and surmounted with an engraved
celestial globe, which, driven by clockwork, is made to turn on its axis once
in twenty-four hours. It seems evident that Bürgi constructed other clocks of
like character, supplied, as is this example, with a celestial globe.
In this same Museum of Cassel there is a second celestial globe, the work of
Bürgi, which was begun in the year 1585, and not entirely completed until
the year 1693 by Heinrich van Lannep. This copper sphere, 72 cm. in
diameter, is remarkably well preserved. It has a heavy brass meridian circle
to which is attached an engraved hour circle 46 cm. in diameter. A large
brass semicircle intersects this meridian circle at right angles through the
north pole, and is attached to the horizon circle at its extremities. The
instrument rests upon an artistic and substantial brass support. On the
surface of the sphere are engraved the principal celestial circles, including
the colures, the equator, the tropics, the polar circles, the ecliptic, and
twelve parallels. The stars, of which the largest are distinguished by a bit of
inlaid silver, and the several figures of the constellations which are very
artistically engraved, are clearly the work of a master.
A third globe of gilded brass, containing clockwork within by means of
which it is made to revolve and apparently the work of Bürgi, may also be
found in this Cassel collection. A small silver sun, movable along the
equator, is mechanically attached in such manner as to serve admirably for
demonstrative purposes. The engraved surface of the globe is equal in its
artistic merits to that of the copper globe referred to above.
There is yet a fourth metal globe in this collection, apparently the work of
Bürgi, which is not gilded. In other respects it is said to resemble the one
designated above as the third globe. Kepler is said to have held in the
highest esteem the scientific work of Bürgi, and to have placed him, within
his field, as high as he did Albrecht Dürer among artists. There appears to
be good reason for attributing the invention of the pendulum clock to Jost

Bürgi, and that before 1600 he had proved this method of clock regulation
practical.
Among the numerous and interesting treasures to be found in the
Landesmuseum of Zürich is a terrestrial globe (Fig. 80) having neither
name of maker nor date of construction, but belonging, undoubtedly, to the
late sixteenth century.366 The sphere has a diameter of about 121 cm., is
mounted on a substantial wooden base, and appears to have been made for
the monastery of St. Gall, from which place it was taken to Zürich in the
year 1712. On the semicircular arms which support the equatorial circle are
represented the armorial bearings of the abbey and monks of St. Gall, and
the date in gold, 1595, which may refer to the date of construction or to the
date when it was placed in the monastery. On the equatorial circle one finds
represented the signs of the zodiac, the calendar, the names of the saints and
of the winds. On the heavy meridian circle are indicated the climatic zones
and the degrees of latitude. The prime meridian is made to pass through the
Azores Islands. The sphere is of papier-mâché and plaster, on which the
engraved gores are mounted. The seas have been colored green, the lands a
dull yellow, the mountain ranges brown. Numerous barbaric kings are
represented in picture, likewise numerous animals of land and sea, and
ships artistically drawn sail hither and thither over the oceans. The austral
continent is wanting. Marcel especially notes the striking resemblance of
the globe map to the Mercator map of 1569, suggesting the possibility of its
Mercatorian origin, in support of which suggestion he quotes a number of
geographical names as well as certain legends. The globe, it appears, has
never been critically studied, but is clearly an interesting geographical
monument of the period.

Fig. 80. Anonymous Terrestrial Globe, ca. 1595.

The making of globe-goblets in the latter half of the sixteenth century and
early seventeenth appears to have been in response to a fashion especially

pronounced in South Germany, although their construction was not limited
to that region. Not a few of such globes are extant, which are fine examples
of the metal worker’s art, having, however, a decorative rather than a
scientific value.
Professor Fischer gives us an interesting description of such a goblet of
gilded silver (Fig. 81), dating from the end of the sixteenth or the beginning
of the seventeenth century, and it is from his account that the following
reference is taken.367 This piece he pronounces the most valuable treasure
in the plate room of the princely castle of Wolfegg, to which castle it was
the author’s privilege to pay a most interesting visit more than a decade ago.
The globe was long considered a christening gift from the Emperor Francis
to his godson Francis of the Waldburg zu Wolfegg princely family and was
supposed to date from the end of the eighteenth century. Professor Fischer,
however, found this “globis terrestris” referred to in a testament dated
January 17, 1779, with instructions that it, with certain other treasures,
should not be recast or otherwise altered from its ancient form. It was at that
time recognized as a masterpiece, but from the hands of an unknown
master, and not until recently was it definitely determined to be the work of
the Zürich goldsmith, Abraham Gessner (1552-1613). “Gessner appears to
have manufactured his globe-goblets,” says Fischer, “not in response to
orders previously given, but in the regular pursuit of his trade. At a time
when rich merchants and scholars took such a lively interest in geography,
and the opening up of new countries, he could count upon a market all the
more readily because his goblets were made with the utmost care in every
detail and were perfect examples of the various branches of the goldsmith’s
art; casting, embossing, chasing, engraving, and solid gilding.”368

Fig. 81. Globe-Goblet of Abraham Gessner, ca.
1600.

