Freiburger historische Bestände - digital

MARTIN BEHAIM.
HIS LIFE AND HIS GLOBE.

INTRODUCTION.

Martin Behaim has been credited with having greatly
advanced the art of navigation and with having made
extensive voyages of discovery under the Flag of Portugal,
but is best known as the author of a remarkable globe,
which was making at Nuremberg whilst Columbus was
crossing the western ocean in search of the riches of the
East. The story of his life and life's work should consequently
prove of great interest to students of the history
of geography.

The materials for doing full justice to this subject are,
unfortunately, very fragmentary, and there is little hope
that the future will lead to the discovery of documents
likely to shed additional light upon this matter. The
legends upon the globe, supplemented by a short account
in Hartmann Schedel's ' Liber Chronicorum,' 1 give us
Behaim's own version of a voyage along the west coast
of Africa, when he claims to have commanded a Royal
vessel; but diligent searches in the archives of his family
and of his native town have failed to bring to light
information on a subject which interests us equally much,
namely, his claim to be numbered among the great mathematicians
and cosmographers of his age.

My own inquiries at Nuremberg have enabled me to
supplement to a slight extent the information already
gathered by Ghillany and Dr. Gunther, but neither the
" archive" of the Behaim family, nor the search kindly
undertaken by Lieutenant Hans von Imhof among old
family letters still preserved by him, yielded anything

1 Dr. Hartmann Schedel (b. 1440, d. 1514) was an indefatigable
collector of codices and inscriptions. He settled at Nuremberg in 1484.
His library was sold in 1552 to Hans Jacob Fugger of Augsburg, and the
bulk of it is now in the R. Library at Munich (R. Stauber, iiber die
SchedePsche Bibliothek in H. Orauert's ' Studien u. Darstellungen a. d.
Geb. d. Gesch.,' VI., 1908). His famous chronicle was published in 1493.

calculated to throw light upon Behaim's doings whilst in
Portugal. Baron Holzschuher referred me for information
to Gatterer's ' Historia Genealogica Dominorum Holz-
schuerorum ' (Norimb., 1775),2 but although that valuable
work contains some details about George Holzschuher,
who helped Behaim with his globe, it ignores the members
of the family who resided at Lisbon.

Searches in the Torre do Tombo, the Record Office
at Lisbon, were no more successful than at Nuremberg.
Sebastiao Francisco de Mendo Trigozo tells us that when
he proposed to write a Memoir of Martin de Bohemia he
thought that the Royal Archives might yield some notices
of which he stood in need, but that all his research proved
unfruitful.3

Dr. Friedrich Kunstmann, the tutor of Princess
Amelia of Brazil from 1841-46, had free permission to
search, but found nothing to aid him in his historical
work.4

Prof. Carl von Reinhardtstottner, the learned author
of a work on Camoens' ' Lusiadas' (Strassburg, 1874),
applied for information to the Ministerio da Marinha, on
behalf of Dr. S. Gunther, but was regretfully informed
that they had nothing to offer him.6

I am myself indebted to my friend Captain Ernesto
Joao de Carvalho e Vasconcellos and to Sr. Gabriel

2 J oh. Christ. Gatterer, a distinguished historian and geographer, was
bora at Lichtenau, near Nuremberg, in 1727. He died 1799.

3 1 Mem. de Litt. Port.,' VIII., 1812. 2nd ed., 1856, p. 365.

4 Ghillany, P. Ill, Kunstmann was born at Nuremberg, took Holy
Orders, and died 1867. He is the author of ' Die Entdeckung Amerikas1
(Munich, 1859), and of several papers dealing with the history of
Portuguese explorations.

6 On Reinhardtstottner (b. 1847) see Manuel Rernaldes Branco,
' Portugal e os Estraneiros ' (Lisbon, 1879), with portrait.

b