Edward Luther Stevenson

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ If the earth is a sphere then why could a map so draughted as truly to represent the surface of a sphere not be counted the most acceptable? This must have been the argument of those who especially applied themselves to the designing of maps suitable for a spherical surface, that is, for application to a globe ball. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Of two places on this globe whose direction from one another you are desirous of knowing, that is in what part of the heavens the one diverges from the other, first of all note the difference of latitude and longitude. This ascertained turn the globe until some one rhumb cuts the meridian in the latitude of the first place, then turn to the east or to the west as is required, until the degrees of the equator through which the meridians of the places pass equal in number the difference in longitude of the two places. ”

“ Cesar Cardinal d’Estrées has dedicated this terrestrial globe, in order to render perpetual homage to His Glory and to His Heroic Virtue in representing the countries wherein a thousand great acts have been performed both by Himself and by his Order, to the astonishment of all nations, which He would have been able to bring under his subjection if his moderation had not restrained the course of his Conquests and prescribed bounds to his Courage yet greater than his Fortune. ”

“ 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. ”

“ A pair of such globes, thought he, for so runs the story, would be a source of great delight to His Majesty the French King, Louis XIV. Learning that the construction of still larger globes was altogether possible, but that their removal from Italy to France would be attended with great difficulty, he persuaded Coronelli to accept an invitation to take up a residence in Paris, there to direct the construction of a terrestrial and a celestial globe, sparing neither labor nor expense that they might be worthy of presentation to the Grand Monarch. ”

“ 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. ”

“ In the geographical records as they appear on the several terrestrial globe maps, it is to be admitted that the authors, with rare exceptions, undertook to set down what they thought to be fact, shall we say the real tangible geographical fact or facts. The maker of the star map, on the contrary, clearly gave his imagination play, not in his attempt to mark in the proper location the several stars as they came to be known and catalogued, but in the draughting of the figures of the several constellations. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The earliest spheres were doubtless made to revolve just as the globes of today, around their polar axes which turn within sockets firmly attached to the meridian circle. This meridian circle of brass or wood was usually graduated from one to ninety degrees, that is, from the equator to the poles, and being adjustable relative to the horizon circle, a globe could be set with a polar elevation for any desired latitude. Those who have had occasion to refer to the construction and the uses of the globe more or less in detail, make mention of what they call its threefold position. ”

“ 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? ”

“ Hondius to the reader greeting. Inasmuch as frequent voyages into all parts of the world are undertaken every day, whereby the several locations (of places) are more certainly seen and are made known, I hope therefore no one will be surprised to find this delineation on our globe very different from that on most others previously issued. But who, as is right, will not prefer our diligence and care, whereby recently discovered and known lands, and whereby directions, latitudes, and such like are all properly distinguished and are to be found in their places. ”

“ 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. ”

“ At pleasure a breeze could be made to blow from any desired quarter, meteors could be made to flit across the sky; rain- and hailstorms, lightning and thunder, could be imitated. On the surface of the terrestrial globe were represented the several countries of the earth, likewise the several seas. Coronelli notes that which Weigel seems to have regarded an especially commendable feature, the grouping of the stars into new constellations, which grouping was particularly designed to aid the memory. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Since the geographical description of the earth according to latitude and longitude, both by maritime voyages and by celestial observations becomes more accurate day by day, it happens to scarcely any one man to perfect (a globe) by his own observations for these can be partial only. Therefore it behooves us to make use of the most accurate modern observations. In so far as they agree with the truth or depart from it it is left for you with your more exact judgment to decide. ”

“ 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. ”

“ With the pole (north for us in the northern hemisphere) as the center of the dial face the stars appear to move in a direction the reverse of that in which the hands of a clock are made to move. The astronomer, that is, the celestial globe maker, thinks of himself as placed beyond the vaulted heavens in which the stars appear to be located, and as looking down upon this vaulted dome as on the surface of his celestial globe. ”

“ 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. ”

“ AMONG the numerous globe makers of the eighteenth century, there are few, if any, entitled to rank with Blaeu or Hondius, with Greuter or Coronelli of the seventeenth. There was much written during the period, it is true, on the value of globes in geographical and astronomical studies, and there were many globes constructed, of which a very considerable number still have a place in our libraries, museums, and private collections. ”

“ 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. ”

“ True to the spirit of the age Bion gave much thought to the idea of reform in the matter of globe construction, especially in the matter of fashioning globe gores and their attachment to the surface of the sphere. He seems to have prospered in his business, and we are told by his son that he constructed numerous armillary spheres, likewise many terrestrial and celestial globes of various sizes. ”

“ 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. ”

“ An important consequence of the precession of the equinoxes lies in the fact that the zodiacal constellations do not agree with the signs with which they coincided in ancient times, i.e., in the beginnings of astronomical science. The first star of Aries, which at the time of Eudoxus was at the intersection of the equator and the ecliptic, or at the equinoctial colure, has continued to increase its position in longitude. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The terrestrial globe map, composed of eighteen gores, is filled with interesting geographical details, with geographical names and brief explanatory legends, being a fine example of the superior cartographical work published in that century in the Netherlands. There is something of an exaggeration in the representation by waving line of the several coasts and river courses, all of which appears to have been done for artistic effect rather than for a desire to be strictly accurate. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”