Station: [13] Schöner Globe


This seemingly quite ordinary globe is actually the museum’s most precious item – because of its importance for cultural history! In fact, it is the world’s oldest globe bearing the description and inscription AMERICA. The globe made by Johannes Schöner in 1515 obviously clearly differs from today’s representations of the American continent. The globe comes from the collection originally owned by the old Frankfurt City Library. Most probably, the city acquired the globe at one of the Frankfurt Book Fairs in order to gain an idea of the countries that had been newly discovered.