![[MARTIN WALDSEEMÜLLER (c.1470 - c.1522). World map in the form of a set of terrestrial globe gores. St. Dié: 1507.]](https://www.christies.com/img/LotImages/2005/CKS/2005_CKS_07137_0017_000(101619).jpg?w=1)
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[MARTIN WALDSEEMÜLLER (c.1470 - c.1522). World map in the form of a set of terrestrial globe gores. St. Dié: 1507.]
A set of 12 woodcut gores for a terrestrial globe with a diameter of 12cm (4½ inches), overall maximum dimensions of the paper 180 x 344mm, trimmed to the margin of the gores. (Some light staining, two small clean tears in the joins between gores 10 and 11 and 11 and 12, traces of old folds along gore joins, old vertical paste mark at gore 6/7.)
A SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE IN THE MAPPING OF THE WORLD. ONE OF FOUR KNOWN COPIES, THE ONLY SEPARATELY PUBLISHED MAP BY WALDSEEMüLLER IN PRIVATE HANDS. WALDSEEMüLLER'S GLOBE MAP IS A MAP OF MANY FIRSTS: THE FIRST PRINTED GLOBE, THE FIRST 'ACCURATE AND COMPLETE' MAP OF THE WORLD IN 360°, THE FIRST MAP OR GLOBE TO NAME AMERICA, THE FIRST TO SHOW A SEPARATE SOUTH AND NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT, THE FIRST TO SHOW THE PACIFIC OCEAN AS A SEPARATE ENTITY, THE FIRST TO SHOW CAPE HORN AND A DEFINED WESTERN COASTLINE TO SOUTH AMERICA.
This globe map and Waldseemüller's large wall map (the only extant example now owned by the Library of Congress, U.S.A.), both first published in 1507, became the basis of all world maps and globes for the next 35 years. They presented a new revolutionary global geography, completing the fourth quadrant of the world. The globe map was drawn up by Martin Waldseemüller in St. Dié, Lorraine, south west of Strasbourg. It was issued with the Universalis Cosmographia large wallmap, and a booklet, Cosmographiae Introductio, the three parts often described as the 'Birth Certificate of America'.
THE GENESIS OF THE WALDSEEMüLLER GORES
Martin Waldseemüller, theologian and cosmographer, and Matthias Ringmann, a humanist poet, were brought to the monastery of St. Dié des Vosges in early 1505 by Gualtier Ludd, Secretary to René II Duke of Lorraine, to join a group of scholars called the Gymnasia Vosagense. Waldseemüller and Ringmann started work on a new edition of Ptolemy's Geographia that was to combine Ptolemaic maps with a new set of modern maps. They were provided with at least six printed editions and certainly several manuscript versions of the Geographia. Their work on this new Geography of the World was combined with an instruction to create a new globe and large map of the world, for which René had received a French translation of Amerigo Vespucci's voyages, and for which they must have also had copies of Portuguese charts either from Portugal or from Italy. Ringmann, a supporter of Vespucci, had already published in 1505 an edition of Vespucci's Mundus Novus, a 'vivid' description of the New World which became a 'bestseller' around Europe. By April 1507, Waldseemüller and Ringmann had completed the booklet, Cosmographiae Introductio, to accompany the globe and wallmap. It appeared in two editions in St. Dié, the first in April 1507 (2 issues) and in again in August 1507. Another edition was published by Waldseemüller alone in 1509 in Strasbourg. The Cosmographiae provided an introduction to the new geography of the world as laid out in the globe and wallmap, and included a Latin translation of Vespucci's four voyages. In the text, the authors explain the reasons for the naming of 'America': 'Now, these parts of the earth have been more extensively explored and a fourth part has been discovered by Amerigo Vespucci. Inasmuch as both Europe and Asia received their names from women, I see no reason why any one should justly object to calling this part Amerige, i.e., the land of Amerigo, or America, after Amerigo, its discoverer, a man of great ability'. Although it is likely that the simple globe gores, their model or 'marquette' of the New World view, would have been available with each issue of the Cosmographiae, the large 12 sheet wallmap, would have been too expensive to be sold as widely. Although a text on Waldseemüller's later wallmap, the Carta Marina (1516), says that 1,000 copies of the 1507 wallmap were made, it is unlikely that this number were issued, given the survival rate of the one bound copy now in the Library of Congress.
The globe map and book had an enormous influence on other geographers, notably Appian, Schöner and Fries, and advanced the science of globemaking and map making particularly in Germany and the Low Countries. Waldseemüller, for many, has become the father of modern Geography. The notoriety and mystery that has surrounded both the globe map and large wallmap has often concentrated on the naming (or 'misnaming') of America, but in truth, given that they named South America after Vespucci, who had sailed furthest around it, it is not unreasonable. It was left to Mercator in 1534 to ascribe the terms North and South America. The mystery of the globe map, its definition of Florida (before it was discovered by the Spanish), the Pacific (before any man had officially seen it), the coast of South America (before anyone had sailed along it) and the use of the name 'The Western Ocean' in the Pacific, all suggest that the Portuguese may have been more active west of the Tordesillas Treaty Line before 1505. Such information would have been kept secret by the Portuguese, and it is perhaps here in this globe that the secrets were first drawn up for a wider audience, particularly since Vespucci's allegiance to Portugal changed when he became a Spanish citizen.
