Ostrich Egg Globe

The Ostrich Egg Globe or Da Vinci Globe[1] is an Italian Renaissance object of historical importance. It dates from c. 1504 and was discovered by globe research scholar Stefaan Missinne when it was presented for sale in London in 2012. It is the prototype for the Hunt–Lenox Globe, a red copper cast.

Mundus Novus depicted on the Da Vinci Globe

Leonardo da Vinci made a preparatory drawing showing the New World in 1503. While in Florence the next year, he wrote in the Codex Atlanticus about this globe. If identified correctly, it would be the oldest globe known to show the New World.

Background
See also: Erdapfel

A 1503 preparatory drawing by Leonardo da Vinci (in the Codex Arundel, currently held by the British Library) shows Africa and the New World.[2][lower-alpha 1] This would prove Leonardo's knowledge of Christopher Columbus's discovery of America, and if its identification is correct, the Ostrich Egg Globe would be the first globe to show the New World.[5]

Description


The hollow globe is made from the conjoined lower halves of two ostrich eggs.[5] In the bottom half of the lower part a counterweight made of calcium and glued with egg white was added to keep the globe upright as the globe has no mounting.

The scale of the globe is 1:80.000.000 and its diameter is about 11.2 cm. It weighs 134 grams. The North-South axis is vertical reflecting the thinking of Aristotle.[6] Its twin, the Lenox Globe (at the New York Public Library), is a cast made of red copper[5] representing the Earth in the center of an armillary sphere.

The Ostrich Egg Globe depicts numerous subjects, including ships, a volcano, sailors, a monster, ocean waves, conic mountains, rivers, coastal lines, and a triangular anagram.[2]

Discovery and provenance

The globe was offered for sale on June 16, 2012, at the London Map Fair held at the Royal Geographical Society, where it was erroneously presented as a 19th-century scrimshaw and discovered by globe research scholar Stefaan Missinne.[7][8] Its similarity to the Lenox Globe was confirmed in 2012 by the former president of the Coronelli Society, Professor Rudolf Schmidt, and confirmed by art expert Archduke Dr. Géza von Habsburg in 2013.[9] In August 2012, Discover published one of the first popular general articles about the globe.[10]

Leonardo writes: "El mio mappamondo che ha Giovanni Benci" ("My world map that Giovanni Benci has") in Codex Atlanticus, page 331 recto, dating from 1504.

Analysis by Italian researcher Elisabetta Gnignera finds that the hairstyle of a drowning marine depicted in an engraving are compatible with the date and provenance of the globe.[11] Missinne notes that an etching of an Indian Ocean ship is similar to one by a follower of Leonardo.[5][lower-alpha 2] On the globe's lower half, there is a red copper droplet that contains arsenic, a chemical substance only known to be prescribed by Leonardo, to be added to copper to maintain its red color.[2][lower-alpha 3] Visual observation of photographs of the Lenox Globe seems to support this as it does not display any green or black patina, which is normal for copper exposed to air.[2]

See also

References

Footnotes

  1. In 1503, Italian explorer Amerigo Vespucci wrote a letter to Lorenzo di Pierfrancesco, in which he declares that the landmass discovered by Christopher Columbus could be considered a hitherto unknown continent.[3][4]
  2. Contrarily, John W. Hessler of the Library of Congress says that the "Leonardo connection is pure nonsense," and Chet van Duzer of the John Carter Brown Library calls the link "tenuous in the extreme."[5]
  3. Leonardo writes in Codex Atlanticus page 1103 verso: "Metti nella mistura il rame arso, ovvero la corrompi collo arsenico, ma sarà frangibile" ("Put the burnt copper into the mixture, or you corrupt it with arsenic, but it will be breakable").[12]

Citations

  1. Missinne 2019, p. 261.
  2. Gall, Christine von (6 August 2019). "Press Release: The Da Vinci Globe by Stefaan Missinne". Cambridge Scholars Publishing. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  3. Fernández-Armesto, Felipe (2007). Amerigo: The Man Who Gave His Name to America. New York: Random House. p. 73. ISBN 978-1-4000-6281-2.
  4. Davidson, M. H. (1997). Columbus Then and Now: A Life Re-examined. Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, p. 417.
  5. Kim, Meeri (19 August 2013). "Oldest globe to depict the New World may have been discovered". The Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  6. Missinne 2019, p. 129.
  7. Missinne 2019, p. 4.
  8. "Earliest Globe Mention America". Washington Map Society. 19 August 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2020.
  9. Missinne, Stefaan (Fall 2013). "A Newly Discovered Early Sixteenth-Century Globe Engraved on an Ostrich Egg: The Earliest Surviving Globe Showing the New World".The Portolan, journal of the Washington Map Society (87): pp. 8–24.
  10. B. Draxler, "Engraved Ostrich Egg Globe is Oldest to Depict the New World", in D-brief - DiscoverMagazine.com, August 2012, pp. 1–2 and J. Skurie.
  11. Missinne 2019, p. 140.
  12. Codex Atlanticus page 1103.

Sources

Further reading
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.