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

Fig. 126b. Celestial Globe of Johann Puschner, 1730.

In the Museo di Strumenti Antichi of Florence there is a well-preserved armillary sphere,[157] having the usual large circles the outer one measuring about 15 cm. in diameter, of four lesser ones and of these there are two small ones representing the sun and the moon. The meridian and the equator are graduated, as is likewise the ecliptic, having engraved on its surface the names of the principal winds in the Italian language, and the ecliptic having engraved in Latin on its surface the names of the signs of the zodiac. On one of the arms which supports the horizon circle is the author and date legend, reading, “Joseph Torricelli F. Florentiae 1739.” Fiorini thinks it probable that Joseph was a relative of Evangelista Torricelli, inventor of the barometer.

Pietro Maria da Vinchio, a monk of the order of St. Francis, deserves a word of special praise for the skill with which he labored as a map and globe maker about the middle of the eighteenth century.[158] He seems to have followed in the main the work of Moroncelli, and that of the unknown maker of the Cusani globe, yet he should be counted a workman possessing greater technical ability. His first pair of globes have a diameter of about 60 cm. The mounting consists of a meridian and a horizon circle of wood, the whole resting on a somewhat elaborate wooden base. The gores with which he covered his spheres are in each instance eighteen in number, but each gore has been cut into three sections—at the parallel of 40 degrees, both north and south, and also at the parallel of 80 degrees, the polar spaces having the usual circular disc covering. The terrestrial globes have represented on their surfaces the polar and the tropical circles, also the ecliptic and the equator, together with the several parallels and meridians at intervals of ten degrees. Artistic wind roses are placed at each of the equinoctial points, each with points representing the eight principal directions. The title legend reads, “Globus terrestris juxta geographicas mappas novissime editas accurate descriptus, in quibus, exactiori observatione praemissa, errores multiplices sunt emendati, qui in veteri geographia detinebantur impressi. F. Petri Mariae a Vinchio opus et labor 1739.” “Terrestrial globe accurately delineated according to the most recent geographical maps in which, by more exact observations, numerous errors are corrected which continued to be printed in the old geography. Fra Peter Maria a Vinchio, his work and labor, 1739.”

The celestial globe, similar in its construction in practically every respect to the preceding, has its system of circles represented according to the equatorial system instead of the ecliptic system. All of the Ptolemaic constellations are represented, the figures of the several constellations being very artistically painted. Its dedication reads, “Ill̄mo ac Rev̄mo D. D. Petro Hieronymo Caravadossi Episcopo Casalensi Ordinis Praedicatorum parvum hoc Firmamentum dicatum a F. Petro Maria de Vinchio Ord. Min. Stric. Obser. operis auctor. 1745.” “Dedicated to the Illustrious and Reverend D. D. Peter Hieronymus Caravadossi Bishop of Casale of the Preaching Friars, by Fra. Peter Maria de Vinchio of the Strict Minorite Order, who is the author of this work, in the year 1745.” The pair just described may be found in the Biblioteca Seminario Maggiore of Casale Monferrato. Fiorini is of the opinion that these globes, presented to the learned Father Pietro Girolamo Caravadossi of the Preaching Friars, Bishop of Casale, must have been given by him to the seminary library, that they might serve in the education of the priests. It is even probable that the two globes came to the library by a direct clause in the will of the bishop, since it is known that he bequeathed to the same library all of his books and an annual sum, that the library might be used not only by the members of the seminary but by the general public as well.

