Ruscelli maintained that globes are preferable to ordinary maps in geographical studies, stating that “although maps of three or four arm’s length and width are to be found they are not numerous and are not of great value, and furthermore we have globes, which, in extent of space exhibited, surpass them. Granting that some Princes and certain others do have maps very large, as for example, such as Pope Paul II had made for the palace of S. Marco in Rome, there are also Princes and private persons who have globes which in size much surpass the plane maps that I have ever seen or heard of.” “Until a few years since no one knew how to print such globes, and all were made with pen and brush, ... later geniuses have found a way for printing globe maps very accurately, which, in a wonderful way they can place over the surface of a sphere; a way has also been found for making the spheres round and exact, and a method for computing measurements for the coverings to fit the sphere, and for the construction of such other things as belong thereto.”[306] The Volpaja family of Florence achieved considerable distinction in the late fifteenth and in the sixteenth century, through those members who were interested in the construction of astronomical instruments and particularly in armillary spheres. Vasari tells us that “in the chapel of Santa Trinita, in fresco, is a picture of the Magnificent Lorenzo de’ Medici, father of Pope Leo X.... In the same picture is Lorenzo della Volpaja, a most excellent master in the art of making watches, and a distinguished astrologer, by whom a most beautiful clock was made for Lorenzo de’ Medici, which the most illustrious Duke Cosimo now has in his palace, and wherein all of the movements of the planets are perpetually shown by means of wheels, a very rare thing, and the first that was made in that manner.”[307]