Finely Colored Example of Coronelli's Map of South America
Striking example of Coronelli's spectacular 2 sheet map of South America, one of the most influential maps of South America published in the late 17th Century.
An attractive large folio map depicting all of South America in the grand Coronelli style. Splendid large ornate cartouche with Coronelli's normal flourish. The map illustrates many of the primitive notions of the New World then prevalent in Europe. The map was both a grand statement and subtle propaganda intended to influence readers. The map depicts real and imagined places, rivers, mountains, as well as strange and wonderful animals.
Coronelli's map of South America appeared in his Atlante Veneto. The map is cartographically similar to the details in South America present in Coronelli's famous globe of 1688 and richly embellished with a style unique to Coronelli's maps.
Vincenzo Maria Coronelli, a Venetian scholar and Minorite Friar, was one of the most celebrated map and globe makers of his era. Cornelli produced more than one hundred terrestrial and celestial globes, several hundred maps, and a wealth of cartographic publications. In 1683, he completed the Marly Globes for Louis XIV, the largest and most magnificent globes ever made. In 1684 he founded the Academia Cosmografica degli Argonauti, the first geographical society, and was appointed Cosmographer of the Republic of Venice.
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.