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

Terrestrial and Celestial Globes.
able quadrant and semicircles, and that a compass was set
in the base of each. We learn also from the same biographer
that in the year 1568 he completed a brass astrolabe having
a diameter of "one schuh" (foot *?), three and one half
inches, and that it was supplied with all parts essential to a
of its character. We are further in-
complete apparatus
formed that shortly after the beginning of his career in
Altdorf he undertook the construction of a large celestial
globe of wood and paper, having a diameter of four Niirnberg
feet, that he was assisted in this work by the artist
and draughtsman, Christopher Heinrichs, and that on the
surface of the sphere one thousand six hundred and fifty
stars were indicated with appropriate accompanying inscrip-
tions.
Two pairs of Praetorius' globes are now known, one
pair in the Mathematical Salon of Dresden (Fig. 68),^^ and
the other in the Germanisches National Museum of Niirn-
berg. These globes are of brass, each having a diameter of
28 cm.; each is supplied with meridian, horizon, and hour
circles and rests on a tripod base. They are richly engraved
pieces, the terrestrial example being remarkably well pre-
served, the celestial being slightly injured, through rubbing
which has removed parts of certain figures of the con-
stellations.
Among those Italians who, in the sixteenth century, acquired
well-merited fame as globe makers may be mentioned
Ignazio Danti (1536-1586),^* known as Pellegrino before
he entered the order of the preaching friars in his nineteenth
year. The name Danti appears to have been given him
chiefly on account of his great learning, particularly in the
field of mathematics and astronomy. In the same branches
of science his father had achieved distinction, and likewise
his grandfather, Vicenzo de Rinaldi, who, in the year 1571,
issued a translation of the 'Sfera' of Sacrobosco, and who
constructed, as we are told, an astrolabe and an armillary
sphere. ^°
It seems to have been early in the year 1563 that
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