![Martin Behaim 1492 Ocean Map](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/Martin_Behaim_1492_Ocean_Map.png)
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The (; ) is a terrestrial
globe
A globe is a spherical model of Earth, of some other celestial body, or of the celestial sphere. Globes serve purposes similar to maps, but unlike maps, they do not distort the surface that they portray except to scale it down. A model globe ...
produced by
Martin Behaim
Martin Behaim (6 October 1459 – 29 July 1507), also known as and by various forms of , was a German textile merchant and cartographer. He served John II of Portugal as an adviser in matters of navigation and participated in a voyage to We ...
from 1490–1492. The Erdapfel is the oldest surviving terrestrial globe. It is constructed of a laminated linen ball in two halves, reinforced with wood and overlaid with a
map
A map is a symbolic depiction emphasizing relationships between elements of some space, such as objects, regions, or themes.
Many maps are static, fixed to paper or some other durable medium, while others are dynamic or interactive. Although ...
painted on
gores by
Georg Glockendon
Georg Glockendon the Elder ( fl. 1484; died 1514) was a Nuremberg-based woodblock cutter, printer and painter. Famed during his lifetime for his illuminations, he was also an industrious printer and published a number of the works of Erhard Etzla ...
. The map was drawn on paper, which was pasted on a layer of parchment around the globe.
The Americas are not included, as
Columbus
Columbus is a Latinized version of the Italian surname "''Colombo''". It most commonly refers to:
* Christopher Columbus (1451-1506), the Italian explorer
* Columbus, Ohio, capital of the U.S. state of Ohio
Columbus may also refer to:
Places ...
returned to Spain no sooner than March 1493. The globe shows an enlarged Eurasian continent and an empty ocean between Europe and Asia. The mythical
Saint Brendan's Island
Saint Brendan's Island, also known as Saint Brendan's Isle, is a phantom island or mythical island, supposedly situated in the North Atlantic somewhere west of Northern Africa. It is named after Saint Brendan of Clonfert. He and his followers a ...
is included.
Cipangu
The word '' Japan'' is an exonym, and is used (in one form or another) by many languages. The Japanese names for Japan are Nippon () and Nihon (). They are both written in Japanese using the kanji .
During the third-century CE Three Kingdoms per ...
(
Japan
Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...
) is oversized and well south of its true position;
Martellus's map is followed in developing
an enormous phantom peninsula east of the
Golden Chersonese (
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...
).
The idea to call the globe "apple" may be related to the
Reichsapfel ("Imperial Apple",
Globus cruciger
The ''globus cruciger'' ( for, , Latin, cross-bearing orb), also known as "the orb and cross", is an orb surmounted by a cross. It has been a Christian symbol of authority since the Middle Ages, used on coins, in iconography, and with a sceptre ...
) which was also kept in Nuremberg along with the
Imperial Regalia
The Imperial Regalia, also called Imperial Insignia (in German ''Reichskleinodien'', ''Reichsinsignien'' or ''Reichsschatz''), are regalia of the Holy Roman Emperor. The most important parts are the Crown, the Imperial orb, the Imperial sce ...
(
Reichskleinodien
The Imperial Regalia, also called Imperial Insignia (in German ''Reichskleinodien'', ''Reichsinsignien'' or ''Reichsschatz''), are regalia of the Holy Roman Emperor. The most important parts are the Crown, the Imperial orb, the Imperial scep ...
). The name is not related to the modern meaning of Erdapfel in southern Germany and Austria, which is "
potato
The potato is a starchy food, a tuber of the plant ''Solanum tuberosum'' and is a root vegetable native to the Americas. The plant is a perennial in the nightshade family Solanaceae.
Wild potato species can be found from the southern Unit ...
"—potatoes had not yet been brought from America to Europe.
From its creation until early in the 16th century, it stood in a reception room in the Nuremberg town hall. After that time, it was held by the Behaim family. In 1907, it was transferred to the
Germanic Museum in
Nuremberg
Nuremberg ( ; german: link=no, Nürnberg ; in the local East Franconian dialect: ''Nämberch'' ) is the second-largest city of the German state of Bavaria after its capital Munich, and its 518,370 (2019) inhabitants make it the 14th-largest ...
. In 1992, it was moved for some time to the
Vienna University of Technology
TU Wien (TUW; german: Technische Universität Wien; still known in English as the Vienna University of Technology from 1975–2014) is one of the major universities in Vienna, Austria. The university finds high international and domestic recogn ...
, to be studied at high resolution by the Behaim Digital Globe Project. In 2011, a second digitalization by the German National Museum began.
Digitalisierung durch das Germanische Nationalmuseum Nürnberg
Terrestrial globes are known to have been made from antiquity, such as The Globe of Crates. None are known to have survived, even as fragments. A celestial globe, the Farnese Atlas
The Farnese Atlas is a 2nd-century AD Roman marble sculpture of Atlas holding up a celestial globe. Probably a copy of an earlier work of the Hellenistic period, it is the oldest extant statue of Atlas, a Titan of Greek mythology who is repres ...
, has survived from the second century AD.
See also
*Early world maps
The earliest known world maps date to classical antiquity, the oldest examples of the 6th to 5th centuries BCE still based on the flat Earth paradigm.
World maps assuming a spherical Earth first appear in the Hellenistic period.
The developments ...
*Lenox Globe
Lenox may refer to:
Places in the United States
* Lenox, Alabama
* Lenox, Georgia
* Lenox, Iowa
** Lenox College, former college in Hopkinton, Iowa
* Lenox, Kentucky
* Lenox, Massachusetts, a New England town
** Lenox (CDP), Massachusetts, the m ...
*Ostrich Egg Globe
The Ostrich Egg Globe is a hollow terrestrial globe made from the conjoined lower halves of two ostrich eggs. The owner of the globe claims that it was made in the early 16th century and is the first globe to depict the New World (with North Am ...
References
Further reading
*
External links
The International Coronelli Society for the Study of Globes
{{Authority control
Historic maps of the world
Collections of the Germanisches Nationalmuseum
1492 works
15th-century maps and globes