NOTES

Gore Map of Leonardo da Vinci, ca. 1515.

Fig. 135. Gore Map of Leonardo da Vinci, ca. 1515.

Anonymous Globe Gores in Plane Map Construction, ca. 1550.

Fig. 136. Anonymous Globe Gores in Plane Map Construction, ca. 1550.

In referring to unusual forms in gore construction attention may again be called to the map of Alonso de Santa Cruz and to that of Antonius Florianus, in which maps the plan was hemispherical,199the central point in the construction of each hemisphere, a northern and a southern, being the pole, the circumference of the circle in which the thirty-six gores were drawn, representing the equator. But again we do not know that such a gore map was ever employed in globe construction though the method, it seems, would lend itself to that end.

It can be readily understood that numerous modifications in the matter of globe-gore construction and their application to the surface of the sphere, more or less detailed in character, were introduced as the years passed, but the modifications were by no means at all times in the line of improvement.200The technical skill of the present day does not surpass that which one occasionally finds exhibited in the work of some three hundred years ago.

In the matter of geographical record terrestrial globe maps stand with the plane maps of the same period. While they are by no means as numerous as the plane maps, there attaches to them an importance no less historically significant. Not infrequently they give us records not to be found elsewhere. In their general features, differences can hardly be said to exist between plane maps and globe maps. In the matter of adornment there is similarity; each following the practice of the time when constructed. As pictures and legends hold a place of prominence, particularly on mediaeval maps,201so even to the close of the period we have had under consideration, that is, the end of the eighteenth century, these adornments have place on globe maps, sometimes few, sometimes many, the same, if in picture, exhibiting theinhabitants of land and sea, if merely a legend, giving information of geographical importance on the terrestrial globe and of astronomical importance on the celestial, these legends being often placed in an artistic cartouch.

To the printed or engraved globe map, color was generally added by hand with an effect often very artistic, in contrast with which the modern machine methods of color printing are deplorably crude.

On most terrestrial globe maps meridian circles are represented at intervals of ten, twenty, or thirty degrees, the prime meridian on which the degrees of latitude are marked being usually made very conspicuous, and to the close of the period under consideration usually made to pass through the Cape Verde Islands or the Canaries, a point always to be carefully noted in attempting to get a reading for the longitude of any particular place. Parallels are usually drawn at intervals similar to those of meridians, the equator on which the degrees of longitude are marked, the tropics, and the polar circles being always conspicuous. The ecliptic or zodiac is usually indicated encircling the globe from the solstitial point on the tropics, intersecting the equator at the two opposite equinoctial points, through which as through the solstitial points the colures are made to pass.

Hues states that “Those lines which a ship, following the direction of the Magnetic Needle, describeth on the surface of the Sea, Petrus Nonius calleth in the Latin Rumbos, borrowing the appellation of his Countrymen the Portugals; which word, since it is now generally received by learned writers to express them by, we also will use the same,” that is, rhumbs or rhumb-lines.

These were represented on the globe, first by Mercator, by greater or lesser circles or “winding lines,” and were intended to be of aid to seamen in navigating from port to port across the great oceans. In their representation on the globe map cognizance was taken of the fact that all meridians of all places pass through both poles, crossing theequator therefore at right angles and all other circles parallel to it, and that if the navigator’s course is in any other direction than toward one of the poles he is continually changing his horizon and his meridian. The rhumbs as drawn were made to cut all meridians of all places at equal angles and to respect the same quarters of the world, that is, direction, whatever the horizon. Rhumbs can represent great circles only when they coincide with the equator or with any meridian.202

In the matter of draughting, printing, and mounting celestial globe gore maps the method employed may in general be said to be identical with that followed in terrestrial globe construction. It should, however, be noted that in pasting the gores on the surface of the sphere they were often so applied as to have their points or angles meet at the pole of the ecliptic, in what may be called the ecliptic system, instead of applying them to meet at the poles of the equator, the globe itself being generally so mounted as to revolve in the equatorial system, its poles of revolution being attached to the meridian circle.203

