Caspar Vopel

Caspar Vopel (1511–1561) was a German cartographer and instrument maker. Born in Medebach, he studied mathematics and medicine at the University of Cologne in 1526–1529.{{cite web | url =https://www.mhs.ox.ac.uk/epact/maker.php?MakerID=31|title=Caspar Vopel|publisher=Museum of the History of Science| accessdate =25 November 2016}} He taught mathematics at the Gymnasium of Cologne and in the early 1530s established a workshop to produce celestial and terrestrial globes, armillary spheres, sundials, quadrants and astrolabes. Vopel is sometimes credited with the promotion of the ancient asterism Coma Berenices to constellation status.{{cite web |url = http://www.ianridpath.com/startales/comaberenices.htm |title = Coma Berenices |first = Ian |last = Ridpath |work = Star Tales |accessdate = 11 April 2012}}

An exemplar of Vopel’s 1536 globe is held at Tenri University Library, Nara. 織田武雄 (Oda Takeo), 天理図書館蔵 Vopellの地球儀について(Vopell’s terrestrial globe at Tenri University Library), ビブリア: 天理図書館報 (Biblia: Tenri Library Bulletin), 23, (1962): 449. Vopel’s 1536 globe was copied on the 1552 globe of Jacques de la Garde of Blois, on the globe made by Jean Naze of Lyon in 1560, on Christoph Schniepp’s globe of c.1600, on the 1603 Nicolai Globe and on the Oterschaden globe of similar date.Robert J. King, "The Southern Continent on the Globe by Guillaume Nicolai Belga, Lyon, 1603", The Great Circle, vol.45, no.2, 2024, pp.1-36. In 1545 he began to prepare maps and atlases. His mappemonde of 1545 is titled NOVA ET INTEGRA VNIVERSALISQVE ORBIS TOTIVS IVXTA GERMANVM NEOTERICORVM TRADITIONEM DESCRIPTIO (A New Complete and Universal Description of the Whole World, according to the Modern German Tradition).A copy of the 1558 Venice edition is held at the Houghton Library, Harvard University.[http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:FHCL:1196240?buttons=y] An inscription on it describes America and its people drawn from the Mundus Novus:

{{blockquote|America, which Americo Vespucci called a New World continent or land; the name was taken from Americo Vespucci, the discoverer of the same; on the other hand, in Castile by choice they call it Terra Firma, and for that reason it is now not undeservedly called the Fourth Part of the World beyond the Equator, where it is observed that the manners of the people, their humanity, the fertility of the soil, temperance of the air and salubrity of the climate testify that they are born in more cultivated regions and more crowded with inhabitants than any other nation, be it in Asia, Europe or Africa, etc. The inhabitants lie with each other promiscuously taking no account of blood relationship and take as many wives as they please; others feed on human flesh, so much so that, it is said, a father feeds upon his children and they in turn upon the parents they are born of, according to the results of chance; and they swim like animals of the sea."America quam Americus Vesputius Novum orbem Continentem quam terram nuncupavit, ab Americo Vesputio eiusdem inventore nomen sortita Castellam vero modo Terram firmam vocant, & ob id non immerito nunc Quarta pars terrae dicta is ultra aequatorem, ubi conspicatus gentem mores, humanitatem, non feracitatem, aeris temperiem, salubritatemque coelii nactum se este testatur cultiores regiones, easdemque habitoribus frequentiores, quam alibi gentium usquam ut Asiam, ut Europam, Africamque spectaveris &c. Incolarum alii in promiscum coeunt nula sanguinis ratione habita alii tot ducuntur uxores, quot libuerit; alii vescantur carne humana; adeo ut pater filios epuletur, & vicissim nati parentem; pro ut sors tullerit, & eventus; hisque narant ceu maris animalia."}}

File:Vopell America cum Asia.tif had carried on war in New Spain. Furthermore, these arrangements will not be reached here but will be brought to light in their time in whichever place the book of Cosmography gives. Therefore, Dear Reader, what was communicated to me by Caesar's Majesty, and which I studiously communicate to you, clearly as I was told, and offer on my elbow to you as an interim gift, that you will receive with approval what I accepted, for us to enjoy as first fruits until I shall have published another representative description in the shape of a human heart.]]