Martin Behaim - Biography

Biography

The Behaim family had immigrated to Nuremberg because of religious persecution around 916. Behaim was born in Nuremberg, according to one source, about 1436; other sources suggest as late as 1459; while others indicate that he was born in Bohemia to Martin Behaim and Agnes Schopper, merchants and the oldest of seven sons. Martin Behaim, the father, had many businesses including some in Venice, and later became an elected senator (1461), eventually dying in 1474 (Agnes Schopper died on 8 July 1487). Their son attended the highest schools, receiving a scientific education, obligated to learn the languages of Europe and devote themselves to commercial pursuits and studies, before being sent to under apprenticeship abroad.

With a vocation in commerce, he parted around 1477 for Flanders, settling in Malines where he joined the business of Jorius van Dorpp, a vendor of clothing. They visited Frankfurt fairs in 1477, where van Dorpp sold his wares to a German merchant from Antwerp, and Behaim was motivated by his mother to return in the fall where he worked with Bartels von Eyb (a friend of the family). Writing to his uncle, Leonhard Behaim (September 18, 1478), he expressed his desire not to return to Malines and wanted to improve his commercial skills. He eventually worked for another merchant, Fritz Heberlein (a native of Nuremberg but established in Antwerp) who allowed him to learn arithmetic and improve his skills. In 1480, trade between Portugal and Flanders attracted Behaim to Lisbon, and he became involved with the mercantile interests and overseas exploration that was occurring in the capital (from Flanders, Germany and the Hanseatic League). He was attracted to the knowledge of the navigators, cosmographers and explorers, acquiring a scientific reputation, and supposedly meeting with Christopher Columbus and Ferdinand Magellan and other celebrities then at the court of King John II of Portugal.

Between 1471-75, as a pupil (real or supposed) of the astronomer Regiomontanus (Johannes Müller von Königsberg of Königsberg in Franconia), who died in 1476, he became linked to cosmography and cartography, resulting in an invitation from King John to a council on navigation in 1483, led by Abraham Zacuto. It is said that he introduced the cross-staff to Portugal (an invention first described by the Spanish Jew Levi ben Gerson in the 14th century), but this is a matter of some controversy. Many navigational instruments had been in use for centuries by Scandinavian, Greek, Roman, Arab, and Chinese navigators, although there were subtle differences between them. He made improvements to the astrolabe by introducing brass instruments in place of cumbrous wooden ones. It also seems likely that he helped to prepare improved navigational tables of the Iberian Peninsula.

Behaim accompanied Diogo Cão during his second expedition (1485–86) along the coast of western Africa, reaching Cabo Negro and Cabo Ledo and returning by way of the Azores. It is still unclear whether Behaim sailed as far as reported, or whether he only reached the coast of Guinea, perhaps as far as the Bight of Benin. Perhaps these waypoints were only reached by the astronomers José Vizinho and João Afonso de Aveiro in 1484-86. Behaim's later history was less memorable: on his return to Lisbon from exploration in western Africa, he was knighted by King John, who afterwards employed him in various capacities.

Following his marriage to D. Joana de Macedo in 1486, he resided on the Portuguese island of Faial in the Azores, where his father-in-law, Josse van Huerter, was Captain-donatário and leader of the Flemish community. In 1490, he returned to Nuremberg to handle the family business and design his famous globe, the Erdapfel. He returned to Faial in 1493 by way of Flanders and Lisbon, and he remained there until 1506. He died on July 29, 1507, while in Lisbon on business.