The Digital Behaim Globe (1492)

The goal of most hypermedia systems is to open up complex information spaces through the use of associative networks of nodes containing texts, images, and acoustic signals. The power of such information systems can be considerably enhanced by the integration of knowledge representation. We illustrate this claim with an example hypermedia information system about the oldest existing globe of the earth whose creation was initiated by Martin Behaim in 1492. Displaying the pre-columbian image of the earth, the Behaim globe is a cartographical masterpiece of German humanism in the Renaissance age; nowadays the globe is exhibited in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum in Nuremberg. From the user viewpoint, our hypermedia information system offers two paths for information access, one through a graphical visualization component which can produce images of the globe from any desired viewpoint, and a graphical query interface to a hypermedia network which provides structured information units cons..