Pair of Globes

Earth and celestial globe by Georg Christoph Eimmart.

The globes are covered with two sets of twelve colored copperplate segments each, cut at 80°, so the polar caps have a radius of 10°. Framed in cartouches, detailed legends describe the globes’ advantages. The degree grid is marked from 5° to 5°. Numerous loxodromic lines run radially from several compass roses. The celestial globe has an extensive legend that indicates the positions of the stars as determined by astronomer F. Hevel and supplemented by nighttime observations until 1700. The original oak and walnut wood frame has four turned and profiled columns with baluster bases and a turned and profiled base plate. The round horizon rings are covered with colored copper engravings.

Note:

Georg Christoph Eimmart was born in Regensburg in 1638 and died in Nuremberg in 1705. He studied mathematics and astrology at the University of Jena under Erhard Weigel from 1654 to 1658. In 1660, he settled in Nuremberg, where he became the second director of the Nuremberg Academy of Painting from 1699 to 1704. In 1677, he built the first private observatory in Nuremberg. Eimmart also wrote a treatise on establishing observatories and a book on using celestial globes.

Only a few segments of a pair of 30 cm diameter globes dated 1705 have survived in public collections. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that very few terrestrial and celestial globes were completed in Eimmart’s final year. The only other known pair of identical globes by Eimmart, also from 1705 with the same diameter, is in the Astronomical Museum in Rome.

Literature:

• Allmayer-Beck, Modelle der Welt, Erd- und Himmelsgloben, Kulturerbe aus österreichischen Sammlungen, Wien 1997.
• Dahl / Gauvin, La Découverte du Monde, La Collection du Musée Stewart de Montréal, Toulouse 2000, page 66 – 70.
• Zögner, L., Die Welt in Händen, Globus und Karte als Modell von Erde und Raum, Staatsbibliothek Preußischer Kulturbesitz, Ausstellungskatalog, Berlin 1989.
• Dekker, E., Globes at Greenwich, Catalogue of the National Maritime Museum, Oxford University Press, New York 1999, page 330 – 332.
• Pilz, Kurt, 600 Jahre Astronomie in Nürnberg, Nürnberg 1977.