THE WALDSEEMULLER GLOBE MAP, A CENSUS OF COPIES
1. The Hauslab-Liechtenstein-Bell-Univeristy of Minnesota copy -- this was the first set of the globe gores to be discovered, found in the collection of Baron Franz Ritter von Hauslab in Austria and first shown in 1871 at the Congrès géographiques at Antwerp. By 1890, it had been acquired by the Prince of Liechtenstein and studies by Gallois dated it to 1507 following the realisation that it was the lost globe described in the St. Dié editions of the Cosomographiae Introductio. In 1949, the Liechtenstein map collection was bought en bloc by the famous New York dealer H.P. Kraus, however the globe map was retained and offered by the Prince at a special auction at Parke-Bernet in New York on 24 May 1950. The catalogue published a reserve of $50,000, but it failed to sell and was sold privately in 1954 to James Ford Bell for approximately $45,000. His map collection is now at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, U.S.A.
2. The Kraus-Bavarian State Library copy -- in 1960 at Sotheby's in London, a set of the gores was offered bound into a Ptolemy atlas of 1486. The atlas and gores were bought by H.P. Kraus for £12,500 ($65,000). The prize of his map and globe collection, H.P. Kraus published details of these gores in a special catalogue. They were offered for sale in 1991, and purchased by the Bavarian State library in Munich for approximately 2 million DM (in excess of $1million).
3. The Offenburg copy -- following the publicity regarding the acquisition of the copy above by the Bavarian State library in 1992, in 1993 two researchers, Dr. Obnof and Frau Dr. Vera Sack found a third example of the gores inserted into a copy of Aristotle published in Freiburg in 1541. The Aristotle formed part of the Grimmelshausen-Gymnasium library given to the Stadtbucherei Offenburg. The Aristotle had previously been in a monastic library in Offenburg.
4. The present example was discovered in February 2003 when the owner, on reading an article in the Frankfurter Algemeinen Zeitung on the Munich copy, realised he owned a similar map amongst his large collection of books and ephemera.
WATERMARKS AND PAPER
Watermarks and paper analysis can be important indicators in the research of printed materials. To date, however, there had been no attempt to tie the examples of the globe maps together by these means. Accordingly, an analysis of the paper in the four surviving examples has now been carried out with the following results:
1. The Hauslab-Liechenstein-Bell-University of Minnesota copy -- bulls head watermark surmounted by cross and entwined serpent with an arrow head tongue, height of watermark 11.5cm - horn width 4cm, chain line width 2.5cm. On full sheet, 252 x 380mm (9½ x 15 inches). The sheet sized.
2. The Kraus-Bavarian State Library copy -- no watermark, on paper with chain line width 3cm. On full sheet 290 x 420mm (11½ x 16½ inches).
3. The Offenburg copy - no watermark, on paper with chain line width 2.6cm. On full sheet, 314mm x 378mm (12½ x 15 inches).
4. This example with a watermark identical to the Hauslab-Liechenstein copy - bulls head watermark surmounted by cross with entwined serpent, head of serpent partly cut away but with arrow head tongue, height of watermark 11.5cm - horn width 4cm, chain line width 2.5cm - no margins, gores trimmed to edge of woodcut area.
The example offered here is on almost identical paper to the Hauslad-Liechenstein-Bell-Minneapolis copy, both in the form and dimensions of the watermark and in chain line width. The margins of the paper sheet of the Minneapolis copy are smaller than the other two examples in Germany. It should be noted that the sketch of the watermark on the Liechtenstein example depicted in the Parke Bernet catalogue of 1950 bears only a passing resemblance to reality. The Bavarian State Library copy, despite being catalogued twice by H.P. Kraus as having a bulls head, cross and serpent mark, unfortunately has no such watermark, although the 1486 Ptolemy atlas in which it has been inserted does have a bulls head mark.
To check further the correlation of paper used in works published in St. Dié prints and their watermarks, we looked at four 1507 editions of the Cosmographiae Introductio in the British Library, 2 copies in the Library of Congress and one copy in the University of Minnesota and although small fragments of ox heads and parts of crosses were discovered in several copies, no complete watermarks could be found. Chain line width varies from 2.6 - 3.1cm. There was no exact concordance with any watermarks in Bricquet or Piccard, although Piccard XVI-371 has a similar compostition but with a thinner cross staff and no central line through the bull's head. Bricquet 15409 has a similar composition but variant horns, and different height. The Piccard mark is noted as Epstein i.T., Liegnitz, Jagerndorf 1527-30, the Bricquet mark is Nideggan 1527 and Bromberg 1528. Precise conclusions on the origin and precedence of the various papers used for the Waldseemüller gores require further study. Piccard online, which is in the process of assimilating another 30,000 watermarks, has yet to complete the analysis of the bull's head group.
TIMELINE
Considerable speculation, misinformation and some misunderstanding has surrounded these globe gores and the large world map. To present the various strands of information relating to the genesis, execution and influences of the Waldseemüller gores, the following timeline brings together the principal events in the lives of Waldseemüller, Ringmann, Vespucci and their circles. References to accurate factual information are principally taken from 19th century sources, much of the 20th century work on the subject being a reiteration of earlier work by Humboldt, D'Avezac-Macaya, Fischer, Varnhagen and Harisse.
1451: 9 March: Amerigo Vespucci born Florence into a affluent and well-connected familyi. The future duke, René II is born in Joinville, Haute-Marie, France, grand-son of René d'Anjou (1409-1480)ii.
