Curio

State Library of New South Wales
Cary's new celestial globe on which are carefully laid down the whole of the stars and nebulae ... , c. 1830

Cary's new celestial globe on which are carefully laid down the whole of the stars and nebulae ... , c. 1830

GLOBE 8
Hand-coloured globe with brass meridian circles and hour rings mounted on a mahogany stand
Purchased from Hordern House in 2013

This celestial globe shows all the figures of the constellations and stars. The stars are classified in successive orders of magnitude. It shows the contemporary knowledge of the stars and constellations of the Southern Hemisphere to 1820, including the discoveries of Edmund Halley and Abbe de Lacaille.

The oldest known surviving terrestrial globe is the Erdapfel, created by Martin Behaim in Nuremberg, Germany in 1492


Unlike a flat map, a globe provides a true, circular image of the earth.


The celestial globe is one of a matched pair of 15-inch table globes, mounted on mahogany stands.


… Without some acquaintance with the celestial bodies, our ideas of the power and wisdom of the Creator would be greatly circumscribed and confined ...

Thomas Keith, ‘A new treatise on the use of the globes; or, a philosophical view of the earth and heavens …’, London, 1848


A terrestrial globe shows the earth including the land and seas. Celestial globes show the positions of the stars in the sky.


The word ‘globe’ is derived from the Latin word ‘globus’ meaning sphere.