Vasari gives us information concerning one Francesco Libri, member of a famous Veronese artist family, who won distinction as a globe maker in the early sixteenth century, and who apparently was most active in this field of endeavor about the year 1530. Although all trace of the globes he is said to have constructed is lost, Vasari’s reference is worthy citation.
“Among other things,” says that interesting, if not always accurate, Italian biographer, “he constructed a large globe of wood, being four feet in diameter; this he then covered externally with a strong glue, so that there should be no danger of crack or other injury. Now the globe or ball thus constructed was to serve as a terrestrial globe. Wherefore when it had been carefully divided and exactly measured under the direction and in the presence of Fracastro and Baroldi, both well versed in physics and distinguished as cosmographers and astrologers, it was afterward to be painted by Francesco for a Venetian gentleman, Messer Andrea Navagero, a most learned orator and poet, who intended to make a present of the same to King Francis of France, to whom he was about to be sent as ambassador from the Republic. But scarcely had Navagero arrived in France and entered on his office, when he died. The work consequently remained unfinished, which was much to be regretted since, executed by Francesco, under the guidance and with the advice and assistance of two men so distinguished as were Fracastro and Baroldi, it would doubtless have turned out a very remarkable production. It remained unfinished, however, as I have said, and what is worse, even that which had been done received considerable injury, I know not of what kind, in the absence of Francesco; yet spoiled as it was, the globe was purchased by Messer Bartolommeo Lonichi who has never been prevailed upon to give it up, although he has been frequently much entreated to do so, and offered large sums of money for it.”
“Francesco had made two smaller globes before commencing the large one; and of these one is now in the possession of Mazzanti, Archdeacon of the cathedral of Verona; the other belonging to the Count Raimondo della Torre, and is now the property of his son, the Count Giovanni Battista, by whom it is very greatly valued, seeing that this also was constructed with the assistance and after measurements of Fracastro, who was a very intimate friend of Count Raimondo.”[213]
As before noted, the exact date when Francesco constructed his globes is unknown. Vasari, however, informs us, as noted above, that the large one was constructed for Andrea Navagero, who wished to present it to the King of France, and that very shortly after his arrival in France on his special mission his death occurred, which we know to have been the eighth of May, 1529. It must therefore have been in that year that Francesco completed the construction of his globe. It would be interesting to know the geographical configuration of the New World as laid down by Fracastro and Francesco on this large globe, remembering that it was not long after the mission of Navagero to King Francis that the first Cartier expedition sailed for the western continent. We cannot be certain, as stated, of its geographical data, but it seems probable that it followed the Verrazanian type as represented, for example, in the Maiollo map of 1527, or in the Verrazano map of 1529.
The Lorraine Museum of Nancy possesses a fine globe, neither signed nor dated, but which usually is referred to as the Nancy globe (Figs. 50, 50a), and is thought to have been constructed about the year 1530.[214] It is a silver ball 16 cm. in diameter, divided on the line of the equator into hemispheres, and is supported on a small statue of Atlas. The equator, the tropics, the polar circles, the zodiac, and one meridian circle passing through the western part of Asia in the Old World and through the peninsula of Florida in the New World, are represented. It is an object of interest not only for its scientific value in giving us a geographical record of the period, but it is also of interest for its fine workmanship, having its land areas gilded and its seas blue enameled, in which sea monsters and ships of artistic design appear. We have the record that in the year 1662, Charles IV, Duke of Lorraine, presented it to the church of Nôtre Dame de Sion in his residence city, and that by this church it was long used as a pyx.[215] There is a striking resemblance of its land configurations, and of its geographical nomenclature to that of the Gilt globe, of the Wooden globe, and of the World map of Orontius Finaeus of 1531. The New World is represented as a part of the Asiatic continent, and the central section of that region, to which we may refer as North America, is designated “Asia Orientalis” and “Asia Major.” To the east of these names are numerous regional names, conspicuous among which are “Terra Francesca,” “Hispania Major,” and “Terra Florida.” The Gulf of Mexico appears as “Mare Cathayum.” Mexico bears the name “Hispania Nova,” while the sea to the west is named “Mare Indicum Australe.” The South American continent is called “America Nova,” and the names are very numerous which have been given to the various sections, among which we find “Terra Firma,” “Papagelli,” “Terra Canibale,” “Parias,” and “Peru Provincia.” The large austral land bears the name “Brasielie Regio,” which name is placed southeast of Africa, and the name “Patalis Regio” appears southwest of South America.
Fig. 50. Nancy Globe, ca. 1530.