Mid-1460s-early 1470s: Vespucci receives an education at the academy run by his uncle, the Dominican Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, who was a friend of the great cosmographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (1397-1482). Piero Soderini, the future gonfalonier of Florence, was his classmateiii. René visits Florence and other Italian citiesiv.
Early-1470s: Martin Waldseemüller born near Freiburg, Bresgau.
1473: 24 February: René II becomes the Duke of Lorraine.
1477: 5 January: René II leads French royalist forces to a famous victory over Duke Charles "The Bold" of Burgundy at the Battle of Nancy.
1478-80: Vespucci goes with the Florentine Embassy to the court of Louis XI in Paris. His relative, Guido Antonio Vespucci is the ambassadorvi.
1480/1: Waldseemüller's father, Conrad, is recorded as living at 9/11 Löwenstrasse, Freiburg. Conrad later becomes city councillor (1491)vii.
1482: Matthias Ringmann is born in Val d'Orbey, Alsaceviii.
1484-89: Vespucci enters the service of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici in Italyix.
1490: René II creates the Gymnasia Vosagense, an ecclesiastic academy in St. Dié, and on 12 July appoints his wealthy and trusted courtier Gaultier Ludd (c.1448-1527) as his secretaryx. Over the following years, Jean Pellerin de Viatour, Jean Basin de Sendacour, Nicolas Zudd, Pierre de Blarru and Louis de Dommartin join this academic groupxi. 7 December: Waldseemüller is admitted to the University of Freiburg - he studies the 'full 3ircle' of the 'seven arts'xii and also studies under Gregor Reisch (1467-1525), later the writer of The Margarita Philosophica, published by Johann Amerbach (Basel, 1503)xiii.
1492: By 10 March, Vespucci settles in Seville and joins the Florentine finance house headed by Berardi and is involved in the financing of expeditionsxiv. Martin Behaim of Nuremburg creates the first modern globe, based on Portuguese sources.
1493: Vespucci meets Christopher Columbus in Seville; and is believed to have invested in the latter's Second Voyagexv. The Laon metal globe is made, based on Behaim (Nordenskiold Facsimile, p.74).
1494: 21 November: G. Ludd introduces the first printing press to St. Dié, printing the papal bulls of Paul II that relate to festivals important to the local parishxvi.
mid-1490s: Ringmann studies under Jacob Wimpferling, Schlettstadt (Sélestat) Academy, Alsacexvii; and later under Gregor Reischxviii.
1497: May: Vespucci allegedly leaves (under the Spanish flag) on his First Voyage to the Americas; returning in October, 1498 (this voyage commonly disputed).
late-1490s: Waldseemüller learns about printing and various intellectual subjects from the veteran printer Johann Amerbach in Baselxix. Ringmann studies Greek & Mathematics under Jacques LeFèvre d'Itaples in Parisxx.
1499: May: Vespucci, probably as a navigator, leaves on his Second Voyage to the Americas with Alonso de Ojeda and Juan de la Cosa with a mission to demarcate the limits of Spanish territory as allotted by the Edict of Tordesillas (1494); returning in September, 1500.
1500: Vespucci, in a letter to Lorrenzo de' Medici, 18 July 1500, published later, states that he wishes to make a globe and a map of this discoveries: 'I have resolved, Magnificent Lorenzo, that, just as I have given you an account by letter of what happened to me, I shall send you two depictions of the world, made and ordered by my own hand and knowledge: one will be a flat rendering and the other a map of the world in spherical formxxi.
1501: Third Voyage. Vespucci moves to Portugal. Vespucci leaves Lisbon in May on his way down the coast of Patagonia to a point past 50 degrees South, returning in September 1502.
1502: The Cantino Portolan is drawn up, showing for the first time a Florida coastline. Vespucci, in a letter to his former employer Lorenzo Pierfrancesco de Medici, states, referring to the lands he encountered during his voyages, that we have reached a new land which we have discovered to be the mainland which according to my navigation is the fourth part of the world'xxii, thus he declares that America is a new continental landmass - distinct from Asia. On another occasion, Vespucci muses that 'I shall put my trust in God's goodness that he will grant me three years more of life to write With the help of some scholar, something by which might survive for a time after my deathxxiii. Ringmann becomes Professor of Cosmography, University of Baselxxiv. He is also known to have worked as an 'editor' and translator for Johann Grüninger in Strasbourgxxv.
1503: Ringmann is considered to have travelled to Italy around this timexxvi. In June, Vespucci allegedly leaves Lisbon on his Fourth Voyage - this time to Brazil; he returns to Lisbon in June. Vespucci's Mundus Novus is published in Florence in early 1503 and reprinted quickly in Venice, Paris, Antwerp and Augsburgxxvii. His sensational tales are an instant success. 1504: the Caveri (Canerio) Portolan is made, based on Portuguese sources (considered to be the basis for his wallmaps).
4 September: Vespucci sends a version of his writings, the Quattor Navigationes to his old friend Piero Soderini in Florencexxviii.
1505: René II receives a manuscript translation of Vespucci's Quattor Navigationes in French, dedicated to him and sent from Portugal. This work was translated to Latin by Jean Basin de Sendacouer. This is stated in Ludd's Speculi Orbis Declaratio (Strasbourg: Grüninger, 1507) {British Library: C.32.m16}.
