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
Attention has previously been called to the reproduction in Italy of the
Hondius globes by Giuseppe de Rossi in the year 1615. It appears that to
the Rossi family belonged a number of map engravers and art printers
during the seventeenth century and particularly to that branch making
its home in the city of Rome. As globe makers we however find them
playing the rôle of copyists rather than that of independent producers.
In The Hispanic Society’s collection of old globes may be found a pair
in an excellent state of preservation signed “Dominici de Rubeis
(Rossi),” and dated “1695.” Each globe ball is composed of papier-mâché,
having a diameter of 49 cm. and each is covered with a map printed on
twelve gores, with a small circular disc for the polar space (Figs.
103a, 103b). In the List of Globe Makers other examples are noted.
In the South Pacific, on the terrestrial globe, one finds the
inscription “Romae ex Chalcographia Dominici de Rubeis, heredis 70.
Jacobi, ad templum S. Mariae de Pace, Anno 1695.” Dominico, whose name
here appears, achieved considerable distinction as the publisher, with
his relative Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi, of an atlas of one hundred and
fifty-two maps, one of the finest examples of Italian cartography of the
period. In a cartouch in the South Atlantic, on this globe, we find the
name Mattheus Greuter given as the engraver, whose work has been
referred to above, clearly suggesting that Rossi had merely reissued a
globe of earlier date, since Greuter had died in the year 1638. A
careful examination of the globe map confirms the suggestion, since no
record is made of geographical discoveries after the year 1630. In the
region of the North Pole the discoveries of the English and of the Dutch
are recorded to the year 1628, and it may further be noted that in this
same northern region the islands of “Frislanda” and “Brasil” are laid
down, while in Greenland is a reference to the location of the fabled
Monastery of St. Thomas.
References are made in legends to the discoveries of Magellan, Lemaire,
Schouten, Frobisher, Davis, Hudson, and Drake. The region about New York
is called “Nieu Nederland.” One can recognize the representation of the
St. Lawrence, and the Mississippi. In the western region of the New
World there appears to be considerable confusion as to the geography of
the country, apparently the result of reading, without understanding,
the records of the Spanish and of the English. One finds, for example,
California represented as an island, and a double representation of the
Strait of Anian.
The Spanish, French, English, Dutch, and Latin languages have been
employed in names and legends.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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