Fig. 44a. Anonymous Globe Gores, ca. 1540.
How Schöner, and others, came to the conclusion that “Parias” (North America) is not “a large independent portion of the earth in that fourth part of the world,” but has an Asiatic connection, and how they set down that conclusion in their maps will receive consideration in the following chapter.
Though not a maker of globes, in so far as we have definite knowledge, Albrecht Dürer turned his attention to the drafting of maps, two of which have for us here a certain interest. In the year 1515 Johannes Stabius designed a map of the Old World on a stereographic projection (Fig. 45), one of the first of its kind, which Dürer is said to have engraved. While the map itself is of little importance it is of interest as an attempt to represent in perspective a spherical earth.197
Fig. 45. Stabius World Globe Map, 1515.
Dürer likewise undertook the drafting and engraving of a celestial map (Fig. 46), than which of this character there appears to be none earlier known. It was not so drawn as to make possible its application to the surface of a sphere, but its reshaping for that purpose could not have been for him a difficult proposition. He, with others of this time, was giving thought to the problem of globe-gore construction.
Fig. 46. Northern Celestial Hemisphere of Albrecht Dürer.
NOTES
124 The illustrations given are typical, and to one familiar with the works of the period on geographical and astronomical subjects, others suggest themselves.
125 For popular accounts of the Este family of Ferrara, see Gardner, E. G. Princes and Poets of Ferrara. London, 1904; Cartwright, J. Isabella d’Este. London, 1903.
126 Harrisse. Discovery. pp. 422–425; same author, Les Corte-Real et leur voyages au Nouveau Monde. Paris, 1883, with reproduction of the western half of the map, in colors; Stevenson, E. L. Maps illustrating early discovery and exploration in America. New Brunswick, 1906. No. 1 of this series is a reproduction of the Cantino map in the size of the original.
127 Fischer, J. The Discoveries of the Norsemen in America. London, 1903. pp. 112–118. Professor Fischer enjoys the distinction of being the foremost living authority on Ptolemy.
128 D’Arco, C. Delle arti e degli artefici di Mantova. Mantova, 1857. Vol. II, p. 53.
129 Bertolotti, A. Artisti in relazione coi Gonzaga Signori di Mantova. Modena, 1885. p. 143. (In: Estr. dagli Atti e Memorie delle Deputazioni di storia patria per le Provincie Modenesi e Parmensi. Série III, Vol. III, parte 1.)
130 Harrisse. Discovery. p. 434.
131 Denza, F. Globi celesti della Specola Vaticana. (In: Publicazioni della Specola Vaticana. Torino, 1894. Vol. IV, p. xvii.)
132 Fiorini, op. cit., pp. 88–89.
133 See the edition of Ptolemy. Geographia—MDVIII. Rome. Chap. xii.
134 Fiorini, op. cit., pp. 94–96, the citation being made from Badia, Jodoco del. La bottega di Alessandro di Francesco Rosselli merciaje e stampatore (1525). (In: Miscellanea fiorentina di erudizione e storia. Luglio, 1894. Vol. II, p. 14.)
135 Zach, F. v. Monatliche Korrespondence. Gotha, 1806. Vol. XIII, p. 157. Harrisse. Discovery. pp. 445–446.
136 Fiorini, op. cit., p. 99.
137 Fiorini, op. cit., p. 101.
138 Fiorini, op. cit., p. 72.
139 Fiorini, op. cit., p. 102. Of the further interest taken by Cardinal Salviati in geography, see Stevenson, op. cit., No. 7.
140 Trithemius. Epistolae familiares. Haganoae, 1536. p. 294.
141 This is part of the letter of August 12.
142 D’Avezac, M. A. P. Martin Hylacomylus Walzemüller ses ouvrages et ses collaborateurs. Paris, 1867; Gallois. Les Géographes. Chap. iv. “L’école Alsacienne-Lorraine”; Schmidt, C. Histoire littéraire de l’Alsace a la fin du XVe et au commencement du XVIe siècle. Paris, 1879.
143 Schmidt, op. cit., Vol. II, p. 111; Humboldt, A. v. Kritische Untersuchungen. Berlin, 1852. Vol. II, p. 363; Gallois, L. Le Gymnase Vosgien. (In: Bulletin de la Société de Géographie de l’Est. Paris, 1900. pp. 88 ff.); D’Avezac, op. cit., p. 11.
144 A canon of the cathedral of St. Dié. Lud gives us the information that he was the translator of the Vespucci narrative from the French into the Latin.
145 Gravier, N. F. Histoire de Saint-Dié. Epinal, 1836. p. 202. The author refers to the character of Lud and to the influence of the St. Dié press. Copies of Lud’s most important little tract may be found in the British Museum, and in the Imperial Library of Vienna; it was printed in the St. Dié in the year 1507.
146 The full title of this significant volume reads: ‘Cosmographiae Introductio cum quibusdam geometriae ac astronomiae principiis ad eam rem necessariis, insuper quatuor Americi Vespucci navigationes. Universalis Cosmographie descriptio tam in solido q̄ȝ plano eis etiam insertis que Ptholomeo ignota a nuperis reperta sunt.’ ‘Introduction to Cosmography with certain necessary principles of geometry and astronomy to which are added the Four Voyages of Amerigo Vespucci a representation of the entire world, both in the solid (globe?) and projected on the plane, including also lands which were unknown to Ptolemy,