The humanists' interest in Ptolemy's Geography and the discovery of the New World favoured the rapid development of modern cartography thanks to the large production of books, maps and refined globes of all sizes. From the time of Cosimo I, the Medicean collection had contained portolans, precious Ptolemaic codices and a great terrestrial globe over two meters in diameter built by Egnazio Danti (1536-1586). In the 17th century the collection was enriched with splendid globes signed by the most famous European mapmakers - Matthäus Greuter, Adrianus Veen, Jodocus Hondius and Willem Jason Bale.

Unlike maps, which represent the spherical Earth and the sky on two-dimensional surfaces through a geometrically controlled system of distortions, the globe provides a true, non-distorted image of our planet and the universe. Usually made in pairs, terrestrial and celestial, globes were formed of paper segments called gores, glued to a wooden and papier-mâché support. This form of cartographic representation became widespread in the 16th and 17th centuries.