5 February: A letter of this date is written by Christopher Columbus to his son, asking him to assist Vespucci on his return to Spainxxix. René II and Gaultier Ludd, who aspire to produce a new geography of the World, invite Ringmann and Waldseemüller to St. Dié. René uses his contacts to acquire up-to-date maps depicting the New World - quite likely including Portuguese maps such as the Cantino and Caveri Portolansxxx. Waldseemüller and Ringmann work on two key projects: a new edition of Ptolemy's Geography and the globe and wallmap project inspired by Vespucci's writings and René II's maps. Ludd's press prints Jean Pellerin's De Artificiali Perspectiva, a philosophical work.
14 April: Vespucci obtains Spanish citizenship, and is assumed to begin working for the Casa de la Contrataction (the Spanish Board of Trade controlling the administrative affairs of the New World).
1 August: Ringmann edits a copy of Vespucci's Mundus Novus that was printed in Strasbourg by Matthias Hupfuffxxxi.
1506: Giovanni Matteo Contarini's world map is engraved by Francesco Roselli and printed in Florence. Rosselli is said to have made a globe between 1506 and 1509, now lostxxxii.
1507: Waldseemüller and Ringmann had already finished some plates for their Ptolemy Geographia - the map of the British Isles from the Tabula Prima Europae British Library Maps: cc.5.a.171), considered to be St. Dié c.1507, and was purchased in 2003, is a test strike from one of these plates.
Early April: The text for the Cosmographiae Introductio and woodblock for the globe map were completed by this time. In a letter to J.Amerbach, 7 April, Waldseemüller writes "The globe that I have prepared is not yet printed but will be within a month"xxxiii.
25 April: Waldseemüller's Cosmographiae Introductio is printed for the first time (quatro in 52 sheets) and is dedicated to Emperor Maximillian. The globe map and wall map are printed around the same time, the wallmap at Strasbourg (J. Grüninger)xxxiv. Ringmann contributed heavily to the text of the Cosmographiae. Two issues appear in the same month, the second omits Ringmann's dedication, and with Waldseemüeller's dedicatory letter changed to 'we'.
12 August: a letter is written from Wurtzburg by the Benedictine monk, Johann von Trittenheim (1462-1518) to the mathematician Wilhelmus Valdicus Monapius in which he remarks that he had recently purchased, for a modest sum, a small globe and a large world map. These items were said to show the new 'Spanish discoveries' including Vespucci's. The map shows the coast of South America reaching a latitude below 50 degrees Southxxxvi.
29 August (4 September): The second St. Dié edition of the Cosmographiae Introductio is publishedxxxvii.
26 November: Vespucci is invited by King Ferdinand to join the leading maritime officials of the day (including Pinzon, la Cosa, and de Solis) at the top-secret Burgos Conferencexxxviii.
1508: February: Waldseemüller leaves St. Dié and writes a 'farewell' letter to Ringmann from Strasbourg (before going to Germany for the 'carnival season'), the letter printed in Grüninger's (1508) edition of Gregor Reisch's Margarita Philisophicaxxxix. He also writes a chapter and adds an illustration to this work.
22 March: Vespucci is appointed Piloto Major. In this position he oversees the commencement of the construction of the 'Padron Real', the official Spanish sea-chart of the worldxl.
August: Ringmann left the Gymnasia Vosagense and travelled to Italy to find Ptolemaic cartographic material. During this trip he meets with Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola (a friend of Giorgio Antonio Vespucci)xli and L. Gregorio Giraldi. He returns to Alsace with valuable Ptolemaic material - including a manuscript version of the original Greek textxlii.
10 December: Duke René II dies and is succeeded by his son, Antoine (reigned 1508-44)xliii. Johannes Ruysch's world map, published in Rome, is added to some copies of the Rome edition of Ptolemy's Geographia.
1509: In Strasbourg, Waldsemüller joins Ringmann to continue work on the Ptolemy. Grüninger publishes a small cosmographic work in two versions; Der welt kugel and Globus mundi, in German and Latin respectively, believed to have been written by Waldseemüllerxliv.
1 June: Ringmann's work Grammatica Figurata is published by G. Ludd in St. Dié. Grüninger prints another edition of the Cosmographiae Introductio, and Waldseemüller's name is substituted for that of the Gymnasiumxlv.
1510: Ludd's press prints its last work - a eulogy to Duke René IIxlvi. Heinrich Glarean (1488-1563) makes a pen sketch of Waldseemüeller's world map (now in the University Library, Munich) inserted into the second St. Dié edition of the Cosmographiae Introductio; another such sketch is to be found in a Ptolemy 1482 in Bonn)xlvii. The Lenox and Jagellonicus (Cracow) metal globes are both made in 1510 (following Waldseemüller).
1511: 1 March: Waldseemüller and Ringmann present and dedicate their new map of Europe, Carta Itineraria Europae to Duke Antoine, printed by J.Grüningerxlviii (one copy survives today). Ringmann dies of 'consumption' in Schlettstadt, Alsacexlix. Without Ringmann's scholarship and René II's financing, Waldseemüller finds it difficult to finish the Ptolemy Geographia project.
1512: 22 February: Vespucci dies a respected man in Seville. He is replaced as Piloto Major by his nephew, Juan Vespucci. Jan Stobnicza (c.1470-c.1530) copies Waldseemüller's world map for his Cracow edition of Introductio in Ptholomei cosmographiam, 1512.
