Terrestrial and celestial globes; their history and ... - 24grammata.com

Terrestrial and Celestial Globes.
cosmographer, and mechanic. It appears from the title of
a publication attributed to Stoffler, 'De artiiiciosa globi
terrestris compositione,'" that he was a maker of terrestrial
globes, though no such globe of his is now known, and from
his letters to Reuchlin we learn that he made no less than
three celestial globes."^ One of the latter he sent to his
friend, Probst Peter Wolf of Denkendorf, which represented
the movements of the sun and of the moon. A second
was constructed for Bishop von Dalberg of Worms, on
which the stars were represented in gold."* Nothing further
is definitely known of these two globes. A third was con-
structed for Bishop Daniel of Constance, which is the one
now to be found in that city's library.'^ This sphere has
a diameter of 48 cm,, rests upon a wooden base, and is furnished
with a meridian and with a horizon circle. The
forty-eight constellations of Ptolemy are represented on a
dark background and are outlined in accord with recognized
traditions. To a few of the constellations double names are
given, as "Hercules" and "Genuflexus," "Auriga" and
"Agitator." Stars of the first magnitude are especially dis-
tinguished by name, the majority of which are of Arabic
origin, and more than one thousand stars are clearly indicated.
To the globe makers themselves, who were active agents
in creating a demand for globes, there should here be added
the name of Conrad Celtes (1459-1508),^'' the distinguished
German humanist, as that of one who contributed most in
the first years of modem times toward arousing an interest
in the use of globes in the schools. Aschbach, in his History
of the Vienna University,"^ tells us of the school founded
in Vienna in the year 1510 by the Emperor Maximilian I,
and of the instruction given in this school by Celtes. We are
informed that in his lectures on mathematical geography he
introduced a good text of Ptolemy in the original Greek;
this he translated into Latin, interpreting the same in German,
explaining the several sentences by reference to a
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