Terrestrial and Celestial Globes Volume 2: 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 2: 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
Not until the year 1640 do we find the name Hondius again appearing on a
dated globe. Attention has been called to the fact that Henricus, the
son of Jodocus, continued, with more or less diligence, the work of map
engraving and map printing, which the latter had carried on so
successfully in Amsterdam until the time of his death. We are told that
a partnership in the business, about the year 1639, was formed by
Henricus Hondius with Johan Janssonius, his brother-in-law, and that
this business, after the year 1644, passed entirely into the hands of
the latter. It was in the year 1640 that the firm referred to undertook
the reissue of the Hondius globes of earlier date. These had a diameter
of about 52 cm. The gore maps, consisting of twelve parts, were made to
extend to within twenty degrees of each pole, the polar space being
covered with the usual polar cap.
The address to the reader, to be found on the terrestrial globe of the
year 1613, is repeated on this of 1640,[14] but the dedication differs
somewhat in the two, reading, on those of the 1640 issue,
“Illustrissimis, Nobilissimis, Amplissimis et Prudentissimis
Foederatarum Inferioris Germaniae provinciarum Ordinibus ac Patribus
Patriae Dominis suis clementissimis dedicabat Henricus Hondius. Henricus
Hondius excudebat An. 1640.” “To the Most Illustrious, Most Noble, Most
Exalted and Prudent Lords of the United Netherlands, the Fathers of
their Country, his Most Clement Master, Henricus Hondius dedicates (this
globe). Constructed by Henricus Hondius in the year 1640.” There have
been added a number of interesting legends, such as the following:
“Inter S. Laurentii et los Romeros insulas vehemens admodum est versus
ortum et occasum fluxus et refluxus maris.” “Between the islands of St.
Lawrence and Los Romeros there is an exceedingly strong ebb and flow of
the sea eastward and westward”; “Psitacorum regio sic a Lusitanis
appellata ob eorum avium ibidem magnitudinem.” “The region of the
parrots, and this is so called by the Portuguese because of the great
number of these birds found here”;[15] “Promontorium terrae australis
distans 450 leucas a capite Bonae Spei et 600 a S. Augustini.” “This
promontory of the southern land is distant 450 leagues from the Cape of
Good Hope, and 600 from Cape St. Augustine”; “Accolae Freti Magellanici
septentrionem versus procerae, meridiem vero versus exiquae magnitidinis
reperiuntur.” “The inhabitants of the Strait of Magellan toward the
north are of large size, but toward the south they are of small
stature”; “Lybia inferior quae hodie Saara appellatur quae vox idem quod
desertum significat.” “Lower Lybia is called today Sahara, which word
means desert.” In the Hudson Bay region we find, “In sinu Maris Hudsons
Bay vulgo dictus ubi M. Hudson hybernavit, ibidem maris aestus non ultra
duos pedes accrescebat, quod et observabit D. Thomas Jacobus a. 1631 in
sinu ‘James his Bay’ dicto et ubi mensuram duorum pedum non excedebat
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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