[ISHMap-List] Wind faces in celestial maps / globes of the 1500s

Marco Ponzi marco.ponzi at gmail.com
Wed Jul 8 09:35:31 CEST 2015


Dear Prof. Carrington,
this is an excellent paper on the subject (wind diagrams in general, not
specifically map-related):


Wind Diagrams and Medieval Cosmology

Barbara Obrist
Speculum
Vol. 72, No. 1 (Jan., 1997), pp. 33-84

It is conveniently accessible on-line:
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2865863

  Best regards
  Marco Ponzi

2015-07-07 19:17 GMT+02:00 Jill Carrington <jcarrington at sfasu.edu>:

>  Dear List:
>
>  There are wind faces surrounding relief sculptures of both a terrestrial
> and a celestial globe that are part of the funerary monument of Tommaso
> Rangone on the facade of the church of San Giuliano, Venice, c. 1558-1560.  They
> flank the bronze statue of Rangone as part of a fictive study space.
> The terrestrial globe is encircled by 7 wind faces; the 8th one that would
> be at the top is not included.
> The slightly larger celestial globe is encircled by 15 wind faces; again,
> what would be the 16th at the top is left out.
> I understand that the wind faces reference God’s breath or spirit in the
> Bible in the case of the celestial globe.
>
> I need help finding celestial maps from the sixteenth century or earlier
> that show wind faces around either hemisphere.
> I am also at a loss to account for the difference in the number of wind
> heads for each globe. Why not 8 around each one? I read somewhere that 8 or
> 12 wind heads would be the norm in celestial maps, if wind heads are shown.
> There must be a precedent for the 16 shown here.
>
> Many thanks in advance,
>
> Jill
>
> Jill Carrington
> Professor of Art History
> School of Art
> 2124 Wilson Drive North
> Stephen F. Austin State University
> Nacogdoches TX  75962-3001
>
>
>
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