The figures of the several constellations were usually drawn with care, occasionally with high artistic taste, as those drawn by Hevelius (Fig.137) and copied by Gerhard and Leonhard Valk for their celestial globes (Fig.138). The several stars represented on the map, the majority of them being either lettered or named, were usually from the first to the sixth magnitude, each represented in its proportional size, while an explanatory table for the several magnitudes was usually given on some one of the gores. The stars and the figures of the several constellations, let it be noted, were not made to appear on the surface of the sphere, with rare exceptions, in their relative location as they appear to the observer who beholds them from his position on the surface of the earth, but are reversed. To the astronomer the earth is but a point in space, to the layman, so far as mere appearance is concerned, it is the centerabout which the starry heavens appear to revolve. With the pole (north for us in the northern hemisphere) as the center of the dial face the stars appear to move in a direction the reverse of that in which the hands of a clock are made to move. The astronomer, that is, the celestial globe maker, thinks of himself as placed beyond the vaulted heavens in which the stars appear to be located, and as looking down upon this vaulted dome as on the surface of his celestial globe. An illustration may here well serve us. As one observes serves Ursa Major on any starry night, which constellation we commonly call the Great Dipper, the bowl of the dipper, which is located in the body and flank of the bear, leads in its apparent motion around the pole star, being followed by the handle of the dipper or the tail of the bear (Fig.139). On the surface of the celestial sphere, however, the position of bowl and handle was usually reversed, the constellation appearing as it would to the beholder who finds himself beyond the stars. Naturally the planets could not be represented on the surface of a solid celestial sphere; only in the armillary sphere or the orrery could they find place. In these instruments we generally find them represented, eachwith its circle or orbit properly given, and relatively properly placed.

Portrait of Johann Hevelius (Hevel).

Fig. 137. Portrait of Johann Hevelius (Hevel).

Constellation Ursa Major.

Fig. 138. Constellation Ursa Major.

Constellation of Orion by Hevelius.

Fig. 139. Constellation of Orion by Hevelius.

In the geographical records as they appear on the several terrestrial globe maps, it is to be admitted that the authors, with rare exceptions, undertook to set down what they thought to be fact, shall we say the real tangible geographical fact or facts. The maker of the star map, on the contrary, clearly gave his imagination play, not in his attempt to mark in the proper location the several stars as they came to be known and catalogued, but in the draughting of the figures of the several constellations. The imaginative figures of the ancients, of Eudoxus, of Aratus, of Ptolemy and others survived throughout the period we have had under consideration, and to the forty-eight constellations of Ptolemy others from time to time were added until more than one hundred have been named and figured. In general the several constellations, as the various astronomers and makers of star maps have conceived them, may be said to be identical, while some of the names which have been proposed have been accepted but for a time only and then rejected. Some of the groups to which names have been given have later been divided, thus giving rise to a new group name and to the draughting of an appropriate figure for this new group.204

Attention has been called to certain suggested changes in the names of constellations as given by the ancients, as for example those suggested by the Venerable Bede, by Johannes Bayer, by Julius Schiller proposing that biblical or Christian names should be substituted for pagan names, and for these changes there was of course suggested an appropriate change in the figures for the several constellations. The proposal of Erhard Weigel has likewise been noted urging a substitution of the several coats of arms or heraldic devices of the European dynasties for the figures which had been so long and so generally accepted. There seems scarcelyto be the need of stating that the names and figures of the ancients remain.205

A comparison of the work of the several artists who have set their hand to the draughting of figures for the numerous constellations is not without interest. Attention may here be directed in passing to the decidedly oriental cast of these figures as they appear on Arabic globes.206

It is to be regretted that in the present very practical or scientific day the star map, wanting the figures of the constellations or giving them in but the faintest outline, has come to supplant the artistic and not unscientific creations of earlier years.

