Globe Terrestris. In quo locorum insigniorum situs terraeque facies, secundum praecipuas celeberrimorum nostri aevi observationes.: DOPPELMAYR’S TERRESTRIAL & CELESTIAL GLOBES

Johann Georg Puschner, Nuremberg, 1728. 32 cm Coloured Terrestrial Globe in Original Condition.

Terrestrial Globe made up of two sets of twelve coloured engraved globe gores , 2 engraved polar calottes and 2 coloured engraved title or text cartouches. Assembled on a (probably wooden) hollow sphere (diameter: 32 cm) with brass pole screws suspended in a chiselled meridian ring made of brass and with a smaller brass scale ring for the degrees of longitude. As a standing globe, the ball is inserted into the wooden horizontal equator ring, which stands on four turned feet. The engraved calendar ring is mounted on its octagonal, round surface. The original silver-plated brass compass with a glass cover is embedded in the lower platform plate, which is also turned.

Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr's (1677-1750) famous terrestrial globe from 1728, which he printed and published together with the astronomer and publisher Johann Georg Puschner (1680-1749) who constructed the globe,

This a scarce globe and only a few examples are known.

This globe has the two small (often missing) polar caps (diameter approx. 3 cm) with 12 segments and "POLUS ARCTICUS" and "POLUS ANTARCTICUS" in capitals. As usual in the northern Pacific (above the "Mare de Zur") the title cartouche "Globus Terrestris" with the printer's information "Ioh. Gabr. Doppelmaier ... a Ioh. Georg Puschnero Chalcographo Norib. AC 1728" is mounted, as well as the Text cartouche with the portraits of "Martin Bohemus" and "William Dampier", which was inserted into the surrounding ten portraits of Magellan, Amerigo Vespucci, Martin Frobisher, Van Schouten, William Dampier, La Salle, Thomas Cavendish, Christopher Columbus, George Spilbergen,Roggeveen and Behrens, and van Noord. The globe also describes their routes.

The text reads: "Exprimit Globus hic noster quicquid Geographia recens ex Observationibus fide dignis suppeditat, tam in situ locorum plurium, quam in terrarum, novarum etiam, mariumque ambitu plurium, quam in terrarum, novarum etiam, mariumque ambitu. Meridianus primus per Insulam Fer inter Canarias (quae olim Fortunatae duct, occidentalus dicebantur) a quo Parisensis Meridianus, probatissimarum Observationum testimonio, 20 Gradibus, Noribergensis vero 28 Gr: 40 Min. distat.

This globe reflects the most up to date geography of the time, both with regard to the location of many places newly discovered, describing continents, countries, the oceans and seas. The meridians are every 5 degrees, prime meridian of Ferro. Parallels every 5 degrees, tropics, polar circles. Ecliptic. The equator, ecliptic and prime meridian are graduated.

The equatorial ring with the mounted engraved calendar shows the calendar year with the months "Januarius" to "Decembris", the most important saints' feasts, the cardinal points (for the winds) and all kinds of scales for aligning the earth globe. –

The globe is uniformly slightly discoloured as usual due to the original varnish(the red and yellow slightly faded and the mostly vegetable-based green is oxidised as usual, but without any colour damage). The top of the pole screw is missing a small button.

The globe is firmly suspended in the meridian ring and can be rotated very easily. The attractive compass is fully functional, the needle is still pointing neatly to the north after 300 years. The equatorial ring with the engraved calendar and gusset ornamentation is also coloured but a bit worn and is also oxidised.

This is a very nice example of a very scarce globe.

Fauser, Older Earth and Sky Globes in Bavaria (Stuttgart 1964), No. 93; Van der Krogt, Dop 9.

With

DOPPELMAYR, JOHANN GABRIEL.

Globus Coelestis Novus Stellarum fixarum Loca secundum celeberimmi Astronomi Dantiscani IOHANNIS HEVELII, Catalogum ad anum Chr. 1730

Celestial Globe, Nuremberg, 1728, 32 cm, two sets of 12 coloured gores from ecliptic to the poles. The axis runs through the celestial poles, the later stand lacks the engraved horizon ring.

This celestial globe by Johann Gabriel Doppelmayr was accurate for the epoch 1730 and drew on the star catalogue of Johannes Hevelius of 1690. Also depicted are the paths of several comets observed by Hevelius, Johann Kepler, Giovanni Cassini and John Flamsteed. There were other German globe-makers in the early 1700s but Doppelmayr's globes dominated the German market until the end of the 18th century. They were revised in the 1750s and finally in 1792 by Wolfgang Paul Jenig (d. 1805), 42 years after Doppelmayr's death. Long before he published his first celestial globe in 1728, Doppelmayr had taken a keen interest in astronomy, and he spent some time studying the subject in Leiden, one of the leading universities of the time.

In the early 1700s he had compiled several celestial maps, which had been published in various atlases by his friend Johann Baptist Homann. These maps were later collected and published in 1742 as the Atlas Novus Coelestis, for which Doppelmayr became well known.

He also translated several scientific works into German, including Nicolas Bion's L'usage des globes célestes et terrestres (1699) and John Wilkins's Discovery of a World in the Moone (1638), which advanced the relatively new theories of Copernicus and Galileo.

Van Der Krogt, Dop 12

'Johann Gabriel Doppelmays may be considered one of the most famous scientists of Nuremberg. He was especially well known as a mathematician; but also as a writer, translator and publisher he won renown. He was born in Nuremberg in 1671, studied in Altdorf and Halle and travelled for some time in Germany, the Netherlands and England. From 1704 till his death in 1750, he taught science and mathematics at the Egidian Gymnasium in Nuremberg. His co-operation with Homann probably awakened and interest in globes and between 1728 and 1736 he published three pairs of globes; in 1728 this pair with a diameter of 32cm, in 1730 a pair with a diameter of 20cm and 1736 a pair with a diameter of 10cm.' Van der Krogt