In this Asiatic region we find such names as “Tabin,” “Ania,” “Quinsai,” “Catigara,” “Zaiton,” “India Orientalis.” “Stretto Anian” appears as a long channel. In Africa we read, “His Imperator magnus Presbyter Africae Rex potentis mus.” In the New World we find “America sive India nova,” which is not connected with Asia. The coast in the northern regions is better drawn than in the southern. The St. Lawrence River is represented, but the Great Lakes are omitted. “Estland,” “Frisland,” and “St. Brandan” are laid down. The austral land, as represented, is very large, being designated “Terra Australis: Vastissimas his esse regiones ex M. Pauli Ven. et Lud. Vartomani scriptis perigrinationibus constat.” “Austral land: here is known to be a very extensive region referred to in the travel records of Marco Polo and of Ludovico Vartema.” Mr. Beazley says of the globe that it once belonged to the Kempenaer family of Leenwarden, and was later acquired by Mr. H. J. Pfungst through the firm of Miller & Company of Amsterdam.[369] It later passed into the library of Mr. Morgan.
As noted at the beginning of this chapter, leadership in globe and map making, in the closing years of the century, was passing into the Netherlands, which in the second quarter of the century had contributed in this field of scientific endeavor the great Mercator. His influence, as was also noted, found its way into Italy and into favor with certain globe makers, although the individualistic spirit of the Italians seemed to show a marked preference for manuscript and engraved metal globes. In the front rank of those who were to lead the Low Countries into their place of preëminence stood the Van Langren family, the father, Jacobus Florentius, as he was accustomed to call himself, and the sons, Arnoldus Florentius, Henricus Florentius, and Michael Florentius.[370] The father was a native of Denmark, but sometime prior to 1580 he transferred his residence to Arnhem in Gelderland, and later to Amsterdam. Legends on his oldest extant globe give us to understand that at the time of its construction he labored jointly with his son Arnold in this work, these legends reading “Jacobus Florentius Ultrajectensis autor,” and “Arnoldus Florentius filius sculptor Amstelodami 1585,” that is, the father was the author and the son was the engraver.
In the early seventeenth century the family left Amsterdam, going to Antwerp in the Spanish Netherlands. Here in the year 1609, according to an Antwerp record, Arnold constructed a “Sphaera Mundi,” which he dedicated to the chief magistrate of that city, receiving therefor 120 Artois livres. It probably was not long after this date that he was appointed Globe Maker of the Archdukes, a title he retained until the death of the Archduke Albert in the year 1621, and a somewhat later record tells us that he was honored shortly after that event by an appointment to the office of Royal Cosmographer and Pensioner of His Majesty the Catholic King. Michael became a resident of Brussels, where he carried on his work as an engraver, particularly of maps, but it was as an astronomer that he won special distinction, having given much attention to the investigations of methods for the determination of longitude and he is further credited with having given the so-called seas of the moon the names by which they are still known.
As globe maker perhaps the greater honor is due Jacobus Florentius, since it appears that Arnold, though perhaps the more active, reproduced in the main only the works of his father, adding improvement here and there and endeavoring, perhaps in part for business reasons, to keep his globe maps up to date. Reference has been made above to the oldest extant Van Langren globe, which bears the date 1585. Van der Aa refers to a request of Arnold Floris van Langelaer and of his father, Jacob Floris van Langelaer, presented to the States of Gelderland and accompanying a copy of his globe, which seems to have been dated 1580. Of this globe it is stated that it was “een seer correcte ende schoone Globum terrestrem, van de grootste forme,” and that it was inscribed as is that of the year 1585. A doubt, however, arises as to the accuracy of the date 1580, since Van der Aa states in the same article that Arnoldus was born in the year 1571. This particular globe was formerly kept in the “Geldersch Gerichtshof,” as Van Hasselt tells us, but since the destruction of that court nothing has been known of the inventory of the objects which had been placed therein. In support, however, of an early date, perhaps 1580, for the first Van Langren globe, we find in the dedication of a work by Nicolas Petri, published in the year 1588, and issued as a manual for the use of globes, that it was especially made for the use of a Van Langren globe. In this work the author is represented in picture in the act of examining a globe, a picture practically the same as that appearing in a work by Petri issued in the year 1583. It seems, therefore, not to be an erroneous inference that the author gives us here a representation of the Van Langren globe of 1580, which is wanting much in the accuracy with which its details are given.
