Behaim Globe

The Behaim Globe is the world’s earliest surviving terrestrial globe. Created at the turning point between the pre- and post-Columbian eras, it is a milestone in the history of cartography. The globe was commissioned by the Nuremberg city council and was constructed and illustrated between 1492 and 1494, at the same time that Christopher Columbus was on his first and second voyages westward. The New World is not yet depicted; Eurasia and Africa still dominate the image of the world. Thus, in a unique way, the globe represents the crucial “productive mistake” that prompted Columbus’s westward voyage. The globe’s images and texts display about 2000 placenames, more than 200 cartographic symbols, and many inscriptions which report general knowledge from the time around 1500. Thus, it is an outstanding compendium of both old and new eras, simultaneously reflecting earlier, static geohistorical knowledge and new media invented to advance a dynamic global exchange.