The goblet is 58 cm. in height. Its larger globe, a terrestrial, is composed of
two hemispheres joined on the line of the equator, and has a diameter of 17
cm. The support is a standing figure of Atlas, which also serves as a stem of
the lower half or the lower goblet, just as the celestial sphere with its
support which tops the piece serves as the stem of the upper half or upper
goblet.
The oceans, lakes, and rivers have a silver surface, while the continents,
islands, sea monsters, sailing vessels, principal parallels, and meridians are
gilded. The continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the “terra australis
sive Magallanica” have their outlines drawn in the main as they appear on
Mercator’s map of 1569. While certain recent discoveries as “Nowaja
Semlja” (Nova Zembla) are represented, it does not appear that Gessner
was inclined to insist on his map records being laid down with the strictest
accuracy as to geographical detail.
The celestial globe topping the goblet is given an artistic setting. It is
furnished with horizon, meridian, and hour circles. The several
constellations represented on the surface of the sphere are, through gilding,
given special prominence, their execution, like other parts of the piece,
being of the finest workmanship.
The figure of Atlas supporting the globes exhibits skill in its construction. It
stands with one foot slightly advanced, with the right hand extended
upward as if to catch the ball should it fall from the head of the figure. The
hair and the beard are gilded, as is also the drapery, one end of which hangs
loosely over the right shoulder, while the other covers the front of the body
and is held in the left hand at the back, being made to serve in part as a
support.
Fischer calls attention to two globe-goblets belonging to the University of
Basel and to one privately owned; to one in the town hall of Rappoltsweiler;
one in what was formerly the Rothschild Collection of Frankfurt, and to one
in the Museum of Stockholm, once the property of Gustavus Adolphus,
which probably is the one elsewhere referred to; and he also calls attention
to an undated globe-goblet, purchased in Paris in the year 1901 by the

Swiss National Museum of Zürich for the sum of forty-two thousand francs.
It had previously been referred to by Marcel as the work of Gessner, in
proof of which he noted that it bears the mark of this goldsmith, the same
being the letter “Z.” The terrestrial globe, like that of Wolfegg, has a
diameter of 17 cm., the whole being very artistically designed and
engraved. It, too, is surmounted by a celestial globe and rests on a figure of
Atlas, which figure in turn stands upon an ornamental base. Each of the two
globes can be opened on the line of the equator, thus practically making
four drinking cups. On the terrestrial globe, Marcel notes, California is
represented as an island. Near “Nova Guinea” one finds the inscription
“Nova Guinea semper inventa qual ... insula an pars continentas australis.”
A large austral land is represented with the inscription “Hanc continentem
australem nonvulli Magelanicam regionem ab ejus inventore nuncupant.”
The absence of the Strait of Lemaire and of New Zealand, with the
representation of the austral land with more or less indefinite outline,
Marcel thinks warrants a belief that it was constructed near the close of the
sixteenth century. Attention is likewise called by Marcel in his article to
three other small globes which he found in the Museum des Cordeliers of
Basel, and also to one “très beau et très riche” in the Museé Ariana of
Geneva.
A very artistic gold beaker globe (Fig. 82) may be found in the collection
presented by Mr. J. P. Morgan to the Metropolitan Museum of New York
City. The sphere of this, which opens on the line of the ecliptic, has a
diameter of 8 cm. and rests upon the figure of a satyr with uplifted hands
forming a part of the support, this figure in turn resting upon an ornamental
circular base. Topping the sphere is a small figure of Neptune carrying a
trident and standing in a shell or conventionalized small boat. The engraved
figures of the many constellations decorate the surface of the sphere.

Fig. 82. Gold Globe-Goblet, ca. 1575.

In the private library of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan may be found a fine
example of an ivory terrestrial globe of this period (Fig. 83). It is hollow,
being composed of two hemispheres joined on the line of the equator, and
has a diameter of about 8 cm. Near the south pole is the author and date
legend (Figs. 84, 84a) “Antonius Spano tropiensis fecit 1593.” “Made by
Antonio Spano of Tropea, 1593.” In the unnamed southern continent, and
over a representation of the Spanish arms, is the dedication to the Infante
Philip, afterward Philip III, reading “Principi Philip. Philip II Hisp. Indiar.
Neap. e Siciliae Cathol. Regis Filio,” and within the Antarctic circle a
salutation reading “Princeps felicissime totus Orbis ad se gubernandum te
vocat et expectat.” “O most fortunate ruler, the whole world calls and
awaits you to govern it.” Antonio, a native of Tropea, near Naples, was
granted in the year 1595 a pension of one hundred ducats, by his master and
patron, Philip II. This he seems to have enjoyed until his death, which
occurred in Madrid in the year 1615. We learn that this was continued to his
son, Francisco Spano, by King Philip III. The mounting of the globe, which
is simple, seems to be of a later date than that given as the year of
construction in the date legend, but it is well suited to the artistic piece. The
world map is well executed, and may be said to be in a perfect state of
preservation. Its geographical details, in so far as given, are quite as good as
the best to be found at this time, though it is very evident that the piece was
primarily intended to possess decorative rather than scientific value. The
Mediterranean region gives us in its general features a representation of the
Ptolemaic ideas, particularly to be observed in the representation of Italy
and the Caspian Sea. In Chinese Asia appears a legend reading, “Hic artem
impremendi ante mille años habuerunt.” “Here they had the art of printing a
thousand years ago.”

Fig. 83. Ivory Terrestrial Globe of Antonio Spano, 1593.

Fig. 84. South Polar Region on Globe of Antonio Spano, 1593.

Fig. 84a. South Polar Region on Globe of Jodocus Hondius, 1600.

