Blaeu, as before stated, must have obtained much of his early knowledge of map and of globe construction while a pupil of Tycho at the Castle of Uranienburg, for it was not long after his return to Amsterdam that we find him actively engaged in this work, perhaps in his own workshop.[34] His first globe is dated 1599. The world map here represented is, so far as we have definite knowledge, his first cartographical publication, and in many of its features it gives evidence that Mercator was the master followed, notably in the representation of the loxodrome lines which radiate from the wind or compass roses, or from the centers regularly placed on the surface of the globe. It has a diameter of 34 cm., which is less than that of Mercator’s globe of 1541 but greater than that of van Langren of 1585. The gores, twelve in number, have been cut seven degrees from each pole, the polar space being covered with a circular disc. Blaeu, as many other globe makers of his period, found that by thus dividing the engraved globe maps a more nearly perfect covering for the ball could be obtained. Meridians and parallels are drawn at intervals of ten degrees, the prime meridian crossing the island of Santa Maria in the Azores group. In conspicuously placed legends he presents his address to the reader, that is, to the one who may have occasion to make use of his globe, a dedication to the United Provinces of the Netherlands, which, like the first, is signed Guilielmus Janssonius Alcmariensis, and in separate inscriptions he calls attention to the great discoveries and explorations as, for example, those of Christopher Columbus, of Amerigo Vespucci, of Ferdinand Magellan, of Gaspar Cortereal, and of the Dutch navigators, with a brief mention of others. All legends are in Latin except those referring to the discoveries of his own countrymen in the far north, in which he has employed the Dutch language. As in the issue of his sheet maps, Blaeu was not always careful to add an exact date, in the majority of instances omitting the date altogether, so in the issue of his globes he either omitted the date or frequently gave one later than was that of the original issue. His geographical records serve us, however, as very accurate guides in the determination of dates, and what was so frequently true of the globes he constructed in the last years of his life was true of this, his first. We have, for example, one fine copy of his work, bearing date 1599, which contains geographical records of 1616, indicating, therefore, a late reprint with a few alterations.