Terrestrial and Celestial Globes Volume 2 / Their History and Construction Including a Consideration of their Value as Aids in the Study of Geography and Astronomy

by Edward Luther Stevenson

An excellent example of this first issue may be found in the Museum of The Hispanic Society of America (Fig. [102]), this being one of the most valuable in its large collection. It has a diameter of 50 cm., and is mounted on a wooden base having four feet, which, though evidently very old, is clearly not the original base. It is furnished with a narrow wooden horizon circle which is not graduated, and the calendar and other representations, which one usually finds pasted on this circle in early globes, are entirely wanting. The meridian circle of iron, likewise, is not graduated, and like the wooden base is not a part of the original mounting. The sphere itself is remarkably well preserved, there being scarcely a noticeable injury to its surface save the slight discoloration of age. The engraved gore map covering the papier-mâché ball, which is of very light construction, is composed of twelve sections, or rather of twenty-four, since each of the sections is cut at the equator, and the poles are covered with small circular discs.

Fig. 102. Terrestrial Globe of Mattheus Greuter, 1632.

In the south Atlantic and near the great southern continent, in a neat cartouch surmounted by the coat of arms of the Boncompagni family of Bologna, is the following dedication: “Illustrissimo et Excellentissimo Principi D. Iacobo Boncompagno Sorae Arcisque Duci Marchioni Vignolae Aquini Comiti Dno suo colendissimo. Mattheus Greuter Humill. obseqii ergo. D. D.” “To the Most Illustrious and Excellent Prince Lord Jacob Boncompagni, Duke of Sora and Arce, Marquis of Vignola and Count of Aquino, his Most Worshipful Lord Mattheus Greuter with humble obedience dedicates (this globe).” Iacopo Boncompagni, to whom Greuter dedicated his work, belonged to a famous family of Bologna.[58] He was born in Sora in the year 1613 and died in the year 1636. It was his great-grandfather, Hugo, who, in the year 1572, at the age of seventy, became Pope Gregory XIII, and who immortalized himself through his reform of the calendar. Iacopo, the grandfather of that member of the family to whom Greuter dedicated his globe, was in position, at the time of the elevation of his father to the Papacy, to have bestowed upon him great honors and riches. He was nominated Castellan of St. Angelo, and shortly thereafter, receiving the title General of the Holy Church, was sent to Ancona with a commission to defend the maritime regions of the papal states. He was soon thereafter admitted to the nobility of Rome, of the Kingdom of Naples, and of Venice. Through the riches of the Papacy he was able to purchase from Alfonso II of Este the Marquisate of Vignola for seventy-five thousand Roman scudi, the Duchy of Sora and of Arce from the Duke of Urbino for one hundred and ten thousand ducats, and the lands of Arpino and Roccasecca, together with the County of Aquino from Alfonso of Avalon, Marquis of Guasto, for one hundred and forty thousand ducats.

In the austral continent, and on the opposite side of the globe to that on which the dedication is placed is an address to the reader which is inscribed in a neat cartouch, reading “In ista quam exhibemus terreni globi descriptione omnium regionum iuxta et insularum quotquot hactenus ab Argonautis tam Lusitaniae quam aliarum gentium Naucleris visae et notatae loca in suo secundū longitudinem et latitudinem situ sum̄a sedulitate et industria disposita invenies quae res non solum Geographiae studiosis jucūda, verum etiam ijs, qui terras longe dissitas et sub alio sole calentes frequentent, maxime utilis futura est. Hūc igitur laborem nostrum ut tam gratis animis acceptatis sedulitate a nobis est obitus ex aequo omnes rogatos volo. Mattheus Greuter auctor. Excudit Roma Anno MDCXXXII.” “On this globe which we exhibit, you will find all the regions and islands as far as they have hitherto been seen and noted by navigators of Portugal and of other nations, set down in their proper positions of latitude and longitude with the greatest care and industry. This will be pleasing not only to students of geography but it will be especially useful to those who visit far distant lands (which are) warmed by another sun. I hope therefore that all those whom I ask will accept this labor of ours with as much gratitude as we have employed care upon it. Matthew Greuter maker. Made in Rome in the year 1632.” This address agrees with that on the Blaeu terrestrial globe of 1622 except that Blaeu wrote “vel etiam ab aliarum gentium ...,” whereas Greuter writes “tam Lusitaniae quam aliarum gentium ...,” and Blaeu inserted a reference to the loxodromes he had drawn on his map, which loxodromes Greuter, omitting, had therefore no occasion for such reference. In the inscription referring to the prime meridian, Greuter again borrowed from Blaeu with scarcely an alteration, as he did in his reference to recent discoveries made for the purpose of finding a way to the East by the North. Blaeu’s legend in the vicinity of the Tiborone Island, that near the Cape of Good Hope, and that near the Strait of Magellan were all copied literally by Greuter, and likewise that referring to the Le Maire Strait.