In “Ratai” (Katai) a flag is represented reminding of Marco Polo, and near
this the legend “His magnus Cham Tartarorum et Chataiae imperator longe
dominatur.”
In this Asiatic region we find such names as “Tabin,” “Ania,” “Quinsai,”
“Catigara,” “Zaiton,” “India Orientalis.” “Stretto Anian” appears as a long
channel. In Africa we read, “His Imperator magnus Presbyter Africae Rex
potentis mus.” In the New World we find “America sive India nova,” which
is not connected with Asia. The coast in the northern regions is better drawn
than in the southern. The St. Lawrence River is represented, but the Great
Lakes are omitted. “Estland,” “Frisland,” and “St. Brandan” are laid down.
The austral land, as represented, is very large, being designated “Terra
Australis: Vastissimas his esse regiones ex M. Pauli Ven. et Lud. Vartomani
scriptis perigrinationibus constat.” “Austral land: here is known to be a very
extensive region referred to in the travel records of Marco Polo and of
Ludovico Vartema.” Mr. Beazley says of the globe that it once belonged to
the Kempenaer family of Leenwarden, and was later acquired by Mr. H. J.

Pfungst through the firm of Miller & Company of Amsterdam.369 It later
passed into the library of Mr. Morgan.
As noted at the beginning of this chapter, leadership in globe and map
making, in the closing years of the century, was passing into the
Netherlands, which in the second quarter of the century had contributed in
this field of scientific endeavor the great Mercator. His influence, as was
also noted, found its way into Italy and into favor with certain globe
makers, although the individualistic spirit of the Italians seemed to show a
marked preference for manuscript and engraved metal globes. In the front
rank of those who were to lead the Low Countries into their place of
preëminence stood the Van Langren family, the father, Jacobus Florentius,
as he was accustomed to call himself, and the sons, Arnoldus Florentius,
Henricus Florentius, and Michael Florentius.370 The father was a native of
Denmark, but sometime prior to 1580 he transferred his residence to
Arnhem in Gelderland, and later to Amsterdam. Legends on his oldest
extant globe give us to understand that at the time of its construction he
labored jointly with his son Arnold in this work, these legends reading
“Jacobus Florentius Ultrajectensis autor,” and “Arnoldus Florentius filius
sculptor Amstelodami 1585,” that is, the father was the author and the son
was the engraver.
In the early seventeenth century the family left Amsterdam, going to
Antwerp in the Spanish Netherlands. Here in the year 1609, according to an
Antwerp record, Arnold constructed a “Sphaera Mundi,” which he
dedicated to the chief magistrate of that city, receiving therefor 120 Artois
livres. It probably was not long after this date that he was appointed Globe
Maker of the Archdukes, a title he retained until the death of the Archduke
Albert in the year 1621, and a somewhat later record tells us that he was
honored shortly after that event by an appointment to the office of Royal
Cosmographer and Pensioner of His Majesty the Catholic King. Michael
became a resident of Brussels, where he carried on his work as an engraver,
particularly of maps, but it was as an astronomer that he won special
distinction, having given much attention to the investigations of methods
for the determination of longitude and he is further credited with having
given the so-called seas of the moon the names by which they are still
known.

As globe maker perhaps the greater honor is due Jacobus Florentius, since it
appears that Arnold, though perhaps the more active, reproduced in the
main only the works of his father, adding improvement here and there and
endeavoring, perhaps in part for business reasons, to keep his globe maps
up to date. Reference has been made above to the oldest extant Van Langren
globe, which bears the date 1585. Van der Aa refers to a request of Arnold
Floris van Langelaer and of his father, Jacob Floris van Langelaer,
presented to the States of Gelderland and accompanying a copy of his
globe, which seems to have been dated 1580. Of this globe it is stated that it
was “een seer correcte ende schoone Globum terrestrem, van de grootste
forme,” and that it was inscribed as is that of the year 1585. A doubt,
however, arises as to the accuracy of the date 1580, since Van der Aa states
in the same article that Arnoldus was born in the year 1571. This particular
globe was formerly kept in the “Geldersch Gerichtshof,” as Van Hasselt
tells us, but since the destruction of that court nothing has been known of
the inventory of the objects which had been placed therein. In support,
however, of an early date, perhaps 1580, for the first Van Langren globe, we
find in the dedication of a work by Nicolas Petri, published in the year
1588, and issued as a manual for the use of globes, that it was especially
made for the use of a Van Langren globe. In this work the author is
represented in picture in the act of examining a globe, a picture practically
the same as that appearing in a work by Petri issued in the year 1583. It
seems, therefore, not to be an erroneous inference that the author gives us
here a representation of the Van Langren globe of 1580, which is wanting
much in the accuracy with which its details are given.
The globe of 1585, referred to above as the oldest extant of Van Langren,
may be found in the collection of the Museo dell’ Osservatorio del Collegio
Romano (Fig. 84). The dedication under an elaborately colored coat of arms
of Denmark reads, “Serenissimo atque potentissimo Principi Domino D.
Christiano nn. Daniae Norvegiae Vandalorum et Gothorum Regi Duci
Slesvivi Holsatiae Stormariae et Dithmortiae Comiti Oldenburgi et Del
menorsti Jacobus Florentius dedicabat.” “To the Most Serene and mighty
Prince Lord D. Christian King of Denmark, Norway, the Wends and the
Goths, Duke of Schleswick Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsh, Count of
Oldenburg and Delmenhorst (this globe) is dedicated by Jacobus Florent.”
The usual letter to the reader or to the one who might have occasion to