1513: 12 March: Waldseemüller's Ptolemy Geographia is printed by J. Schott in Strasbourg. The lawyers Jacob Aeszler & Georg Uebelin, who financially rescued the project, take full credit for its creation - leaving Waldseemüller's name off of the workl. Waldseemüller states in the supplement of the 1513 Ptolemy that he received charts from Portugal given to René Duke of Lorraine (Fischer). Balboa 'discovers' the Pacific for Spain, crossing the Panama Isthmus. Manuscript Hauslab globe made in Spain.
1514: Waldseemüller applies and becomes lifetime Canon of St. Diéli. He works diligently on his new wallmap the Carta Marina.
1515: On the basis of watermarks, 1515 is the approximate date at which the printing specialist, Elizabeth Harris, places as the earliest date of the printing of the 1507 Waldseemüller wallmap, now owned by the Library of Congresslii. Johann Schöner acquires the set of the Waldseemüller's globe and wall map that were found in 1900 by Josef Fischer at Schloss Wolfegg. Waldseemüller's geography forms the basis for his 1515 and 1520 globesliii. The Paris 'Green Globe' is drawn. Sebastian Münster (1489-1552) includes an oval sketch of Waldseemuller's world map in his University of Tübingen lecture notesliv. Leonardo da Vinci globe -- a manuscript copy of a curious globe found in the Royal Collections at Windsor.
1516: Waldseemuller's second cartographic masterpiece, the Carta Marina Navigatoria Portugallen, is printed by J.Grüningerlv.
1517-1518: There is no record of Waldseemüller after 1518; he is thought to have passed away no later than 1522. L. d'Albi de Boulangier prints a set of globe gores based on Waldseemüller and insterted into a French Cosmographiae Introductiolvi. The Liechtenstein Globe Gores are printed.
1520: Peter Apian's world map, Tipus Orbis Universalis, is printed. 1522: Ferdinand Magellan enters Pacific and his party completes the first circumnavigation of the globe. Lorenz Fries (c.1485-c.1530) republishes the 1513 Geographia (printed by J.Grüninger). In 1525 he issues a new reduced version of the Carta Marinalvii. Also republishes the Carta Europae.
iThe Catholic Encyclopedia directs us to the existance of a primary source, the Ufficio dell Tratte in the Reale Archivo di Stato (Firenze)that notes "Amerigo Vespucci, son of Ser Nastagio Vespucci, son of Amerigo Vespucci, [was born] on the IX day of March, MCCCCLI".
iiHumboldt, p.107.
iiiHumboldt, p.43.
ivPohl, p.169
vD'Avezac-Macaya, p.15.
viHumboldt, p.43; Catholic Encyclopedia.
viiWolff, p.111; Karrow, p.568.
viiiD'Avezac-Macaya, p.11
ixArciniegas, p.75; Formizano xxxv
xD'Avezac-Macaya, p.15.
xiD'Avezac-Macaya, p.13 & 109.
xiiD'Avezac-Macaya, p.7; Wolff, p.111.
xiiiWolff, p.111; The Catholic Encyclopedia
xivFormisano, xxxv.
xviD'Avezac-Macaya, p.20.
xviiD'Avezac-Macaya, p.11; Johnson, p.22.
xviiiWolff, p.111.
A set of 12 woodcut gores for a terrestrial globe with a diameter of 12cm (4½ inches), overall maximum dimensions of the paper 180 x 344mm, trimmed to the margin of the gores. (Some light staining, two small clean tears in the joins between gores 10 and 11 and 11 and 12, traces of old folds along gore joins, old vertical paste mark at gore 6/7.)
A SIGNIFICANT MILESTONE IN THE MAPPING OF THE WORLD. ONE OF FOUR KNOWN COPIES, THE ONLY SEPARATELY PUBLISHED MAP BY WALDSEEMüLLER IN PRIVATE HANDS. WALDSEEMüLLER'S GLOBE MAP IS A MAP OF MANY FIRSTS: THE FIRST PRINTED GLOBE, THE FIRST 'ACCURATE AND COMPLETE' MAP OF THE WORLD IN 360°, THE FIRST MAP OR GLOBE TO NAME AMERICA, THE FIRST TO SHOW A SEPARATE SOUTH AND NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT, THE FIRST TO SHOW THE PACIFIC OCEAN AS A SEPARATE ENTITY, THE FIRST TO SHOW CAPE HORN AND A DEFINED WESTERN COASTLINE TO SOUTH AMERICA.
This globe map and Waldseemüller's large wall map (the only extant example now owned by the Library of Congress, U.S.A.), both first published in 1507, became the basis of all world maps and globes for the next 35 years. They presented a new revolutionary global geography, completing the fourth quadrant of the world. The globe map was drawn up by Martin Waldseemüller in St. Dié, Lorraine, south west of Strasbourg. It was issued with the Universalis Cosmographia large wallmap, and a booklet, Cosmographiae Introductio, the three parts often described as the 'Birth Certificate of America'.
