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Finely engraved map of Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus and the western part of Ukraine, published in Venice by Vincenzo Maria Coronelli.
Coronelli's map shows Poland at the beginning of its decline, during the second half of the 17th Century. Published during the reign of John III Sobieski, the preparation of the map coincides with the conclusion of the Eternal Peace Treaty of 1686.
The map includes a number of annotations, including a reference to the fortification of the town of Kudak, in 1637, which later was attacked by the Cossack's at the outset of the Cossack Khmelnytsky Uprising ( 1648-57) and a number of similar annoations near the lower Dniepr. A reference to the fortification of Kiev in the early 17th Century is shown, as are a series of dates showing the different countries which controlled the city of Smolensk between 1403 (Lithuania) and 1654 (Russia). The battle with the Turks in Breslau (Wroclaw) is also noted.
A fantastically detailed map, including a number of coats of arms and dedication to Fedrico Cornaro.
Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718) was one of the most influential Italian mapmakers and was known especially for his globes and atlases. The son of a tailor, Vincenzo was apprenticed to a xylographer (a wood block engraver) at a young age. At fifteen he became a novice in a Franciscan monastery. At sixteen he published his first book, the first of 140 publications he would write in his lifetime. The order recognized his intellectual ability and saw him educated in Venice and Rome. He earned a doctorate in theology, but also studied astronomy. By the late 1670s, he was working on geography and was commissioned to create a set of globes for the Duke of Parma. These globes were five feet in diameter. The Parma globes led to Coronelli being named theologian to the Duke and receiving a bigger commission, this one from Louis XIV of France. Coronelli moved to Paris for two years to construct the King’s huge globes, which are 12.5 feet in diameter and weigh 2 tons.
The globes for the French King led to a craze for Coronelli’s work and he traveled Europe making globes for the ultra-elite. By 1705, he had returned to Venice. There, he founded the first geographical society, the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti and was named Cosmographer of the Republic of Venice. He died in 1718.
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