Globe Gores

Summary

The Geography and Map Division holds a variety of printed globe gores in a variety of sizes and configurations ranging from some of the earliest examples in the 16th century to more modern examples in the 20th century. Globe gores are strips of paper containing printed maps in the sizes and shapes needed for globe construction. The maps can be either terrestrial (showing the earth) or celestial (showing the heavens) and the gores are typically football shaped. The gores can be thought of as pre-assembled building blocks for a globe of a particular size which a globe-maker can quickly utilize to construct a globe without having to spend the time constructing the maps. The printed gores would be cut out of the printed sheet(s) and pasted onto a sphere of appropriate size to construct a globe. As far back as the third century B.C. written records about globe construction by the ancient Greeks show knowledge of a round earth. Greek grammarian and stoic philosopher Cratus of Mallus (ancient city in current day Türkiye) is known for constructing the earliest known globe of the earth around 150 B.C. The 1492 Erdapfel by 15th century German polymath Martin Behaim is the oldest surviving terrestrial globe, which was manually constructed from painted on globe gores and later inscribed with over 2,000 place names by a team of artists and scribes. Another German cartographer by the name of Martin Waldseemüller created what are thought to be the first set of printed globe gores in 1507. Coincidentally, this globe gore map along with his wall map also created in 1507 were also where the name America first appears on a map. Below is an 1879 facsimile of the Waldseemüller globe gores. Section from: Waldseemüller, Martin, Erster gedruckter Globus, Martin Hylacomylus (Waltzemüller), 1879, Geography and Map Division. The cleric and printer Johann Schöner was another German who played an important role in the history of globe gores. He was the first to bring printed terrestrial and cel...