The globe of 1585, referred to above as the oldest extant of Van Langren, may be found in the collection of the Museo dell’ Osservatorio del Collegio Romano (Fig. [84]). The dedication under an elaborately colored coat of arms of Denmark reads, “Serenissimo atque potentissimo Principi Domino D. Christiano nn. Daniae Norvegiae Vandalorum et Gothorum Regi Duci Slesvivi Holsatiae Stormariae et Dithmortiae Comiti Oldenburgi et Del menorsti Jacobus Florentius dedicabat.” “To the Most Serene and mighty Prince Lord D. Christian King of Denmark, Norway, the Wends and the Goths, Duke of Schleswick Holstein, Stormarn, Ditmarsh, Count of Oldenburg and Delmenhorst (this globe) is dedicated by Jacobus Florent.” The usual letter to the reader or to the one who might have occasion to make use of the globe gives the information: “In descriptione hujus globi ubiq: sequuti sumus castigatissimas Tabulas geographicas quibus Hispani et Lusitani in suis americis et indicis navigationibus utantur; aliorumque probatissimas Septentrionalium regionum descriptiones. De nostro suis locis addidimus quadrata ut vocant nautica et ventorum regiones quae omnia ad usum navigantium ad amussim accomodavimus quaemadmodum Geographiae candidati propius inspiciendo reperient. Vale fruere.” “In the construction of this globe I have everywhere made use of the most accurate geographical tables, such as were used by the Spaniards and the Portuguese in their voyages to America and the East Indies; as also for the northern regions the very best drawings of others. My own contribution has been to insert in the proper places the nautical squares, as they are called, and the directions of the winds, all of which I have carefully adapted to the need of the navigator, as experts in geography will, on examination, recognize. Farewell and may you be happy.” In a cartouch on the left we read “Jacobus Florentius Ultrajectensis autor,” and on the right “Arnoldus Florentius filius sculptor Amstelodami 1585.” The sphere, which is hollow, is constructed of wooden strips covered with a preparation of plaster. It has a diameter of about 32 cm. and is therefore slightly smaller than is the Mercator globe of 1541. It is furnished with a graduated brass meridian circle and with a horizon circle of the same material, which is supported by four arms or quadrants upheld by a simple base. The engraved gores pasted on the ball are twelve in number and extend to within twenty degrees of the poles, the remaining space being covered with an engraved circular disc, in accord with a method first employed by Mercator. The surface of the globe is not well preserved, yet notwithstanding the injuries which time has brought to it, it remains a masterpiece of engraving and a valuable geographical record of that early day. Its numerous inscriptions are of much interest. We read, for example, in latitude 35 degrees south and longitude 185 degrees, “Vastissimas hic esse regiones ex M. Pauli Veneti et Ludovico Vartomanni scriptis peregrinationibus liquido constat.” “The voyage of Marco Polo and of Ludovico Varthema make it certain that an enormous territory exists here.” In latitude 16 degrees south and longitude 175 degrees is the legend, “Moluccae vocantur 5 insulae ordine postiae juxta Gilolo quarum suprema Tarenare deinceps Tidore Motir Machiam et infima Bachiam.” “The Moluccas is the name given to the five islands in a row close to Gilolo, the uppermost of which is Tarenare, then Tidore, Motir, Machiam, and the lowest Bachiam.” In latitude 10 degrees south and longitude 348 degrees we read, “Marañon fluvius investus fuit a Vincentio Yañes Pinzon an: 1499 et an: 1542 totus a fontibus fere ad ostia usq: divulgatus a Francesco Oregliana leucis 1560 mensibus 8 dulces in mari servat aquas usque 40 leucis.” “The Amazon River was discovered by Vicente Yañez Pinzon in 1499, while in 1542 Francisco Orellana explored it a distance of 1560 leagues or almost its entire length from source to mouth in eight months. In the sea its waters are still fresh forty leagues from land.” The following is placed in latitude 28 degrees north and longitude 320 degrees, “B. C. 1492. 12 octobris Christophorus Columbus novam Indiam nomine regis Castellae delexit, prima terra quam conquisit fuit Haiti nunc Hispaniola.” “October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus took possession of New India in the name of the King of Castile. The first land he conquered was called Haiti now called Hispaniola.” In latitude 65 degrees north and longitude 230 degrees is the legend, “Regio deserta in qua equi oves et boves silvestres sunt plurimi quales esse in una Hebridum insularum narratur.” “A desert country in which there are a great many wild horses, sheep and cattle, as is said to be the case in one of the Hebrides.”
