Volume I Part 11 (1/2)
Antverp, 1530.'[217] It seems probable that this was issued to serve as explanatory text for a globe or globes he had constructed or was preparing to construct. In it we have one of the earliest technical yet practical explanations of the parts and uses of the globe, and a somewhat detailed statement how such instruments may be serviceably employed in cosmographical studies. On the t.i.tle-page there appears the representation of a globe resting on a base having three feet, which has been thought to be a representation of his completed work.[218] We are told in his 'Epistola salutatoria,' at least in an implied manner, that there were to be numerous copies of the globes, seeing that they were intended for the trade, and Roscelli's statement would lead us to believe that they had found their way into Italy. All copies, however, appear to have been lost until a few years since, when both a terrestrial and a celestial globe of Frisius' making was found in the Gymnasium Francisceum of Zerbst, to which discovery a very considerable interest and importance attaches. In a paper read before the International Congress of Americanists in 1904, Dr. W. Walter Ruge, all too briefly, describes them, from which paper the following information is taken.[219]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 51. Portrait of Gemma Frisius.]
The terrestrial globe, he notes, is not well preserved, being in certain parts so injured as to render the inscriptions illegible; but in this fact he, however, finds a certain compensation, as these injuries are of such character as to disclose the manner of construction. The globe ball, he finds, consists of two hemispheres of papier-mache 3 mm. in thickness over which is a layer of plaster 1 mm. in thickness. On the smooth surface thus furnished the twelve gores of which the map is composed had been pasted, these gores extending from pole to pole.[220]
Though undated, the following inscription gives information concerning the map maker and the engravers. ”Gemma Frisius Medicus ac Mathematicus ex varijs descripsit geographicorum observationibus, atque in hanc formam redegit; Gerardus Mercator Rupelmunda.n.u.s coelavit c.u.m Caspare a Myrica, cui et sumptibus permaximis et laboribus nequaquam minoribus opus constat.” ”Gemma Frisius, physician and mathematician, made (this globe) from the various observations of geographers, and fas.h.i.+oned it in this form. Gerhard Mercator of Rupelmunde with Caspar Miracus engraved (it) and expended on the work a large sum and no little labor.”
Frisius appears in this legend as the maker of the map, with Mercator and Myrica as the engravers. The date of construction is not given, but it clearly does not belong to the issue of 1530 referred to above. We read, for example, along the west coast of South America such names as ”Tumbes,” ”tangara siue s. michaelis,” and ”Turicarami fluvius,” and find that this west coast is sketched as far as lat.i.tude 5 degrees south. S. Michaelis was founded in 1532, and information concerning Pizarro's discoveries probably did not reach Europe until 1534. Europe has still many of the Ptolemaic features, as has also the continent of Asia. North America, which is rather better drawn than on any of the earlier maps, has the legend ”Hispania Maior a Nuno Gusmano devicta anno 1530.” The west coast becomes a very indefinite line at lat.i.tude 25 degrees north, at which point we read ”Matonchel siue petra portus.” It then sweeps northeastward in a flattened curve to ”Baccalearum Regio”
with its ”Promotoriu agricule seu cabo del labrador.” From the land around the north pole, which is connected with Asia, the continent is separated by a narrow strait which is referred to as ”Fretum arctic.u.m siue trium fratrum, par quod lusitani in orientem et ad Indios et Moluccas nauigare conati sunt.” ”The Arctic strait or the strait of the three brothers through which the Portuguese attempted to sail to the East and to the Indies and the Moluccas.” No general name is given to South America, but we find such regional names as ”Nw Peru Provincia”
and east of this ”Bresilia.” In the interior are such legends and local names as ”Caxamalca fuit regis Atabaliape,” ”Cuzco,” ”Cincha,” ”Collao.”
The nomenclature shows decided Spanish influence, as we find ”la laguna poblada,” ”R. de los esclavos,” ”R. d. los furmos,” ”Cabo corto.”
