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
The Lenox globe[163] is often referred to as the oldest extant
post-Columbian globe. It is an engraved copper ball of excellent
workmanship, 127 mm. in diameter (Figs. 34, 35), neither signed nor
dated, and is without mountings. A critical study of its geographical
records, particularly of the New World representations, has led to the
conclusion that it was made as early as 1510. The two sections or
hemispheres of which it is composed are joined at the equator. Neither
parallels nor meridians are indicated, and though a striking error
appears in giving to the eastern hemisphere, or the Old World, too great
an extension in longitude, the principal latitudes are well given. The
globe was found in the year 1850, in Paris, by Mr. Richard Hunt, by whom
it was presented to Mr. James Lenox, and is now one of the choicest
objects in that great collector’s library, which library constitutes an
important part of the New York Public Library. In its New World
representation, South America appears as a large island having three
regional names, “Mundus Novus,” “Terra Sanctae Crucis,” and “Terra de
Brazil.” “Isabel” (Cuba), “Spagnolla” (Haiti), and a few unnamed islands
belonging to the West Indies have been outlined. In the place of North
America there are scattered islands, one of which, located near the
northwest extremity of “Terra de Brazil,” bears the name “Zipangri”
(Japan), and one in the far north, but unnamed, clearly resembles the
Cortereal region, as it appears on the Cantino and on the Canerio map. A
few of the many islands in the eastern seas are designated by name as
“Taprobana,” “Madagascar,” and “Seilan.”
[Illustration: Fig. 34. Lenox Globe, 1510.]
[Illustration: Fig. 35. Lenox Globe in Hemispheres.]
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