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
Hudson Bay, which is left nameless, is represented without a definite
coast line in the north, but through a wide and extended channel it
opens into “Fretum Davis.” The St. Lawrence River appears to drain a
lake, which may be taken from its location to be Lake Ontario; but the
remaining four Great Lakes appear as one great inland sea with an outlet
of somewhat uncertain character northward toward Hudson Bay. The
geographical representations in this region are of special historical
interest, as are indeed the geographical records in the several sections
of North America, particularly in the South and the West.
As a companion to the terrestrial globe of the year 1632, Greuter
prepared a celestial globe of the same dimensions, and with similar
mountings, which he issued in the year 1636. He gives due credit, in one
of his legends, to Tycho Brahe and to Willem Blaeu as sources of
information for his representation of the stars and the several
constellations, following, in particular, Blaeu’s globe of 1622. His
explanatory legend reads “In hoc coelesti Globo notantur omnes stellae
fixie an annum 1636 accom̄odatae q̄ iuxta observationē Nob. viri
Tychonis Brahe, in max̄ illo Iansonii, an̄o 1622 edito, positae sunt
additis stellis q̄ à peritissᵒ nauclero Petro Theod: circa Pol. Aust.
notatae sū novisque Asterismis et stellis min. apparētib’, ab aliis sum̄
studio observatis, omnia in Philomatico gratia copiosa delineata. Romae,
1636, M. Greuter.” “In this celestial globe are noted all the fixed
stars accommodated to the year 1636, which are placed (on the map)
according to the observations of the noble Tycho Brahe in that great
(work) of Jansson (Blaeu), edited in the year 1622, to which are added
the stars noted by the skilful navigator Peter Theodori around the south
pole and the new and less apparent stars observed by others with great
zeal. All these have been represented for the use of the student. At
Rome, 1636. M. Greuter.” As to how much he thought should be added to or
subtracted from the longitude of the fixed stars each year, to the end
of taking due note of the precession of the equinoxes, he copied
Plancius literally. The equatorial circle, the tropics, the polar
circles, the equinoxes, the solstitial colures, the ecliptic, and twelve
meridians are all represented. The constellations include the Ptolemaic,
with the addition of those recently discovered and named in the southern
hemisphere. The figures of the several constellations are well drawn,
having their names in Latin or in Arabic, and are artistically colored
in most of the copies of the globe known.
Greuter’s globes all appear to have been made in the same size, and they
have the same general construction, with the exceptions noted below.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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