The first question to be raised when the UNIL globes emerged from oblivion was whether they were genuine. Were they the work of Gerardus Mercator himself, produced in his 16th-century workshop? Or were they 1875 facsimiles or even more recent copies? To answer this question, the project team conducted investigations from several angles and dug continually deeper from 2010 to 2016. This process included radiocarbon and growth-ring dating, appraisals and analyses of the globes’ components and structures by a large number of experts and scientists.

Let’s be clear from the outset: based on all these tests, the possibility that these globes are 1875 facsimiles or more recent copies can safely be ruled out. The terrestrial and celestial Mercator globes found in Lausanne are genuine.