The earliest references we have to globes, that is, to solid balls or spheres, make mention of their mountings, that is, to their encasing circles and their bases. The simplest mounting consisted of but a meridian and a horizon circle with probably a simple supporting base. The earliest spheres were doubtless made to revolve just as the globes of today, around their polar axes which turn within sockets firmly attached to the meridian circle. This meridian circle of brass or wood was usually graduated from one to ninety degrees, that is, from the equator to the poles, and being adjustable relative to the horizon circle, a globe could be set with a polar elevation for any desired latitude. Those who have had occasion to refer to the construction and the uses of the globe more or less in detail, make mention of what they call its threefold position. In the first of these positions either pole may be at the vertical point, the equator and the horizon being parallel or coinciding. This they termed a parallel sphere. In the second position the equator and the horizon circle are set at right angles. This they called a right sphere. In the third position, which was called an oblique sphere, the pole could be set at any elevation from zero to ninety degrees, counting from the horizon circle. In illustration of this third position it may be said that for the latitude of New York City, the north poleMore conspicuous by reason of its width and importance in the mounting of the globe than the meridian is the horizon circle. It is through notches in this circle at the north and south points that the meridian circle passes, the notches also serving as gauges to keep the meridian from inclining more to the one side of the horizon circle than to the other. On the upper surface of this circle there were usually represented several concentric circles, the same being either engraved thereon, if it were of metal, and printed or pasted thereon if of wood, just as the globe map proper which covered the surface of the sphere. The number of concentric circles, and the information carried in each, varied, nor was the order of the circles invariably the same. Those globes giving fullest information exhibit ten or more of these circles. That one which was innermost and next to the body of the globe was divided into twelve parts, each part carrying the name of one of the signs of the zodiac with its character, and each divided into thirty equal parts or degrees, these being numbered by tens, as 0, 10, 20, 30. Next to the circle of signs, always remembering that the order might vary, was that containing the calendar including the names of the months, as January, February, March, etc., the days of the week being either distinguished by numbers or names. The old calendar was likewise usually given and so represented as to show the beginning of each month ten days earlier than in the new calendar. Here also were given the names of the church festival days. In the next circle were the names of the winds or directions, and first the Greek, Latin or Italian names of the eight, twelve or sixteen winds, as Greco, Libeccio, Ponente, Maestro, and next the names or initials of the thirty-two compass directions, the same generally in English or Dutch abbreviations. It may further be noted that a compass was often fixed in the horizon circle’s upper face.of the globe should be elevated 40 degrees 48 minutes above this circle.

A complete globe was further furnished with a quadrant of altitude, ninety degrees in length, this being attached at one end to the meridian circle, yet movable to any degree of the meridian, though commonly set at the zenith. This quadrant served for measuring altitudes or for finding amplitudes or azimuths.

The small hour circle,207fitted to the meridian, its center being the pole and for us the north, was marked with the twenty-four hours of the day, each hour being again divided into halves and quarters. An index attached to the axis of the globe pointed out successively the hours as the globe was revolved. The use of this hour circle was to indicate the time of the successive mutations, including the rising and the setting of the celestial bodies and the time of their passing successively the meridians.

As a compass was often set into the horizon circle so also we frequently find a large or small compass set into that plate which in certain globes was employed as a support, tying together, as it were, the lower extremities of the base columns.208

It will have been noted that the globes referred to in the preceding pages varied greatly as to size, from the small ball representing the earth, and but a few centimeters in diameter, to be found in the center of those armillary spheres representing the Ptolemaic geocentric system, to the great globe of Coronelli fifteen feet in diameter constructed for Louis XIV of France. With rare exceptions metal globes were made small in size. Those globe balls or spheres, in the construction of which a mould was employed, usually had a diameter under 50 cm., although we find some of them twice this size. Such spheres had the advantage of lightness though often were frail in structure and liable to lose their perfect sphericity.

Terrestrial Globe Gores by Johannes Oterschaden, ca. 1675.

Fig. 140. Terrestrial Globe Gores by Johannes Oterschaden, ca. 1675.

In the matter of special ornamentation or decoration, to be observed in globe mountings, individual taste was given unlimited freedom to express itself, and in certain instancesit will have been noted that these mountings were exceedingly elaborate.

Primarily we may say that globes were constructed for the useful purpose of promoting geographical and astronomical studies, generally recording the latest and best geographical or astronomical information and in form superior to that which could be set down on the plane map, but they also had a place of importance, secondary we may call it, on account of their decorative value. They came to be considered almost essential as adornments for the libraries of princes, of prosperous patricians, and of plodding students, and their mountings were often especially fashioned for the places they were to occupy. They seemed to lend an air of scholarly respectability; to suggest that their possessors wished to pay, certainly a modicum of homage to the sciences which globes were calculated to promote.

