The Jagiellonian Globe

 27 th April 2014

On May 1364, King Kazimierz the Great issued a privilege establishing the Stadium Generale, the first Polish university.

The Cracow school, referred to in that document as "the pearl of the prevailing sciences" is the second -oldest  university East of the Rhine, after  Prague's university, and is older than all extant German universities.
Originally the Academy was situated in Kazimierz ( suburb in Cracow). Later University moved to the existing Collegium Maius at the intersection of today's Saint Anny and Jagiellonska Street.

The Collegium Maius is ranked among the oldest Medieval university buildings in Europe.

In Collegium Maius among the numerous scientific instrument documenting the development of human thought and science is a globe, known as "Jagiellonian Globe". This instrument served for the determination of astronomical co-ordinates. It was probably manufactured in Northern Italy or Southern France in 1508. And it was the first such globe  in the history of  cartography to show America. It has the inscription which reads - AMERICA TERRA NOVITER REPERTA ( America the newly discovered land).