make use of the globe gives the information: “In descriptione hujus globi
ubiq: sequuti sumus castigatissimas Tabulas geographicas quibus Hispani et
Lusitani in suis americis et indicis navigationibus utantur; aliorumque
probatissimas Septentrionalium regionum descriptiones. De nostro suis
locis addidimus quadrata ut vocant nautica et ventorum regiones quae
omnia ad usum navigantium ad amussim accomodavimus quaemadmodum
Geographiae candidati propius inspiciendo reperient. Vale fruere.” “In the
construction of this globe I have everywhere made use of the most accurate
geographical tables, such as were used by the Spaniards and the Portuguese
in their voyages to America and the East Indies; as also for the northern
regions the very best drawings of others. My own contribution has been to
insert in the proper places the nautical squares, as they are called, and the
directions of the winds, all of which I have carefully adapted to the need of
the navigator, as experts in geography will, on examination, recognize.
Farewell and may you be happy.” In a cartouch on the left we read “Jacobus
Florentius Ultrajectensis autor,” and on the right “Arnoldus Florentius filius
sculptor Amstelodami 1585.” The sphere, which is hollow, is constructed of
wooden strips covered with a preparation of plaster. It has a diameter of
about 32 cm. and is therefore slightly smaller than is the Mercator globe of
1541. It is furnished with a graduated brass meridian circle and with a
horizon circle of the same material, which is supported by four arms or
quadrants upheld by a simple base. The engraved gores pasted on the ball
are twelve in number and extend to within twenty degrees of the poles, the
remaining space being covered with an engraved circular disc, in accord
with a method first employed by Mercator. The surface of the globe is not
well preserved, yet notwithstanding the injuries which time has brought to
it, it remains a masterpiece of engraving and a valuable geographical record
of that early day. Its numerous inscriptions are of much interest. We read,
for example, in latitude 35 degrees south and longitude 185 degrees,
“Vastissimas hic esse regiones ex M. Pauli Veneti et Ludovico Vartomanni
scriptis peregrinationibus liquido constat.” “The voyage of Marco Polo and
of Ludovico Varthema make it certain that an enormous territory exists
here.” In latitude 16 degrees south and longitude 175 degrees is the legend,
“Moluccae vocantur 5 insulae ordine postiae juxta Gilolo quarum suprema
Tarenare deinceps Tidore Motir Machiam et infima Bachiam.” “The
Moluccas is the name given to the five islands in a row close to Gilolo, the
uppermost of which is Tarenare, then Tidore, Motir, Machiam, and the

lowest Bachiam.” In latitude 10 degrees south and longitude 348 degrees
we read, “Marañon fluvius investus fuit a Vincentio Yañes Pinzon an: 1499
et an: 1542 totus a fontibus fere ad ostia usq: divulgatus a Francesco
Oregliana leucis 1560 mensibus 8 dulces in mari servat aquas usque 40
leucis.” “The Amazon River was discovered by Vicente Yañez Pinzon in
1499, while in 1542 Francisco Orellana explored it a distance of 1560
leagues or almost its entire length from source to mouth in eight months. In
the sea its waters are still fresh forty leagues from land.” The following is
placed in latitude 28 degrees north and longitude 320 degrees, “B. C. 1492.
12 octobris Christophorus Columbus novam Indiam nomine regis Castellae
delexit, prima terra quam conquisit fuit Haiti nunc Hispaniola.” “October
12, 1492, Christopher Columbus took possession of New India in the name
of the King of Castile. The first land he conquered was called Haiti now
called Hispaniola.” In latitude 65 degrees north and longitude 230 degrees
is the legend, “Regio deserta in qua equi oves et boves silvestres sunt
plurimi quales esse in una Hebridum insularum narratur.” “A desert country
in which there are a great many wild horses, sheep and cattle, as is said to
be the case in one of the Hebrides.”
That this Van Langren globe was well received by his contemporaries
seems to be witnessed by the special privilege granted September 9, 1592,
to Jacobus Florentius a Langren by the Estates of Amsterdam to issue the
same.371 On presenting his request for the privilege the author states that he
was the inventor of globes of this character, that his globes were
unsurpassed in the matter of correctness by any which had been previously
issued, and that with the aid of his globes certain Dutch navigators had
sailed to Pernambuco in Brazil, to the island of St. Thomas under the
equator, to the Isle de Principe and to other places. This privilege was
renewed to him and to his sons Arnoldus and Henricus in the year 1596. In
the following year the Estates General granted a privilege to Jodocus
Hondius, who had constructed a globe in England in the year 1593, of
which, however, no example appears now to be known. The Van Langrens
contested this claim at law, the results of which contest seem not to be
recorded, but we know that Jodocus Hondius enumerated at this time what
he considered to be the particular points in which his own globes
excelled.372 In his report he enumerated no less than fourteen important
geographical discoveries which were not represented on the globes of his

