Terrestrial & Celestial Globes. Edward Luther Stevenson

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Terrestrial & Celestial Globes - Edward Luther Stevenson

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href="#ulink_82208e0b-0814-56a9-a1bd-e5864a91e1f6">11 Cicero. Epistolae ad Atticum. vi. 2; Bunbury, op. cit., Vol. I, p. 617.

      It was thought that Africa did not extend to the equator, or at least was not habitable to the equator. Below the equator there was thought to be water but beyond the uninhabitable and impassable torrid zone a habitable region. The map of Lambertus well represents this early theory. Pomponius Mela called the inhabitants of this southern region “Antichthoni,” their country being unknown to us because of the torrid zone intervening. Pliny, and after him Solinus, says that for a long time the island of Taprobana (Ceylon) was thought to be the region occupied by the Antichthoni.

      Chapter II

      Celestial Globes in Antiquity

       Table of Contents

      Thales’ ideas, probably not a globe maker.—Eudoxus.—The Atlante Farnese.—Archimedes.—Allusion of Lactantius.—Pappus’ allusions.—Armillary spheres.—The astronomer Hipparchus.—Ptolemy.—Globes used for decorative purposes by the Romans.—Roman coins.—The Byzantine Leontius Mechanicus.

      THOUGH we find but an occasional reference to terrestrial globes in the literature of classical antiquity, numerous statements appear therein which assure us that celestial globes, solid balls as well as armillary spheres, were constructed in those early centuries, for both practical and ornamental purposes. There exists, however, considerable uncertainty as to the exact character of the earliest of these globes.

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