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
There is given a second legend of some importance reading, “Tabula
continens quantum quovis proposito anno vel addendum vel demendum sit
longitudini affixarum. Stellae enim spatio septuaginta Annorum et
quinque mensium unicum gradum secondum Asterismorum ordinem super Polum
Zodiaci progrediuntur ab Occasu ad Orientem. Ex hujusmodi Regula
invenitur Sidera migrasse a Mundi creatione usque ad hunc annum 6915,
Gr. 98, M. 47, S. 20. Et ab adventu D. N. J. C. usque ad hunc annum
1716, Gr. 24, M. 30, S. 25.” “Table noting how much must be added to or
subtracted from the longitude of the fixed stars in any given year. The
stars move from west to east one degree in the space of seventy years
and five months according to the order of the constellations of the
zodiac. From this rule it is found that the stars have moved from the
creation of the world a period of 6915 years to the present 98 degrees,
47 minutes and 20 seconds, and from the advent of Our Lord Jesus Christ
to this year 1716, 24 degrees, 30 minutes, and 25 seconds.”
In addition to the above-mentioned examples of Moroncelli’s work, there
may be cited a number of allusions to others which cannot now be
located. Fiorini notes first a fine cosmographic sphere designed to
represent both the terrestrial and the celestial, having a circumference
of 2.62 palms, and probably constructed for the patrician family
Trevisiani.[77] It appears that it later passed into the hands of Prince
Lucio Odescalchi of Milan, and in the year 1849 was taken to Rome, after
which it appears that all trace of it was lost. It is said to have been
a very artistic piece, brilliantly colored with numerous pictures
executed in miniature, and to have been dated 1690. The anonymous
biographer of Moroncelli, whose account exists only in manuscript and is
frequently cited by Fiorini, notes that Moroncelli constructed a
manuscript globe for Queen Christina of Sweden.[78] This has been
thought by Porti to be the globe just referred to, but the identity is
doubtful. Again Fiorini makes allusion to the probable existence at one
time of a pair of Moroncelli’s globes in the Monasterio Biblioteca of S.
Benedetto of Fabriano, and of still another pair in the Collegio De
Vecchi of the same city, but of these nothing at present is known.[79]
The anonymous biography likewise alludes to one of his celestial globes
which he constructed and dedicated to Cardinal Alessandro Albani of
Urbino. In this the author undertook, like certain others of his day, to
substitute for the Greek mythological characters or figures representing
the several constellations, pictures of biblical objects and characters,
or of individuals selected from Christian martyrology.[80] While this
particular globe cannot now be located, there is a small one of similar
character which belongs to the Accademia Etrusca of Cortona, having a
diameter of about 27 cm., its map being partly in manuscript and partly
printed.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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