{{Short description|1504 terrestrial globe}} {{multiple issues| {{expand German|date=May 2026}} {{Unreliable sources|date=September 2021}} }} [[File:Lenox Globe.png|thumb|The [https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/42fdfc00-cd5d-0139-9176-0242ac110003 Lenox Globe]]]
The '''Hunt–Lenox Globe''' or '''Lenox Globe''', dating from about 1508,<ref name="NYPL Treasures"/> is the second-oldest known terrestrial [[globe]] after the [[Erdapfel]] of [[Martin Behaim]] (1492) or, according to a [[fringe theory]], the third-oldest after the Erdapfel and the [[Ostrich Egg Globe]] (claimed<ref name="Bracke2019"/> 1504). The Hunt-Lenox Globe is housed by the Rare Book Division of the [[New York Public Library]].<ref name="NYPL Treasures"/> It is notable as the only known example of an historical map actually using the phrase ''HC SVNT DRACONES'' (Latin, "[[Here be dragons|here are dragons]]").
== Description == [[File:Anfuorin.png|thumb|Close-up of the text 'Hic Sunt Dracones'|alt=]]
The Lenox Globe is a hollow red copper globe without any green or black patina that measures ca. 112 millimetres (ca. 4.4 in) in diameter.<ref>{{ cite book | title = Bulletin of the New York Public Library | publisher = New York Public Library | location = New York | date = January 1904 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/bulletinnewyork10librgoog/page/n426 415] | url = https://archive.org/details/bulletinnewyork10librgoog }}</ref> The phrase ''[[HIC SVNT DRACONES]]'' appears just below the equator on the eastern coast of [[Asia]].<ref name="NYPL Treasures">{{cite web|url=http://exhibitions.nypl.org/treasures/items/show/163|title=The Hunt–Lenox Globe, Treasures of the New York Public Library|publisher=New York Public Library|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110122072550/http://exhibitions.nypl.org/treasures/items/show/163|archive-date=22 January 2011|url-status=dead|access-date=25 July 2010}} </ref><ref>{{Cite web |last=McGarvey |first=Kathleen |date=February 26, 2020 |title=One of the world's oldest globes is ready for its close-up |url=https://www.rochester.edu/newscenter/worlds-oldest-globe-hunt-lenox-lazarus-project-417532/}}</ref>
== Background == The globe was purchased in [[Paris]] in 1855 by architect [[Richard Morris Hunt]], who gave it to [[James Lenox]], whose collection became part of the [[New York Public Library]], where the globe still resides.
In his recollections, [[Henry Stevens (bibliographer)|Henry Stevens]] recalled seeing the globe while dining with Hunt in 1870. Hunt was ambivalent about the globe, which he bought "for a song", and was allowing his children to toy with it. Stevens recognized its value and urged Hunt to store it in the [[Lenox Library (New York City)|Lenox Library]], which he was designing at the time. Stevens also borrowed the globe to ascertain its age with the help of [[Julius Erasmus Hilgard]], who worked for the Coast Survey—a predecessor to the [[US National Geodetic Survey]].<ref>{{ cite book | last = Stevens | first = Henry | title = Recollections of Mr. James Lenox of New York, & the Formation of His Library | publisher = Henry Stevens & Son | location = Vermont | year = 1886 | pages = [https://archive.org/details/recollectionsmr03stevgoog/page/n163 140]–143 | url=https://archive.org/details/recollectionsmr03stevgoog}}</ref>
Stefaan Missinne, since 2012 the owner and investigator of the [[Ostrich Egg Globe]], proposed the fringe theory that in fact the Hunt–Lenox Globe was not engraved at all, but was [[Casting (metalworking)|cast]] from the Ostrich Egg Globe "using a very specific and unusual technique" before the two halves of the egg globe were joined.<ref>{{cite journal|last=Missinne|first=Stefaan|date=Fall 2013|title=A Newly Discovered Early Sixteenth-Century Globe Engraved on an Ostrich Egg: The Earliest Surviving Globe Showing the New World|url=https://washmapsociety.wildapricot.org/resources/Documents/Portolan%20-%20Issue%20087%20-%20Fall%202013.pdf|journal=The Portolan: Journal of the Washington Map Society|issue=87|pages=8–24}}</ref>
