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]