A brief concluding word may well be added touching those globes which may of course be classed as celestial, but which are known as moon globes and planetariums or orreries. There could be no practical value in an attempt to set forth a map of the surface of the stars, nor of the planets while our knowledge is so limited, although Schiaparelli has undertaken, with measurable success, to map the surface of Mars,209and it would be next in order to construct a Mars globe. Of the surface of our moon much is known and maps of it have been constructed, as indeed have been moon globes. We are informed that about the middle of the seventeenth century the Danish astronomer, Hevelius, who designed so successfully star maps, entertained the idea of constructing a moon globe,210but we do not know that he set his hand to the work. A century later it appears that the French astronomer La Hire actually completed a moon globe,211but it has been possible to obtain only the briefest reference to it.

Tobias Mayer of Nürnberg, a contemporary of La Hire, set himself to the draughting of gore maps212intended for usein the manufacture of moon globes. Mayer found employment in the Homann establishment of Nürnberg, being regarded as an exceedingly skilful draughtsman, able to sketch on his draughting sheet that which he saw through his telescope. His plan contemplated the making of twelve gores or segments, six for the northern half of the moon and six for the southern. His plan, of course, would enable him to represent but one side of the moon,—that turned toward the earth,—although it appeared that he contemplated the addition of two segments on which, in at least a fragmentary manner, he was to represent what we may call the border of the opposite side of the moon. Mayer seems not to have completed his work, since we find nowhere an example of his finished product.

It was not until near the close of the eighteenth that we again meet with an attempt to construct a moon globe and it seems that the task was accomplished by the Englishman, John Russel. It was in the year 1796 that he proposed to raise by subscription the necessary funds for making his undertaking a success. His globe has a diameter of 12 inches,213and was furnished with the necessary adjustable shield that the moon’s waxing and waning could be represented. That this moon globe was actually constructed, although no copy has been located, we are informed by Wolf. Such attempts as were made in the nineteenth century with a good measure of success do not here call for consideration.

It has been previously noted that the so-called globe of Archimedes may have been a sort of planetarium, and that during the middle ages such instruments were constructed and employed in astronomical instruction. None, however, have come down to us out of those early years. Astronomers of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as we know, made frequent use of planetariums, such for example as were constructed by the Dutch astronomer, Christiaan Haygens (1629-1695) for the illustration of planetarymotion according to the Copernican system. Each of the planets was represented in his machine by a small ball, attached to an arm, which could be made to move through an orbit around the sun. In the more complicated machines the several planetary moons, such as the moons of Jupiter, were represented and were made to perform their proper motions.

Celestial Globe Gores by Johannes Oterschaden, ca. 1675.

Fig. 141. Celestial Globe Gores by Johannes Oterschaden, ca. 1675.

Engraved Sections for Globe Horizon Circle by Johannes Oterschaden, ca. 1675.

Fig. 142. Engraved Sections for Globe Horizon Circle by Johannes Oterschaden, ca. 1675.

In the eighteenth century the instrument maker, George Graham (1675-1751), constructed a complicated planetarium, in honor of Charles Boyle, Earl of Orrery (1676-1731), which he called an orrery. His machines, varying much in the character of construction, were especially popular in the eighteenth century. The nineteenth century saw them frequently in use for purposes of instruction and the regret may well be expressed that for serious purposes they seem to have lost favor.

The Orrery.

Fig. 143. The Orrery.

181See Fig.56, I,116.

182Compare for example Figs.8and89.

183Consult the ‘Fihrist’ referred to in Chap. III, n. 4.

184Note such examples as the globe of Robertus de Bailly, I,108, the Lenox globe, I,72, the Nancy globe, I,102, and the Morgan globe in the Metropolitan Museum, I,200.

185See Fig.3.

186See Fig.43.

187See Apianus’ Cosmographicus liber.

188As for example the World map of Mercator of the year 1538, an original copy of which may be found in the New York Public Library, also a copy in the Library of The American Geographical Society.

189D’Avezac, M. A. P. Coup d’oeil historique sur la projection des cartes de géographie. (In: Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de Paris. Paris, 1863, pp. 274 ff.); Breusing, A. Das Verebnen der Kugeloberfläche. Leipzig, 1892; Zondervan, H. Allgemeine Kartenkunde. Leipzig, 1891; Fiorini, M. Le projezioni delle carte geografiche. Bologna, 1881. The literature relative to map projection is very extensive.