THE GENESIS OF THE WALDSEEMüLLER GORES
Martin Waldseemüller, theologian and cosmographer, and Matthias Ringmann, a humanist poet, were brought to the monastery of St. Dié des Vosges in early 1505 by Gualtier Ludd, Secretary to René II Duke of Lorraine, to join a group of scholars called the Gymnasia Vosagense. Waldseemüller and Ringmann started work on a new edition of Ptolemy's Geographia that was to combine Ptolemaic maps with a new set of modern maps. They were provided with at least six printed editions and certainly several manuscript versions of the Geographia. Their work on this new Geography of the World was combined with an instruction to create a new globe and large map of the world, for which René had received a French translation of Amerigo Vespucci's voyages, and for which they must have also had copies of Portuguese charts either from Portugal or from Italy. Ringmann, a supporter of Vespucci, had already published in 1505 an edition of Vespucci's Mundus Novus, a 'vivid' description of the New World which became a 'bestseller' around Europe. By April 1507, Waldseemüller and Ringmann had completed the booklet, Cosmographiae Introductio, to accompany the globe and wallmap. It appeared in two editions in St. Dié, the first in April 1507 (2 issues) and in again in August 1507. Another edition was published by Waldseemüller alone in 1509 in Strasbourg. The Cosmographiae provided an introduction to the new geography of the world as laid out in the globe and wallmap, and included a Latin translation of Vespucci's four voyages. In the text, the authors explain the reasons for the naming of 'America': 'Now, these parts of the earth have been more extensively explored and a fourth part has been discovered by Amerigo Vespucci. Inasmuch as both Europe and Asia received their names from women, I see no reason why any one should justly object to calling this part Amerige, i.e., the land of Amerigo, or America, after Amerigo, its discoverer, a man of great ability'. Although it is likely that the simple globe gores, their model or 'marquette' of the New World view, would have been available with each issue of the Cosmographiae, the large 12 sheet wallmap, would have been too expensive to be sold as widely. Although a text on Waldseemüller's later wallmap, the Carta Marina (1516), says that 1,000 copies of the 1507 wallmap were made, it is unlikely that this number were issued, given the survival rate of the one bound copy now in the Library of Congress.
The globe map and book had an enormous influence on other geographers, notably Appian, Schöner and Fries, and advanced the science of globemaking and map making particularly in Germany and the Low Countries. Waldseemüller, for many, has become the father of modern Geography. The notoriety and mystery that has surrounded both the globe map and large wallmap has often concentrated on the naming (or 'misnaming') of America, but in truth, given that they named South America after Vespucci, who had sailed furthest around it, it is not unreasonable. It was left to Mercator in 1534 to ascribe the terms North and South America. The mystery of the globe map, its definition of Florida (before it was discovered by the Spanish), the Pacific (before any man had officially seen it), the coast of South America (before anyone had sailed along it) and the use of the name 'The Western Ocean' in the Pacific, all suggest that the Portuguese may have been more active west of the Tordesillas Treaty Line before 1505. Such information would have been kept secret by the Portuguese, and it is perhaps here in this globe that the secrets were first drawn up for a wider audience, particularly since Vespucci's allegiance to Portugal changed when he became a Spanish citizen.
THE WALDSEEMULLER GLOBE MAP, A CENSUS OF COPIES
1. The Hauslab-Liechtenstein-Bell-Univeristy of Minnesota copy -- this was the first set of the globe gores to be discovered, found in the collection of Baron Franz Ritter von Hauslab in Austria and first shown in 1871 at the Congrès géographiques at Antwerp. By 1890, it had been acquired by the Prince of Liechtenstein and studies by Gallois dated it to 1507 following the realisation that it was the lost globe described in the St. Dié editions of the Cosomographiae Introductio. In 1949, the Liechtenstein map collection was bought en bloc by the famous New York dealer H.P. Kraus, however the globe map was retained and offered by the Prince at a special auction at Parke-Bernet in New York on 24 May 1950. The catalogue published a reserve of $50,000, but it failed to sell and was sold privately in 1954 to James Ford Bell for approximately $45,000. His map collection is now at the University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, U.S.A.
2. The Kraus-Bavarian State Library copy -- in 1960 at Sotheby's in London, a set of the gores was offered bound into a Ptolemy atlas of 1486. The atlas and gores were bought by H.P. Kraus for £12,500 ($65,000). The prize of his map and globe collection, H.P. Kraus published details of these gores in a special catalogue. They were offered for sale in 1991, and purchased by the Bavarian State library in Munich for approximately 2 million DM (in excess of $1million).
3. The Offenburg copy -- following the publicity regarding the acquisition of the copy above by the Bavarian State library in 1992, in 1993 two researchers, Dr. Obnof and Frau Dr. Vera Sack found a third example of the gores inserted into a copy of Aristotle published in Freiburg in 1541. The Aristotle formed part of the Grimmelshausen-Gymnasium library given to the Stadtbucherei Offenburg. The Aristotle had previously been in a monastic library in Offenburg.
4. The present example was discovered in February 2003 when the owner, on reading an article in the Frankfurter Algemeinen Zeitung on the Munich copy, realised he owned a similar map amongst his large collection of books and ephemera.
WATERMARKS AND PAPER
Watermarks and paper analysis can be important indicators in the research of printed materials. To date, however, there had been no attempt to tie the examples of the globe maps together by these means. Accordingly, an analysis of the paper in the four surviving examples has now been carried out with the following results:
1. The Hauslab-Liechenstein-Bell-University of Minnesota copy -- bulls head watermark surmounted by cross and entwined serpent with an arrow head tongue, height of watermark 11.5cm - horn width 4cm, chain line width 2.5cm. On full sheet, 252 x 380mm (9½ x 15 inches). The sheet sized.
2. The Kraus-Bavarian State Library copy -- no watermark, on paper with chain line width 3cm. On full sheet 290 x 420mm (11½ x 16½ inches).
3. The Offenburg copy - no watermark, on paper with chain line width 2.6cm. On full sheet, 314mm x 378mm (12½ x 15 inches).
