Lot Essay
Vicenzo Coronelli (1650-1718) was a Franciscan monk as well as a celebrated cartographer and globe maker. He set up a workshop for the production of globes in the convent of S. Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice and began the production of printed globes in 1688. Two of his most important commissions were a pair of globes for Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma, and a pair of gigantic globes over twelve feet in diameter for Louis XIV, known as the Marly globes. Coronelli founded the world's first geographical society, the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti and was awarded the official title Cosmographer of the Republic of Venice.