190Fiorini. Sfere terrestri e celesti. pp. 93-102.

191See Fig.32.

192See Fig.40.218

193Dürer, A. Underweysung der Mesung mit dem Zirkel und Richtscheyd, in Linien ebnen und ganzen Corporen. Nürnberg, 1525.

194Buchlein, pp. 5 ff.

195Consult Günther. Erd- und Himmelsgloben. pp. 72-73; Kästner. Geschichte der Mathematik. Vol. I, p. 684.See Günther, op. cit., chaps, vii, x, xii, xiii, xiv, with numerous references.

195Consult Günther. Erd- und Himmelsgloben. pp. 72-73; Kästner. Geschichte der Mathematik. Vol. I, p. 684.

See Günther, op. cit., chaps, vii, x, xii, xiii, xiv, with numerous references.

196Henrici Glareani poetae laureati de geographia liber unus. Basileae, 1527.

197There is an interesting bit of information given by Coronelli in his ‘Epitome Cosmografica’ relative to the making of an adhesive material for use in the mounting of globe maps.

198See Fig.61.

199See Figs.59and66.

200Such, for example, as might consist of zonal strips, one for the torrid, one for each of the temperate, and one for each of the polar zones. Such strips perhaps could not properly be termed gores.

201Pictures are a particularly striking feature of the cloister maps of the middle ages. The idea of such adornments may have come down from Greek or Roman days. Plutarch tells us in his ‘Theseus’ that “Geographers crowd into the edge of their maps parts of the world about which they have no knowledge, adding notes in the margins to the effect that only deserts full of wild beasts and impassable marshes lie beyond.” Jonathan Swift, humorously referring to maps of the early period, writes:“So geographers in Afric mapsWith savage pictures fill their gapsAnd o’er unhabitable downsPlace elephants for want of towns.”The early map makers as illustrators should be an interesting theme for a special monograph.

“So geographers in Afric mapsWith savage pictures fill their gapsAnd o’er unhabitable downsPlace elephants for want of towns.”

The early map makers as illustrators should be an interesting theme for a special monograph.

202Nonius, P. De arte atque ratione navigandi. Conimbriae, 1573, lib. II, c. xxi, xxiv; Hues. Tractatus de Globis (Hakluyt Soc. Pub.). pp. 127-147.

203For illustration of the method, see Fig.89.

204Burritt, L. H. The geography of the heavens. New York, 1833; Allen, R. H. Star names and their meanings; Wolf. Geschichte der Astronomie. pp. 188-191, 420-427; Olcott, W. T. Starlore of all ages. New York. 1911.

205The literature relating to this particular branch of astronomy is extensive. Wolf, loc. cit., with references.

206See especially Fig.13.

207See Fig.121a.

208See Fig.88.

209Wolf, R. Handbuch der Astronomie, ihre Geschichte und Litteratur. Zürich, 1893. pp. 451 ff.; Frobesius. Bibliographie Selenographorum. Helmstädt, 1718.

210Hevelius, J. Selenographiae sive Lunae descriptio. Danzig, 1647. pp. 492 ff.; Béziat, L. C. La vie et les travaux de Jean Hévélius.

211Lalande. Bibliographie astronomique, “La Hire.”

212Mayer, T. Abhandlung über die Umwälzung des Mondes um seine Achse und die scheinbare Bewegung der Mondflecke. Nürnberg, 1750; same, Bericht von den Mondskugeln, welche bei der kosmographischen Gesellschaft219in Nürnberg aus neuen Beobachtungen verfertigt werden. Nürnberg, 1750.

213Russel, J. A description of the selenographia, an apparatus for exhibiting the phaenomena of the moon; together with an account of some of the purposes to which it may be applied. London, 1797. In his effort to obtain funds for the construction of his globe he issued an announcement which he called a “Proposal for publishing by subscription a Globe of the Moon.”

Printer’s Mark of the Blaeu Press.

THEfollowing bibliographical list includes the works referred to in the body of the foregoing pages, with certain additions of those touching incidentally globe making and globe makers. It is a suggestive list, not one that can be called exhaustive. Practically all those works in which the subject of geography and of astronomy has been treated historically may be consulted with interest and profit.

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