BEHAIM (or
Behem), MARTIN (1436? – 1507), a navigator and geographer of great pretensions,
was born at Nuremberg, according to one tradition, about 1436; according
to Ghillany, as late as 1459. He was drawn to Portugal by participation
in Flanders trade, and acquired a scientific reputation at the court of
John II. As a pupil, real or supposed, of the astronomer “ Regiomontanus”
(i.e. Johann Müller of Königsberg in Fran-conia) he became
(c. 1480) a member of a council appointed by King John for the furtherance
of navigation. His alleged introduction of the cross-staff into Portugal
(an invention described by the Spanish Jew, Levi ben Gerson, in the 14th
century) is a matter of controversy; his improvements in the astrolabe
were perhaps limited to the introduction of handy brass instruments in
place of cumbrous wooden ones; it seems likely that he helped to prepare
better navigation tables than had yet been known in the Peninsula. In 1484
– 1485 he claimed to have accompanied Diogo Cao in his second expedition
to West Africa, really undertaken in 1485-86, reaching Cabo Negro in 15°40'
S. and Cabo Ledo still farther on.It is now disputed whether Behaim’s pretensions
here deserve any belief; and it is suggested that instead of sharing in
this great voyage of discovery, the Nuremberger only sailed to the nearer
coasts of Guinea, perhaps as far as the Right of Benin, and possibly with
José Visinho the astronomer and with Joao Alfonso d’Aveiro, in 1484
– 86. Martin’s later history, as traditionally recorded, was as follows.
On his return from his West African exploration to Lisbon he was knighted
by King John, who afterwards employed him in various capacities; but, from
the time of his marriage in 1486, he usually resided at Fayal in the Azores,
where his father-in-law, Jobst van Huerter, was governor of a Flemish colony.
On a visit to his native city in 1492, he
constructed his famous terrestrial globe, still preserved in Nuremberg,
and often reproduced, in which the influence of Ptolemy is strongly apparent,
but wherein some attempt is also made to incorporate the discoveries of
the later middle ages (Marco Polo, &c.). The antiquity of this globe
and the year of its execution, on the eve of the discovery of America,
are noteworthy; but as a scientific work it is unimportant, ranking far
below the portolani charts of the 14th century. Its West Africa
is marvellously incorrect; the Cape Verde archipelago lies hundreds of
miles out of its proper place; and the Atlantic is filled with fabulous
islands. Blunders of 16° are found
in the localization of places the author claims to have visited: contemporary
maps, at least in regard to continental features, seldom went wrong beyond
1° . It is generally agreed that Behaim had no share in Transatlantic
discovery; and though Columbus and he were apparently in Portugal at the
same time, no connexion between the two has been established. He died at
Lisbon in 1507.
See C. G. von Murr, Diplomatische Geschichte des berühmten
Ritters Behaim (1778); A. von Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen
(F836); F. W. Ghillany, Geschichte des Seefahrers Martin Behaim
(1853); O. Peschel, Geschichte der Erdkunde, 214-215, 226, 251,
and Zeitalter der Entdeckungen, esp. p. 90; Breusing, Zur Gcschichte
der Geographie (1869); Eugen Gelcich in the Mittheilungen of
the Vienna Geographical Society, vol. xxxvi. pp. 100, &c.; E. G. Ravenstein,
Martin dc Bohemia (Lisbon, 1900), Martin Behaim, His Life and
His Globe (London, 1909), and Voyages of Diogo Cao and Bartholomeu
Dias, 1482-1488, in Geographical Journal, Dec. 1900; see also
Geog. Journal,.Aug. 1893, p. 175, Nov. 1901, p. 509; Jules Mees
in Bull. Soc. Geog., Antwerp, I902, pp. 182-204; A. Ferreira de
Serpa in
Bull. Soc. Geog., Lisbon, 1904, pp. 297-307.
(C. R. B.)
Charles R.Beazley
11th ed.