4. This example with a watermark identical to the Hauslab-Liechenstein copy - bulls head watermark surmounted by cross with entwined serpent, head of serpent partly cut away but with arrow head tongue, height of watermark 11.5cm - horn width 4cm, chain line width 2.5cm - no margins, gores trimmed to edge of woodcut area.
The example offered here is on almost identical paper to the Hauslad-Liechenstein-Bell-Minneapolis copy, both in the form and dimensions of the watermark and in chain line width. The margins of the paper sheet of the Minneapolis copy are smaller than the other two examples in Germany. It should be noted that the sketch of the watermark on the Liechtenstein example depicted in the Parke Bernet catalogue of 1950 bears only a passing resemblance to reality. The Bavarian State Library copy, despite being catalogued twice by H.P. Kraus as having a bulls head, cross and serpent mark, unfortunately has no such watermark, although the 1486 Ptolemy atlas in which it has been inserted does have a bulls head mark.
To check further the correlation of paper used in works published in St. Dié prints and their watermarks, we looked at four 1507 editions of the Cosmographiae Introductio in the British Library, 2 copies in the Library of Congress and one copy in the University of Minnesota and although small fragments of ox heads and parts of crosses were discovered in several copies, no complete watermarks could be found. Chain line width varies from 2.6 - 3.1cm. There was no exact concordance with any watermarks in Bricquet or Piccard, although Piccard XVI-371 has a similar compostition but with a thinner cross staff and no central line through the bull's head. Bricquet 15409 has a similar composition but variant horns, and different height. The Piccard mark is noted as Epstein i.T., Liegnitz, Jagerndorf 1527-30, the Bricquet mark is Nideggan 1527 and Bromberg 1528. Precise conclusions on the origin and precedence of the various papers used for the Waldseemüller gores require further study. Piccard online, which is in the process of assimilating another 30,000 watermarks, has yet to complete the analysis of the bull's head group.
TIMELINE
Considerable speculation, misinformation and some misunderstanding has surrounded these globe gores and the large world map. To present the various strands of information relating to the genesis, execution and influences of the Waldseemüller gores, the following timeline brings together the principal events in the lives of Waldseemüller, Ringmann, Vespucci and their circles. References to accurate factual information are principally taken from 19th century sources, much of the 20th century work on the subject being a reiteration of earlier work by Humboldt, D'Avezac-Macaya, Fischer, Varnhagen and Harisse.
1451: 9 March: Amerigo Vespucci born Florence into a affluent and well-connected family
Mid-1460s-early 1470s: Vespucci receives an education at the academy run by his uncle, the Dominican Giorgio Antonio Vespucci, who was a friend of the great cosmographer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli (1397-1482). Piero Soderini, the future gonfalonier of Florence, was his classmate
Early-1470s: Martin Waldseemüller born near Freiburg, Bresgau.
1473: 24 February: René II becomes the Duke of Lorraine.
1477: 5 January: René II leads French royalist forces to a famous victory over Duke Charles "The Bold" of Burgundy at the Battle of Nancy.
1478-80: Vespucci goes with the Florentine Embassy to the court of Louis XI in Paris. His relative, Guido Antonio Vespucci is the ambassador
1480/1: Waldseemüller's father, Conrad, is recorded as living at 9/11 Löwenstrasse, Freiburg. Conrad later becomes city councillor (1491)
1482: Matthias Ringmann is born in Val d'Orbey, Alsace
1484-89: Vespucci enters the service of Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco de Medici in Italy
1490: René II creates the Gymnasia Vosagense, an ecclesiastic academy in St. Dié, and on 12 July appoints his wealthy and trusted courtier Gaultier Ludd (c.1448-1527) as his secretary
1492: By 10 March, Vespucci settles in Seville and joins the Florentine finance house headed by Berardi and is involved in the financing of expeditions
1493: Vespucci meets Christopher Columbus in Seville; and is believed to have invested in the latter's Second Voyage
1494: 21 November: G. Ludd introduces the first printing press to St. Dié, printing the papal bulls of Paul II that relate to festivals important to the local parish
mid-1490s: Ringmann studies under Jacob Wimpferling, Schlettstadt (Sélestat) Academy, Alsace
1497: May: Vespucci allegedly leaves (under the Spanish flag) on his First Voyage to the Americas; returning in October, 1498 (this voyage commonly disputed).
late-1490s: Waldseemüller learns about printing and various intellectual subjects from the veteran printer Johann Amerbach in Basel
1499: May: Vespucci, probably as a navigator, leaves on his Second Voyage to the Americas with Alonso de Ojeda and Juan de la Cosa with a mission to demarcate the limits of Spanish territory as allotted by the Edict of Tordesillas (1494); returning in September, 1500.
1500: Vespucci, in a letter to Lorrenzo de' Medici, 18 July 1500, published later, states that he wishes to make a globe and a map of this discoveries: 'I have resolved, Magnificent Lorenzo, that, just as I have given you an account by letter of what happened to me, I shall send you two depictions of the world, made and ordered by my own hand and knowledge: one will be a flat rendering and the other a map of the world in spherical form
1501: Third Voyage. Vespucci moves to Portugal. Vespucci leaves Lisbon in May on his way down the coast of Patagonia to a point past 50 degrees South, returning in September 1502.
