Father Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718) always claimed that his 110 cms. globes of 1688 were the finest he ever printed. They are reduced versions of the great 390 cms. diameter manuscript globes made for King Louis XIV and presented to him in 1683. Coronelli had already made 175 cms manuscript globes for the Duke Ranuccio Farnèse, when Cardinal Cesar d’Estrèes, Ambassador Extraordinary to Louis XIV at the Court of Rome, noticed the globes. he commissioned Coronelli to make a larger pair for the King of France. coronelli moved to Paris for two years from 1681 and had at his disposal the finest craftsmen, and all the latest cartographical information. ‘The globes were a remarkable feat of engineering. Each could sustain the weight of thirty men: doors were concealed in their surface to give access to the interior. They became one of the show pieces of Europe’. (Wallis & Pelletier). In 1703 they were installed in the Chateau de Marly in the two specially altered pavilions. In 1715 they were transferred back to the Louvre in Paris and in 1782 were put on show in the Bibliothèque Royale (now the Bibliothèque Nationale). In 1915 they were returned to Versailles in sections, boxed, and packed away in the Orangerie. In 1980 they were restored and put on display at an exhibition held at the Centre George Pompidou in Paris.

There were requests to make a further similar sized pair; however Coronelli does not appear to have undertaken any more. He decided to issue instead a reduced printed 110 cms. in diameter which would include all of the cartographical information. Whereas on the large manuscript globes the position of the stars on the celestial was set at 5 September 1638, the day Louis XIV was born, the printed version of 1693 was fixed to the year 1700. ‘Coronelli seems to have made every endeavour to produce maps for his terrestrial globes which should omit nothing of real interest and value to geographers, navigators and explorers’ (Stevenson). He distributed his printed globes and atlases via a network of subscription societies run under the auspices of the Cosmographical Society of the Argonauts (Cosmografica deglil Argonauti) founded in Venice 1684. This was the world’s first geographical society. They were offered in London at £30 for the pair made up. In 1693 the Société Gallica decided to honour Coronelli by reproducing the celestial only for which the Venetian terrestrial gores would be its companion. I.B. Nolin was the draughtsman.

THE EXAMPLES OFFERED
The terrestrial gores were first published in 1688 in Venice. The celestial were published first in Paris by Nolin in 1693, then a new series of plates were engraved for the Venetian edition in 1698. The examples offered here are the Venetian issue, and are one of a very few surviving sets of convex celestial gores. They were almost certainly made without names and magnitudes so that they could be elaborately coloured. These are full size facsimile globes made from the original printed gores from the ‘Libri di Globi’ first published in Venice, 1697. Manufactured by Greaves & Thomas, the prestigious firm of globe makers, who are ‘devoted to producing the finest possible facsimiles of globes that span the history of globe-making’ (Sagues). Indeed these are actually very early issues, the evidence being the lack of portrait in the terrestrial, and more subtle clues on the celestial. The latter particularly has been studied by Rudolf Schmidt of the Internationale Coronelli Gesellschaft in Vienna who identified them as a previously unrecorded earlier state. On the terrestrial the following are supplied as facsimile: the two polar caps, the horizon ring, and two gores (both in South America). The celestial is made up with facsimiles of the two polar caps and the horizon ring.

