BEHAIM or BEHEM, MARTIN (1436?-15o7), German navigator and geographer, was born at Nuremberg, according to one tradition, about 1436; according to Ghillany, as late as He was drawn to Portugal by participation in Flanders trade, and acquired a scientific reputation at the court of John II. He be came (c. 148o) a member of a council appointed by King John for the furtherance of navigation and is said to have introduced into Portugal various improvements in nautical instruments. In 1484-85 he claimed to have accompanied Diogo Cao in his second expedition to West Africa, really undertaken in 1485-86, reaching Cabo Negro in 15 °4o' S. and Cabo Ledo still farther on. His pretensions have been disputed, and it is suggested that instead of sharing in this great voyage of discovery, the Nuremberger only sailed to the nearer coasts of Guinea, perhaps as far as the Bight of Benin, and possibly with Jose Visinho the astronomer and with Joab Affonso d'Aveiro, in 1484-86. Martin's later history, as tra ditionally recorded, was as follows. On his return from his West African exploration to Lisbon he was knighted by King John, who afterwards employed him in various capacities; but, from the time of his marriage in 1486, he usually resided at Fayal in the Azores, where his father-in-law, Jobst van Huerter, was governor of a Flemish colony. On a visit to his native city in 1492, he constructed his terrestrial globe, still preserved in Nurem berg, and often reproduced, in which the influence of Ptolemy is strongly apparent, but wherein some attempt is also made to incorporate the discoveries of the later middle ages (Marco Polo, etc.). As a scientific work it is unimportant, ranking far be low the portolani charts of the 14th century. Its West Africa is marvellously incorrect; the Cape Verde archipelago lies hundreds of miles out of its proper place; and the Atlantic is filled with fabulous islands. Blunders of 16° are found in the localization of places the author claims to have visited : contemporary maps, at least in regard to continental features, seldom went wrong beyond I °. It is generally agreed that Behaim had no share in Transatlantic discovery; and though Columbus and he were ap parently in Portugal at the same time, no connection between the two has been established. He died at Lisbon on Aug. 8, 1507.
See A. von Humboldt, Kritische Untersuchungen (1836) ; F. W. Ghillany, Geschichte des Seefahrers Martin Behaim (1853) ; Eugen Gelcich in the Mittheilungen of the Vienna Geographical Society, vol. xxxvi. pp. Ioo, etc.; E. G. Ravenstein, Martin de Bohemia (Lisbon, 'goo), Martin Behaim, His Life and His Globe (1909) , and "Voyages of Diogo Cao and Bartholomeu Dias, 1482-88," in Geographical Journal, Dec. i900. See also Geog. Journal, Aug. 1893, p. 175, Nov. 1901, p. 5o9 ; Jules Mees in Bull. Soc. Geog., Antwerp, 1902, pp. 182-204 ; A. Ferreira de Serpa in Bull. Soc. Geog., Lisbon, 1904, pp. 297-307.