1502: The Cantino Portolan is drawn up, showing for the first time a Florida coastline. Vespucci, in a letter to his former employer Lorenzo Pierfrancesco de Medici, states, referring to the lands he encountered during his voyages, that we have reached a new land which we have discovered to be the mainland which according to my navigation is the fourth part of the world'
1503: Ringmann is considered to have travelled to Italy around this time
4 September: Vespucci sends a version of his writings, the Quattor Navigationes to his old friend Piero Soderini in Florence
1505: René II receives a manuscript translation of Vespucci's Quattor Navigationes in French, dedicated to him and sent from Portugal. This work was translated to Latin by Jean Basin de Sendacouer. This is stated in Ludd's Speculi Orbis Declaratio (Strasbourg: Grüninger, 1507) {British Library: C.32.m16}.
5 February: A letter of this date is written by Christopher Columbus to his son, asking him to assist Vespucci on his return to Spain
14 April: Vespucci obtains Spanish citizenship, and is assumed to begin working for the Casa de la Contrataction (the Spanish Board of Trade controlling the administrative affairs of the New World).
1 August: Ringmann edits a copy of Vespucci's Mundus Novus that was printed in Strasbourg by Matthias Hupfuff
1506: Giovanni Matteo Contarini's world map is engraved by Francesco Roselli and printed in Florence. Rosselli is said to have made a globe between 1506 and 1509, now lost
1507: Waldseemüller and Ringmann had already finished some plates for their Ptolemy Geographia - the map of the British Isles from the Tabula Prima Europae British Library Maps: cc.5.a.171), considered to be St. Dié c.1507, and was purchased in 2003, is a test strike from one of these plates.
Early April: The text for the Cosmographiae Introductio and woodblock for the globe map were completed by this time. In a letter to J.Amerbach, 7 April, Waldseemüller writes "The globe that I have prepared is not yet printed but will be within a month"
25 April: Waldseemüller's Cosmographiae Introductio is printed for the first time (quatro in 52 sheets) and is dedicated to Emperor Maximillian. The globe map and wall map are printed around the same time, the wallmap at Strasbourg (J. Grüninger)
12 August: a letter is written from Wurtzburg by the Benedictine monk, Johann von Trittenheim (1462-1518) to the mathematician Wilhelmus Valdicus Monapius in which he remarks that he had recently purchased, for a modest sum, a small globe and a large world map. These items were said to show the new 'Spanish discoveries' including Vespucci's. The map shows the coast of South America reaching a latitude below 50 degrees South
29 August (4 September): The second St. Dié edition of the Cosmographiae Introductio is published
26 November: Vespucci is invited by King Ferdinand to join the leading maritime officials of the day (including Pinzon, la Cosa, and de Solis) at the top-secret Burgos Conference
1508: February: Waldseemüller leaves St. Dié and writes a 'farewell' letter to Ringmann from Strasbourg (before going to Germany for the 'carnival season'), the letter printed in Grüninger's (1508) edition of Gregor Reisch's Margarita Philisophica
22 March: Vespucci is appointed Piloto Major. In this position he oversees the commencement of the construction of the 'Padron Real', the official Spanish sea-chart of the world
August: Ringmann left the Gymnasia Vosagense and travelled to Italy to find Ptolemaic cartographic material. During this trip he meets with Gianfrancesco Pico della Mirandola (a friend of Giorgio Antonio Vespucci)
10 December: Duke René II dies and is succeeded by his son, Antoine (reigned 1508-44)
1509: In Strasbourg, Waldsemüller joins Ringmann to continue work on the Ptolemy. Grüninger publishes a small cosmographic work in two versions; Der welt kugel and Globus mundi, in German and Latin respectively, believed to have been written by Waldseemüller
1 June: Ringmann's work Grammatica Figurata is published by G. Ludd in St. Dié. Grüninger prints another edition of the Cosmographiae Introductio, and Waldseemüller's name is substituted for that of the Gymnasium
1510: Ludd's press prints its last work - a eulogy to Duke René II
1511: 1 March: Waldseemüller and Ringmann present and dedicate their new map of Europe, Carta Itineraria Europae to Duke Antoine, printed by J.Grüninger
1512: 22 February: Vespucci dies a respected man in Seville. He is replaced as Piloto Major by his nephew, Juan Vespucci. Jan Stobnicza (c.1470-c.1530) copies Waldseemüller's world map for his Cracow edition of Introductio in Ptholomei cosmographiam, 1512.
1513: 12 March: Waldseemüller's Ptolemy Geographia is printed by J. Schott in Strasbourg. The lawyers Jacob Aeszler & Georg Uebelin, who financially rescued the project, take full credit for its creation - leaving Waldseemüller's name off of the work
1514: Waldseemüller applies and becomes lifetime Canon of St. Dié
1515: On the basis of watermarks, 1515 is the approximate date at which the printing specialist, Elizabeth Harris, places as the earliest date of the printing of the 1507 Waldseemüller wallmap, now owned by the Library of Congress
1516: Waldseemuller's second cartographic masterpiece, the Carta Marina Navigatoria Portugallen, is printed by J.Grüninger
1517-1518: There is no record of Waldseemüller after 1518; he is thought to have passed away no later than 1522. L. d'Albi de Boulangier prints a set of globe gores based on Waldseemüller and insterted into a French Cosmographiae Introductio
1520: Peter Apian's world map, Tipus Orbis Universalis, is printed. 1522: Ferdinand Magellan enters Pacific and his party completes the first circumnavigation of the globe. Lorenz Fries (c.1485-c.1530) republishes the 1513 Geographia (printed by J.Grüninger). In 1525 he issues a new reduced version of the Carta Marina