Globes at Greenwich: A Catalogue of the Globes and Armillary Spheres in the National Maritime Museum (review)

Globes at Greenwich: A Catalogue of the Globes and Armillary Spheres in the National Maritime Museum. Edited by Elly Dekker. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2000. Pp. xi+592. $160.

The National Maritime Museum in Greenwich has the world's largest collection of globes and related instruments. This beautifully illustrated and well-executed volume catalogs 272 Western terrestrial or celestial globes, 12 Islamic celestial globes, 25 Western armillary spheres, 11 Western planetaria, and 19 celestial planispheres. The latter are included in the catalog because, in Europe during the nineteenth century, the planisphere came to replace the celestial globe.

The purpose, design, and function of these 339 objects varied greatly over time and from place to place. The earliest dated piece is a celestial globe made in 1537 in the Louvain workshop of Gaspard van der Heyden with the collaboration of Gemma Frisius and Gerard Mercator. The most recent is a celestial globe made in 1989 by George Philip and Son in London. In between there are globes with clockwork, pocket globes, paper models, and inflatable globes.

Western globes are divided into three groups: armillary spheres, Western manuscript globes‚ and Western printed globes. The term "manuscript globe" refers not only to globes with paper or wooden surfaces having hand-painted and hand-labeled designs but also to metal globes on which the designs have been engraved. While all the Islamic globes fall into the category of manuscript globes, they are treated in a separate section of the catalog, contributed by Silke Ackermann.

The format and methodology are clearly set out by Elly Dekker, who was responsible for most of the text in this book. The detailed descriptions, supplemented by at least one excellent photograph for each item, includes a systematic listing of star names and constellation names. The Western terms are listed and keyed to individual globes in highly useful special appendices. In the case of the Arabic terms, the star and constellation names are provided in the chapter on Islamic globes.

In the section on Islamic globes, Ackermann graciously acknowledges that much of the material is based upon earlier descriptions that this reviewer published in 1985. The entries presented here, however, are expanded and improved, as well as being enhanced by excellent photographs. The catalog of Islamic globes, all celestial, is preceded by a brief discourse on the major differences between Western and Islamic examples. The assertion that there is no known example of an Islamic terrestrial globe will have to be emended in the light of recent but yet unpublished evidence.

The volume opens with nine important essays, four by Dekker: a general introduction, a consideration of the utility of globes (both terrestrial and celestial) to navigators, a short piece on globes whose designs are traceable to distinctive gores printed by François Demongenet in the mid-sixteenth century, and a superbly illustrated essay titled "Uncommonly Handsome Globes" that discusses the most important items in the Greenwich collection. The history of this collection is covered by Maria Blyzinsky, the globe-making industry in the British Isles by Gloria Clifton, and globes in art by Kristen Lippincott.

From the standpoint of the history of technology, this volume has been well served by the contributions of Jonathan Betts, who discusses the history of revolving clockwork globes and their basic principles of construction, as well as providing informative diagrams. In addition, he provides illustrated descriptions of the wheelwork and movements to accompany each entry for the six clockwork globes dating from the seventeenth century to the early twentieth century.

There is relatively little information on the construction of the spheres themselves. Most Western globes were constructed of wood or papier-mâché covered with gores—that is, preprinted segments of paper—and their construction techniques are discussed in the essay by Ann Leane. Yet a sizable proportion of Western globes (including most of what are here called...