The only time I had visited Nuremberg (Nürnberg) was 2003. But it’s now the 30th of July in 2025, as I arrive from Vienna by train. I check into my hotel, and hurry over to the German National Museum (Germanisches Nationalmuseum) to take advantage of their extended Wednesday hours. Founded in 1852, this is the German-speaking world’s largest museum on Teutonic culture. I’m here to see 2 specific objects in their collection.
Long thought to be the world’s oldest pocket watch by Peter Henlein from the 16th-century, additional research with non-invasive non-destructive scanning technology has shown the central parts likely to be late-19th century, although many parts date to the 16th century. But it sure is pretty and interesting to see in person. Mechanism: worked iron and brass; Case: gold-plated brass.
Terrestrial globe, Nürnberg, 1492-1494 CE: about 50-cm in diameter; designed by Martin Behaim, and painted by Georg Glockendon the Elder. As one of the oldest surviving globes in the world, the Behaim terrestrial globe has since 2023 been inscribed into UNESCO’s Memory of the World program.
For late 15th-century, India and Southeast Asia appear to take shape, with a lot of coastline yet to be mapped.
North and South America are missing, but east Asia seems to hold some promise, especially with Japan (the large island of Cipangu on its own at right). The South Pacific is also missing representations of Australia and New Zealand. I’m reminded by terrestrial globes I’ve seen in Vienna’s Austrian National Library (Prunksaal, Globenmuseum).
Sketch of the Behaim globe (Wiki). Europe and Africa are at far-right, and Cipangu is where Japan is supposed to be.
I made all images above with an iPhone15 on 30 July 2025. This post composed within Jetpack for iOS appears on Fotoeins Fotografie at fotoeins DOT com.
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