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

Terrestrial and Celestial Globes.
an interesting letter dated Rome, January 17, 1509, and
written by Fioramonte Brognoli to Isabel of Este, wife of
Francis II, Marquis of Mantua, daughter of Hercules I,
Duke of Ferrara, who was responsible for the draughting
of the Cantino map of the year 1502,^ and granddaughter
of Duke Borso, to whom Donnus Nicholas Germanus dedi-
cated or addressed, in 1466, his twenty-seven Ptolemy
maps.* Brognoli, having received from the Marchioness an
order for a copy of the globes, terrestrial and celestial, possessed
by Pope Julius II, made reply that "the map and
celestial signs which are painted on two solid spheres in the
library of the Pope, of which your Excellency would like to
have copies, I have ordered, and the same to be made by
a good painter of the Palace, who tells me that it will take
some time because the matter is quite difficult. I will not
fail in care, and will provide the necessary funds, so that as
soon as possible I will send them to you by a trusty mes-
senger."^ Again the Roman correspondent wrote, the letter
bearing date February 1, 1505, "That master painter who
would like to make copies of the map and the zodiac which
are in the library of the Pope, about which Your Excellency
wrote me some time ago, tells me that to make them with
linen it will cost more than forty ducats, but to draw them
on paper according to a certain design which is painted on
canvas in that place, it would cost very little. I thought I
would inform Your Excellency before giving the order,
that I might ascertain your wishes, for I shall do exactly
that which you desire."** February 20, 1505, the Marchion-
ess replied from Mantua, saying that "the expense of forty
ducats will not deter us, if the copy of the map and of the
zodiac is well made and is similar to that found in the
library of the Pope. You may order it to be made with
extreme diligence and with exactness."^
The globe of Pope Julius II, in question, must then have
been constructed prior to 1505, seeing this to be the year
of the correspondence to which reference has been riiade
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