[CORONELLI, Father Vincenzo, Venice & Paris, 1698]

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[CORONELLI, Father Vincenzo, Venice & Paris, 1698]
A magnificent pair of 42½-inch (110cm.) diameter library globes, each made up of two sets of twelve original proof gores and two (later) polar calottes, with (later) horizon papers, the celestial being the convex gores, laid on modern plaster spheres and extremely finely hand-coloured, with modern mountings, signed on the meridian G & T [Greaves & Thomas] LONDON, both with the numerous decorative cartouches left blank, and further differing from the final versions in several ways (see below), the terrestrial with the equatorial, tropic and polar circles and PRIMO MERIDIANO graduated in degrees, this latter running through Iceland, the ecliptic graduated in days and showing symbols and names for the houses of the Zodiac, the Pacific Ocean with two wind roses with the names of thirty-two winds in Italian, the oceans with descriptive notes, some within decorative cartouches, with historical and geographical information, numerous decorative depictions of ships and boats and marine flora and fauna, 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 marked at close intervals with daily positions, with further notes and dates, further cartouches in the southern Indian Ocean and in the southern Pacific Ocean, various sandbanks also shown, including IL GRAN BANCO off Nova Scotia, with explanatory note, the North Pole labelled POLO SETTENTRIONALE, ò BOREALE, ET ARTICO with extensive notes, the Antarctic circle labelled LA TERRA MAGELLANICA AUSTRALI, ò MERIDIONALE, et INCOGNITA, detta dalli Spagnuoli with large decorative cartouche left blank and one third of the projected coastline shown and various further notes, New Zealand with partial coastline shown and a note reading Scoperta dagli Medeni l'anno 1654, Tasmania with southern coastline shown and labelled TERRA D'ANTONIO DIEMENS Scoperta li 24.novembre del 1642. da Abel Tazman Holland, Madagascar labelled I DI MADAGASCAR, ò DI MADAGASE, Inc:, MEMOUTHIAS Ptol. and detta dalli Francesi, ISLE DAUPHIN Scoperta dalli Portughesi, l'anno 1506, the Maldives with ocean currents shown, various other islands with notes, the continents with numerous geographical and historical notes and details such as towns and cities, some marked to denote abbeys or cathedrals, national boundaries shown in dotted outline, rivers marked, mountains shown in pictorial relief, forests and jungles shown by groups of green trees, China showing the Great Wall, labelled Muraglia della China longa 300 leghe alta 30 Cubiti larga 12., all land masses save Europe with numerous depictions of inhabitants, habitations and wildlife, Africa with large decorative cartouche entitled DEL FIOME NILO engraved by P. Coronelli, the Caspian Sea, shown mis-shapen, with note reading MARE CASPIO GUALENSKOI da Mosc. CULZUM DEGHIZ, et GHILAN DEGHIZ da Jure TEBERISTAN, ò CHOUAREZAN, et MAZABDERAN da Persiani, the North Pacific with partly projected coastline of a landmass labelled TERRE DE IESSO, ò IECO, YEDCO, ESSO, et SESSO Scoperta dagli Hollandesi, l'anno 1643 and a note entitled Della Nuoua Albione, North America with no north-west coastline, a large decorative descriptive cartouche near the North Polar circle entitled DELLO STRETTO D'ANIAN, California shown as an island with descriptive cartouche to the south-west, Australia with no eastern coastline, shown joined to New Guinea, and with various notes;

the celestial with convex gores, the cartouches similarly left blank, the equatorial, tropic and polar circles, equinoctial and solstitial colures all graduated in degrees, the ecliptic graduated in degrees, the constellations depicted by superlative engravings of mythical beasts, figures and objects and left unlabelled, the Milky Way depicted as a wide green river with bankside flora, the stars to various orders of magnitude and left unlabelled the two polar calottes later [1980's] and with labelled constellations;

both spheres with brass hour dial graduated I-XII twice, with arrow pointer, the brass meridian circle engraved on one side and divided in four quadrants of 0 - 900, the octagonal oak horizon with hand water-coloured printed paper ring from the oroginal prrof-sheets, in eight sections, showing degrees of altitude and azimuth, days of the houses of the Zodiac with symbols, names and decorative pictorial representations, the Gregorian and Ecclesiastical calendars shown, with dominical letters, every day with a historical note in Italian and the appropriate year, many of cartographical interest, also showing the old and new names of sixteen winds, the eight corners with a picture of two putti holding a sash in the mouth of a goat-like figure, 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 - 69in. (175cm.) high overall; 57in. (145cm.) wide overall

See Front Cover, Colour Illustration and Details (2)

Literature

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 KROGT, 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)
ZÖGNER, Lother, Die Welt In Händen (Berlin, 1989)

Special notice

No VAT will be charged on the hammer price, but VAT at 17.5% will be added to the buyer's premium which is invoiced on a VAT inclusive basis. This lot is subject to Collection and Storage Charges.

Lot Essay

A PAIR OF CORONELLI GLOBES

Father Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718) always claimed that his 110cm. globes of 1688 were the finest he ever printed. They are reduced versions of the great 3.9 metre diameter manuscript globes made for King Louis XIV and presented to him in 1683. Coronelli had already made 1.75 metre 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 110cm. 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 terrstrial 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.

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