On Wednesday, 24th November, the Malta Map Society organised a lecture, ‘The Leonardo da Vinci Globe dating from 1504: a premiere for Malta’ delivered by the eminent Professor Dr Stefaan Missinne at the Casino Maltese in Valletta which drew a “full house”. Among the guests of honour were H.E. President Emeritus Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici and Mrs Mifsud Bonnici, H.E. Mr Frank Keurhorst, Ambassador of the Netherlands, H.E. Ms Sangeeta Bahadur, High Commissioner of India, Dr Elena Grech, Head of EU representation in Malta, Mr Dedenkulov, the Deputy Head of Mission of Russia, Ms Jennifer Kingsman the Deputy High Commissioner of Australia, the French Deputy Ambassador Mr Christophe Jean, Mr Struan Mitchell, political officer, from the British High Commission, Mr Richard Leitermann honorary consul of Malta in Germany and many distinguished Maltese and foreign personalities.
The fortuitous discovery at the Royal Geographical Society in London in 2012 of the ostrich globe by Leonardo Da Vinci has been described as the most significant find of the 21st century. Prof Dr Missinne gave a PowerPoint presentation on the results of six years of careful analysis and intensive research in which more than eighty researchers, worldwide, collaborated. All those attending the lecture remained fascinated and captivated.
Prof. Dr Stefaan Missinne, is a Belgian citizen who lives in Austria, near Vienna. He received his PhD from the Economics University in Social and Economic Sciences in Vienna in 1990. He is a Laureate of the Belgian Prince Albert Foundation and Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society. He is Managing Director of Ginkgo, a company active in the field of project development.
He is a collector of art chamber objects including antique maps and globes and is the author of several peer-reviewed articles. His latest book, released in 2021 by Hollitzer, bears the title: Mozart´s Portrait on a French Box of Sweets.
Prof. Dr Missinne has given lectures at international conferences in Hamburg, Portland (Maine), Vienna, Oxford, Barcelona, Civitella del Lago, London, Amsterdam, Straßburg, Rome, Arezzo and Florence and now Malta.
The results of the multidisciplinary research were published in 2018 by Cambridge Scholars in the book ‘The Da Vinci Globe’ by Stefaan Missinne and all the copies which were available for sale at the lecture venue were all sold.
Lecture Abstract
The Leonardo da Vinci Globe dating from 1504: a premiere for Malta.
Abstract: Malta.
An Aristotelian globe was discovered rather by accident at the Royal Geographical Society in London in 2012. It measures 1/5 of a Florentine braccio and it was engraved by a left-handed artist like Leonardo. This unique artefact is the oldest globe in history exhibiting real and metaphorical geographic details collected by Columbus, Cabral and Vespucci. The three names in Latin, in the location of South America are: MVNDVS NOVVS, TERRA DE BRAZIL and TERRA SANCTAE CRUVIS.
“HC SVNT DRACONES” which means: “Here are dragons” is engraved in the far Orient. This rare phrase is taken by Leonardo from a text by Albertus Magnus, a German medieval Monk, to which is added the unique textual metaphorical reference: ANFVROIN.
The intricate globe is decorated with intertwined waves, a shipwrecked sailor, a volcano, ships, pentimenti, conical mountains, light dark and cross-hatchings, meandering rivers, rugged coastal lines, numerous Mediterranean islands including MALTA amidst strong currents, a hybrid monster and CALIQUT, the famous spice port in India.
This globe portrays neither meridians, nor parallels, nor names of oceans. It is made of two lower halves of two ostrich eggs that originated from the Struzzeria of the garden of the Viscounts of the castle in Pavia.
It is hollow and was used to cast the red copper Lenox, a cartographic treasure at the New York Public Library. Astonishingly, this identical twin of the da Vinci Globe lacks any kind of green patina.
Surprisingly, a trace of red metal containing copper and arsenic was found in a red metal droplet on the surface of the da Vinci globe.
Leonardo is the only person known to date who has advised, in his Codex Atlanticus page 1103 recto to add arsenic to copper, in order to preserve its red colour and avoid a late patina.
At the British Library, a preparatory drawing dating from 1503 for this Renaissance globe was discovered. Erroneously it was believed to depict the surface of the moon.
This da Vinci globe has an extra ballast weight inside and virtually depicts the open sea through which the Orient could be discovered in a Westward direction.
Its scale is 1: 80.000.000. The diameter of the globe itself reflects Leonardo’s unique calculation of the world’s diameter to be 7000 nautical Italian miles. The talk ends with some additional discoveries which were made since its publication in 2018 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing.
© Prof. Dr. Stefaan Missinne, 2021.
Before the lecture a distinguished new member joined the Malta Map Society. The new member is Diane Cousteau daughter of Commander Jacques-Yves Cousteau, the famous Oceanographic explorer, cineaste and author (1910-1997).
Presentation of Prof. Stefaan Missinne’s book to H.E. The President of Malta
Due to unforseen Covid 19 restrictions, the planned courtesy visit by Prof Stefaan Missinne to H.E. the President of the Republic, a day before the lecture, had to be postponed. The courtesy visit was held on 10 January 2022 where Joseph Schiro met H.E. the President Dr George Vella to present on Prof. Missinne’s behalf, the book ‘The Da Vinci Globe’ written by Prof. Stefaan Missinne.
