Fiorini refers to certain pairs of globes being apparently copies of the work of Gian Francesco Costa without credit being noted. These globes, inferior in the matter of engraving to the work of Costa, were issued as the work of Innocente Alessandri and Pietro Scaltaglia.[176] The terrestrial globe bears the inscription, “Nova et accurata descrizione del Globo Terracqueo dirizzato sopra le più recenti Osservazioni del Sigr Delisle e degli ultimi viaggiatori. Per uso dell’ Accademia Veneta. Composto da Innocente Alessandri e Pietro Scaltaglia incisori in rame. L’ anno 1784. Matteo Viani in Campo S. Bartolamio. Venezia.” “New and accurate description of the Terrestrial globe based on the most recent observations of Sr. Delisle and the latest explorers. For the use of the Venetian Academy. Composed by Innocente Alessandri and Pietro Scaltaglia, copper engravers. In the year 1784. Mattio Viani in Campo S. Bartolamio. Venice.” A legend very similar to that on the terrestrial globe appears on the celestial, reading, “Globo celeste nel quale sono accuratamente descritte le stelle fisse col loro preciso numero e Magnitudini secondo il Catalogo Brittanico del Sigr Flamstadio. Per uso dell’ Accademia Veneta. Composto da Innocente Alessandri e Pietro Scaltaglia incisori in Rame. L’anno 1784. Matteo Viani in Campo S. Bartolamio. Venezia.” “Celestial Globe in which is accurately described the fixed stars with their precise number and magnitude according to the British Calendar of Sr. Flamsteed. For the use of the Venetian Academy. Composed by Innocente Alessandri and Pietro Scaltaglia copper engravers. In the year 1784. Matteo Viani in Campo S. Bartolamio. Venice.” A copy of the terrestrial globe belongs to the Biblioteca Comunale of Cagli, likewise one may be found in the office of the Eredità Bottrigari of Bologna. Copies of the celestial may be found in the Museo Astronomico of Rome, in the Seminario Vescovile of Brescia, in the Tipolitografia Roberto of Bassano. Somewhat later it appears that the bookdealer Viani reissued the terrestrial globe, undated, perhaps with the thought of bringing them to date, that they might not be crowded out of the market by the recently constructed globes by Giovanni Maria Cassini. The inscription on this globe reads, “Nova et accurata descrizione del Globo Terracqueo dirizzato sopra le più recenti Osservazioni del Sigr dell’ Isle e degli ultimi viaggiatori e del Cap. Cook negli ultimi suoi viaggi. In Vena appo Mattio Viani in Campo S. Bartolomeo.” “New and accurate description of the Terrestrial globe based on the most recent observations of Sr. Delisle and on the records of the most recent navigators and of Captain Cook in his last voyages. In Venice by Mattio Viani in Campo S. Bartolomeo.” Copies of this issue may be found in the Museo Astronomico of Rome, in the library of the artist Giuseppe Bortognoni of Bologna, in the library of Sr. Fenaroli of Brescia, in the Biblioteca Vescovile of Rimini, and in the Tipolitografia Roberto of Bassano.
Among the geographers of this period who were contributing to French leadership may be named Charles Francis Delamarche (1740-1817). He was a native of Paris, in which city, under the patronage of King Louis XV, he carried on his activities as map and globe maker, conducting at the same time a shop for their distribution. He seems to have patterned his globe work largely after that of Gilles and Didier Robert de Vaugondy, giving to his completed products practically the same dimensions and mounting. His earliest examples bear the date 1785, of which only one copy, a celestial globe, has been located, this now belonging to the Osservatorio Meteorico of Venice. In the year 1791, he constructed a pair of globes each having a diameter of about 18 cm., only the terrestrial being dated, and in the same year he issued his treatise which doubtless was intended to serve as an explanatory text for these globes, at the same time advertising and popularizing his productions.[177] Examples of this issue may be found in the Biblioteca di Brera of Milan, and in the Liceo Carlo Alberto of Novara. A copy of the terrestrial may be found in the Istituto Nautico of Palermo, and a copy of the celestial in the Convento dei Frati della Missione of Chieri. It could not have been long after this issue of 1791 that he undertook the construction of a terrestrial globe about 31 cm. in diameter, a copy of which may be found in the Istituto di Fisico of the University of Siena.
