XI. Global Treasures

The earliest globes, made in the Classical world, were painted directly onto solid spheres. In the late fifteenth century, a new technique was developed of printing globe “gores” which could then be pasted onto the sphere (70, 71). This innovation seems to have been made in response to a cultural movement that treated globes as symbols of status, education, and wealth. Starting with Lorenz Beheim’s 1517 purchase of both a terrestrial and a celestial globe, early modern consumers generally bought pairs of globes, together representing the entirety of God’s creation (72, 73); a wealthy consumer could also purchase an armillary sphere, a three-dimensional model of the cosmos’s geometry, which made explicit how the earth was tied inextricably to the heavens (74, 75).

[Terrestrial globe gores]

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Vincenzio M. Coronelli
Venetian, 1650-1718
[Terrestrial globe gores]
Copper engraving, 27 x 47cm
Venice,1700
Osher Collection


[Celestial globe gores]

map/11765.0001

Vincenzio M. Coronelli
Venetian, 1650-1718
[Celestial globe gores]
Copper engraving, 27 x 47cm
Venice,1700
Osher Collection


Loring's terrestrial globe

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William B. Annin
American, d. ca. 1839
George G. Smith
American, fl. ca. 1820-1833
Loring's terrestrial globe containing all the late discoveries and geographical improvements, also the tracts of the most celebrated circumnavigators. Compiled from Smith's new English Globe with additions and improvements by Annin Smith.
Boston: Josiah Loring, 1833
Copper engraving, hand colored, mounted on paper sphere, 30.5cm (12") diameter, with brass and wood stand
Osher Collection


Loring's celestial globe

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William B. Annin
American, d. ca. 1839
George G. Smith
American, fl. ca. 1820-1833
Loring's celestial globe containing all the known stars Nebulae compiled from the works of Wollaston, Flamsted, de la Caille, Havelits, Mayer Bradley, Herschel, Maskelyne The transactions of the Astronomical Society of London From Smith's New England Globe.
Boston, Josiah Loring, 1833
Copper engraving, hand colored, mounted on paper sphere, 30.5cm (12") diameter, with brass and wood stand
Osher Collection


The Celestial Indicator

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Henry Bryant
American, 1812-1881
The Celestial Indicator
Hartford, CT: The Bryant Celestial Indicator, Co., 1872
Brass with engraved printed paper transfers and black lacquer
Osher Collection


Sphærvm artificialivm typica repræsentatio novißime adumbrata

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Johann Baptist Homann
German, 1663-1724
Sphærvm artificialivm typica repræsentatio novißime adumbrata
Copper engraving, hand-colored with water color, 48.5 x 58cm
From: Grosser Atlas (Nuremberg: J. B. Homann, 1716)
Smith Collection