Sign In

- Or use -
Forgot Password Create Account
This item has been sold, but you can enter your email address to be notified if another example becomes available.
Stock# 68133
Description

“A compendium of geographical, cosmographical, and scientific information... on contemporary Italian science and geography” - Scammell

184 engraved maps and plates from Coronelli's planned large atlas, the Atlante Veneto, a notably large set.

The first volume starts with the large continental maps of Europe, Asia, Africa and the Americas, before the engraved part-title 'Idrografica' introduces the maps of the Pacific, Atlantic, Mediterranean, Bosphorous, as well as various rivers including a large 6-sheet map of the length of the Danube showing a large swathe of south-east Europe in great detail; at the end are 15 plates of ships from all around the world.

The second volume covers the British Isles and the countries of Europe, Asia, Africa, and the West Indies; the volume also includes maps from Coronelli's Isolario. The Atlante Veneto is considered one of Coronelli's most ambitious undertakings, the title is proclaiming the author's intention to be nothing short of 'la discrittione geografica, storica, sacra, profana, e politica, degl'imperii, regni, provincie, e stati dell'universo’.

Collation

Vol. I: letterpress title with date of 1690 preceded by half-title 'Atlante Veneto', engraved frontispiece 'Gli Argonauti, In Venetia 1691', and a double-page engraved allegorical print, followed by engraved frontispiece of surveying and astronomical instruments, portrait of the Doge, Francesco Morosini, and the dedication with engraved recto and letterpress verso, and 48 engraved double-page and 19 single-page maps and plates (most maps trimmed close at bottom edge and most with faint browning along centerfold due to adhesion to guards, pl. 4 with short split along vertical fold but without loss, pl. 18 [2nd Africa map] lightly creased, light even browning to pls 21 [1st 'America meridionale' map] and 39 ['Disegno idrografico del Canale Reale'], pl. 51 'Corso del Fiume dell Amazon' with irregularly wiped plate-tone, and pl. 54 'Bucintoro nella Soleninta' with bottom edges folded in and caption at top just trimmed).

Vol. II: letterpress title preceded by allegorical frontispiece, followed by 116 double-page and one single-page engraved maps (without half-title, text leaves apparently removed, most maps with faint browning along centerfold due to adhesion to guards, map 71 'Scotia parte meridionale' with 110mm tear to bottom edge, map 154 'Silesia inferiore' with 60mm tear to middle of plate probably due to paper flaw, but without loss, and with a marginal tear just touching engraved border with old paper repair on verso).

Provenance

Pasolini family of Italy (bookplates).

Condition Description
2 parts in 2 volumes, folio (18.75 x 13.75 inches). Contemporary calf, paneled in blind, with (later?) gilt decoration, the tools varying between volumes (rubbed, scraped and worn with spines defective at head and tail, vol. II much more affected.)
Reference
Phillips I, 521; Shirley BL, T.CORO-7a (close resemblance to vol. I); T.CORO-8a and T.CORO-13a (vol. II compiled from these).
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.