opponents, the Van Langrens, the majority of which, as corrections, seem to
have been accepted, since they appear on the later Van Langren globes and
not on the earlier, that is, on the one of 1585.
The Kon. Nederl. Aardrijkskundig Genootschap has recently come into
possession of the finest known example of the Van Langren globes
(Fig. 85), as indeed it is one of the finest extant globes of that period.373
The engraved gores, twelve in number, are pasted on a hollow sphere of
papier-mâché and plaster, having a diameter of 52.8 cm. It is furnished with
a graduated copper meridian circle within which it is adjusted to revolve, a
horizon circle of wood on which appear the names of the winds in Greek,
Latin, and Dutch, the names of the months, the names of the principal feast
days, and the signs of the zodiac, the whole resting on a base of oak having
six supporting columns. As an example of the engraver’s art the map which
covers the sphere is one of superior excellence. A manuscript dedication,
pasted on its surface near the “Mar di India” and surmounted by a
representation of the Spanish coat of arms, reads, “Collegio Ratiociniorum
Brabanti regnantibus; Alberto et Isabellae Opt. Max. Belgii Principibus.
Singulari observantia Dedicabat Arnoldus Florentinus a Langren. Ano Dni
1612.” “To the College of Computations of Brabant, to Albert and Isabella,
the very great Princes of Belgium, Arnold Florentius van Langren dedicates
with great respect (this globe) in the year 1612.” Beneath “Nova Guinea” is
given the privilege “Cautum est privilegio ordinum Confœderatorum
Inferioris Germaniae, ne quis alius ad decennium globum hunc terrestrem
absq. consensu Jacobi Florentii civis Amsteldamen. typis mandare vel
simili, vel alia forma excudere, vel alibi impressum adducere, aut vendere
ausit, sub poena in diplomate statuta, 1608.” “Warning is given by the
privilege (copyright) of the Confederated States of the Netherlands that no
other individual for a period of ten years, shall venture to print in similar or
in other form, to stamp (engrave) or make an impression, or to sell, under
penalty set down in the diploma, 1608.” In this legend the date 1608 has
been written over the engraved date 1597.

Fig. 85. Terrestrial Globe of Van Langren, 1612.

Among the legends appearing in the southern hemisphere is one which is
but a repetition of that appearing in the edition of 1585 referring to the
source of information beginning, “In descriptio hujus ...” Beneath the
artistic cartouch wherein is placed the last-named legend is one in which are
recorded the names of the author and the engraver, “Jacobus Florentius
Ultrajectensis Author: Arnoldus Florentius filius sculptor Amstelredami Ao.
Dni,” the date, partially erased from the copper plate employed in the

printing, seems to read 1585. Certain regions are adorned with pictures in
which are represented the aborigines, and the local fauna and flora. Sea
monsters constitute a part of the decorative features of the globe map, and
ships sail hither and thither over the oceans, carrying the flags of their
respective countries. The author has laid down the “Streto de Anian” which
separated America from Asia, and California is a peninsula. The “Quivira
regnum” is made to include a part of western North America, and the great
stretch of country to the west of the Mississippi appears to be the home of
wild horses and cattle. The eastern coast line of America included within
the present limits of the United States is represented with a remarkable
approach to accuracy, a portion of his information for that region being
derived from the report of Thomas Heriot. Following Mercator there have
been placed four large islands around the north pole, and in the north
Atlantic “Frisland,” “S. Brandain,” and “Brasil.” India, Australia, and other
regions of the Far East have been represented with remarkable faithfulness
to the latest and best records of Dutch navigators, and the author profited by
Dutch records of exploration in his representation of the Nova Zembla
region. There is yet a far from accurate delineation of the great eastern
archipelago. Java, Celebes, Borneo, and “Nova Guinea” have been fairly
well outlined, and about the south pole is that great austral continent
conspicuous on the maps of the period, but very generally outlined as the
fancy of the map maker directed.
In the library of the University of Ghent is a Van Langren terrestrial globe
undated but apparently completed not long after 1616, since it directs
attention to the Strait of Lemaire, discovered in that year. It has the authors’
inscription “Jacobus Florentius Ultrajectensis Author. Arnoldus Florentius
filius sculptor Amsterdam,” and bears in addition the legend “Arnoldus
Florentius a Langren, Serenissum. Archiducu. Austr. Burgundiae,
Brabantiae, Ducum, Sphaereographus Author. Cum Privileg.” “Arnoldus
Florentius a Langren globe maker and author to the most Serene Archduke
of Austria, of Burgundy, Duke of Brabant. With privilege.” This globe is
described as one well preserved, resembling very closely that of 1612,
particularly in its geographical details as well as in its mountings.
The Bibliothèque Nationale of Paris possesses a Van Langren terrestrial
globe, with date illegible, but thought to be 1625, which appears to be a
reissue of the previous editions, especially of the later ones. A legend

