Inner construction of the spheres
X-rays, CT scans and 3D modelling of the resulting images made it possible to understand how the spheres were made […]
centre informatique
Where to find Mercator globes
It is not known how many globes Gerardus Mercator produced during his lifetime or how many continued to be made after his death. At present fewer than 30 pairs are catalogued […]
Mercator globes
Mercator became a producer of scientific instruments, as well as a draughtsman, engraver and illuminator. He used these skills to create maps and globes […]
The forerunners
The oldest surviving terrestrial globe was produced by Martin Behaim. Dating from 1492, it reflects the state of geological knowledge just before the first expedition of Christopher Columbus […]
Printed globes
Globes were initially single copies produced by hand. Printing presses made it possible to make them cheaply in limited series […]
Ptolemy’s contribution
Ptolemy can be regarded at once as the last of the great cartographers and astronomers in ancient Greece and the first in the Western world […]
The beginnings of celestial cartography
In Western history, spherical representations of the heavens can be traced back to ancient Greece […]
The beginnings of terrestrial cartography
Human awareness of time and space arose in the distant past. The stars, serving as both clock and calendar, gradually made it possible to establish points of reference […]
The expanding world
Mercator’s maps and globes emerged in the 16th century, at a time when innovations in Europe were driving strong momentum and a swirl of new questions […]
Georeferencing the images
March 2016
By digital georeferencing the high-definition images, a 3D model is created to reproduce each of the spheres virtually […]