== Publications == [[File:The Lenox Globe Map.svg|thumb|upright=1.2|The Lenox Globe, by B.F. De Costa]] The earliest known article on the globe was written by B. F. de Costa for the ''Magazine of American History'' in September 1879.<ref>{{ cite journal | last = De Costa | first = B.F. | date = September 1879 | title = The Lenox Globe | journal = The Magazine of American History | publisher = A. S. Barnes | location = New York | volume = 3 | issue = 9 | pages = 12 | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=iCIDAAAAMAAJ&pg=PA529 }}</ref> Gabriel Gravier reprinted the article with additional comments in the ''Bulletin de la société normande de géographie'' later that year.<ref>"Le Globe Lenox", ''Bulletin de la société normande de géographie'' (Oct–Dec. 1879), pp. 216–228.</ref>
However, neither article links ''hic sunt dracones'' to dragons. Da Costa writes:
<blockquote> In this region [China, called ''[[East Indies|East India]]'' on the globe], near the equatorial line, is seen "Hc Svnt Dracones", or here are the Dagroians, described by [[Marco Polo]] as living in the Kingdom of "Dagroian". These people... feasted upon the dead and picked their bones (B.II. c.14, [[Giovanni Battista Ramusio|Ramusio]]'s ed.) </blockquote>
In his translation of Da Costa's article, Gabriel Gravier adds that Marco Polo's Kingdom of Dagroian is in Java Minor, or [[Sumatra]], well away from the spot indicated on the Lenox Globe.
De Costa noted a large, unnamed land mass depicted in the southern part of the Eastern Hemisphere on the Lenox Globe and suggested, “with extreme diffidence”, that this land represented Australia, misplaced to this location. If so, he said, “it would be necessary to conclude that, although misplaced upon the Lenox Globe, Australia was known to the geographers of that early period”.
The flat drawing of the globe which accompanied the early articles is reproduced as map 7 in Emerson D. Fite and Archibald Freeman's ''A Book of Old Maps Delineating American History'' (New York: Dover Reprints, 1969), and as figure 43 in [[A. E. Nordenskiöld]]'s ''Facsimile-Atlas to the Early History of Cartography'' (New York: Dover Reprints, 1973).
The New York Public Library provides high resolution scans of the globe on their website.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Hunt-Lenox Globe - NYPL Digital Collections|url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/collections/hunt-lenox-globe#/?tab=about|access-date=2021-06-09|website=digitalcollections.nypl.org}}</ref> <gallery> File:The Northern hemisphere of the Hunt-Lenox Globe.jpg|Northern hemisphere File:The southern hemisphere of the Hunt-Lenox Globe.jpg|Southern hemisphere </gallery>
== References == <references> <ref name="Bracke2019">{{cite journal |author=Wouter Bracke |date=2019 |title=''The Da Vinci Globe'' by Stefaan Missinne (review) |url=https://orfeo.kbr.be/bitstream/handle/internal/7421/2019_TheDaVinciGlobe.pdf?sequence=1 |journal=Maps in History |volume=64 |issue=64 |pages=13–15}}</ref> </references>
== Further reading == * R. W. Hill, The Lenox Globe, [[Bulletin of the New York Public Library]], Vol. 41, Nr. 7, July 1937, pp. 523–525.
== External links == * [https://www.nypl.org/events/exhibitions/galleries/explorations/item/4095 The Hunt–Lenox Globe] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110122072550/http://exhibitions.nypl.org/treasures/items/show/163 |date=2011-01-22 }}, Treasures of the New York Public Library {{Authority control}} {{DEFAULTSORT:Hunt-Lenox Globe}} [[Category:Age of Discovery]] [[Category:Historic maps of the world]] [[Category:1500s works]] [[Category:16th-century maps and globes]]