Celestial Globes, 1688

Celestial Globes, 1688

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Location:

First floor, Room 11 (inv. no. 3295, 3296)

Object Type:

Room: Instruments

 

The use of celestial globes was a response to two orders of problems: an aid to navigation and the teaching of astronomy. With the Dutch globes of the sixteenth century. the celestial sphere becomes an occasion of "show" rather than erudition. According of the position of the stars, ordered according to the different sizes, the constellations are represented with mythological drawings: from the warrior Orion, to the two bears, to the Whale, to Taurus; the globe thus becomes the "theatre of heaven". Here the stars are indicated in Latin, Greek and Arabic: a tribute to the mother tongue of astronomy.