including an address to the reader concludes with a reference to the author
“Arnoldus Florentio a Langren Reg. Cat. Majis. cosmografo et
pensionario.” “Arnoldus Florentius a Langren, cosmographer and pensioner
of His Catholic Majesty.”
There are two globes of Arnoldus, a celestial and a terrestrial, formerly in
the Municipal Archives of Antwerp, now in the Plantin-Moritus Museum.
An inscription on the celestial globe reads: “Globus coelestis stellarum
fixarum loca ipsis in coelo ad amussim congrua repraesentans ad annum
1600 juxta accuratas observationes Tychonis Brahe denuo ad annum 162—:
diligentiss. restitutus novis item stellis 400 hactenus non notatis.
Ornatusque trecentis stellis circa polum antarcticum ab Houtmanno
Holando observatis industria Arnoldi Florentii van Langren Cosmographici,
qui olim observationibus: Tyconis interfuit. Operam sibi filii parenti
felicissime contulerunt.” “A celestial globe which represents the position of
the fixed stars, corresponding to the actual position of the stars in the sky in
the year 1600, following the accurate observations of Tycho Brahe and with
great care again calculated for the year 162—: also 400 new stars are added
which had not hitherto been recorded. Also there have been added 300
south polar stars that were observed by Houtman of Holland. Constructed
by Arnold Florent van Langren, cosmographer who assisted Tycho in his
observations. The sons have aided their father with the happiest effect.”
The terrestrial globe, in a much better state of preservation, contains, in a
neat cartouch, an address to the reader, explaining the merits of the globe
map: “Quandoquidem quotidiana diversarum nationum, praecipue tamen
Holandorum navigatione omnes mundi plagas perlustrantium, varii orbis
tractus, remotae insulae et quamplurima regna hactenenus incognita nunc in
dies innotuere, et quae fuere cognita majori studio et situs observatione
perlustrata sunt. Prodit hic noster Globus multo praecedentibus a nobis
editis, qui primi in his provinciis prodierunt accuratior et emendatior. In quo
omnium locorum nomina, et quo tempore, et cujus auspiciis quaeque
detecta sint expressimus. Curavimus praeterea non sine magno labore et
cura, ut singulae Regiones, Insulae, Portus, Braevia, et Scopuli suae
longitudini et latitudini respondeant, quibus Indices seu lineas ventorum ...”
“Inasmuch as, on account of voyages, daily undertaken by various nations,
especially the Dutch, who have sailed along all the coasts of the world, the
various regions of the earth, distant islands, and innumerable countries

hitherto unknown, have every day become better known (additional facts)
and our knowledge of those already discovered has become much clearer
through a more detailed examination and detailed observation, this present
globe of ours, presents itself to the public as one much more exact, more
free from errors than those previously issued by us, which were the first
ever presented to the public of these provinces. On it we have recorded the
names of all places, also when and under whose auspices they were
severally discovered. We have taken the greatest care and pains to make the
location of the various regions, islands, seaports, shoals, and rocks
correspond to the true latitude and longitude, whereby the directions of the
winds (loxodromic lines) ...” The concluding lines of this address are
illegible, but there seems to be nothing of special importance lost. The
author’s signature reads “Auctor Arnoldo Florentio a Langre Reg. Cat:
Ma tis Cosmographo et Pensionario.” “Author Arnoldus Florentius a
Langren, cosmographer and pensioner of His Royal Catholic Majesty.”
A copy of a Van Langren globe may be found in the Museum of Zütphen,
but information concerning it has not been obtainable other than that it is in
a damaged condition, and is apparently another example of the one referred
to above as of 1612.
Among those interested in geography, in astronomy, and particularly in the
construction of armillary spheres in this period very special mention should
be made of Antonio Santucci. For some time he served Prince, later Grand
Duke, Ferdinand de’ Medici as his cosmographer. It was during this period
of service that he restored the famous terrestrial globe of Egnazio Danti
which was a particularly creditable piece of work. In the year 1582 he
constructed a large armillary sphere composed of wooden rings, very
artistically gilded and painted, representing in particular the orbits of the
planets. This the Prince is said to have presented to one Battaglioni of
Naples; further than this fact nothing seems to be known of this particular
example. In the year 1606, we are informed, he collected and sent to the
Grand Duke a number of valuable maps relating to Europe, Asia, Africa,
and the West Indies, and to the several separate countries of Europe. In the
year 1619 he published, through the favor of Duke Ferdinand, a treatise on
comets and the new stars appearing between the years 1577 and 1607. What
is probably the finest of all his spheres belongs to the Museo di Strumenti
Antichi of Florence, which has been restored and interestingly described by

the distinguished scholar, Ferdinand Meucci.374 As an instrument intended
to represent the entire universe, though constructed for display rather than
for use, it remains one of the finest constructed in the peninsula during the
century.
The largest of its nine concentric circles has a diameter of 220 cm., the
smallest a diameter of 70 cm., and at the common center is a terrestrial
globe having a diameter of 60 cm. Each of the nine great circles or spheres
has its own smaller circles representing the equator, the ecliptic, the colures,
and the polar circles, the ninth having also the tropics and the hour circle.
The eighth, representing the starry heavens, has its ecliptic four times the
width of the corresponding circles of the other spheres. Meucci states, in his
detailed description, that there are no less than eighty-two armillae or rings,
large and small, to which, he adds, eight larger ones might be added, these
being cut in half and arranged somewhat in the form of a cup, the lower half
supporting the horizon circle, the upper half serving as a support for an
adjustable cover of the entire instrument. This arrangement suggests that it
was the author’s intention to have these last-named half circles represent the
empyrean or home of the celestial spirits, a thought supported by the fact
that at the common intersecting point of the upper half of these circles is
placed a disc on which is represented the Deity in the act of contemplating
his creation. The whole instrument is topped by a cross.
Meucci, in referring to his own work of restoring and remounting the great
sphere, observes that at the poles of the ecliptic there are two discs on
which have been painted the coat of arms of the Medici family together
with the coat of arms of the Lorena, Christina di Lorena being the wife of
Ferdinand, to whom the work had been dedicated. He further notes that his
researches led him to the discovery that the instrument originally cost
1052.2 scudi, which, with an incidental addition of 170 scudi, thought
proper to be included in the reckoning, would make the entire expense of
construction 1222.2 scudi or about 7187 liri, that is, less than $1400. The
amount seems insignificant, remembering that the work was begun in the
year 1588 and was not completed until the year 1593, claiming therefore
five years of the maker’s time. The map on the terrestrial globe seems to
have been well drawn, and is remarkable for its representation of the
geography of the interior of Africa, particularly for the region about the
source of the Nile.

