The elder Martin was a merchant involved in long-distance trade within Europe, including Venice; in 1461 he was elected a senator of Nuremberg.

Their son, as a member of a prominent and prosperous family, likely received a good education at one of the best grammar schools in the city.

In 1477 they visited Antwerp where van Dorpp sold his wares to a German merchant; later that same year Behaim attended the Frankfurt fair with Bartels von Eyb, a friend of the family.

Writing to his uncle in 1478, Behaim expressed a desire to improve his business prospects by moving to Antwerp, a leading center of the cloth trade.

[1] He quickly found favor as a counselor in the court of King John II where he supposedly provided advice on navigation and astronomy.

[1][2] On 18 February 1485 Behaim was knighted by John II, presumably for his contributions as adviser on navigation and astronomy but there is no record of the exact reasons for his honor.

[2] Following his marriage to Joana de Macedo in 1486, he resided on the Portuguese island of Faial in the Azores, where his father-in-law, Josse van Huerter, was Captain-donatário and leader of the Flemish community.

He managed to convince leading members of the city council to finance the construction of his famous terrestrial globe under his direction.

Since the twentieth century, historians have taken a more critical look at these claims and have concluded that many of them are unsubstantiated by any documentary evidence, and in some cases flatly contradicted by existing documentation.

It also combines geographical information from other sources, including Marco Polo, John Mandeville, and Portuguese explorer Diogo Gomes.

[1] The completed globe, which came to be called Erdapfel (earth apple) by the townspeople, was originally housed in Nuremberg's city hall.