Ruge further notes the finding in the same Gymnasium of Zerbst of a celestial globe on which appears the following legend, ”Faciebant Gemma Frisius medicus ac mathematicus, Gaspar a Myrica & Gerardus Mercator Rupelmunda.n.u.s anno a partu virgineo 1537.” ”Gemma Frisius physician and mathematician, Gaspar Myrica and Gerhard Mercator of Rupelmunde made this globe in the year 1537.” A comparison of this legend with that of the terrestrial globe leads to the somewhat ingenious argument that the latter, though undated, is the older of the two. We know that Mercator was a pupil of Gemma Frisius,[221] and that after leaving his university studies he found employment with the master in draughting maps and in the construction of mathematical instruments. In the dated legend of 1537 Mercator and Myrica appear to have advanced in importance, seeing that in the undated legend they are merely referred to as the engravers, while Frisius alone is mentioned as the maker of the map. Since this discovery we are better informed as to the source of Mercator's information which he gives in his map of 1538; the evidence being conclusive that in the main he followed the records of Frisius, adapting his map, however, to the double cordiform projection.[222]
Harrisse describes a gilded copper globe, belonging to the collection of the Bibliotheque Nationale, having a diameter of 14 cm. and bearing the author and date legend reading ”Robertus de Bailly 1530.”[223] It is composed of two parts rather insecurely joined on the line of the equator, and is entirely without mountings. The engraving of the names, all in small capitals, has been remarkably well done. In outlining the contour of the New World the draughtsman of the map has been influenced by the Verrazanian data, and although exhibiting minor differences in details there is a striking resemblance to the map of Maiollo of 1527,[224] to that of Verrazano of 1529,[225] and to that of Ulpius of 1541.[226] The region called by Maiollo ”Francesca,” by Verrazano ”Verrazana sive Gallia nova,” by Ulpius ”Verrazana sive Nova Gallia,”
Robertus calls ”Verrazana.” In addition we find such names as ”TERRA LABORATORIS,” ”BACHALIAO,” ”LA FLORIDA,” ”TENUSt.i.tAN,” ”PARIAS,” ”MUNDUS NOVUS,” ”AMERICA,” ”ST. CRUSIS,” ”TERRA MAGELLANICA.”
A second globe by Robertus de Bailly may be found in the library of Mr.
J. P. Morgan of New York City (Fig. 52). This example, signed and dated ”Robertus de Bailly 1530,” and acquired a few years since, may be counted one of the finest metal globes of the period. None can be referred to which is in a better state of preservation, if we can accept its mounting as the original.[227] In Rosenthal's catalogue No. 100 it is referred to as a ”Verrazzano-Globus,” which is clearly an error, if there was thought of ascribing it to Giovanni Verrazano, the explorer, or to his brother Hieronimus, the chart maker. The outlines of its map of the New World are clearly of Verrazanian origin (Fig. 53), which therefore give to it a particular interest and value.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 52. Terrestrial Globe of Robertas de Bailly, 1530.
Nine of twelve gores exhibiting the map.]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 53. Terrestrial Globe of Robertus de Bailly, 1530.]
Harrisse, in 1896, called attention to his discovery of two globes apparently of the early fourth decade of the sixteenth century.
The first of these he refers to as a gilded copper sphere about 12 cm.
in diameter, and fas.h.i.+oned to contain the mechanism by means of which it is made to revolve. It is neither signed nor dated. At the extremity of the rod pa.s.sing through the sphere is an arrangement apparently for attachment to a second piece of mechanism, probably a planetarium. It is surrounded by a disc on which the hours are engraved in Roman numerals.
The geographical outlines are clearly of Verrazanian origin, representing the New World relatively long and narrow and having no Asiatic connection. With few exceptions the nomenclature is in the Latin language, but we read for instance ”El pasaie de S. Michel” and ”Rio de las Amazonas”. The name ”America” appears only on the southern continent, where we also find such legends as ”Francisi Pizarri hoc m(onticu?) lo contra indos insignis victoria anno 1533,” and off the coast of Peru ”Ulterius incognitum.”
The second of these globes is likewise of copper, having a diameter of 21 cm. and carries the inscription ”Christoff Schiepp sculpsit.
Augusta,” which is placed around a cartouch especially designed for a representation of the coat of arms of the Welser family. This family, it will be remembered, figured conspicuously in connection with the German attempt at the colonization of Venezuela. The engraved t.i.tle of the map is practically the same as that to be found on the Paris gilt globe and reads ”Nova et integra universi orbis descriptio.” It omits, however, the legend ”Francesca” and ”Verrazana sive nova Gallia,” which fact may be due to its German origin. The nomenclature in Mexico and in South America is very detailed. The La Plata River, for example, as in the Gilt globe and in the Wooden globe, is called ”Sinus Juliani”; the Pacific is called ”Ocea.n.u.s Magnus Gelanicus.” The austral land is referred to as ”Terra australis nuper inventa, sed nondum plene examinata.”
While the first of these globes is unmounted, Scheipp's globe is furnished with gilded meridian and horizon circle, the whole being supported by a dolphin on a plinth of ebony.
In the year 1533 Johann Schoner issued a small tract bearing the t.i.tle 'Joannis Schoneri Carolostadii Opusculum Geographic.u.m ex diversorum libris ac cartis summa cura & diligentia collectum, accomodatum ad recenter elaboratum ab eodem glob.u.m descriptiones terrenae.' 'A geographical tract of John Schoner of Carlstadt, extracted from various books and maps with much care and diligence and arranged for a recently elaborated globe, being a description of the earth.'[228] This little book was dedicated to John Frederick of Saxony ”Ex urbe Norica Id.
