Edward Luther Stevenson

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The globe is mounted on a solid base, having a heavy horizon circle of wood, which is graduated, and on its surface are the names and the signs of the several zodiacal constellations, the names of the months and of the principal winds or directions. The meridian circle, within which the sphere revolves, is of brass and is graduated. ”

“ 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. ”

“ 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. ”

“ The much lauded study of astronomy, although it is very difficult, yet pleasure is joined with the difficulty, for it is a happier lot for men to look at the sky, than to look at the road trodden by their feet; our Omnipotent Creator ordained that other living beings should be prone on the earth, that man should not be so, but should be wholly lifted up to the stars. For while other living beings look earthward, He has given man an uplifted countenance and bidden him look heavenward, and raise his uplifted face toward the stars. ”

“ 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. ”

“ Globe makers, however, of this period, such as Delisle and Bion, as Gerhard and Leonhard Valk, as Vaugondy and Fortin, as Ferguson and Adams, have an honorable place in the history of globes and of globe construction. ”

“ This globe of marble is not so mounted as to permit its revolution, resting as it does upon the shoulders of the mythical Atlas, yet in its representation of the figures of the several constellations, then recognized by astronomers, it differs practically but little from the celestial globes, that is, solid spheres, constructed a millennium and a half later.182 We cannot, however, draw the conclusion from this one example that such globes were generally looked upon as practical instruments for use in astronomical studies, yet there clearly were those who did so regard them. ”

“ The Gottorp globe, the globes of Weigel, the Coronelli globes constructed for Louis XIV, were not such as would lend themselves to easy duplication, certainly not as to size, ranging as they did from about nine to fifteen feet. Of real value they possessed but little. They were interesting mechanical curiosities, representing a tendency in globe construction which might be referred to as the ultrapractical. In the following century we find the opposite extreme exemplified in what were known as pocket globes. ”

“ The gores of each are twelve in number, those of the terrestrial globe having an equatorial mounting while those of the celestial globe have an ecliptic mounting, that is, the meridian lines pass from pole to pole of the ecliptic instead of from pole to pole of the equator. In each, the gores have been truncated twenty degrees from the poles, the polar space being covered by circular discs. The engraving of both the terrestrial and the celestial map is exquisitely done, and much of the color originally applied by hand yet remains. ”

“ Through a door, which was practically invisible, the great sphere could be entered by a considerable number of persons at one time, and be enjoyed by them, implies Coronelli, some standing and some sitting. It was so arranged within that when one half of the celestial sphere was lighted the other half remained in darkness, the revolution of the sphere giving a representation of the rising and the setting of the stars. At the center was placed a small terrestrial globe within which was a reservoir ”

“ On the celestial globe the greater and the lesser circles were represented in gilt bronze, and were so graduated for both latitude and longitude, ascension and declination, that it was made easy for an astronomer to pass from one co-ordinate to the other without the aid of trigonometry. On a fine background of ultramarine the several constellations with their respective figures were represented, each of the planets and fixed stars being gilded in order to give it due prominence. ”

“ It has been previously noted that the employment of engraved gore maps in globe construction was not received with general favor in Italy in the sixteenth century, although Mercator’s globes were copied to some extent, as were those of De Mongenet. Toward the close of the century, the preference for manuscript globes, or for engraved bronze or copper globes seems gradually to have yielded to a belief in the more practical method of construction which had established itself in the North. ”

“ The celestial globe revolves on the axis of the equator, the gores being made to terminate at the poles of the ecliptic. Constellations are represented so far as they have been named by astronomers to date, the several figures being artistically drawn, on which color has been somewhat sparingly employed. ”

“ The director of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum of Nürnberg, in courteous communication, reports that in the rich collection of that institution there is a Hondius globe of the year 1592, which date, if accurately read, makes this to be the only known copy of what must be taken as his first issue. The map is a colored copper engraving covering a ball of wood having a diameter of 60 cm. The mounting of the globe, which clearly is the original, consists of the usual circles, resting upon six wooden support columns. ”

“ The terrestrial globe, in an artistic cartouch near the south pole, is referred to as “Nova Orbis Terrarum Descriptio Auctor Guilielmo Blaeu.” “A new description of the world by Willem Blaeu author.” Unlike that of the year 1606, noted above, it contains no reference to the expedition of Van Schouten and Le Maire, and records only the Strait of Magellan at the southern extremity of South America. Continental contours, even that of “Magallanica” and of the New World, agree in practically all details with his earlier globes and general world maps. ”

“ Astronomical dialogue between a gentleman and a lady wherein the doctrine of the sphere, the uses of the globe and the elements of astronomy and geography are explained in a pleasant and familiar way. ”

“ A globe eleven or fifteen feet in diameter, in the better judgment of astronomers and geographers, could not be counted as possessing superior scientific value, and globes of such dimensions seem only to have won the praise of the novelty-loving contemporaries, and the same general criticism may be passed upon the smaller globes of Castlemaine and Treffler. Perhaps, however, one may well add that in all this a desire was expressing itself for improvement in globe construction. ”

“ From the 75catalogue of this institution we learn that it was constructed in the year 1657 by Andreas Busch, under the guidance of Adam Olearius, for Frederick III of Holstein-Gottorp. As will be noted from the illustration it is an elaborately constructed piece of mechanism. What we may term the globe proper is composed of six great circles on which are the fixed constellations, having the several stars represented in silver. Through the mechanism passes a steel bar which carries a ball of brass representing the sun, which is at the center of the complicated system of circles. ”

“ On most terrestrial globe maps meridian circles are represented at intervals of ten, twenty, or thirty degrees, the prime meridian on which the degrees of latitude are marked being usually made very conspicuous, and to the close of the period under consideration usually made to pass through the Cape Verde Islands or the Canaries, a point always to be carefully noted in attempting to get a reading for the longitude of any particular place. ”