Note 444 — Chapter I · General Description of the Picture—The Death’s-Head—The Dagger—The Order of St. Michael—The Celestial Globe—The Terrestrial Globe

“Johann Schöner. A reproduction of his globe of 1523, long lost.... By Henry Stevens of Vermont.... Edited by C. H. Coote. London, 1888.” Schöner was a distinguished mathematician, astronomer, and geographer. Born in 1477 at Carlstadt, his name is chiefly associated with Nuremberg, where, at various intervals, he spent long periods of his life. He corresponded with Copernicus; and Melanchthon contributed prefaces to several of his books. The latter, which are mainly concerned with astronomy and mathematics, and the then kindred subjects of astrology and medicine, also include treatises on the various celestial and terrestrial globes of which he was the author. Four of Schöner’s earth-globes, if we include that under consideration, have come down to the present day. A specimen of the earliest, dated 1515, is preserved at Frankfort; of the second (1520) in the Germanic Museum at Nuremberg; the gores found by Mr. Stevens are supposed to represent the third (1523); and the fourth (1534) may be seen in the Grand-Ducal Library at Weimar. Schöner died in 1547. Further information may be found, if desired, in the interesting book named above.