THE WORLD AT YOUR FINGERTIPS : ENGLISH RENAISSANCE GLOBES AS COSMOGRAPHICAL, MATHEMATICAL AND PEDAGOGICAL INSTRUMENTS

摘要

The first engraved globes began to appear in Europe in the early sixteenth century. At first specialty items, with a limited and esoteric clientele, by 1600 globes were widely manufactured and distributed, especially in northern Europe. From our point of view, these new instruments might seem to suggest a new three-dimensional conception of the world, a new sort of cosmography. But did early modern users of these large terrestrial and celestial globes conceive of the world in a new and different way ? Those who created the globes used them to further their positions as arbiters of new geographical and imperial knowledge and therefore to strengthen their place in the patronage system. Those who wrote treatises describing the uses of the globes presented them as mathematical instruments that could aid in understanding the globe and the cosmos. Owners placed the globes in their homes and perhaps on shipboard, suggesting an interest in a new worldview. However, it would be a mistake to see these new manufactured globes as creating a whole new cosmography. The terrestrial globe was perfectly suited to a geocentric model of the universe and thus preserved a Ptolemaic representation and understanding.