p seu engenho.” “The course which it is said they are to take is straight to Cape Frio, Brazil remaining on their right hand until they reach the line of demarcation, thence they are to navigate to the west and west-northwest straight to Moluco, which land of Moluco I have seen laid down on the sphere and map which the son of Reynell made here which was not complete when his father came here for him; and his father finished it all, and placed these islands of Moluco; and after this pattern all the maps are made which Diego Ribeiro makes, and he makes the compasses, quadrants and globes, but he does not go in the fleet, nor does he wish to do more than gain his living by his skill.”181
We find reference to a globe of this early period as belonging to Juan Sebastian del Cano, the reference thereto being contained in his will made on board the Victoria, June 26, 1526, and reading “Una esfera poma del mondo.”182 It probably was made of wood and painted, as there is good reason for believing that such as were carried by early navigators on their vessels were of this character. Harrisse thinks “this globe would probably prove to be one of the most interesting of all for that period, exhibiting, doubtless, the hypothesis of Magellan relative to the configuration of the southwest coast of South America north of 50 degrees south latitude.”183 Although the will of Del Cano is dated 1526 there is reason for thinking the globe was constructed prior to 1520.
Among the globe makers of the early sixteenth century none merits greater distinction than Johann Schöner of Nürnberg (1477–1547) (Fig. 42), mathematician, astronomer, and geographer.184 He was born in Carlstadt, Franconia, held a church office for some years in Bamberg, and in the year 1526, upon the advice of Melanchthon, became a professor of mathematics in the gymnasium of Nürnberg, to the fame of which city, as a scientific center, Regiomontanus had so greatly contributed in the preceding century. His activities as a globe maker began as early as the second decade of the century, and his influence soon became very pronounced. In Nürnberg he labored until the time of his death in the year 1547, editing, in addition to his other activities, the literary and scientific works of Regiomontanus and of Werner, and each year until 1543 issued his so-called Calendars. His numerous publications, mathematical, astronomical, and cosmographical, alone entitle him to a place of first importance among German scientific leaders of his day.
Fig. 42. Portrait of Johann Schöner.
It was as early as 1515, at the cost of a wealthy patron, Johann Seylor, that he made in Bamberg what has usually been accepted as his first globe, two copies of which are now known, and for which it has been thought he wrote his tract bearing title ‘Luculentissima quaedā terrae totius descriptio … cum privilegio Invictis Romanorû Impera Maximiliani per acto annos: ne quis imprimat: aut imprimere procuret codices has: cum globis cosmographicis: Noribergae 1515.’ ‘A most luminous description of the whole earth … with the privilege of the Invincible Emperor of the Romans, Maximilian, for eight years to the effect that nobody shall print or have any of these books printed, with the cosmographic globe.’185 On the leaf preceding “fol. 1” is the representation of a mounted globe.
One of Schöner’s globes of 1515 is to be found in the Grand Ducal Library of Weimar, and one in the City Museum of Frankfurt (Fig. 43). Wieser,186 after a careful comparison, finds these globes to be practically alike in all details. Each is 27 cm. in diameter, having the usual mountings of brass, the whole resting on a wooden base. While neither signed nor dated, they answer the description contained in Schöner’s little tract referred to above. That region on the globe which we may designate North America, he calls “Parias”; the South American continent bears the name “America” and the austral land the name “Brasilie regio.” In addition to these principal regions he has represented the land discovered by the Cortereals, designating the same as “Litus incognitum.” Cuba bears the name “Isabella” and Haiti the name “Spagnolla.” The feature which seems to give special interest to these globes of Schöner is the representation of a strait between “America” and “Brasilie regio.” To the significance of this particular representation Wieser has given very careful consideration. He cites numerous passages from the tract of Schöner, and from the ‘Copia der newen Zeitung aus Presillig Landt,’187 a publication which he finds good reason for believing appeared before 1515, and in which he finds an acceptable explanation of the origin of this geographical notion represented by Schöner, which antedates the Magellan expedition by a period of five years.
Fig. 43. Globe of Johann Schöner in Hemispheres, 1515.
It is a point to be especially noted that the dominant cosmographical idea of the map makers of the first quarter of the century represented the New World regions as independent of Asia. It is the idea set forth in the Portuguese maps, such as the Cantino and the Canerio; it is the idea which we find represented in the Waldseemüller maps and practically in all the Lusitano-Germanic maps of the period.188 Schöner had written in his tract of 1515, “Hunc in modum terra quadriparita cognoscitur, et sunt tres primae partes continentes, id est terra firma. Sed quarta est insula, quia omniquoque mari circumdata conspicitur.” “It has now been ascertained that the earth is divided into four parts, and the first three parts are continents, that is, main lands, but the fourth part is an island because we see it surrounded on all sides by the sea.”189 With regard to the relation of “Parias” to Asia, he states, “Parias insula quae non est pars vel portio prioris, sed specialis magna portio terrae huius quartae partis mundi.” “Parias is not a part or portion of the aforesaid country, but a large independent portion of the earth, in that fourth part of the world.”190
Of the globes constructed by Schöner, none is more important than that bearing date 1520 (Fig. 44).191 The wooden ball on which the map has been drawn and colored by hand has a diameter of about 87 cm. and rests upon a wooden base. Near the south pole is the date 1520 in large gilt letters and an inscription stating that it was made at the expense of Johannes Seyler by Jo. Schöner.192 It is apparent that the same sources were used for the drafting of the map on this globe that had been used in the case of his earlier globes, but the geographical information on this last globe is much more detailed. The New World appears in five distinct parts, the first of which is called “Terra Corterealis,” the second “Terra de Cuba,” the third “Insulae Canibalorum siue Antiglia,” the fourth “Terra nova, America vel Brasilia sive Papagelli Terra,” and the fifth “Brasilia inferior.” The globe is richly decorated in colors, and its numerous descriptive legends, most of them in Latin, give such geographical information as may be found in most of the important maps of this early period.193
Fig.
