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
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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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