Artwork Title: The Erdapfel, also called Globe of Martin Behaim. Nuremberg

The Erdapfel, also called Globe of Martin Behaim. Nuremberg, 1492

Georg Glockendon The Elder

Artwork Title: The Erdapfel, also called Globe of Martin Behaim. NurembergArtwork Title: The Erdapfel, also called Globe of Martin Behaim. NurembergArtwork Title: The Erdapfel, also called Globe of Martin Behaim. NurembergArtwork Title: The Erdapfel, also called Globe of Martin Behaim. NurembergArtwork Title: The Erdapfel, also called Globe of Martin Behaim. NurembergArtwork Title: The Erdapfel, also called Globe of Martin Behaim. Nuremberg
The Erdapfel of Martin Behaim is the best known of Georg Glockendon the Elder's painted works. The Erdapfel (German: lit. earth apple) produced by Martin Behaim in 1492 is the oldest known surviving terrestrial globe. It is constructed of a laminated linen ball in two halves, reinforced with wood and overlaid with a map painted by Georg Glockendon. The Americas are not included, as Columbus 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 is included. Cipango (Japan) 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). The idea to call the globe "apple" may be related to the Reichsapfel ("Imperial Apple", Globus cruciger) which was also kept in Nuremberg along with the Imperial Regalia (Reichskleinodien). 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. In 1992, it was moved to the Vienna University of Technology, to be studied at high resolution by the Behaim Digital Globe Project. In 2011, a second digitalization by the German National Museum began. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Erdapfel) in collaboration with the painter Georg Glockendon, Martin Behaim constructed his familiar terrestrial globe between 1491 and 1493, one of two globes, which he called the Erdapfel (literally, the earth apple). It conforms to an idea of a globe envisioned in 1475 by Pope Sixtus IV, but has the added improvements of meridians and an equatorial line. ....There are 16° errors in the location of many of the places, whereas modern maps seldom have more than 1°, because longitude was very difficult to ascertain before the invention of accurate clocks. The antiquity of this globe and the year of its execution, on the eve of the discovery of the Americas, makes it not just the oldest, but the most historically valuable globe. It corresponds particularly well with Columbus's notion of the Earth, and makes the notion of a jump across that little Ocean Sea to the Far East irresistible; he and Behaim drew their information from the same sources. ....as a scientific work it is of enormous importance; it may be the first terrestrial globe ever built, is tilted to spin at the correct angle, and represents an encyclopedia of the West's known world in the year 1492. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Behaim)
Uploaded on Oct 10, 2016 by Suzan Hamer

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