In the library of Mr. Henry E. Huntington may be found an exceedingly fine
armillary sphere (Fig. 86). It is neither signed nor dated, but there appears
to be good reason for attributing it to Antonio Santucci, and its date to about
the year 1580. Constructed entirely of wood, with paper identifying labels
pasted on the surface of each of the numerous circles, it is a well-preserved
example of Italian workmanship. It is furnished with horizon, meridian,
tropical, polar, and ecliptic circles, the first being graduated on both the
outer and the inner edge. This horizon circle has a diameter of about 50 cm.,
and a width of about 7 cm., the width of the other circles being well
proportioned for artistic effect. Within the circles named are those
representing the orbits of “Luna,” “Mercurio,” “Venere,” “Sole,” “Marte,”
“Giove,” “Saturno,” with the earth at the center according to the Ptolemaic
system. It has a single standard support resting on a solid circular disc about
33 cm. in diameter.

Fig. 86. Armillary Sphere of Antonio Santucci (?), ca. 1580.

The Mathematisch-Physikal. Salon of Dresden possesses a fine celestial
globe signed and dated “B. F. 1600.” It is an exceedingly elaborate piece
(Fig. 87), being made of gilded bronze and furnished with a mounting of
ornamental design. The sphere, having a diameter of 11.6 cm., exhibits on
its engraved surface in outline the figures of the several constellations, with
the name of each, and in addition the principal celestial circles including the
meridians. It is furnished, in its mountings, with a graduated bronze
meridian circle to which is attached, near the north equatorial pole, a clock
dial with hour and minute hands, the dial being marked with the hours from
I to XII. Surmounting the whole is an artistic bronze box, within which
have been placed the works by means of which the clock is driven and the
sphere made to revolve. The broad horizon circle, which is engraved with
the usual concentric circles, rests upon branched supports, which in turn are
attached to a finely wrought base having four curved legs terminating in
conventionally designed griffin claws.

Fig. 87. Celestial Globe of B. F., 1600.

Though differing very considerably in the details of its construction, it may
be classed with such globes as are those made by Roll and Reinhold, briefly
described above. Indeed, the suggestion forces itself upon one that to their
workshop or to one who may be referred to as a workman of their school,
we owe this interesting example. Attention has been previously called to
certain early globes which seem primarily to have been constructed to
contain the works of clocks such as the Jagellonicus. Here as in the case of
the Roll and Reinhold globes, and as in certain other examples, we find
clockwork attachments designed to regulate the revolutions of the globe of
which they form a part. While the globe is the more elaborately wrought
part of this particular example, it does not seem improbable that the clock
originally was considered to be the more important part.

NOTES
334 See Chap. X.
335 Kästner. Geschichte der Mathematik. Vol. II, pp. 215 ff.; Wolf, R. Notizen zur Geschichte der
Mathematik in der Schweiz, “Conrad Dasypodius.” (In: Mitteilung der naturforschenden Gesellschaft
zu Bern. Bern, 1845. No. 56.); Allgemeine deutsche Biographie, “Dasypodius, Conrad.”
336 Doppelmayr. Historische Nachricht. p. 51.
337 Schricker, A. Z. Zur Geschichte der Universität Strassburg. Strassburg, 1872; Heitz, E. Zur
Geschichte der alten Strassburger Universität. Strassburg, 1885.
338 The British Museum Catalogue lists many of these works.
339 Wolf, R. Nachrichten. (In: Mitteilung der naturforschenden Gesellschaft zu Bern. Bern, 1854.
p. 69.); Doppelmayr, op. cit., p. 115; Habrecht, I. Tractatus de planiglobis coelestis ac terrestris.
Strassburg, 1628.
340 Doppelmayr, op. cit., p. 208.
341 Montucla, J. E. Histoire des Mathématiques ... Paris, 1799-1802.
342 Dasypodius, C. Horologii astronomei Argentorati in summo templo erecti descriptio. Argentorati,
1580; same author. Warhafftige Auslegung des astronomischen Uhrwercks zu Strassburg. Strassburg,
1580.
343 Schwilgué, C. Description abrégée de l’horologe astronomique de la cathédrale de Strassbourg.
Strassbourg, 1856.
344 Britten, F. J. Old clocks and watches and their makers. London, 1899.
345 Varnhagen, A. de. J. Schöner e P. Apian. Wien, 1872; Günther, S. Peter und Philipp Apian, zwei
deutsche Mathematiker und Kartographen. Prag, 1882; Nordenskiöld. Facsimile Atlas, p. 100.

In the year 1520 Peter Apianus published in his edition of Solinus’ Polyhistor a world map, following
therein the general design of Waldseemüller in his world map of the year 1507. The map of Apianus
has long been regarded as one of the most important of the early printed maps on which the New
World is represented. Until the recent discovery by Professor Joseph Fischer of Waldseemüller’s
long-lost map, it has frequently been referred to as the first engraved map on which the name
“America” appears. The ‘Cosmographia’ of Apianus, first issued in the year 1524, was frequently
reissued thereafter, notably by Gemma Frisius.
346 Clemens, C. Musei, sive bibliothecae tam privatae quam publicae extructio. Lugduni, 1635.
Liber Quartus. p. 527.
347 Kepler, J. Joannis Kepleri Opera Omnia. Ed. by Frisch. Frankfurt, 1858. Vol. I, p. 812.

