Terrestrial globe published in the 1950s by Vallardi Editore, papier-mâché sphere covered with engraving paper on a copper plate and watercolored by Antonio Minelli, on turned wooden base with metal label. Good condition, height 50 cm, sphere diameter 30 cm. Good age related condition, signs of wear and use, as teaching material.
The origins of the publisher Vallardi date back to 1750 when founder Francesco Cesare (1736-1799) acquired a small craft in the heart of old Milan. In the early nineteenth century, the publishing house was noted for the production of works of art, geography and science, including a “Tour of Italy” which took twenty-two printings between 1819 and 1835. The complete works of various maps and directions for travel, including timetables and fares for transportation of the time, can be considered the first modern tourist guide. The firm “Vallardi” was born in 1843 and the company became industrial, with the opening of branches on national scale.

Men have always wanted to understand the world where they live, and they used all possible instruments to measure the space around and to increase their knowledge. Men had the possibilities to create some models of universe just when they had understood that it was possible to represent all natural processes by models. In old Greece, Naturalists understood sphericity of the Earth and its suspended position in space. The oldest globe is attributed by Strabo, historian and geographer, to Cratete from Mallo (about 150 B.C.). The first globes, in early XVI century, were made following up big geographical explorations and they were used for didactic uses in courts, monasteries and colleges; then globes were used also in universities and schools.