We know that like his contemporary, Fortin, he also constructed armillary spheres, one example of which it has been possible to locate. Fiorini thus refers to it, his citation being given in free translation.[178] It is a Copernican sphere, that is, having a representation of the sun placed at the common center of the armillae instead of a representation of the earth as in the Ptolemaic sphere. It may be found in the palace of Sr. Scaramucci in S. Maria a Monte in the province of Florence. Attached to a base of wood about 20 cm. in height is an iron rod 35 cm. long. This rod passes through the several rings, about which they can be revolved, each being in its movement independent of the others. The first circle about the central sun represents the orbit of Mercury, and has written upon it “Éloigné du Soleil 8537, incliné 7 degr., fait sa révolution en 87 jours, 23 heures, 50 m.” The second represents the orbit of Venus, having written upon it the distance 15928½ diameters of the earth, inclination 3 degrees and 22 minutes; it completes its revolution in 2224 days 16 hours and 41 minutes. In a space much larger than that which separates the other circles, there is the orbit of the earth, upon which is written that this planet passes over the ecliptic in 365 days 5 hours and 49 minutes, and that it is 22000 diameters distant from the sun. This ring representing the orbit of the earth is opened for the insertion of a representation of the moon, adjusted to revolve on an adjusted pivot. Armillae have been provided representing the orbits of Mars, of Jupiter, and of Saturn with statements concerning their respective distances from the sun and their respective periods of revolution. The outer and larger armillae represent the colures, the ecliptic, and the horizon, and on the last the inscription, “À Paris chez Delamarche Géog. Rue du Foin Saint Jacques au Collège de Mre Gervais.”
In the year 1793 Vincenzo Rosa, a little-known Italian cosmographer, constructed two terrestrial globes, the maps of which being in manuscript. The spheres are of papier-mâché covered with a light coating of plaster. Each of these globes has a diameter of about 100 cm. An inscription in Italian reads, “Vincenzo Rosa fece nel 1793 n. 24. La geografia è quasi tutta delle carte di Robert del Vaugondy e di De-la-Marche.” “Made by Vincent Rosa in the year 1793 n. 24. The geographical information is almost entirely from the maps of Robert de Vaugondy and of Delamarche.” One copy may be found in the Biblioteca Universitario of Pavia, and the other in the Liceo Foscolo of the same city. Fiorini notes that the “n. 24.” of the first is given as “n. 21.” in the second.[179]
The last important globe maker of the eighteenth century in Italy was Giovanni Maria Cassini (fl. 1790), an engraver, and a geographer of distinction, to the truth of which statement his excellent work gives testimony. As evidence of his interest in the matter of globe construction we have the introduction to his ‘Nuovo atlante geografico universale ...,’ wherein he gives carefully devised rules for the construction of globe gores, and in addition we still find a number of his completed globes, particularly in Italian museums and libraries. These globes (Fig. [131]), dated, the terrestrial 1790, and the celestial 1792, have each a diameter of about 35 cm., each covering map being composed of twelve gores cut at latitude 80 degrees both north and south, the polar space having the usual circular disc covering. Each is furnished with a brass meridian circle within which the sphere may be revolved, an hour circle, a horizon circle, on the surface of which are the usual concentric circles with the names of the several zodiacal constellations, the names of the months, and the principal directions. The terrestrial globe has an author and date legend reading, “Globo terrestre delineato sulle ultime osservazioni con i viaggi e nuove scoperte del Cap. Cook inglese. In Rome.”
Fig. 131. Terrestrial Globe of Giovanni Maria Cassini, 1790.
In The Hispanic Society’s collection is a terrestrial globe (Fig. [132]), being a solid wooden ball 21 cm. in diameter, over which has been pasted the gore map composed of twelve sections, each cut at the parallel of 70 degrees both north and south, the polar space being covered with circular discs each forty degrees in diameter. It is neither signed nor dated but is clearly of German origin, since practically all geographical names and legends are in the German language. The title, placed within a circle to the west of Australia, “Neu Holland,” reads “Die Erde nach den neusten Entdeckungen und besten Charten entworfen.” Its date cannot be far from 1800, perhaps a little later, seeing that it assigns the name “Nord Amerikanischer Staat” to the region east of the Mississippi River, except to “Florida” which extends westward to this river. We find but one actual date given, this referring to the discovery of a small group of the “Gesellschafts Inseln,” reading “Inseln welche die Spanier entdekt haben sollen 1773.” It is constructed to revolve within a graduated meridian circle of brass and an octagonal horizon of wood, on which are indicated in picture the twelve signs of the zodiac, the calendar, and the thirty-two winds or directions, the whole resting on four plain supports of wood strengthened below by light crossbars.