Terrestrial and Celestial Globes Volume 1: Their History and Construction Including a Consideration of their Value as Aids in the Study of Geography and AstronomyStevenson, Edward Luther
History
Terrestrial and Celestial Globes Volume 1: Their History and Construction Including a Consideration of their Value as Aids in the Study of Geography and Astronomy
Stevenson, Edward Luther
Geography -- History; Globes
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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