GLOBE CREATION

There are two types of globes: terrestrial and celestial. Terrestrial globes represent the earth while celestial globes represent the stars.

A short history 

Contrary to popular belief, the history of globes goes back to ancient Greece, a civilization that had the idea of a flat earth and was already familiar with the stars. In fact, the creation of the first terrestrial globe is attributed to Crates of Mallos (ca. 220-140 BC), and the Roman marble copy of a Hellenistic sculpture entitled the Atlas Farnese remains the oldest celestial sphere ever known.

Later on, globes represented tools for exploration and science, and became essential during the Great Discoveries when European navigators discovered the world. They were carried on ships and even became prestigious objects for great Lords. The globe by Martin Behaim (1457-1507) is one of the oldest preserved today in Nuremberg at the Germanisches Nationalmuseum. In the 16th century, maps evolved rapidly. A multitude of globes were produced, notably in Amsterdam, capital of this art form. The outlines of the continents became clearer in the 17th century. In the 18th and 19th centuries, this know-how still existed but disappeared in France in the 1960s. Terrestrial and celestial globes gave way to digital technology with the development of satellite imagery.

Earth globes

As artpieces, globes represent the earth in three dimensions. The spheres are smoothed at the poles to match reality as closely as possible, and then placed on an axis and on a support to rotate. Globes are created by hand. Initially solid and made from glass, metal or wood, they became hollow and made from sheet metal.

Following the disappearance of this know-how in France in the 1960s, Alain Sauter, a geography enthusiast, has revived this craft by reusing ancestral techniques dating back to the 16th century.