Lenox Globe

The Hunt–Lenox Globe or Lenox Globe, dating from ca. 1510, is the second- or third-oldest known terrestrial globe, after the Erdapfel of 1492. It is housed by the Rare Book Division of the New York Public Library.

It is notable as one of only two known instances of a historical map actually using the phrase HC SVNT DRACONES (in Latin hic sunt dracones means "here are dragons".)

The Lenox Globe is a hollow copper globe that measures 112 millimetres (4.4 in) in diameter and 345 millimetres (13.6 in) in circumference. It is two parts, joined at the equator and held together by a wire strung through holes at the poles.

It bears a striking resemblance to the Globus Jagellonicus, also tentatively dated to 1510.

The phrase HIC SVNT DRACONES appears on the eastern coast of Asia.

The globe's origins were unknown until 2013. It 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 recalled seeing the globe while dining with Mr. 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, 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 U.S. National Geodetic Survey.

A similar grapefruit-sized globe made from two halves of an ostrich egg was found in 2012 and is believed to date from 1504. It may be the oldest globe to show the New World. Stefaan Missinne, who analyzed the globe for the Washington Map Society journal Portolan, said it was "part of an important European collection for decades." After a year of research in which he consulted many experts, Missine concluded the Hunt–Lenox Globe was a copper cast of the egg globe.

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