This changed conception seems to have found first expression, on a map, in a little volume prepared by Franciscus Monachus, a friar of Mechlin, about 1525. The title of this volume reads in part,[205] ‘De orbis situ ac descriptione. ad Reuerendiss. D. archiepiscopum Panormitanum, Francisci, Monachi ordinis Franciscani, epistola sane quã luculenta ...’ ‘A very excellent letter from Franciscus, a monk of the Franciscan Order, to the Most Reverend Archbishop of Palermo, touching the site and description of the world,’ with a colophon reading “Excudebat Martinus Caesar, expensis honesti viri Rolandi Bollaert ...” “Martinus Caesar prepared this at the expense of the upright man Roland Bollert.” Its two small woodcut maps representing the world in hemispheres, respectively the Old and the New World (Fig. [48]), are of striking historical interest, while the text contains many references which are of importance for the light they cast upon the geographical opinions of the time respecting the New World. Here, as noted, the New World is first represented on a map as having distinctly an Asiatic connection, the southern continent (South America) being separated from the northern only by that narrow strait which we find so prominently represented on the Maiollo map of 1527, and there called “stretto dubitoso.”[206] While these hemispheres cannot themselves be referred to as a globe, they may serve to give us a general idea of the geographical representations on the globe, which, as appears probable, was at that time constructed by the author of the text. To the Ecclesiastical Prince, to whom Franciscus dedicated his little volume, information was sent concerning his globe on which he had drawn by hand a map of the world as he said, the reply to his letter containing the following statement, “Orbis globum, in quo terrae ac maria luculenter depicta sunt, una cum epistola accepimus.” “We accept the globe of the world on which the land and the seas are elegantly depicted, together with the epistle.”[207] Being a gift it would seem reasonable to conclude that the globe was not duplicated and offered for sale and that the example referred to was therefore probably unique. The text of the ‘De orbis situ ...,’ as it appears, was printed because it was thought there was much contained therein that was new and not in harmony with geographical ideas hitherto expressed. The first edition was undated, nor was the second dated, but it agreed in practically all particulars with the first excepting a slight alteration in the title. A third edition was issued in the year 1565, and is still known in many copies, of which Gallois gives an excellent reprint in his biography of Orontius Finius.[208] It is in the first and second editions that the hemispheres appear; they are wanting in the third, but as a substitute therefor a small globe resting on a base appears on the verso of the title-page, which in its general features may be a representation of Franciscus’ globe.
Fig. 48. Hemispheres of Franciscus Monachus, 1526.
Hakluyt, in his ‘Discourse on Western Planting,’ alludes to “an olde excellent globe in the Queenes privie gallory at Westminster which also seemeth to be of Verarsanus makinge, havinge the coste described in Italian, which laieth oute the very selfe same streite necke of lande in latitude of 40. degrees, with the sea joynninge harde on bothe sides, as it dothe on Panama and Nombre di Dios; which would be a matter of singule importannce, yf it shoulde be true, as it is not unlikely.”[209] To this particular globe we do not seem to be able to find any other allusion.
In the geographical department of the Bibliothèque Nationale there may be found an exceedingly well-executed globe, neither signed nor dated, but which appears to have been constructed about the year 1528.[210] It is an unmounted gilded copper sphere (Fig. [49]), having a diameter of about 23 cm. Its title reads “Nova et integra universi orbs descriptio,” “A new and complete description of the entire world,” which, with all legends and local names, is engraved in small capitals. Based upon the description we possess of the Schöner globe of 1523, and upon the close resemblance of its coast outlines to those of the Weimar globe of 1533, there is reason for assigning it to the Schönerian school. It, however, is to be noted that the nomenclature of the northeast coast of North America is very different from that which appears on the last-mentioned globe, and that it more nearly resembles in that region the simple cordiform map of Orontius Finius of the year 1536.[211] The latest geographical information which it records seems to relate to the expedition of Verrazano. In the region corresponding to the present New England, we find the legend “Terra Francesca nuper Lustrata.” The Gulf of Mexico is called “Sinus S. Michaelis,” and the Caribbean Sea, “Mare Herbidium.” In South America are the conspicuous legends “America Inventa 1497,” “Brazilio Regio,” and “Terra Nova.” The great Antarctic land bears the inscription “Regio Patalis.” The Amazon appears as a river of considerable length, with numerous tributaries. The course of Magellan’s voyage, so frequently laid down on the maps of the period, here finds record in the threadlike line which encircles the globe. As in the hemispheres of Franciscus, so here, America is laid down as a part of the Asiatic continent. The workmanship of the globe is equal to the best that one could find in the Italy, France or Germany of that day, while the few German words among the numerous Latin names, as “Baden,” “Braunschweig,” and “Wien,” give some support for the claim that it is of German origin. A Spanish origin, as has sometimes been claimed for it, can hardly be accepted.
Fig. 49. Gilt Globe, ca. 1528.
Parmentier, a native of the famous seaport Dieppe, had in his day, as a maker of charts, a very substantial reputation. Whether one should conclude from references to him as a cartographer that he busied himself with the construction of globes cannot be definitely determined, as these references indicate that his maps were merely constructed on a projection which enabled him in some measure to represent the curved surface of the earth. Schefer, in his work ‘Le discours de la navigation de Jean et Raoul Permentier,’ says, “Permentier estoit bon cosmographe et géographe, et par lui ont esté composez plusieurs mappes monde en globe et en plat et plusieurs cartes marines, sur les quelles plusieurs ont navigué seurement.” “Parmentier was a good cosmographer and geographer, and many maps of the world both in the form of globes and as plane maps were made by him, also numerous marine charts by means of which many sailed the seas with safety.”[212]