348 Gemelin, L. Untersatz eines Globus von Philipp Apian. (In: Stuttgarter Gewerbhalle. Stuttgart,
1885. Taf. 62.); Günther, S. Die Münchener Globen Philipp Apians. (In: Jahrbuch für münchener
Geschichte. München, 1888. pp. 131-148.)
349 Günther. Die Münchener Globen. p. 132.
350 Zimmermann, M. Hans Müelich und Herzog Albrecht V. München, 1885. The author thinks it
hardly probable that Müelich was the artist employed in the decoration of these globes, but praises
the excellent workmanship exhibited. Kobolt, A. M. Bairisches Gelehrten-Lexikon. Landshut, 1795.
pp. 52 ff.; also in his Erganzungen und Berichtigungen. Landshut, 1824. p. 21.
351 Fiorini. Sfere terrestri e celesti. p. 221. The author briefly describes the Plautus globes. The
information contained therein was also kindly sent for insertion in this work by the director of the
Museum.
352 Gerland. Beitrage. p. 69. See Chap. viii, n. 21.
353 Fiorini, op. cit., pp. 200-202.
354 Gassendi, P. Tychonis Brahei equitis Dani astronomorum coryphaei vita. Hagae, 1655; Dreyer, J.
L. E. Tycho Brahe, a picture of scientific life and work in the sixteenth century. Edinburgh, 1890;
Brahe, T. Astronomiae instauratae mechanica. Noribergae, 1602; Brahe, T. Epistolarum
astronomicarum libri. Uraniburgi, 1596; Brahe, T. Tychonis Brahe mathim: eminent: Dani Opera
Omnia. Ed. by J. G. Schonvetteri, Francofurti, 1648; Wolf. Geschichte der Astronomie. pp. 269-281;
Kästner. Geschichte der Mathematik. Vol. II, pp. 376-411.
355 Dreyer, op. cit., Chaps. v, vi.
356 Tyconis Brahe astronomiae instauratae Mechanica.
357 Raemdonck. Les sphères terrestres. p. 28; Chatel, M. Note sur une globe terrestre ... de la
succession de Titon du Tillet. (In: Mémoire lus à la Sorbonne. Paris, 1865. pp. 161-170.)

358 Marcel, G. Note sur une sphère terrestre faite en cuivre à la fin du XVI e Siècle. (In: Bulletin de
la Société normande de Géographie. Rouen, 1891. pp. 153-160.)
359 Humboldt, A. Examen Critique. Paris, 1836-1839. Vol. II, pp. 152-155; Harrisse. Discovery,
pp. 657-658.
360 Hakluyt, R. The principal Navigations, Voyages and Discoveries of the English Nation. London,
1589.

361 Hood, D. The use of both the Globes, celestial and terrestrial, most plainly delivered in the form
of a dialogue. London, 1592.
362 Blundeville, T. Mr. Blundeville his Exercises. London, 1594.
363 See above, p. 193.
364 The several editions of this work are given by Markham, C. Hues, Treatise on Globes,
pp. xxxvii-xl.
365 Allgemeine deutsche Biographie “Bürgi, Jobst”; Doppelmayr, op. cit., p. 163; Wolf, R. Bürgi.
(In: Biograph. z. Kulturgeschichte, 1 Zyklus, pp. 57 ff.); Weidler, F. Historia astronomiae.
Vitembergae, 1741. p. 375; Gerland, op. cit., p. 68.
366 Marcel, G. Note sur une mission géographique en Suisse. (In: Bulletin de la Société de
Géographie. Paris, 1899. pp. 76-94.)
367 Fischer, J. The globe-goblet of Wolfegg. (In: United States Catholic Historical Society Historical
Records and Studies. New York, 1913. pp. 275-279.) See for mention of other Gessner globe cups.

368 A sixteenth century globe cup. (In: Royal Geographical Journal. London, 1919. pp. 196-197.)
This particular globe of Gessner was sold at Christie’s in London, July 23, 1919, for £3800. It is
thought to have been made in the year 1595. Attention is called in this article to a globe cup in the
British Museum, dated 1569.
369 Beazley, C. R. Globe of 1593. (In: Royal Geographical Journal. London, 1904. pp. 496-498.)
370 Poggendorff, J. C. Biographisch-literarisches Handwörterbuch. Leipzig, 1863; Kästner, op. cit.,
p. 393; Génard, P. Les Globes du géographe Arnauld Florent van Langren et de Guill. Blaeu. (In:
Bulletin de la Société Royale Géographie d’Anvers. Anvers, 1883. pp. 150 ff.; Van der Aa.)

371 Wieder, F. C. De Globe van Van Langren A o 1612. (In: Kon. Nederlandsch Aardrijkskundig
Genootschap, 2 e Série Dl. XXXII, 1915, pp. 231-239.)
372 Jonge, J. K. J. de. Opkomst van het Nederlandsch gezag in Oost-Indie. Gravenhage, 1862. Vol. I,
p. 179. The author gives here a report rendered by J. Hondius in which he refers to the superiority of
his globes to those of Van Langren. The report is dated 1597.
373 Wieder, op. cit., n. 36 above, is a description of this globe with illustrations.
374 Meucci, F. La Sfera armillere di Tolomeo construita da Antonia Santucci. Firenze, 1876.

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