Johannes Schöner
German mathematician, astronomer, cosmographer and printer and Johannes Schöner (1477–1547) was an influential pioneer in the construction of globes and one of Europe's leading astrologers. He also played a significant role in the publication of Copernicus's De revolutionibus orbium coelestium, (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres) in Nuremberg in 1543.
The 1515 terrestrial globe he based on Martin Waldseemüller's 1507 world map and globe includes an Antarctic continent (Brasilie Regio) based on descriptions of a voyage by Portuguese merchants Nuno Manuel and Cristóvão de Haro to the River Plate in the Newe Zeytung auss Presillg Landt (New Tidings from the Land of Brazil, Augsburg 1514).
Schöner misinterpreted what the account described as vndtere Presill (Brasilia inferior, effectively modern-day Uruguay) as the estuary's southern shore (modern-day Argentina) and extrapolated it to sketch in an Antarctic continent. A text accompanying the globe (Luculentissima quaedam terrae totius descriptio — 'A Most Lucid Description of All Lands') compared the River Plate estuary to the Straits of Gibraltar and suggested that Malacca did not lie too far to the west of the strait, providing the inspiration for Ferdinand Magellan's attempt to reach the Moluccas from the west.
Schöner took Magellan's 1520 discovery of Tierra del Fuego as confirmation of the continent's existence, and his 1523 and 1533 globes described it as terra australis recenter inventa sed nondum plene cognita ('Terra Australis, recently discovered but not yet fully known'). His notions influenced subsequent work by Oronce Fine, Gerardus Mercator and the Dieppe school of mapmakers' representation of Jave la Grande.
Terrestrial globe with wooden frame, around 1515, wood, w:papier-mâché, from Historisches Museum Frankfurt am Main (Photographer Uwe Dettmar HMF, Uwe Dettmar, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons)
Missing links:
Martin Waldseemüller'
Brasilie Regio
Nuno Manuel
Cristóvão de Haro
River Plate
Newe Zeytung auss Presillg Landt (New Tidings from the Land of Brazil).
vndtere Presill (Brasilia inferior)
Uruguay
Argentina
Antarctic continent
Luculentissima quaedam terrae totius descriptio — "A Most Lucid Description of All Lands"
River Plate estuary
Straits of Gibraltar
Tierra del Fuego
Oronce Fine
Gerardus Mercator
Dieppe school of mapmakers
Jave la Grande
