1459-15O7
Navigator And Geographer

Nuremberg Globe. Although the fourteenth-century French prelate Nicholas of Oresme outlined a technique for making a globe in De Sphaera, Martin Behaim is responsible for making the oldest surviving terrestrial globe. Behaim's 1492 globe is consistent with Christopher Columbus's perspective of the earth. The globe was being created at the exact time when Columbus was under sail, so it is unclear if one influenced the other or if the two men simply shared the same idea at the same time. The globe is based in part on a mappa mundi (world map), a decorative draft that Behaim constructed. Both projects were meant for public display in Behaim's hometown, the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg in southern Germany.

Background. A Nuremberg cloth merchant, Behaim traveled to Lisbon in hopes of benefiting from Portuguese trade along the African coast. Behaim claimed to have sailed...