Globes are known from antiquity but their modern development in the west dates from the 15th
century. The study of geographical and astronomical globes involves those interested in the
histories of science, geography and astronomy. Early globes are widely scattered, with some
preserved in museums and galleries but many remaining in historic houses. Commercially, they
are more likely to be treated as furniture or scientific instruments than as cartographic
artefacts.
See the website of the George Glazer Gallery, which maintains an archive of sold objects.
To track down other dealers in antique globes see Oddens'
Bookmarks [though this is no longer maintained], selecting, from 'category', 'Sellers of Cartographic Material' and
searching for 'globes'.
Facsimiles of early globes are produced by Greaves and
Thomas, whose site includes commentaries on the globes they reproduce. Other reproduction
globes are offered by Iris
Antique Globes.
Apart from searching the web for specific globes or globes in general, take a look at the 'Globes' entries for relevant images in the Themes section of Images of early maps on the web.
Adler Planetarium:
The Adler Planetarium is strong on instruments relating to astronomy. Entering 'Globe' into Adler History Database Query produced descriptions and small illustrations of 105 objects.
Globe Museum of the Austrian National Library:
The Globenmuseum in Vienna, the only one of
its kind, has a notable collection of globes. In December 2005 it moved into new premises, in Palais Mollard.
For further notes and illustrations see a page from Travel Adventures.
There is also a 72-page printed guide by Jan Mokre, The Globe Museum of the Austrian National Library
(Vienna, Bibliophile Edition, 2005).
National Maritime Museum, Greenwich:
See Globes for details from some of the NMM's 400 globes (which range from 1537 to the
present day), with accompanying descriptions.
Peter E. Allmayer-Beck (ed.) Modelle der Welt: Erd- und
Himmelsgloben -- Kulturerbe aus österreichischen Sammlungen.
(Vienna: Bibliophile Edition/Christian Brandstaetter
Verlagsgesellschaft, 1997)
Edward H. Dahl and Jean-François Gauvin, Sphaerae
Mundi: Early Globes at the Stewart Museum (Septentrion &
McGill-Queen's University Press, 2000)
Elly Dekker, Globes at Greenwich: a catalogue of the globes
and
armillary spheres in the National Maritime Museum (Oxford University
Press, 1999).
Elly Dekker and Peter van der Krogt, Globes from the
Western World (London: Zwemmer, 1993)
Tom Lamb and Jeremy Collins, The World in Your Hands - An
Exhibition of Globes and Planetaria (Christie's, London: 1995)
Edward Luther Stevenson, Terrestrial and Celestial Globes (Mansfield Centre,
Connecticut: Martino Fine Books, 1998 - reprint of the 1921, two-volume work).
Peter van der Krogt, Old Globes in the Netherlands
Utrecht: (HES Publishers, 1984)
Peter van der Krogt, Globi Neerlandici: The Production of
Globes in the Low Countries (Utrecht: HES Publishers, 1993). [The English abstract of this 1989 doctoral dissertation provides an excellent introduction to the subject.]
The International Coronelli Society for the Study of Globes
(Internationale Coronelli-Gesellschaft für Globenkunde) is the only society devoted to the study of historical globes. It
holds Symposia every few years at a different
European venue. It publishes Globe
Studies: the Journal of the International Coronelli Society, and circulates an occasional newsletter, Coronelli
Info (in English and German). The Society also offers the Fiorini-Haardt
Prize, open to those researching pre-1945 globes and their makers, and the International Coronelli Society Prize for the
Encouragement of Globe Studies (established in 2006), which embraces all aspects of globe-making up to the present.
