Hemisphere of Johann Schöner’s Globe, 1520.
In 1523 Schöner issued a little tract of four pages which he called ‘De nuper sub Castiliae ac Portugaliae Regibus Serenissimis repertis Insulis ac Regionibus, Joannis Schöner Charolipolitani epistola et Globus Geographicus, seriem navigationum annotantibus. Clarissimo atque disertissimo viro Dño Rymero de Streytpergk, ecclesiae Babenbergensis Canonico dictae. Timiripae, Anno Incarnat. Dni. 1523.’ ‘An epistle of John Schöner of Carlstadt concerning the islands and regions recently discovered by the Most Serene Kings of Castile and of Portugal, and a geographical globe for the use of marking the course of those navigations. Dedicated to the most distinguished and eloquent Reymer von Streytperg, canon of the Church of Bamberg. Timiripae (Kirch-ehrenbach). In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 1523.’194 Though Schöner alone gives us such information as we possess concerning this globe, it has been the subject of much controversy, and if recovered it doubtless would prove to be an object of much interest. There is, in the opinion of the author, scarcely the slightest ground for accepting the conclusions of Henry Stevens and Professor v. Wieser, that the globe gores, now in the possession of the New York Public Library (Fig. 44a), and described by them as the lost globe of Schöner of 1523, are of Schönerian origin. The critical studies of Harrisse are sufficiently convincing to set this question at rest.195 Schöner concludes his little tract in the following words: “Ego tam mirifice orbis pervagationi nonnihil volens adiicere, ut quae lectu videantur mirabilia, aspectu credantur prohabiliora, Globum hunc in orbis modum effingere studui, exemplar haud fallibile aemulatus, quod Hispaniarum solertia cuidam viro honore conspicuo transmisit. Nec ob id quem antea glomeraveram abolitum iri volens, quippē qui es temporè, quantum phas erat homini abdita mundi penetrare, abunde expressit, modo sese consona admissione patientur, quod invenienda inventis non obstent. Accipe igitur hunc a me formatum globum ea animi benignitate, qua eum laborem ad tui nominis honorem lubens aggressus sum. Cognoscam profecto meas lucubratiunculas tuae celsitudini nullatenus despectui fore. Vale.” “Being desirous of making some small addition to this wonderful survey of the earth, so that what appears very extraordinary to the reader may appear more likely, when thus illustrated, I have been at the pains to construct this globe, having copied a very accurate one which an ingenious Spaniard has sent to a person of distinction. I do not however wish to set aside the globe I constructed some time since, as it fully showed all that had, at that time, been discovered: so that the former, as far as it goes, agrees with the latter. Please then to accept this globe in the same friendly spirit in which I undertook to construct it for your gratification. But I am sure you will not despise my humble attempt. Farewell.”196 This statement assures us that he had constructed a globe at the time of issuing his tract, and it gives us a fairly definite idea of its New World configurations, and further, that in the main it agreed with his earlier globes. It seems probable, however, that in some manner he indicated an Asiatic connection of the new lands, an idea which is so frequently expressed in the maps of the next quarter of a century, especially in the globe maps, an idea not to be finally set at rest until the discovery of Bering put an end to the controversy.
Fig. 44a. Anonymous Globe Gores, ca. 1540.
How Schöner, and others, came to the conclusion that “Parias” (North America) is not “a large independent portion of the earth in that fourth part of the world,” but has an Asiatic connection, and how they set down that conclusion in their maps will receive consideration in the following chapter.
Though not a maker of globes, in so far as we have definite knowledge, Albrecht Dürer turned his attention to the drafting of maps, two of which have for us here a certain interest. In the year 1515 Johannes Stabius designed a map of the Old World on a stereographic projection (Fig. 45), one of the first of its kind, which Dürer is said to have engraved. While the map itself is of little importance it is of interest as an attempt to represent in perspective a spherical earth.197
Fig. 45. Stabius World Globe Map, 1515.
Dürer likewise undertook the drafting and engraving of a celestial map (Fig. 46), than which of this character there appears to be none earlier known. It was not so drawn as to make possible its application to the surface of a sphere, but its reshaping for that purpose could not have been for him a difficult proposition. He, with others of this time, was giving thought to the problem of globe-gore construction.
Fig. 46. Northern Celestial Hemisphere of Albrecht Dürer.
NOTES
124 The illustrations given are typical, and to one familiar with the works of the period on geographical and astronomical subjects, others suggest themselves.
125 For popular accounts of the Este family of Ferrara, see Gardner, E. G. Princes and Poets of Ferrara. London, 1904; Cartwright, J. Isabella d’Este. London, 1903.
126 Harrisse. Discovery. pp. 422–425; same author, Les Corte-Real et leur voyages au Nouveau Monde. Paris, 1883, with reproduction of the western half of the map, in colors; Stevenson, E. L. Maps illustrating early discovery and exploration in America. New Brunswick, 1906. No. 1 of this series is a reproduction of the Cantino map in the size of the original.
127 Fischer, J. The Discoveries of the Norsemen in America. London, 1903. pp. 112–118. Professor Fischer enjoys the distinction of being the foremost living authority on Ptolemy.
128 D’Arco, C. Delle arti e degli artefici di Mantova. Mantova, 1857. Vol. II, p. 53.
129 Bertolotti, A. Artisti in relazione coi Gonzaga Signori di Mantova. Modena, 1885. p. 143. (In: Estr. dagli Atti e Memorie delle Deputazioni di storia patria per le Provincie Modenesi e Parmensi. Série III, Vol. III, parte 1.)
130 Harrisse. Discovery. p. 434.
131 Denza, F. Globi celesti della Specola Vaticana. (In: Publicazioni della Specola Vaticana. Torino, 1894. Vol. IV, p. xvii.)
132 Fiorini, op. cit., pp. 88–89.
133 See the edition of Ptolemy. Geographia—MDVIII. Rome. Chap. xii.
134 Fiorini,
