Terrestrial and Celestial Globes Volume 1 / Their History and Construction Including a Consideration of their Value as Aids in the Study of Geography and Astronomy

by Edward Luther Stevenson

Fig. 78. L’Écuy Terrestrial Globe, ca. 1578.

Aside from its geographical interest it is particularly significant in that it is the only globe of metal known to have been made in Rouen in that period. It is neither signed nor dated, but its inscriptions seem to assure us that it was not made prior to 1578, yet in all probability before 1600. It seems not to be known how the globe found its way into the locality designated. The Abbé L’Écuy died in Paris in the year 1634 at the age of eighty-four, Vicar General of the Prebendary of Nôtre Dame. It is probable that at the death of the Abbé the globe was taken to the province of Cher by some dealer or purchaser, as he was born in the town Yvoi-Carignan in French Luxembourg. Of the earliest history of this remarkably interesting object we know only that it was made in Rouen, at a date we cannot definitely fix.

It has a diameter of 25.6 cm. In an oval cartouch one finds the inscription “Nova et integra universi orbis descriptio. Rothomagi.” “A new and complete description of the world. Rouen.” Below the last line there appears to be space left for the insertion of the author’s name, a thought suggested by the arrangement for the inscription, and underneath the cartouch is engraved a representation of Neptune driving his sea horses and chariot and armed with a trident. There are numerous vessels represented on the globe, sailing the seas, in the style of the sixteenth century. The prime meridian passes through the Canary Islands. The author seems to have drawn largely from Spanish sources, but to some extent from the Portuguese.

The outlines of the several countries of the Old World are not particularly well drawn, and it does not appear that the author thought of making an especial point of accuracy. Africa has the outlines of the maps of the sixteenth century, but with an indifference to details. The Senegal and the Niger are made to unite to form the Nile. Asia is not particularly well drawn. Below the island of Cipango the author has engraved the following legend, “Hoc loco secuti sumus recentiores hanc partem verius a continente separantes.” “In this place we have followed the most recent (observers) who rightly separate this part from the continent.”

The western coast of America gives evidence of a want of detailed knowledge. Here we read “Haec littora nondum cognita,” “this coast is not yet known,” and below this, “Novus orbis,” and “Hispania major a Nuño Gusmano devicta anno 1539,” “Greater Spain conquered by Nuño Gusman in the year 1539.” California is represented as a peninsula and not an island as on so many of the maps of the closing years of the sixteenth century. The nomenclature along the coast of Mexico is exceedingly rich. Pizarro’s conquest is referred to, but Chili is unknown, “Ulterius incognitum.” The estuary of La Plata is represented as very large. The coast names north of Florida seem to have been obtained from the Verrazano sources of 1524. In the region of Newfoundland, which is represented as a region of numerous small islands, we find “Baccalearum regio,” “Gamas,” “insule Corteralis,” “terro de laborador.” The strait separating Greenland from the mainland is referred to as “Fretum arcticum per quod Lusitani in orientem et ad Indos et Molucas navigare conati sunt,” “Arctic strait through which the Portuguese attempted to sail to the east and to the Indies and the Moluccas,” an allusion to the unhappy results of the Cortereal expedition. Along the coast of the strait which forms the northern boundary of North America we read “Terra per Britannos inventa,” “Land discovered by the British.” A very curious legend along the east coast of Greenland reads “Quii populi ad quos Joañes Scovus Danus pervenit anno 1476,” “These are the people to whom the Dane John Scovus came in the year 1476.” Humboldt was one of the first to call attention to this expedition, and Gomara was actually the first to mention it, that is, to give a reference to the Dane Skolnus.[359]

There are no more interesting survivals among the globes of the late sixteenth century than are those constructed by Emery Molyneux, now belonging to the Middle Temple Library of London (Fig. [79]), which Sir Clements Markham refers to as “their burial place,” considering this to be “a strange depository for geographical documents of such interest and importance.” In the address “To the Reader” or preface to his ‘Voyages,’ Hakluyt gives the first reference in print to these globes. “Nowe,” he says, “because peraduenture it would bee expected as necessarie, that the descriptions of so many parts of the world would farre more easily be conceiued of the Readers, by adding Geographicall, and Hydrographicall tables thereunto, thou art by the way to be admonished that I have contented my selfe with inserting into the worke one of the best generall mappes of the world onely, untill the coming out of a very large and most exact terrestriall Globe, collected and reformed according to the newest, secretest, and latest discoueries, both Spanish, Portugall, and English, composed by M. Emmerie Mollineux of Lambeth, a rare gentleman in his profession, being therein for diuers yeeres, gratly supported by the purse and liberalitie of the worshipfull marchant M. William Sanderson.”[360] It was not until near the close of the year 1592 that the globes were completed, and soon thereafter we have their first printed description, which description was given by Dr. Hood of Trinity College, Cambridge, a lecturer on mathematics and navigation in the city of London.[361] Blundeville, in his ‘Exercises,’[362] refers to them, and in 1594 Robert Hues published the first edition of his most valuable and interesting treatise on globes, bearing the title, ‘Tractatus de Globis et eorum usu, accomodatus iis qui Londini editi sunt anno 1593,’ taking the Molyneux globes as the basis for his observations.

Fig. 79. Terrestrial Globe of Emery Molyneux, 1592.

Very little is known of the life of Molyneux. He appears to have been a member of the Cavendish expedition of the years 1586-1588, as is suggested by one of the legends on his terrestrial globe. He was known to Sir Walter Raleigh, to Richard Hakluyt, to Edward Wright, and to John Davis. To the suggestions of the last-named we perhaps owe the existence of these globes.[363] As noted by Hakluyt in his preface, the globes were constructed at the expense of William Sanderson, a merchant prince of London, a liberal and patriotic citizen, one interested in geographical exploration, who had fitted out the Davis Arctic Expedition.