Novembris Anno MDx.x.xIII.” To it more than usual interest attaches. As the t.i.tle states, it was issued as an explanatory text for a new globe,[229] while in referring to the geography of the New World it clearly sets forth a reason for the changed notion concerning that geography, to which allusion has already been made,[230] a change from a belief in the independent position of the new lands to a belief that these lands were but a part of the continent of Asia. With reference to this point Schoner says, ”Unde longissimo tractu occidentem versus ab Hispani terra est, quae Mexico et Temist.i.tan vocatur superiori India, quam priores vocavere Quinsay id est civitatem coeli eorum lingui.” ”By a very long circuit westward, starting from Spain, there is a land called Mexico and Temist.i.tan in Upper India, which in former times was called Quinsay, that is the city of Heaven, in the language of the country.” He adds the statement, ”Americus tamen Vesputius maritima loca Indiae superioris ex Hispaniis navigio ad occidentem pal.u.s.trans, eam partem que superiore Indiae est, credidit esse insulam, quam a suo nomine vocari inst.i.tituit. Alii vero nunc recentiores Hydrographi eam terram ulterius ex alia parte invenerunt esse continentem Asiae nam sic etiam ad Moluccas insulas superioris Indiae pervenerunt.” ”Americus Vespuccius, sailing along the coasts of Upper India, from Spain to the west, thought that the said part which is connected with Upper India, was an island which he had caused to be called after his own name. But now other hydrographers of more recent date have found that that land (South America) and others beyond const.i.tute a continent, which is Asia, and so they reached as far as the Molucca Islands in Upper India.” A later pa.s.sage in this tract is likewise interesting in this connection.
After noting that America had been called the fourth part of the world he adds, ”Modo vero per novissimas navigationes, factas anno post Christum 1519 per Magellanum ducem navium invictissimi Caesaris divi Caroli etc. versus Moluccas insulas, quas alii Moluquas vocant, in supremo oriente positas, eam terram invenerunt esse continentem superioris Indiae, quae pars est Asiae.” ”But very lately, thanks to the very recent navigations accomplished in the year 1519 A. C. by Magellan, the commander of the expedition of the invincible, the divine Charles etc. towards the Molucca Islands, which some call Maluquas which are situated in the extreme east, it has been ascertained that the said country (America) was the continent of Upper India, which is a part of Asia.”
It seems very probable that the globe referred to in this tract is one of those (Figs. 54, 54a), bearing neither date nor name of maker, to be found in the Grand Ducal Library of Weimar.[231] This conclusion, it may be stated, is based upon the fact of a striking agreement between the configurations on the globe and the descriptions to be found in Schoner's tract. The date 1534, which appears on the support, is doubtless of later origin than the globe itself, just as the date 1510 inscribed on the horizon circle of the Behaim globe is known not to indicate the year in which that work was completed. Wieser expresses the conviction that this globe is an improved reproduction of the one constructed in the year 1523, and he notes the interesting fact of its configurations resembling closely those of the Orontius Finaeus map of 1531, believing that it was the latter, however, who was the borrower.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 54. Schoner's Terrestrial Globe, 1533 (Probable).]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 54a. Schoner's Celestial Globe, 1533 (Probable).]
The Schiepp globe, referred to above, appears to have been constructed for a member of the Welser family, a rich patrician of South Germany. To Raymond Fugger, likewise a South German patrician, a member of a rich banker family of Augsburg, one Martin Furtembach dedicated a terrestrial globe which he had constructed in the year 1535.[232] This date and the wording of the dedication we get from a record of the year 1565. ”Viro Magnifico Dn. Raymundo Fuggero, Invictissimorum Caroli V. Imperatoris, Ferdinandi primi Regis Romanorum a Consilijs, prudentissimo, studiosorum Mecaenasi, pauperum Christi asylo cantatissimo, Martinus Furtenbachius Abusiacus, Astrophilus typum hunc Cosmographic.u.m universalem composuit atque dedicavit Anno a nato Christo M.D.x.x.xV.” ”To the Magnificent Dn. Raymond Fugger, most competent counselor of the most invincible Prince Charles V Emperor, and Ferdinand the First King of the Romans, a Maecenas of scholars, a most provident supporter of the poor in Christ, Martin Furtembach lover of astronomy, composed and dedicated this universal cosmographical figure, in the year of Christ 1535.” This globe, which we learn was taken from the Fugger castle of Kirchbay to the Vienna Imperial Library, in what year we do not know, seems to have disappeared some time after 1734, since, as Harrisse notes, no reference to it can be found after that date. It is described as a gilt copper ball of large size and an object of real art, being ”ornamented on all sides with various figures of exquisite engraving, and is supported by a figure of Atlas with his right hand holding a compa.s.s, but with the rest of his body supported by his left hand, in a stooping posture.”
In addition to the globes previously referred to as belonging to the Bibliotheque Nationale, there is one supposed to have been constructed about the year 1535. It is neither signed nor dated, but is usually referred to as the Paris Wooden globe.[233] The diameter of the sphere is 20 cm. It is without the usual mountings of meridian and horizon circles but is supported by an iron rod attached to a wooden base (Fig.