Volume I Part 19 (1/2)
”Many imaginary islands, in the Atlantic, are retained on the globe: including 'Frisland,' 'Buss Ins,' 'Brasil,' 'Maidas,' 'Heptapolis,' 'St.
Brandan.' On the eastern side of North America are the countries of Florida, Virginia, and Norumbega; and also a large town of Norumbega up a gulf full of islands.
”The learned Dr. Dee had composed a treatise on the t.i.tle of Queen Elizabeth to Norumbega; and in modern times Professor Horsford has written a memoir to identify Norumbega with a site up the Charles River, near Boston. On the Atlantic, near the American coast, is the following legend 'Virginia primum l.u.s.trata, habitata, et cultu ab Anglis impensis D. Gualteri de Ralegh Equitis Aurati ammenti Elizabethae Angliae Reginae.' ('Virginia first surveyed, inhabited and cultivated by the English at the expense of Sir Walter Raleigh, Knight, subsidized by the gold of Elizabeth Queen of England.')
”A legend in the Pacific Ocean furnishes direct evidence that information, for compiling the globe was supplied by Sir Walter Raleigh.
It is in Spanish: 'Islas estas descubrio Pedro Sarmiento de Gamboa por la Corona de Castella y Leon desde el ano 1568 llamolas Islas de Jesus aunque vulfarmente las llaman Islas de Salomon.' ('Pedro Sarmiento of Gamboa discovered these islands in the year 1568 for the crown of Castile and Leon calling them the Islands of Jesus though they are commonly called the Salomon Islands.')
”Pedro Sarmiento was the officer who was sent to fortify the Strait of Magellan after Drake had pa.s.sed through. He was taken prisoner by an English s.h.i.+p on his way to Spain, and was the guest of Raleigh in London for several weeks, so that it must have been on information communicated by Raleigh that the statement respecting Sarmiento on this legend was based.
”Besides 'Insulae Salmonis' there are two islands in the Pacific, 'Y Sequenda de los Tubarones,' and 'San Pedro,' as well as the north coast of New Guinea, with the names given on Mercator's map.
”Cavendish also appears to have given a.s.sistance, or possibly Molyneux himself accompanied that circ.u.mnavigator in his voyage of 1587. The words of a legend off the Patagonian coast seem to countenance this idea, reading, 'Thomas Caundish 18 Dec. 1587 haec terra sub nostris oculis primum obtulit sub lat.i.tud 47 cujus seu admodum salubris Incolae maturi ex parte proceri sunt gigantes et vasti magnitudinis.'
”The great southern continent is made to include Tierra del Fuego and the south coast of Magellan's Strait, and extends over the greater part of the south frigid zone.
”S. Matheo, an island in the Atlantic, south of the line, was visited by the Spanish s.h.i.+ps under Loaysa and Sebastian del Cano, but has never been seen since. It appears on the globe. In the south Atlantic there are painted a sea-serpent, a whale, Orpheus riding on a dolphin, and s.h.i.+ps under full sail-fore and main courses and topsails, a sprit sail, and the mizzen with a long lateen yard.
”The track of the voyage of Sir Francis Drake and Master Thomas Cavendish round the world are shown, the one by a red and the other by a blue line. That these tracks were put on when the globe was first made is proved by the reference to them in Blundeville's 'Exercises.'
”The name of the author of the globe is thus given: 'Emerum Mullineus Angl. sumptibus Guilelm Sanderson Londinensis descripsit.'”
Markham likewise tells us that the celestial globe, in its general features, closely resembles the terrestrial. It carries the same arms of Sanderson, and the same label of Newton, but a briefer dedication to the Queen. It appears that the map was engraved and printed by Hondius of Amsterdam, since it carries the brief legend ”Judocus Hondius Fon. Sc.”
In addition to the Molyneux globes in the Middle Temple, a pair may be found in the Royal Museum of Ca.s.sel. A detailed description of this pair it has not been possible to obtain.
Jost Burgi, a native of Lichtensteig in the Toggenburg, Switzerland, was born in the year 1552 and died in Ca.s.sel in the year 1632.[365] Early in life he became a clock maker's apprentice, and for some time was engaged with Dasypodius in the construction of the famous Stra.s.sburg Cathedral clock. In the year 1579 he was called to the court of Landgrave William IV in Ca.s.sel, under whose patronage he won great distinction as a maker of astronomical and mathematical instruments. In the year 1603 he was called into the service of the Emperor at Prague, but in the year 1631 he returned to Ca.s.sel, where he died in the following year. Burgi, skilful workman that he was, seems not to have found time to tell in words of his various activities. ”He found pleasure in work,” says one of his biographers, and left it for others to write of his attainments, which, it may here be said, they seem not to have done in a very detailed manner.
Landgrave William's interest in the promotion of scientific studies led him to the founding of a museum to which he made numerous contributions of apparatus, mathematical and astronomical. This museum, in the course of years, became one of the most famous of its kind in all Europe, and indeed remains such to this day. In its collections the work of Burgi is well represented, which in the quality of the workmans.h.i.+p exhibited, as in the interest it awakens by reason of its place as a nucleus around which so much of value has been gathered, is unsurpa.s.sed.
Among the first of his instruments may be mentioned an astronomical clock, elaborately wrought, with movable discs and circles for ill.u.s.trating the movements of the heavenly bodies, and surmounted with an engraved celestial globe, which, driven by clockwork, is made to turn on its axis once in twenty-four hours. It seems evident that Burgi constructed other clocks of like character, supplied, as is this example, with a celestial globe.
