page_title: Emery Molyneux
section_title: Middle Temple globes
hierarchical_section_title: Emery Molyneux / Globes today / Middle Temple globes
caption_attribution_description: English: Herbert Railton's illustration of Middle Temple Library
context_page_description: Emery Molyneux was an English Elizabethan maker of globes, mathematical instruments and ordnance. His terrestrial and celestial globes, first published in 1592, were the first to be made in England and the first to be made by an Englishman.
  Molyneux was known as a mathematician and maker of mathematical instruments such as compasses and hourglasses. He became acquainted with many prominent men of the day, including the writer Richard Hakluyt and the mathematicians Robert Hues and Edward Wright. He also knew the explorers Thomas Cavendish, Francis Drake, Walter Raleigh and John Davis. Davis probably introduced Molyneux to his own patron, the London merchant William Sanderson, who largely financed the construction of the globes. When completed, the globes were presented to Elizabeth I. Larger globes were acquired by royalty, noblemen and academic institutions, while smaller ones were purchased as practical navigation aids for sailors and students. The globes were the first to be made in such a way that they were unaffected by the humidity at sea, and they came into general use on ships.
  Molyneux emigrated to Amsterdam with his wife in 1596 or 1597.
context_section_description: A bill in the accounts of 11 April 1717 for "repairing the globes in the library" is the earliest reference to the Middle Temple's ownership of the Molyneux terrestrial and celestial globes. Markham's view was that Robert Ashley (1565–1641), a barrister of the Middle Temple who was also an ardent geographer, was likely to have left the globes to the Inn in his will, together with his books. Ashley's books formed the nucleus of the Inn's original library and included copies of the second edition of Hues' Tractatus de Globis and other works on cosmography. On the other hand, Wallis has said that Markham's view is not supported by any available evidence and the globes are not mentioned in the will. She believes that they were probably acquired by Middle Temple on their publication in 1603.
  The celestial globe is dated 1592, but the terrestrial globe bears the year 1603 and is the only example of its kind. Wallis has surmised that the globes were made by Hondius in Amsterdam in 1603 for a purchaser in England, perhaps the Middle Temple itself. The celestial globe was made from the original 1592 printing plates, while the terrestrial globe was produced using revised plates redated to 1603. The Middle Temple terrestrial globe differs from the Petworth House globe of 1592 by incorporating Raleigh's discoveries in Guiana and adding new place-names in Brazil, Peru and Africa, as well as an island marked "Corea" off the coast of China. The most extensive revision altered the Northeast Passage to take account of discoveries made on Willem Barentsz's third voyage to Novaya Zemlya in 1596. It appears that the revisions to the original plates of Molyneux's globe were completed by 1597, because no discoveries after that year are included. It is possible that Molyneux helped Hondius to update the plates in 1596 or 1597. For instance, if Hondius had obtained a copy of Raleigh's map of Guiana, Molyneux was the most likely source. Unlike the Petworth House globe, the Middle Temple globes are heavily varnished. The varnish could have been first applied as early as 1818 when the globes were repaired by J. and W. Newton; they were certainly varnished by Messrs. Holland Hannen & Cubitts, Ltd. during maintenance work in 1930.
  At the start of World War II, the globes were sent to Beaconsfield and stored with part of the Wallace Collection at Hall Barn in the care of Lady Burnham. They were brought back to London in 1945 and were at one stage kept in the King's Library on loan to the British Museum. The globes were installed in their present position in the Middle Temple Library when the current library building opened in 1958. In 2003, they were loaned to the National Maritime Museum for an exhibition commemorating the life of Elizabeth I.
  In 2004, Middle Temple proposed selling the Molyneux globes, valued at over £1 million, to create a scholarship fund for the education and training of needy would-be barristers. Its members eventually decided by a large majority against such a move. There was also a general feeling that the globes should be made more accessible to those wishing to see them.
  The Middle Temple's Molyneux globes are the subject of a book-length project, The Molyneux Globes: Mathematical Practice and Theory, by Dr. Lesley B. Cormack, Professor and Chair of the Department of History and Classics of the Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta. The project examines the community of mathematicians, natural philosophers, instrument-makers, and gentlemen-virtuosi that developed around the creation of the Molyneux globes, particularly the histories of four men who wrote treatises about the globes and the larger mathematical community.
caption: A drawing of Middle Temple Library in 1892 by Herbert Railton
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