Thursday, August 29, 2013

The Oldest Known Globe to Represent the New World Discovered


Dated to the early 1500s, the globe was likely crafted in Florence, Italy, from the lower halves of two ostrich eggs.

From a piece in the Huffington Post...

The anonymous owner of the globe, who bought it in 2012 at the London Map Fair, allowed Missinne to investigate the globe. The researcher used carbon dating, computer tomography testing, an ink assessment, as well as a geographical, cartographic, and historical analysis.

He determined that the grapefruit-sized globe was made around 1504 and was likely used to cast the famous copper Lenox globe housed at the New York Public Library, which, until now, had been thought to be the oldest globe to show the Americas, dated to 1510.

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