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the mouth of tie L«_ng~. B^I ai " û -e

"ion yf err g ã gc-> 1 : -ti • er < rl " a ^

«trnvea - r _i> i To . «in _^m^». . '

I»'ê cs... -i i V rr . -ã r- ISf^^ pe»e ~bm*

•urv.

XIV

INTRODUCTION.

Astronomical Society of London, the other to the

National Library of Paris.

But the most ancient celestial globe is at Florence,

and has been described by Professor Meucci.1 It

belongs to the eleventh century.

The astronomical knowledge of the Arabs in the

East was communicated to their countrymen in Spain,

and the schools of Cordova became so famous that

they were frequented by students from Christian

Europe ; among whom was the celebrated mathe-

matician, Gerbert d'Auvergne, afterwards Pope Sil-

vester II. Valencia was one of the most flourish-

ing centres of Arabian culture in Spain, at first

under the Khalifahs of Cordova, and from 1031 to

1094 as the capital of a small, independent king-

dom. It was in Valencia that the celestial globe,

now at Florence, was constructed, in the year 1070

A.D.2 It is 7.8 inches in diameter. All the forty-

seven constellations of Ptolemy are engraved upon

1 II Globo Celeste Arabico del Secolo XI esistente vel gabineto

degli strumenti antichi di astronomia, di fisica, e di maternalica

del R. Institute diStudi Superiori illustrate da F. Meucci (Fireuze,

1878).

2 Professor Meucci observed that the star Regxdus was placed

on the globe at a distance of 16° 40' from the sign of Leo.

Ptolemy, in 140 A.D., gave this distance as 2° 30'. According to

Albategnius, the star advances 1° in sixty-six years. It had

moved 14° 10' since 140 A.D., which would give 1070 as about

the date of the globe.

The Arabic inscription on the globe coincides remarkably with

this calculation. It states that the globe was made at Valencia

by Ibrahim ibn Said-as-Sahli, and his son Muhammad, in the

year 473 of the Hegira, equivalent to 1080 A.D. It was con-

INTRODUCTION.

XV

it, except the "Cap\ and 1,015 stars are shown,

with the different magnitudes well indicated. It is

a very precious relic of the civilisation of the Span-

ish Arabs, and is specially interesting as the oldest

globe in existence, and as showing the care with

which the Arabian astronomers preserved and handed

down to posterity the system of Ptolemy. The globe

possessed by the Emperor Frederick II, with pearls

to indicate the stars, doubtless resembled those

of the same period which have come down to us.

The oldest terrestrial globe in existence is that

constructed by Martin Behaim, at Nuremburg, in

1492. It is made of pasteboard covered with parch-

ment, and is 21 inches in diameter. The only lines

drawn upon it are the equator, tropics, and polar

circles, and the first meridian, which passes through

Madeira. The meridian is of iron, and a brass

horizon was added in 1500. The globe is illumi-

nated and ornamented, and is rich in legends of

interest and in geographical details. The author of

this famous globe wTas born at Nuremburg of a good

family. He had studied under Piegiomontanus. He

settled and married at Horta, the capital of Fayal,

in the Azores, had made numerous voyages, and

had been in the exploring expedition with Diogo

Cam when that Portuguese navigator discovered

the mouth of the Congo. Behaim had the reputa-

tion of being a good astronomer, and is said by

structed for Abu Isa ibu Labbun, a personage of note in the

political and literary history of Muslim Spain during that cen-

tury.

XVI

INTRODUCTION.

Barros1 to have invented a practical instrument for

taking the altitude of the sun at sea.

Baron Nordenskiold considers that the globe of

Behaim is, without comparison, the most important

geographical document that saw the light since the

atlas of Ptolemy had been produced in about 150

A.i). He points out that it is the first which un-

reservedly adopts the existence of antipodes, the

first which clearly shows that there is a passage

from Europe to India, the first which attempts to

deal with the discoveries of Marco Polo. It is an

exact representation of geographical knowledge im-

mediately previous to the first voyage of Columbus.

The terrestrial globe next in antiquity to that of

Behaim is dated 1493. It was found in a shop at

Laon, in 1860, by M. Léon Leroux, of the Adminis-

tration de la Marine at Paris. It is of copper-gilt,

engraved, with a first meridian passing through

Madeira, meridian-lines on the northern hemisphere

at every fifteen degrees, crossed by parallels corre-

sponding to the seven climates of Ptolemy. There

are no lines on the southern hemisphere. The

author is unknown, but M. D'Avezac considered

that this globe represented geographical knowledge

current at Lisbon in about 1486. It appears to

have been part of an astronomical clock, or of an

armillary sphere, for it is only 6^ inches in diameter.2

Baron Nordenskiold was the first to point out

1 Bec. I, lib. iv, cap. 2.

2 D'Avezac gives a projection of the Laon globe in the Bulletin

de la Société de Géographie de Paria, 4me Série, viii (I860).

INTRODUCTION.

XVII

that a globe constructed by John Cabot is men-

tioned in a letter from Raimondo di Soncino to the

Duke of Milan, dated December 18th, 1497. ,But

it does not now exist.

The earliest post-Columbian globe in existence

elates from about A.D. 1510 or 1512. It was bought

in Paris by Mr. R. M. Hunt, the architect, in 1855,

and was presented by him to Mr. Lenox of New

York; it is now in the Lenox Library. This globe

is a spherical copper box 4^- inches in diameter, and

is pierced for an axis. It opens on the line of the

equator, and may have been used as a ciboriam.

The outline of land and the names are engraved on

it, but there is no graduation. The author is un-

known.

Among the papers of Leonardo da Vinci at Wind-

sor Castle there is a map of the world drawn on

eight gores, which appears to have been intended

for a globe. It is interesting as one of the first

maps on which the name America appears. Mr.

Major has fully described this map in a paper in

the Archceologia,1 and he believes that it wTas actually

drawn by Leonardo da Vinci himself. But Baron

Nordenskiold gives reasons for the conclusion that

it was copied from some earlier globe by an ignorant

though careful draughtsman.

In 1881 some ancient gores were brought to

1 «A Memoir on a Mappemonde by Leonardo da Vinci, being

the earliest map hitherto known containing the name of America;

now in the royal collection at Windsor.» By R. H. Major, Esq.,

F.S.A. (Archceologia, vol. xl, 1865).

b

xviii

INTRODUCTION.

light by M. Tross, in a copy of

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