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François Demongenet was a French physicist and geographer active in Vesoul.

Demongenet's cartographic work is not well known, although a globe attributed to him survives.

He is perhaps best known for a set of globe gores which derive from his work.  In 1552, he published a pair of xylographic gores depicting the terrestrial and the celestial globe, which were widely distributed throughout Europe, becoming a model for other engravers and carvers of miniature globes.

The Italian copies of Demongent do not differ much from the first version, utilizing the Mercator projection used by Demongenet. At least 6 different variants are known to exist, different from each other due to small modifications in the dedication text and the spelling of the name of Japan (named Sipannge, Suango, Sipangi or Sipange).

The gores form a globe of about 90 mm in diameter, for a scale of the terrestrial globe equal to about 1: 146000000.

The first Italian state bears the E.V monogram in the cartouche, attributable to the Parma engraver Enea Vico. The spindles, without editorial details in the original version, bear the Marciano and Papal privileges, and could be printed in Rome or Venice; however, a late copy of the plate, edited by Luca Bertelli, clearly indicates Venice as a place of printing.  On the gores signed by Vico, Japan is called Sipange.

None of the six sets of gores is dated, although the early sets can be dated to around 1560 thanks to Girolamo Ruscelli, who in his Geographia of 1561 mentions "a small globe recently published by Mongonetto". According to Marcel the dedicatee of the work would be Claude de la Baume (1534-1584), archbishop of Besançon. In addition, he argues that the V. post after the name of Demongenet is to indicate its origin: V [esuolinensis], or native of Vesoul.

A set of the Vico gores is known in the Nicolai collection preserved at the Württembergische Landesbibliothek in Stuttgart and in the British Library; another example of the terrestrial spindle is in the Schmidt collection in Vienna, exhibited in the exhibition at the Correr Museum in 2007-2008. Another complete set is held by the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris.

We know of one set offered on the market, which was offered by Richard Arkway in his Catalog 67, originally offered for sale in the Antiquarius Catalog of 2006.


Archived

Place/Date:
Venice? / 1560 circa
Size:
11 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
56814
Place/Date:
Venice? / 1560 circa
Size:
11 x 5.5 inches
Condition:
VG
Stock#:
56815