Fig. 50a. Globe of Jacob Stamfer, 1539.
Fig. 50b. Nancy Globe in Hemispheres.
Gemma Frisius (1508-1555), a native of Docum (Fig. [51]), and for a number of years professor of medicine and mathematics in the University of Louvain,[216] issued a little book, in the year 1530, bearing the title ‘De principiis Astronomiae et Cosmographiae, deque usu globi, ab eodem editi, item de orbis divisione et insulis, rebusque nuper inventis ... Antverp, 1530.’[217] It seems probable that this was issued to serve as explanatory text for a globe or globes he had constructed or was preparing to construct. In it we have one of the earliest technical yet practical explanations of the parts and uses of the globe, and a somewhat detailed statement how such instruments may be serviceably employed in cosmographical studies. On the title-page there appears the representation of a globe resting on a base having three feet, which has been thought to be a representation of his completed work.[218] We are told in his ‘Epistola salutatoria,’ at least in an implied manner, that there were to be numerous copies of the globes, seeing that they were intended for the trade, and Roscelli’s statement would lead us to believe that they had found their way into Italy. All copies, however, appear to have been lost until a few years since, when both a terrestrial and a celestial globe of Frisius’ making was found in the Gymnasium Francisceum of Zerbst, to which discovery a very considerable interest and importance attaches. In a paper read before the International Congress of Americanists in 1904, Dr. W. Walter Ruge, all too briefly, describes them, from which paper the following information is taken.[219]
Fig. 51. Portrait of Gemma Frisius.
The terrestrial globe, he notes, is not well preserved, being in certain parts so injured as to render the inscriptions illegible; but in this fact he, however, finds a certain compensation, as these injuries are of such character as to disclose the manner of construction. The globe ball, he finds, consists of two hemispheres of papier-mâché 3 mm. in thickness over which is a layer of plaster 1½ mm. in thickness. On the smooth surface thus furnished the twelve gores of which the map is composed had been pasted, these gores extending from pole to pole.[220] Though undated, the following inscription gives information concerning the map maker and the engravers. “Gemma Frisius Medicus ac Mathematicus ex varijs descripsit geographicorum observationibus, atque in hanc formam redegit; Gerardus Mercator Rupelmundanus coelavit cum Caspare a Myrica, cui et sumptibus permaximis et laboribus nequaquam minoribus opus constat.” “Gemma Frisius, physician and mathematician, made (this globe) from the various observations of geographers, and fashioned it in this form. Gerhard Mercator of Rupelmunde with Caspar Miracus engraved (it) and expended on the work a large sum and no little labor.”
Frisius appears in this legend as the maker of the map, with Mercator and Myrica as the engravers. The date of construction is not given, but it clearly does not belong to the issue of 1530 referred to above. We read, for example, along the west coast of South America such names as “Tumbes,” “tangara siue s. michaelis,” and “Turicarami fluvius,” and find that this west coast is sketched as far as latitude 5 degrees south. S. Michaelis was founded in 1532, and information concerning Pizarro’s discoveries probably did not reach Europe until 1534. Europe has still many of the Ptolemaic features, as has also the continent of Asia. North America, which is rather better drawn than on any of the earlier maps, has the legend “Hispania Maior a Nuño Gusmaño devicta anno 1530.” The west coast becomes a very indefinite line at latitude 25 degrees north, at which point we read “Matonchel siue petra portus.” It then sweeps northeastward in a flattened curve to “Baccalearum Regio” with its “Promōtoriū agricule seu cabo del labrador.” From the land around the north pole, which is connected with Asia, the continent is separated by a narrow strait which is referred to as “Fretum arcticum siue trium fratrum, par quod lusitani in orientem et ad Indios et Moluccas nauigare conati sunt.” “The Arctic strait or the strait of the three brothers through which the Portuguese attempted to sail to the East and to the Indies and the Moluccas.” No general name is given to South America, but we find such regional names as “Nw Peru Provincia” and east of this “Bresilia.” In the interior are such legends and local names as “Caxamalca fuit regis Atabaliape,” “Cuzco,” “Cincha,” “Collao.” The nomenclature shows decided Spanish influence, as we find “la laguna poblada,” “R. de los esclavos,” “R. d. los furmos,” “Cabo corto.”