Not long after the completion of the pair just described, da Vinchio undertook the construction of a second and larger pair. These he began in the year 1746 and completed in the year 1751. These globes have a diameter of about 105 cm. Like the preceding they are of papier-mâché. Each is furnished with a meridian and a horizon circle of wood, and a somewhat elaborate supporting base. On the parchment covering of the spheres the maps have been drawn by hand. On the terrestrial globe the meridians and the parallels are represented at intervals of ten degrees. Place names, the names of the seas and of the rivers are in the Italian language or in the language of the country claiming possession. Very many of the discoveries are referred to in appropriate legends. The title and date legend reads “D. O. M. Globus terraqueus Juxta geographicas mappas novissime editas accurate descriptus, in quibus, exactiori observatione praemissa, longitudinum, latitudinumque punctis verius universe compertis, errores multiplices sunt emendati, qui in veteri geographia detinebantur impressi. Inferius scripti mens, labor, ars, et opus. F. Petrus Maria a Vinchio. In Conventu S. M. de Templo Casalis annis 1746-1747-1748.” “D. O. M. Terrestrial globe accurately described according to the latest geographical maps in which by a more exact observation and by a truer location of the points of longitude and latitude many errors have been corrected which continued to be printed in the old geographies. What follows is the work and labor of Fra. Peter Maria a Vinchio, made in the Convent of Santa Maria at the Temple in Casale in the years 1746-1747-1748.”

The celestial globe is similarly mounted, having a title legend which reads “Globus coelestis Circa quem spectabiliores, magisque obviae stellae juxta dispositionem et situm, longitudinis scilicet ac latitudinis gradū, in quo ab Auctore Universi in Firmamento sunt positae, dispositae inspiciuntur; singulis tamen figuris a Poetis ideatis, ab Astromomis diductae, et assignatae novissime auctus. F. Maria a Vinchio O. M. S. O. Anno 1750.—Opifex.—1751.” “Celestial globe in which are to be seen more clearly and more distinctly set forth the stars according to their places and positions, that is, their degrees of longitude and latitude where they have been placed in the firmament by the Creator of the Universe. To which have been added the figures of the constellations idealized by the poets, brought to earth and assigned their true places by astronomers. F. Maria a Vinchio of the Strict Order of the Minorites maker. In the year 1750-1751.”

The figures of the constellations are well drawn and are colored, the names of these constellations being given in Latin. This pair of Maria’s globes may be found in the Biblioteca Municipale of Alessandria, in which town he probably lived at the time of their construction, and probably at the convent of the Capuchin monks.

Prefixed to his ‘Select Mechanical Exercises,’ first issued in the year 1773, James Ferguson (1710-1776), Scotch experimental philosopher, physicist, and astronomer (Fig. [127]), gives us a most interesting specimen of autobiography.[159] It is a remarkable story of native genius and of self-instruction. Herein he tells us how the child of poor parents, with an unquenchable desire for scientific knowledge, proceeded in his early years, step by step, until at length he attained to a position of great renown, not only in his own country but as well in other lands. He tells of his early interest in simple mechanical problems and of his attempts at the solution of the same, but what is of special interest here, he relates how it was he became interested in geography and in the construction of globes and orreries. From a description of a globe he had found in ‘Gordon’s Geographical Grammar,’ as he tells us, “I made a globe in three weeks turning the ball thereof out of a piece of wood.” This he covered with paper and delineated thereon the map of the world. He was happy to find, as he says, “that by using the globe, which was the first I ever saw, I could solve the problems.” In his second attempt at globe making, his boyish ingenuity particularly exhibited itself. Finding two large globular stones on the top of a neighbor’s gate-posts, he painted on one of these, with oil colors, a map of the terrestrial globe, and on the other a map of the celestial, from a planisphere of the stars which he had copied on paper from a celestial globe belonging to a neighboring gentleman. “The poles of the painted globes stood toward the poles of the heavens. On each the twenty-four hours were placed around the equinoctial so as to show the time of day when the sun shone out, by the boundary where the half of the globe at any time enlightened by the sun was parted from the other half in the shade: the enlightened parts of the terrestrial globe answering to the like enlightened parts of the earth at all times: so that whenever the sun shone on the globe one might see to what place the sun was then rising, to what place it was setting, and all the places where it was then day or night, throughout the earth.”