“Wherefore I trust that Your Holiness will be inclined to accept these my feeble labors, as those of a subject whose real capacity is that of Your Holiness’ servant, and that You may be willing to take the great size of these globes as the measure of the vastness of the obligation which I avow myself under to Your Holiness. And now wishing Your Holiness the age and the years of Nestor, I humbly prostrate myself upon the ground, and kiss Your Most Holy Feet.
“San Stefano del Cacco, Rome, 28, December 1671.
“Your Holiness’ most humble, most devoted, and most obliged servant and subject,
“Dom Carlo Benci
“Silvestrin monk.”
Near this dedication is a portrait of the Pope, the subscription reading “Clemens Decimus Pont. Max.”
The terrestrial globe shows the parallels at intervals of ten degrees, and the meridians at like intervals counting from that passing through the Island of Ferro which has been taken as the prime meridian. The polar circles, the tropics, and the ecliptic are made especially prominent. Place names and legends are given either in Latin or in Italian, some of the briefer legends taking note of geographical discoveries of special importance, and clearly indicating that the author was well informed on the progress of discovery.
The celestial globe has represented on its surface both the equator and the ecliptic with their respective poles indicated; circles of latitude and of longitude are omitted. The year 1600 was selected as the normal year for recording the position of the stars, and a statement is made noting the corrections becoming necessary by reason of the precession of the equinoxes. Only the Ptolemaic constellations are given, and the figures representing the same are very artistically drawn. The famous star which appeared in the year 1572 and the position of numerous comets are indicated, with the date of the appearance of each.
Until the year 1862 these globes were preserved in the Altieri Library, when they were offered for sale and were purchased by Prince D. Camillo Massimo, finding a place in his palace at the Villa Peretti.
If Benci, through his cosmographical studies, as well as through his other studies, brought fame to himself and to his order of Silvestrin monks, to Amantius Moroncelli, likewise a member of this order and a contemporary, no less credit should be given for his achievements as a maker of manuscript globes.[74] It has been noted that but one pair of Benci’s globes can now be located, but no less than ten constructed by Moroncelli may today be found in Italian libraries and museums, most of which possess both scientific and artistic value of a high order.