Both globes bear numerous blank decorative cartouche and differ further from the final versions in several ways detailed below. The terrestrial includes the equatorial, tropic, polar and ‘PRIMO MERIDIANO’ circles graduated in degrees, this latter running through Iceland. The ecliptic is graduated in days and displays symbols with the names of the Zodiac. The names of thirty-two winds in Italian are found in the Pacific Ocean along with two wind roses. Other oceans bear descriptive notes, some within a decorative cartouche. Further historical and geographical information and numerous decorative illustrations of ships, boats and marine flora and fauna is also found. Lastly the tracks of the ‘Viaggio di Giacomo le Maire negl’anno 1616 é 1617, col qual’há scoper un nuouo passagiò dal Mare del Sud al Mare del Nort nicin’allo Stretto di Magaglianes in 2.anni, è 18.Giorni’, and of the ‘Viaggio fatto da Brest à Siam l’anno 1685, col Vascello da Guerra, detto l’Oiseau, di S.M. Chriftianissima’ are marked at close intervals with daily positions accompanied by further notes and dates. In the southern Indian Ocean and in the southern Pacific Ocean are further cartouche. Various sandbanks are depicted including ‘IL GRAN BANCO’ off of Nova Scotia with accompanying note. The North Pole bears extensive notes and the Antarctic circle is labelled ‘LA TERRA MAGELLANICA AUSTRALI, ò MERIDIONALE, et INCOGNITA, detta dalli Spagnuoli’. A large decorative cartouche is left blank. New Zealand is illustrated with a partial coastline and a note reading ‘Scoperta dagli Medeni l’anno 1654’. The southern coast of Tasmania is shown and labelled ‘TERRA D’ANTONIO DIEMENS Scoperta li 24.novembre del 1642. da Abel Tazman Holland’. There is no eastern coastline. In Africa Madagascar is labelled ‘I DI MADAGASCAR, ò DI MADAGASE, Inc:, MEMOUTHIAS Ptol. and detta dalli Francesi, ISLE DAUPHIN Scoperta dalli Portughesi, l’anno 1506’, Each continent bears numerous geographical and historical notes and details such as towns and cities. China displays the Great Wall labelled ‘Muraglia della China longa 300 leghe alta 30 Cubiti larga 12’. The North Pacific displays a landmass labelled ‘TERRE DE IESSO, ò IECO, YEDCO, ESSO, et SESSO Scoperta dagli Hollandesi, l’anno 1643’ and a note on the west coast of America entitled ‘Della Nuoua Albione’, California is illustrated as an island with descriptive cartouche to the south-west.

The celestial globe is produced with convex gores in which the cartouche are similarly left blank. The equatorial, tropic and polar circles, equinoctial and the ecliptic are all graduated in degrees. The constellations are depicted with exquisite engravings of mythical beasts, figures and objects and are left unlabelled. The Milky Way is illustrated with a wide green ‘river’ with flora and the stars are shown to the various orders of magnitude and again left unlabelled. Both globes come with a brass hour dial graduated from I-XII twice and with an arrow pointer. A brass meridian circle is engraved on one side and divided in four quadrants of 0 – 90. The horizon is octagonal oak with a hand coloured printed paper ring from the original proof-sheets, in eight sections, showing the degrees of altitude and azimuth. Also noted are the days of the houses of the Zodiac with symbols, names and decorative pictorial representations. The Gregorian and Ecclesiastical calendars are shown, with dominical letters, every day with a historical note in Italian and the appropriate year, many of them with cartographical interest. They also show the old and new names of the sixteen winds, the eight corners with a picture of two putti holding a sash in the mouth of a goat-like figure. The whole is raised on a Dutch-style stand, with four turned ebonised legs with gilt-painted rings at top and bottom and one third of the way up, united by rectangular-section cross-stretchers beneath circular oak base-plate, with central baluster turned ebonised oak and brass meridian support, on four ebonised ball feet. Dekker, Elly, ‘Globes At Greenwich’ (Oxford, 1999); Dekker, Elly, and van der Krogt, Peter, ‘Globes From The Western World’ (London, 1993); van der Krogt, Peter, ‘Old Globes from the Netherlands’ (Utrecht, 1984); van der Krogy, Peter, ‘Globi Neerlandici’ (Utrecht, 1993); Schmidt, Professor Rudolf, ‘Globe Labels: an addition to the Catalogue “The World In Your Hands”‘, (Vienna, 1995); Stevenson, Edward Luther, ‘Terrestrial and Celestial Globes’ 2 vols (New Haven 1921); Wallis, Helen, ed., ‘V. Coronelli Libro dei Globi 1693 (1701)’ (Amsterdam, 1969); Zogner, Lother, Die Welt In Händen (Berlin, 1989).