Martin Behaim, known as and by various forms of, was a German textile merchant and cartographer.
19 Facts About Martin Behaim
2.
Martin Behaim served John II of Portugal as an adviser in matters of navigation and participated in a voyage to West Africa.
3.
Martin Behaim is best known for his Erdapfel, the world's oldest known globe, which he produced for the Imperial City of Nuremberg in 1492.
4.
The elder Martin was a merchant involved in long-distance trade within Europe, including Venice; in 1461 he was elected a senator of Nuremberg.
5.
In 1477 they visited Antwerp where van Dorpp sold his wares to a German merchant; later that same year Martin Behaim attended the Frankfurt fair with Bartels von Eyb, a friend of the family.
6.
In 1484 Martin Behaim moved to Portugal and set up residence in Lisbon.
7.
The circumstances behind this move are unclear but Lisbon was the hub of a wide-ranging trade network that included spices, slaves, and gold from Africa and it is likely that Martin Behaim was looking for trading opportunities.
8.
Martin Behaim quickly found favor as a counselor in the court of King John II where he supposedly provided advice on navigation and astronomy.
9.
However, despite assertions by his early biographers, there is no evidence that Martin Behaim made any significant contributions in these areas.
10.
In 1490, Martin Behaim returned to Nuremberg to settle a will case, and remained in the city for three years.
11.
Martin Behaim managed to convince leading members of the city council to finance the construction of his famous terrestrial globe under his direction.
12.
Martin Behaim returned to Faial in 1493 by way of Flanders and Lisbon, and he remained there until 1506.
13.
Historian Johann Christoph Wagenseil claimed in 1682 that Martin Behaim had discovered America before Columbus.
14.
Martin Behaim has been hailed as a great mathematician and astronomer but there is no evidence of a scientific education nor are there any extant scientific writings by him.
15.
Martin Behaim claimed to be a disciple of the Renaissance mathematician and astronomer, Regiomontanus.
16.
Regiomontanus was a neighbor in Nuremberg when Martin Behaim was a boy, but there is no evidence that they ever studied together.
17.
Biographers have claimed that Martin Behaim accompanied Diogo Cao on his second voyage of discovery.
18.
The fact is that Martin Behaim's dates do not match the dates of this voyage and there is no independent evidence that Martin Behaim sailed with Cao.
19.
The world map depicted on the Martin Behaim globe is based primarily on the geography of the second-century geographer Ptolemy.