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Oldest Globe with New World Discovered on...
Oldest Globe with New World Discovered on Ostrich Egg
A globe engraved on an ostrich egg, dated from 1504, has emerged as most likely the oldest known globe to include the New World. A photo released from the Wisconsin Historical Museum shows a 1513 map of the world (picture 2), considered one of the earliest printed maps to show the New World is dated 9 years later than the “ostrich egg globe.”.
The “egg globe” shows a scattering of islands in North America’s position, 12 years after Columbus’s first voyage, the area was still largely unknown. Europe, North Africa and the Middle East are meticulously engraved on the egg globe.
On the globe’s depiction of the Western Hemisphere, the large land mass is South America, better known at the time from the voyages of the earliest European explorers than North America. On the globe, the New World bears three labels: “TERRA DE BRAZIL,” “MVNDVS NOVVS” and “TERRA SANCTAE CRVCIS.”
The globe, when pictured other ostrich eggs, is about the size of a grapefruit. The globe is actually the connected bottom halves of two eggs, which explains why the “globe” egg in not oval-shaped like the other ostrich eggs.
Stefaan Missinne, a collector who wrote an analysis of the “ostrich egg globe” for the Washington Map Society, speculates that the globe may have connections to Leonardo da Vinci’s workshop. But the maker remains unknown.