Greuter employed, in general, for the names of the regions of the Old World and for the seas, the Latin language, though he wrote “Mar del Nort” for the Atlantic and “Mar del Zur” for the Pacific. For the names of the New World he used the Spanish or the Portuguese, but occasionally the English, the French, the Dutch, or the language native to the region bearing the name. For the names of the cities he generally employed the language of the country or the Italian language.

Numerous ships are represented sailing the seas, and the pictures of sea monsters are many. A few wind roses adorn the map, but, as before stated, loxodrome lines, regarded in general at that time as of great importance to sailors who had occasion to make use of the chart or the globe, were omitted by Greuter.

Hudson Bay, which is left nameless, is represented without a definite coast line in the north, but through a wide and extended channel it opens into “Fretum Davis.” The St. Lawrence River appears to drain a lake, which may be taken from its location to be Lake Ontario; but the remaining four Great Lakes appear as one great inland sea with an outlet of somewhat uncertain character northward toward Hudson Bay. The geographical representations in this region are of special historical interest, as are indeed the geographical records in the several sections of North America, particularly in the South and the West.

As a companion to the terrestrial globe of the year 1632, Greuter prepared a celestial globe of the same dimensions, and with similar mountings, which he issued in the year 1636. He gives due credit, in one of his legends, to Tycho Brahe and to Willem Blaeu as sources of information for his representation of the stars and the several constellations, following, in particular, Blaeu’s globe of 1622. His explanatory legend reads “In hoc coelesti Globo notantur omnes stellae fixie an annum 1636 accom̄odatae q̄ iuxta observationē Nob. viri Tychonis Brahe, in max̄ illo Iansonii, an̄o 1622 edito, positae sunt additis stellis q̄ à peritiss^o nauclero Petro Theod: circa Pol. Aust. notatae sū novisque Asterismis et stellis min. apparētib’, ab aliis sum̄ studio observatis, omnia in Philomatico gratia copiosa delineata. Romae, 1636, M. Greuter.” “In this celestial globe are noted all the fixed stars accommodated to the year 1636, which are placed (on the map) according to the observations of the noble Tycho Brahe in that great (work) of Jansson (Blaeu), edited in the year 1622, to which are added the stars noted by the skilful navigator Peter Theodori around the south pole and the new and less apparent stars observed by others with great zeal. All these have been represented for the use of the student. At Rome, 1636. M. Greuter.” As to how much he thought should be added to or subtracted from the longitude of the fixed stars each year, to the end of taking due note of the precession of the equinoxes, he copied Plancius literally. The equatorial circle, the tropics, the polar circles, the equinoxes, the solstitial colures, the ecliptic, and twelve meridians are all represented. The constellations include the Ptolemaic, with the addition of those recently discovered and named in the southern hemisphere. The figures of the several constellations are well drawn, having their names in Latin or in Arabic, and are artistically colored in most of the copies of the globe known.