Although it is said the ancient Greeks were the first people in the world to produce a terrestrial globe, the oldest surviving globe is the one created in 1492 in Nuremberg by Martin Behaim. For this section of Earthrium, we have recreated using a computer the topography of the time as shown on Behaim's globe.
Martin Behaim
Martin Behaim was born around 1459 in Nuremberg and initially worked in the commercial sector. In 1484 he moved to Lisbon in Portugal, and using his skills of self-promotion, he managed to become a member of a council appointed by King John II to study navigation. It seems he did in fact participate in a number of voyages. During a later visit to Nuremberg, he spread word of the global expansion he had learned of while in Lisbon, and on hearing his accounts, the city commissioned him to produce a terrestrial globe. Constructed over a period of nearly a year, Martin Behaim's globe is a metal sphere measuring 50 cm in diameter, with over 1100 placenames recorded on its surface. The globe also shows such features as the celestial equator and the ecliptic, the tropics of Capricorn and Cancer, and the Arctic and Antarctic circles. Also adorning the globe's surface are 111 miniature paintings of such things as camels, mermaids, and sailing ships. Martin Behaim's globe is currently preserved at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg.
→Martin Behaim's globe at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum
Although based on Ptomely's map of the world, Behaim's globe expanded on Ptomely's worldview. North and South America were as yet undiscovered, but Asia was shown extending to the east, and the Pacific Ocean was also included, albeit in the form of an extremely narrow stretch of water. Looking at this globe, it is easy to understand why Columbus was convinced to the very end that America was in fact the Indies (Asia), and why Magellan underestimated the size of the Pacific Ocean and failed to load sufficient provisions, forcing his crew to endure a voyage from hell in which they nearly starved.
Throughout the Age of Discovery, as a result of the evidence gathered during these perilous voyages and the continual revisions to the accepted worldview that this evidence inspired, an accurate picture of the world gradually emerged. Voyages of adventure continued until the 18th century, but with the development of chronometers enabling navigators to accurately determine longitude and other new technologies that were to become indispensable mapmaking tools, it was not long before most of mysteries of geography were solved, bringing the Age of Discovery to a close.
The globe at left shows the world as it was thought to have existed in the 15th century as well as the routes taken by some of the more famous explorers. Hopefully it will enable you to gain a clearer understanding of an age that produced men who were inspired by dreams and ambitions to embark on voyages of great suffering and hardship.