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Description

Fine example of the South Africa globe gore from Vincenzo Maria Coronelli's 42 inch Terrestrial Globe.

One of the most accurate and finely engraved cartographic depictions of its era, the coastline of Africa appears in well-formed detail. The cartography of the gore is very similar to that depicted in the appropriate maps which appeared in Coronelli's great atlas, the Atlante Veneto, and there is some question as to which was published first.

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1715) apprenticed as a xylographer, before joining the Franciscan Order in 1665. After studying astronomy, philosophy and mathematics, in 1678, he was commissioned to make a set of terrestrial and celestial globes for Ranuccio II Farnese, the Duke of Parma, that were 5 feet in diameter. From 1681 to 1683, Coronelli was summoned to Paris by the 'Sun King' Louis XIV. There he constructed the legendary 'Marly Globes'. At over 10 feet in diameter and nearly 4000 pounds in weight, they were the grandest globes ever constructed and today reside at the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris.

The fame and importance of the Marly Globes led Coronelli, who had since returned to Venice, to produce a 42 inch diameter globe in 1688, of which complete examples reside in a number of major institutional collections around the world. Separate globe gore sheets from this famous globe periodically appear on the market. During this period Coronelli published his Atlante Veneto and founded the 'Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti', the world's first geographical society.

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli Biography

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.