The interesting allusions in King Alfonso’s ‘Libros del Saber de Astronomia,’ from which citations may be found in our Chapter IV, give us information concerning both methods and materials which might be employed in globe construction in his day. It is not there stated that the author had information concerning the actual use of the more than twenty named materials which might be chosen for their manufacture. He does, however, lead us to infer that there may have been experiments by his contemporaries in which trial was made of the fitness of the several materials named, his conclusion being that wood or brass was the most suitable. It has previously been noted that globes appear to have been made now and then for use in the monastic schools, but we find no detailed description of their special character. Here and there, it is true, may be found reference to the adjustability of their parts, and to their rings which made them serviceable for furthering astronomical studies. The inference is fair that the globes of these Christian schools were armillary spheres, and were not solid or hollow balls on the surface of which the starry firmament or the earth had been depicted. Behaim’s globe of the year 1492 seems to represent a radical departure in globe construction. His idea appears to have been novel. He employed a mould in the making of his globe ball, and over the surface of this completed ball pasted irregular strips of parchment which furnished a suitable ground for the draughting of the map with its geographical outlines and its artistic adornments in color. Behaim’s globe mounting was of the simplest character, consisting of a metal meridian circle within which the sphere could be revolved, a horizon circle of like material, the whole resting upon a tripod base. Although effort was made to establish in Nürnberg an institute wherein globe making might be taught especially, the plan seems not to have carried, and such as were later produced in this city were merely the output of the mathematical instrument maker’s shop or of the geographical establishments.