In this same Museum of Ca.s.sel there is a second celestial globe, the work of Burgi, which was begun in the year 1585, and not entirely completed until the year 1693 by Heinrich van Lannep. This copper sphere, 72 cm. in diameter, is remarkably well preserved. It has a heavy bra.s.s meridian circle to which is attached an engraved hour circle 46 cm. in diameter. A large bra.s.s semicircle intersects this meridian circle at right angles through the north pole, and is attached to the horizon circle at its extremities. The instrument rests upon an artistic and substantial bra.s.s support. On the surface of the sphere are engraved the princ.i.p.al celestial circles, including the colures, the equator, the tropics, the polar circles, the ecliptic, and twelve parallels. The stars, of which the largest are distinguished by a bit of inlaid silver, and the several figures of the constellations which are very artistically engraved, are clearly the work of a master.
A third globe of gilded bra.s.s, containing clockwork within by means of which it is made to revolve and apparently the work of Burgi, may also be found in this Ca.s.sel collection. A small silver sun, movable along the equator, is mechanically attached in such manner as to serve admirably for demonstrative purposes. The engraved surface of the globe is equal in its artistic merits to that of the copper globe referred to above.
There is yet a fourth metal globe in this collection, apparently the work of Burgi, which is not gilded. In other respects it is said to resemble the one designated above as the third globe. Kepler is said to have held in the highest esteem the scientific work of Burgi, and to have placed him, within his field, as high as he did Albrecht Durer among artists. There appears to be good reason for attributing the invention of the pendulum clock to Jost Burgi, and that before 1600 he had proved this method of clock regulation practical.
Among the numerous and interesting treasures to be found in the Landesmuseum of Zurich is a terrestrial globe (Fig. 80) having neither name of maker nor date of construction, but belonging, undoubtedly, to the late sixteenth century.[366] The sphere has a diameter of about 121 cm., is mounted on a substantial wooden base, and appears to have been made for the monastery of St. Gall, from which place it was taken to Zurich in the year 1712. On the semicircular arms which support the equatorial circle are represented the armorial bearings of the abbey and monks of St. Gall, and the date in gold, 1595, which may refer to the date of construction or to the date when it was placed in the monastery.
On the equatorial circle one finds represented the signs of the zodiac, the calendar, the names of the saints and of the winds. On the heavy meridian circle are indicated the climatic zones and the degrees of lat.i.tude. The prime meridian is made to pa.s.s through the Azores Islands.
The sphere is of papier-mache and plaster, on which the engraved gores are mounted. The seas have been colored green, the lands a dull yellow, the mountain ranges brown. Numerous barbaric kings are represented in picture, likewise numerous animals of land and sea, and s.h.i.+ps artistically drawn sail hither and thither over the oceans. The austral continent is wanting. Marcel especially notes the striking resemblance of the globe map to the Mercator map of 1569, suggesting the possibility of its Mercatorian origin, in support of which suggestion he quotes a number of geographical names as well as certain legends. The globe, it appears, has never been critically studied, but is clearly an interesting geographical monument of the period.
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 80. Anonymous Terrestrial Globe, ca. 1595.]
The making of globe-goblets in the latter half of the sixteenth century and early seventeenth appears to have been in response to a fas.h.i.+on especially p.r.o.nounced in South Germany, although their construction was not limited to that region. Not a few of such globes are extant, which are fine examples of the metal worker's art, having, however, a decorative rather than a scientific value.
Professor Fischer gives us an interesting description of such a goblet of gilded silver (Fig. 81), dating from the end of the sixteenth or the beginning of the seventeenth century, and it is from his account that the following reference is taken.[367] This piece he p.r.o.nounces the most valuable treasure in the plate room of the princely castle of Wolfegg, to which castle it was the author's privilege to pay a most interesting visit more than a decade ago. The globe was long considered a christening gift from the Emperor Francis to his G.o.dson Francis of the Waldburg zu Wolfegg princely family and was supposed to date from the end of the eighteenth century. Professor Fischer, however, found this ”globis terrestris” referred to in a testament dated January 17, 1779, with instructions that it, with certain other treasures, should not be recast or otherwise altered from its ancient form. It was at that time recognized as a masterpiece, but from the hands of an unknown master, and not until recently was it definitely determined to be the work of the Zurich goldsmith, Abraham Gessner (1552-1613). ”Gessner appears to have manufactured his globe-goblets,” says Fischer, ”not in response to orders previously given, but in the regular pursuit of his trade. At a time when rich merchants and scholars took such a lively interest in geography, and the opening up of new countries, he could count upon a market all the more readily because his goblets were made with the utmost care in every detail and were perfect examples of the various branches of the goldsmith's art; casting, embossing, chasing, engraving, and solid gilding.”[368]
[Ill.u.s.tration: Fig. 81. Globe-Goblet of Abraham Gessner, ca. 1600.]
The goblet is 58 cm. in height. Its larger globe, a terrestrial, is composed of two hemispheres joined on the line of the equator, and has a diameter of 17 cm. The support is a standing figure of Atlas, which also serves as a stem of the lower half or the lower goblet, just as the celestial sphere with its support which tops the piece serves as the stem of the upper half or upper goblet.
The oceans, lakes, and rivers have a silver surface, while the continents, islands, sea monsters, sailing vessels, princ.i.p.al parallels, and meridians are gilded. The continents of Europe, Asia, and Africa, and the ”terra australis sive Magallanica” have their outlines drawn in the main as they appear on Mercator's map of 1569. While certain recent discoveries as ”Nowaja Semlja” (Nova Zembla) are represented, it does not appear that Gessner was inclined to insist on his map records being laid down with the strictest accuracy as to geographical detail.
The celestial globe topping the goblet is given an artistic setting. It is furnished with horizon, meridian, and hour circles. The several constellations represented on the surface of the sphere are, through gilding, given special prominence, their execution, like other parts of the piece, being of the finest workmans.h.i.+p.