That this Van Langren globe was well received by his contemporaries seems to be witnessed by the special privilege granted September 9, 1592, to Jacobus Florentius a Langren by the Estates of Amsterdam to issue the same.[371] On presenting his request for the privilege the author states that he was the inventor of globes of this character, that his globes were unsurpassed in the matter of correctness by any which had been previously issued, and that with the aid of his globes certain Dutch navigators had sailed to Pernambuco in Brazil, to the island of St. Thomas under the equator, to the Isle de Principe and to other places. This privilege was renewed to him and to his sons Arnoldus and Henricus in the year 1596. In the following year the Estates General granted a privilege to Jodocus Hondius, who had constructed a globe in England in the year 1593, of which, however, no example appears now to be known. The Van Langrens contested this claim at law, the results of which contest seem not to be recorded, but we know that Jodocus Hondius enumerated at this time what he considered to be the particular points in which his own globes excelled.[372] In his report he enumerated no less than fourteen important geographical discoveries which were not represented on the globes of his opponents, the Van Langrens, the majority of which, as corrections, seem to have been accepted, since they appear on the later Van Langren globes and not on the earlier, that is, on the one of 1585.
The Kon. Nederl. Aardrijkskundig Genootschap has recently come into possession of the finest known example of the Van Langren globes (Fig. [85]), as indeed it is one of the finest extant globes of that period.[373] The engraved gores, twelve in number, are pasted on a hollow sphere of papier-mâché and plaster, having a diameter of 52.8 cm. It is furnished with a graduated copper meridian circle within which it is adjusted to revolve, a horizon circle of wood on which appear the names of the winds in Greek, Latin, and Dutch, the names of the months, the names of the principal feast days, and the signs of the zodiac, the whole resting on a base of oak having six supporting columns. As an example of the engraver’s art the map which covers the sphere is one of superior excellence. A manuscript dedication, pasted on its surface near the “Mar di India” and surmounted by a representation of the Spanish coat of arms, reads, “Collegio Ratiociniorum Brabanti regnantibus; Alberto et Isabellae Opt. Max. Belgii Principibus. Singulari observantia Dedicabat Arnoldus Florentinus a Langren. Ano Dni 1612.” “To the College of Computations of Brabant, to Albert and Isabella, the very great Princes of Belgium, Arnold Florentius van Langren dedicates with great respect (this globe) in the year 1612.” Beneath “Nova Guinea” is given the privilege “Cautum est privilegio ordinum Confœderatorum Inferioris Germaniae, ne quis alius ad decennium globum hunc terrestrem absq. consensu Jacobi Florentii civis Amsteldamen. typis mandare vel simili, vel alia forma excudere, vel alibi impressum adducere, aut vendere ausit, sub poena in diplomate statuta, 1608.” “Warning is given by the privilege (copyright) of the Confederated States of the Netherlands that no other individual for a period of ten years, shall venture to print in similar or in other form, to stamp (engrave) or make an impression, or to sell, under penalty set down in the diploma, 1608.” In this legend the date 1608 has been written over the engraved date 1597.
Fig. 85. Terrestrial Globe of Van Langren, 1612.