The conclusion of Pulter’s poem reveals the tension between old and new astronomical models during the seventeenth century. To some degree, Pulter seems to uphold the Aristotelian distinction between the mutable, imperfect sublunary sphere and the perfect, regular universe beyond the moon. The Eclipse1 refers to the “sad, pond’rous, passive, globe of earth” (line 13), and The Perfection of Patience and Knowledge39 pulls no punches in describing it as a “dunghill globe” (line 20; on dunghills, see Frances E. Dolan’s What is a dunghill?, a Curation for Pulter’s The Pismire35). In contrast, Pulter calls the celestial bodies “glitt’ring globes” (To Aurora [2]26, line 19, and On the King’s Most Excellent Magesty27, line 17), while the sun in particular is an “illustrious globe” (The Revolution16, line 8). However, her depiction of celestial objects as susceptible to decay contradicts this Aristotelian model, and reflects recent discoveries of transient astronomical phenomena, such as the supernova that Tycho Brahe observed in 1572. These discoveries undermined the notion of the universe as fundamentally stable and unchanging.

Given her frequent use of the word “globe,” it is worthwhile to consider the types of model globes that Pulter may have encountered in her lifetime. This terrestrial globe was produced by Willem Blaeu, a well-known mapmaker in Holland during the early seventeenth century. Blaeu studied with Tycho Brahe, an astronomer known for the accuracy of his observations and his unique cosmological model: Brahe contended that the Sun and Moon orbited the Earth, while the other planets orbited the Sun. The globes and maps produced by Blaeu and his two sons were prized as both functional instruments and symbols of wealth and learning; indeed, one of his maps appeared in three paintings by Johannes Vermeer of Delft.

Terrestrial globe by Willem Blaeu, 1602. Photograph by Erik Lernestål at Skokloster Castle, distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

Early modern globes were often produced in pairs, with one representing the terrestrial world and the other showing the apparent positions of the stars. This celestial globe, created by the cartographer and minister Petrus Plancius, demonstrates the influence of Islamic astronomy through its inclusion of Arabic names for certain constellations. Many of the terrestrial animals that Pulter mentions have counterparts among the constellations, including three visible in this image: Cygnus (the swan), Aquila (the eagle, also known as Vultur volans or the Falling Vulture), and Delphinus (the dolphin). Near them is the celestial Vulture (Vultur cadens, also known as Lyra or the lyre), to which Pulter refers in line 161. Petrus Plancius created twelve new southern constellations based on the observations of Dutch explorers, including Chamaeleon, Apus (the bird-of-paradise), Volans (the flying fish), Tucana (the toucan), Phoenix, and Grus (the crane), visible at the bottom of this image.

Celestial globe by Petrus Plancius, c. 1625. Photograph by Fredrik Andersson at Skokloster Castle, distributed under a CC BY-SA 3.0 license.

Like all of these objects and texts, Pulter’s poem provides evidence that the history of human knowledge is rarely composed of radical breaks. Even the pivotal astronomical reforms of the seventeenth century, which Wendy Wall describes in Early Modern Astronomy (a Curation for Pulter’s The Eclipse1), were based on the gradual accretion of information and methods from disparate sources, while university textbooks often contained several competing models. A manuscript in the Lawrence J. Schoenberg Collection at the University of Pennsylvania, by University of Pisa lecturer Donato Rossetti, contains diagrams depicting three models of the universe: the Ptolemaic or geocentric system, the Copernican or heliocentric system, and the Tychonic or geo-heliocentric system. The coexistence of these models in a single book speaks to the instability of astronomical knowledge during Pulter’s lifetime and the swiftness with which theories previously held to be infallible could be overturned.

Donato Rossetti, Figure de’ sistemi del mondo d’Aristotile, Copernico, e Ticone (Italy, c. 1680), folios 14r and 21v. LJS 175, Philadelphia, Rare Book & Manuscript Library, University of Pennsylvania.