Terrestrial and Celestial Globes (Vol. 1&2). Edward Luther Stevenson
On the leaf preceding “fol. 1” is the representation of a mounted globe.
One of Schöner’s globes of 1515 is to be found in the Grand Ducal Library of Weimar, and one in the City Museum of Frankfurt (Fig. 43). Wieser,186 after a careful comparison, finds these globes to be practically alike in all details. Each is 27 cm. in diameter, having the usual mountings of brass, the whole resting on a wooden base. While neither signed nor dated, they answer the description contained in Schöner’s little tract referred to above. That region on the globe which we may designate North America, he calls “Parias”; the South American continent bears the name “America” and the austral land the name “Brasilie regio.” In addition to these principal regions he has represented the land discovered by the Cortereals, designating the same as “Litus incognitum.” Cuba bears the name “Isabella” and Haiti the name “Spagnolla.” The feature which seems to give special interest to these globes of Schöner is the representation of a strait between “America” and “Brasilie regio.” To the significance of this particular representation Wieser has given very careful consideration. He cites numerous passages from the tract of Schöner, and from the ‘Copia der newen Zeitung aus Presillig Landt,’187 a publication which he finds good reason for believing appeared before 1515, and in which he finds an acceptable explanation of the origin of this geographical notion represented by Schöner, which antedates the Magellan expedition by a period of five years.
Fig. 43. Globe of Johann Schöner in Hemispheres, 1515.
It is a point to be especially noted that the dominant cosmographical idea of the map makers of the first quarter of the century represented the New World regions as independent of Asia. It is the idea set forth in the Portuguese maps, such as the Cantino and the Canerio; it is the idea which we find represented in the Waldseemüller maps and practically in all the Lusitano-Germanic maps of the period.188 Schöner had written in his tract of 1515, “Hunc in modum terra quadriparita cognoscitur, et sunt tres primae partes continentes, id est terra firma. Sed quarta est insula, quia omniquoque mari circumdata conspicitur.” “It has now been ascertained that the earth is divided into four parts, and the first three parts are continents, that is, main lands, but the fourth part is an island because we see it surrounded on all sides by the sea.”189 With regard to the relation of “Parias” to Asia, he states, “Parias insula quae non est pars vel portio prioris, sed specialis magna portio terrae huius quartae partis mundi.” “Parias is not a part or portion of the aforesaid country, but a large independent portion of the earth, in that fourth part of the world.”190
Of the globes constructed by Schöner, none is more important than that bearing date 1520 (Fig. 44).191 The wooden ball on which the map has been drawn and colored by hand has a diameter of about 87 cm. and rests upon a wooden base. Near the south pole is the date 1520 in large gilt letters and an inscription stating that it was made at the expense of Johannes Seyler by Jo. Schöner.192 It is apparent that the same sources were used for the drafting of the map on this globe that had been used in the case of his earlier globes, but the geographical information on this last globe is much more detailed. The New World appears in five distinct parts, the first of which is called “Terra Corterealis,” the second “Terra de Cuba,” the third “Insulae Canibalorum siue Antiglia,” the fourth “Terra nova, America vel Brasilia sive Papagelli Terra,” and the fifth “Brasilia inferior.” The globe is richly decorated in colors, and its numerous descriptive legends, most of them in Latin, give such geographical information as may be found in most of the important maps of this early period.193
Fig. 44. Western Hemisphere of Johann Schöner’s Globe, 1520.
In 1523 Schöner issued a little tract of four pages which he called ‘De nuper sub Castiliae ac Portugaliae Regibus Serenissimis repertis Insulis ac Regionibus, Joannis Schöner Charolipolitani epistola et Globus Geographicus, seriem navigationum annotantibus. Clarissimo atque disertissimo viro Dño Rymero de Streytpergk, ecclesiae Babenbergensis Canonico dictae. Timiripae, Anno Incarnat. Dni. 1523.’ ‘An epistle of John Schöner of Carlstadt concerning the islands and regions recently discovered by the Most Serene Kings of Castile and of Portugal, and a geographical globe for the use of marking the course of those navigations. Dedicated to the most distinguished and eloquent Reymer von Streytperg, canon of the Church of Bamberg. Timiripae (Kirch-ehrenbach). In the year of the Lord’s incarnation 1523.’194 Though Schöner alone gives us such information as we possess concerning this globe, it has been the subject of much controversy, and if recovered it doubtless would prove to be an object of much interest. There is, in the opinion of the author, scarcely the slightest ground for accepting the conclusions of Henry Stevens and Professor v. Wieser, that the globe gores, now in the possession of the New York Public Library (Fig. 44a), and described by them as the lost globe of Schöner of 1523, are of Schönerian origin. The critical studies of Harrisse are sufficiently convincing to set this question at rest.195 Schöner concludes his little tract in the following words: “Ego tam mirifice orbis pervagationi nonnihil volens adiicere, ut quae lectu videantur mirabilia, aspectu credantur prohabiliora, Globum hunc in orbis modum effingere studui, exemplar haud fallibile aemulatus, quod Hispaniarum solertia cuidam viro honore conspicuo transmisit. Nec ob id quem antea glomeraveram abolitum iri volens, quippē qui es temporè, quantum phas erat homini abdita mundi penetrare, abunde expressit, modo sese consona admissione patientur, quod invenienda inventis non obstent. Accipe igitur hunc a me formatum globum ea animi benignitate, qua eum laborem ad tui nominis honorem lubens aggressus sum. Cognoscam profecto meas lucubratiunculas tuae celsitudini nullatenus despectui fore. Vale.” “Being desirous of making some small addition to this wonderful survey of the earth, so that what appears very extraordinary to the reader may appear more likely, when thus illustrated, I have been at the pains to construct this globe, having copied a very accurate one which an ingenious Spaniard has sent to a person of distinction. I do not however wish to set aside the globe I constructed some time since, as it fully showed all that had, at that time, been discovered: so that the former, as far as it goes, agrees with the latter. Please then to accept this globe in the same friendly spirit in which I undertook to construct it for your gratification. But I am sure you will not despise my humble attempt. Farewell.”196 This statement assures us that he had constructed a globe at the time of issuing his tract, and it gives us a fairly definite idea of its New World configurations, and further, that in the main it agreed with his earlier globes. It seems probable, however, that in some manner he indicated an Asiatic connection of the new lands, an idea which is so frequently expressed in the maps of the next quarter of a century, especially in the globe maps, an idea not to be finally set at rest until the discovery of Bering put an end to the controversy.
Fig. 44a. Anonymous Globe Gores, ca. 1540.