GLOB
A globe can be terrestrial-a spherical representation of the Earth-or celestial-aspherical representation of the heavens. Both types were constructed in ancient Greece and China. The earliest globes were small and made of marble, metal, or wood, with etched or painted surfaces. The earliest known celestial globe forms part of the "Farnese Atlas," a Roman copy of a Greek statue. Atlas holds a sphere some 25 inches across showing the constellations.
In 1492 the Nurnberg mapmaker Martin Behaim made a globe from a mold using wood strips, plaster, and fiber. Soon other mapmakers were covering balls with map segments called globe gores, printed map segments with tapered points. Dutch artist Albrecht globe gores in 1525. A more formal illustrated guide appeared in 1527, published in Basel by Henricus Glareanus. He proposed using 12 globe segments, each representing 30 degrees of longitude and extending from Pole to Pole. Antonio Florian's 1555 world map Durer published rules for preparing portrays the Northern and Southern.
Hemispheres, both subdivided into 36 gores of ten degrees. It may have been intended as a flat map or as the surface cover for a globe, each segment to be cut, moistened, stretched, and pasted over a ten-inch sphere. Today terrestrial globes depict Earth's physical features and may include features on the ocean floor as well. Most globes commonly show political features such as countries and cities. Globes typically are mounted with the axis tilted at 23Y2o, to simulate Earth's inclination as it orbits the sun. Globes also depict other spheres, such as the moon.