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

Terrestrial and Celestial Globes.
the name of the saint corresponding to that day. The inter-
nal part of the annular band indicates true solar time, the
rising and the setting of the sun, the diurnal motion of the
moon around the earth, and its passage over the meridian,
the phases of the moon and the eclipses of the sun and
moon. Adjacent compartments are devoted to a perpetual
calendar, solar and lunar cycles and other periodic occur-
rences, solar and lunar equations, etc. Above the calendar
appear allegorical figures, seated in chariots, and representing
the days of the week. These chariots, drawn by such
animals as are assigned as attributes of the divinities, run
on a circular railway and appear each in order. In the storyabove
the globe is a planetarium in which the revolutions
of the planets are represented upon a large dial plate, and
above the planetarium, and upon a star-decked sky, is a
globe devoted to showing the phases
of the moon. In the
second story of the clock has been placed a terrestrial globe,
which likewise is adjusted to revolve in representation of
the revolution of the earth.""
Peter Apianus (BienewitzorBennewitz) (1495-1552) was
a native of Leisnig, Saxony.^^ His earliest education was
received in the village of Roschlitz, but at the age of twenty-
three he entered the University of Leipzig, where it appears
that astronomy and mathematics chiefly claimed his interest
(Fig. 71 ). In 1527 he received and accepted an appointment
as professor of mathematics in the University of Ingolstadt,
and in 1541, for his distinguished abilities, he was ennobled
by the Emperor Charles V. In addition to the fame acquired
through his mathematical treatises he became widely known
as a maker of physical and astronomical instruments, among
which were celestial globes. Numerous as appear to have
been these globes of his construction, no example at present
is known bearing the unmistakable evidence of his workman-
ship. Clemens, in his description of the Library of the
Escorial,^^ gives us to understand that it possessed
at one
time one or more Peter Apianus globes, which were probably
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