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There is nary an English seaman alive who would dispute Sir Frances Drakes place at the helm of great navigators. He purportedly first took to the sea at the age of 13, becoming master of a cargo barge at 20 and honing his sailing skills. Piloting a ship eventually renamed the Golden Hind, Drake was sent by Queen Elizabeth to start an expedition against the Spanish, and set sail from England on December 13, 1577. He eventually returned to Plymouth on September 26, 1580, and was hailed as the first Englishman to circumnavigate the Earth. Queen Elizabeth knighted Drake aboard the Golden Hind April 4, 1581.
This fitting homage to Sir Frances Drake measure 12-inches in diameter and is available with the Coronelli globe ball. It is graceful Victorian design features a unique hand-painted tripod base crafted of beautiful hardwood.
Vincenzo Coronelli born in Venice in 1650, is regarded as one of Italys finest cartographers. His construction of two globes for the Duke of Parma earned him an invitation to Paris, where a pair of globes built for King Louis XIV were of such a grand scale that they were constructed with trapdoors so craftsmen could and work from the inside. As Royal Cartographer to King Louis XIV, Coronelli was granted to access to the latest documentation sent from the colonies to the French Academy of Sciences. Also producing printed globe gores and pocket-sized globes, Coronells considerable works represented the pinnacle of geographic knowledge of the world in the late 17th century. |
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