• Jean-Pierre de Crousaz (1663-1750)
• Jean-Philippe Loys de Cheseaux (1718-1751)
• Théodore-Louis de Treytorrents (1726-1794)
• Henri Struve (1751-1826)
• Emmanuel Develey (1764-1839)

Any of these scholars, all aficionados of astronomy and scientific equipment, could easily have had globes in their office at a given time. One can indeed be seen in the background of the portrait of Loys de Cheseaux. Why couldn’t he have subsequently donated it to the Lausanne Academy? A search of the Academy’s archives turned up several references to globes.

In 1780 Alexandre César Chavannes compiled a hand-written history of the Lausanne Academy. It notes that German princes donated two globes to the university but that these were “in the style of Abbé Nolet”. Jean-Antoine Nollet made a number of globes between 1725 and 1730, but they were only 32.5 cm in diameter so there is no possibility of confusion with the Mercator globes.

In 1794, at the death of Théodore-Louis de Treytorrents, the inventory of his property noted several items of interest : two globes and a sphere which, the record stated, were made available to Treytorrents’ heirs.

Between 1802 and 1807, Prof Emmanuel Develey and a certain C. Chavanne were given custody of several scientific devices belonging to the Lausanne Academy. These devices were made available to Develey for his courses. The list includes two globes, which are described as follows: “a terrestrial globe and a celestial one roughly one foot in diameter by De l’Isle”. Given the globes’ size and formal attribution to the French geographer, again this appears to rule out a connection to Mercator.

The Catalogue du cabinet de physique du Citoyen [Henri] Struve (ACV Bdd 156-08 and Bdd 156-09), a document that though undated is certainly older than 1826, also indicates terrestrial and celestial globes along with a “répresentation du système du monde” (sic). These may be the same globes as those referred to in the Treytorrens inventory, but without any description it is difficult either to confirm or deny the hypothesis.

Jean-François Loude, an honorary professor at the University of Lausanne, notes that this same catalogue mentions two balusters. At first blush the descriptions are rather mysterious: “Machines de Socin” and “Machines qui ne sont pas de Socin”. Now the very well-known Cabinet Socin belonged to a certain Abel Socin (1729-1808), a native of Basel who sold the practice in 1794 to Prof Emmanuel Develey who in turn sold it to Henri Struve a year later. This explains the origin of a large portion of the physics instruments catalogued in 1825.

Before returning to Basel in 1778, Socin worked for many years in Hanau, near Frankfurt, and very probably assembled many of the tools of his practice there. Were the Mercator globes part of that kit? It would likely be interesting to explore this Socin connection further.

Of course, several other professors took charge of Lausanne’s astronomy department during the years that followed and could have just as easily been behind the globes’ acquisition :

• Charles Dufour (1874-1901)
• Louis Maillard (1902-1928)
• César-Auguste Juvet (1928-1936)
• Georges César Tiercy (1936-1957)
• Pierre Javet (1955-1975), qui fut le premier directeur de l’Institut d’astronomie (1966-1975)
• Bernard Hauck (1976-2002)

In conclusion, despite tapping numerous sources the investigators found nothing to prove that the Mercator globes had been either bequeathed or donated to the Academy or the University of Lausanne. Thus, the question of their origin remains unanswered.

© Laurent Dubois, BCUL

© Laurent Dubois, BCUL

When human memory fails, investigators have to fall back on material clues. Both globes bear labels on the underside of their stands. These appear to have been pasted where earlier labels had existed and been removed.

Terrestrial globeCelestial globe

Glued label

Musée d’histoire des sciences No d’entrée (History of Science Museum item number)
with the hand-written reference Lausanne.

From 2005 Hubert Villard, director of the Cantonal and University Library at the time, followed up on the lead pointing to the History of Science Museum in Geneva. However, he found no trace of the UNIL globes in the museum’s inventories.

Glued label

Musée d’histoire des sciences No d’entrée 54 (History of Science Museum item number 54)
with the hand-written reference Observatoire (Observatory)

Green plastic label

VD

Unlike the terrestrial globe the celestial one bore an inventory number which, Villard believed, should help with the search. But once again his hopes were dashed: item No. 54 of the History of Science Museum in Geneva referred to a device in the De Saussure collection, not to a globe.

Hand-written reference

2 Coeli

L’inscription a été tracée avec un pinceau, à l’encre ou à la peinture noire. Le mot latin “coelus” ou “caelus”, ici au génitif, signifie “ciel”. Cette inscription permettait peut-être de distinguer ce socle de celui du globe terrestre, notamment lors d’une restauration qui aurait imposé de sortir la sphère de son support.

An exhaustive search through the correspondence of the History of Science Museum in Geneva turned up an exchange of letters in July 1983 between the curator Margarida Archinard and the scientist Peter van der Krogt. The exchange (section B 343 D.4.2) confirmed that at the time the museum had no Dutch globe.

Ms Archinard, who had directed the museum since 1977 and had previously served as assistant to the former director since 1973, had never heard of Mercator globes in Geneva. She moreover pointed out that, had they existed, she would never have let them be taken away! She knew, however, that a number of valuable artefacts had been removed from the museum’s collections before she started working there. She even published a list of these items but, here again, there was no reference to the Mercator globes.

So, despite the physical evidence in the labels, the connection to the History of Science Museum in Geneva could not be proved conclusively.

The globes found in 2004 in the EPFL’s Cubotron building probably had not been there very long. Was it possible to retrace their transfers and, by doing so, solve the riddle of their origin ?

The first indication of the globes’ itinerary was given by Prof. Bernard Hauck, a former director of the Geneva Observatory. He remembered noticing them at the observatory’s old premises on Chemin des Grandes-Roches in Lausanne. When he was appointed professor of astronomy in Lausanne in 1976, it was he who moved them to the Collège propédeutique in Dorigny (today the Amphipôle building) and then to the Sauverny Observatory. One of the globes subsequently found a home in his office at Unicentre (UNIL’s Rectorate building) when he served as vice-rector from 1987 to 1991. At the time, Hauck was not really aware of the globes’ historical value.