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
‘Cosmographiae Introductio’ (Fig. 31), which map it was the good fortune
of Professor Joseph Fischer, S. J., to bring to light in the year 1902,
as noted above.[151] In the dedication of his little book to the Emperor
Maximilian, he says, “Hinc factū est v̄t me libros Ptholomei ad exēplar
Grecū quorunda ope p virili recognoscēte & quatuor Americi Vespucii
navigationū lustratioēs adiiciēte: totius orbis typū tā in solido q̄ȝplano
(velut preuiam quandā ysagogen) p cōmuno studiosorū vtilitate
parauerim.”[152] “Therefore studying to the best of my ability and with
the aid of several persons, the Books of Ptolemy from a Greek copy, and
adding the Relations of the Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci, I have
prepared for the general use of scholars a map of the whole world, like
an introduction, so to speak, both in the solid and on a plane.”
Waldseemüller says further, wherein he gives a description of his new
map, “Propositum est hoc libello quandam Cosmographie introductionē
scribere; quam nos tam in solido q̄ȝ plano depinximus. In solido
quidem spacio exclusi strictissime. Sed latius in plano....”[153] “The
purpose of this little book is to write a description of the world map,
which we have designed, both as a globe and as a projection. The globe I
have designed on a small scale, the map on a larger.”
[Illustration: Fig. 31. World Map of Martin Waldseemüller, 1507.]
From the above citation it appears that as early as April, 1507, the
same preparation had been made for a globe that had been made for the
issue of a large world map. The map, as noted, has been found, but
neither a globe nor a set of globe gores is known bearing the
indisputable evidence of his authorship. In the library of Prince
Liechtenstein, however, is a somewhat crudely executed gore map (Fig.
32) which, according to certain cartographical students, should be
accepted as a copy of the work to which the allusions are made in the
‘Cosmographiae.’[154] These gores, twelve in number, and each 12 cm. in
length, this length representing the length of a meridian of the globe
ball which the gores could be made to cover, were printed from a wood
engraved block. They exhibit the Old World, in the main, in accord with
the Ptolemaic idea, and the New World with a close resemblance to the
Canerio map record, and that of Waldseemüller’s world map of 1507.[155]
The North American region is nameless, but the South American region
bears conspicuously the name “America.” At intervals of ten degrees
lines of latitude and longitude are marked. As a title to a lithographic
reproduction of this map issued some years since by the Prince, is the
subscription “Erster gedruckter Globus. Martin Hylocomylus
(Waltzemüller). Gehört wahrscheinlich zo seinem 1509 herausgegebenen
Buche Globus Mundi.” “First printed globe. Martin Hylacomylus
(Waltzemüller). Probably belonging to his Globus Mundus which appeared
in 1509.”[156]
[Illustration: Fig. 32. Globe Gores Attributed to Martin Waldseemüller,
1509.]
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