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What motivated the Bibliotheque Nationale experts to study the Green-Quiri
Globe more closely and attribute it to Waldseemueller and date it to 1507?
Not clear.
Since one BN official expressed interest in my book The Magellan
Myth: Reflections on Columbus, Vespucci and the Waldseemueller Map of 1507
some time ago I could imagine that if the book was acquired, some at the BN
might have been impressed with Table A in which l list chronologically this
globe along with nearly 20 other pre-Magellan cartographic items that show
the new southern continent as island-like with a cone shape.
Perhaps they wanted to date it an earlier time, specifically to
1507 in fact to justify a higher of precedency on my list which starts with
the Lenox Globe and then with Waldseemueller's creations in 1507.
Whatever the truth, the Green globe is more impressive than
Waldseemueller's tiny globe gores and does have some detail consistent with
portions of his large world map.
The re-dating to 1507 is a challenge in the sense that a major,
famous French institution is claiming to have in its possession a crucial item
that sets up a bit of competition for greater public attention, to show
that that on French soil -- in Paris no less -- one can come and see a key
item relating directly to the Saint-Die project which in fact emerged
essentially within in a French cultural-historical-political milieu.
And since my book via meticulous genealogical research which began
in 1993 reveals Saint-Die connections via its Grand Provost Louis Dommartin
to the powerful Braganza clique in Portugal and also to the Columbus
network in Seville/Spain, then this all fabulous connecting of dots by me
placed
France back at center stage - although now the BN takes the next step with
the redating of the Green-Quiri Globe that has the practical effect of
sealing the deal or argument -- if the Green-Quiri Globe really was made by
Waldseemueller.
But did he really make it? I have no idea or way to prove it. It
is at least plausible that the creator (if he was not Waldseemueller) was
inspired by Waldseemueller as were Glareanus and Stobnicza.
That said, I have always wondered why the globe gores made in 1507
were made so small -- so much smaller than the huge world map. This is a
huge disparity in terms of physical scale. Why? Was not enough paper
available for a larger printed globe gores? Do the watermarks on the globe
globes really allow us to date them to 1507? Were the globe gores made this
small simply to sell more of them to those persons who could not afford
something bigger and also not afford the big world map?
There are a number of questions here and perhaps someone has
answered them already regarding the smaller globe gores of which four examples
are known to exist.
Peter Dickson
Arlington, Virginia
Phone: 703-243-6641
Email: [email protected]_ (mailto:[email protected])
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