Fig. 54a. Schöner’s Celestial Globe, 1533 (Probable).
The Schiepp globe, referred to above, appears to have been constructed for a member of the Welser family, a rich patrician of South Germany. To Raymond Fugger, likewise a South German patrician, a member of a rich banker family of Augsburg, one Martin Furtembach dedicated a terrestrial globe which he had constructed in the year 1535.[232] This date and the wording of the dedication we get from a record of the year 1565. “Viro Magnifico Dn. Raymundo Fuggero, Invictissimorum Caroli V. Imperatoris, Ferdinandi primi Regis Romanorum a Consilijs, prudentissimo, studiosorum Mecaenasi, pauperum Christi asylo cantatissimo, Martinus Furtenbachius Abusiacus, Astrophilus typum hunc Cosmographicum universalem composuit atque dedicavit Anno a nato Christo M.D.XXXV.” “To the Magnificent Dn. Raymond Fugger, most competent counselor of the most invincible Prince Charles V Emperor, and Ferdinand the First King of the Romans, a Maecenas of scholars, a most provident supporter of the poor in Christ, Martin Furtembach lover of astronomy, composed and dedicated this universal cosmographical figure, in the year of Christ 1535.” This globe, which we learn was taken from the Fugger castle of Kirchbay to the Vienna Imperial Library, in what year we do not know, seems to have disappeared some time after 1734, since, as Harrisse notes, no reference to it can be found after that date. It is described as a gilt copper ball of large size and an object of real art, being “ornamented on all sides with various figures of exquisite engraving, and is supported by a figure of Atlas with his right hand holding a compass, but with the rest of his body supported by his left hand, in a stooping posture.”
In addition to the globes previously referred to as belonging to the Bibliothèque Nationale, there is one supposed to have been constructed about the year 1535. It is neither signed nor dated, but is usually referred to as the Paris Wooden globe.[233] The diameter of the sphere is 20 cm. It is without the usual mountings of meridian and horizon circles but is supported by an iron rod attached to a wooden base (Fig. [55]), which rod serves as an axis about which it may be revolved. A thick layer of paint covers the surface of the ball, on which the geographical names, legends, and configurations have been inscribed with a pen in a running hand. The poor calligraphy suggests that it is not the work of an expert cartographer, but of one who somewhat hastily and carelessly had undertaken to copy a globe map of the type represented in the work of Franciscus, of the maker of the Paris Gilt globe, or of Schöner in his globe of 1533. Meridians are represented at intervals of ten degrees commencing at a prime meridian which passes through the Cape Verde Islands, while the parallels are similarly marked, the graduation being indicated on the prime meridian. The globe maker has retained in his representations the old climatic idea, of which climates there are nine specifically designated. We find on this globe such inscriptions as “Baccalarum Regio,” with its neighboring “Pelagus Baccalarum,” “Terra Francesca,” “Hispania Major,” “Terra Florida,” with the Gulf of Mexico bearing the name “M. Cathayum” as in the Nancy globe. The South American continent is conspicuously marked as “America Nova Orbis Pars,” and contains in addition many regional names. The western ocean, beginning with that part which washes the coast of Mexico, thence southward, is called “Mare di Sur,” “Mare Culuacanum,” “Mare Indicum Australe,” “Mare Pacificum,” and “Oceanus Magellanicus.” The location of the colony which was planted by Pizarro in 1532, and which is called “S. Michaelis,” is made prominent.
Fig. 55. Paris Wooden Globe, 1535.
Caspar Vopel,[234] born at Medebach near Cologne, in the year 1511, was of that group of German cartographers and globe makers active in the second quarter of the sixteenth century in giving to the general public a knowledge of the great geographical discoveries of the day. Though much of the information through the maps which they constructed was strikingly inaccurate, their work is none the less interesting to the student of historical geography. It appears that Vopel entered the University of Cologne in the year 1526, that at a later date he became a professor of mathematics in a Cologne gymnasium, and that he continued to reside in this city until his death in the year 1561. During these years he became well known as a maker of maps and globes. Of his very large and important world map, issued in the year 1558, and which so admirably sets forth his geographical notion of an Asiatic connection of the New World, an original copy may be found in the collection of Prince Liechtenstein, which is reproduced, after Giriva’s redraughting, in Nordenskiöld’s ‘Facsimile Atlas.’[235] In the history of cartography his map of Europe and his Rhine map especially merit a place of prominence.
Nine of his globes are known, most of which are constructed as armillary spheres, having within the numerous armillae or circles a small terrestrial globe, or at least that which passes as a representation of the same. His first work of which we have knowledge, now belonging to the city of Cologne, and to be found in the collection of its archives, is inscribed “Caspar Medebach opus hoc astronomicum fecit 1532 Martii.” It is a credit to the youthful artist and cosmographer, suggesting, says Korth,[236] the possession of a technic resembling that of Dürer. This is a celestial globe 28 cm. in diameter, having its star map drawn by hand, which is now somewhat discolored with age.
Four years later Vopel constructed a second celestial globe, apparently a reproduction of the first but having its map printed on gores which he pasted on the surface of the sphere. It bears the inscription “Caspar Vopel, Medebach, hanc Cosmogr. faciebat sphaeram Coloniae Ao 1536,” has the same diameter as the one of 1532, and is now its companion in the city archives of Cologne.[237]