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Famous Mapmakers -Vincenzo Coronelli
- By The Map Collector
- Published 1 December 1984
- Maps
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The Map Collector
The Map Collector, initiated by Peter Scott and Valerie G. Newby, was a journal on historical cartography published every quarter. The first issue appeared in 1997 and continued for nearly 20 years. After 74 issues the last copy appeared in Spring 1996. Mrs. Valerie G. Newby, is presently editor of the IMCoS Journal.
www.imcos.org
by O.A.W. Dike and Margret S. Dike
THE TRAINING OF CORONELLI was that of a cleric who was by nature an encyclopaedist and who acquired an enduring interest i n cartography and geography. His failure to keep the high ecclesiastical office attained early in life was in part due to utter absorption with these interests and with his inventions. He had the good fortune to live not only in Venice, famous for its seamanship over centuries, but at a time when that Republic was enjoying a period of expansion. Francesco Morosini, who became Doge in 1688, had conquered much of the Peloponnese from the Turks. With an almost journalistic touch, Coronelli wrote up the successes from the geographical angle. Wide Venetian trade interests required up-to-date information on every part of the known world: but his background writing included also items of Roman history and literature.
Vincenzo (later also Vincenzo Maria) Coronelli was horn in Venice on 16 August 1650. He was largely brought up in Ravenna, but returned to Venice in 1665 and joined the convent of the Minor Conventuals. Five years later he was sent to Rome for study and already by 1673 was Doctor of Theology. From 1674 to 1677 he was secretary to the Province of St Antony at Padua. Having achieved some fame by constructing two globes for the Duke of Parma, he was invited to Paris for three years in 1681 and made two enormous examples for Louis XIV. On his return to Venice he assiduously collected cartographic material and founded the Academy of the Argonauts. In 1685 he was appointed Cosmographer to the Republic of Venice and authorised to publish a large atlas. He became lector in geography at the University of Venice, and the following year brought Out an Atlante Veneto (both this and the much larger collection published later had the same title).
In 1696 he visited Germany, Holland and southern England, and among other appointments was made General of the Order (Franciscan) of Minor Conventuals for six years. After only three years fellow clerics and the Venetian guild of booksellers and printers complained of removal of relics and unauthorised publishing, and the Pope deposed Coronelli for absence from Rome without permission. During intervals in compiling his vast encyclopaedia (only A-CAG was actually published) he continued with cartographic projects up to 1709. In 1717, after having worked on drainage schemes in northern Italy, he was appointed by the Holy Roman Emperor Commissioner for the Danube and other rivers in the Empire. He died in his native Venice on 9 December, 1718.
The globes which first made Coronelli famous comprised, as was usual, terrestrial and celestial pairs, but it was the former that were more carefully researched and executed. The giant pair made for Louis XIV were 487cm in diameter and were drawn and painted by hand; each had a door by which the craftsmen could enter, and each was profusely labelled and ornamented. The king even ordered himself new spectacles so as to be able to read place-names. Originally at the Chateau de Marly, they were later moved to the Bibliotheyue rationale, where they were restored in 1980. Large engraved globes (114cm in diameter) were published in 1688, 1693 and 1699. They were also issued in volume form in the Libro dei Globi (1697), which explained their construction. Sets of the twelve gores may be seen in the British Library and the Library of Congress. Numerous copies of the globes are extant, including for example two pairs at Fano, one belonging to the Castracane family and one in the Federiciana Library, whose founder Abbot Domenico Federici was a friend of Coronelli's. The mapping on the terrestrial globe reflects contemporary knowledge: as Stevenson wrote, Coronelli sought to 'omit nothing of real interest and value to geographers, navigators and explorers'. He also produced pocket' size globes 55, 110, 150 and others 480mm in diameter. The range of examples offered and the skill with which they were constructed put Coronelli in the forefront of globe-makers.
In addition he was a famous encyclopaedist, map-maker and geographer. Perhaps because his cartographic output was so vast, it is difficult to describe and assess. The majority of his maps, as well as other material, is gathered in his Atlante Veneto (13 vols, 1690-1705). The first volume, subtitled Descrizione generale istorica geografica, was his masterpiece, planned as an extension of Blaeu's atlas. After a preface, including lists of ancient and modern geographers, it contains sections on astronomy, geography and hydrography, and in an appendix an ecclesiastical gazetteer. Under astronomy Coronelli summarises the theories of Ptolemy, Copernicus. Tycho Brahe and Descartes. The geography includes a reconstruction of the Graeco-Roman known world, explorations from 1200 to 1680, and separate accounts for Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America and the two polar regions. The following are examples showing the range of history and literature which he gives as background: (a) in the central Mediterranean (after i.20) dotted lines indicate the possible course of Aeneas' travels, with a quotation from the Aeneid; (b) at Constantinople the place where the chain was drawn across the Golden Horn is shown; (c) biblical sites in Turkey are marked; (d) to exemplify textual information on rivers, there is a drawing of a monument at the R. Rubicon which commemorated Caesar's crossing. Other volumes of the atlas which contain maps are:
II-III Isolario, 2 parts (1696-8), with detailed maps and plans, mostly of islands.
IV-V Corso geografico, 2 parts, based not on the original edition of 1689-92 but on Corso geografico di 260 to vole (1694-7).
X Libro de' globi (1697, 2nd edn. 1705).
XIII Specchio del mare . . ., a reprint of F M. Levanto, Lo specchio del Mare Mediterraneo ( Genoa, 1664).
The other important aspects of his mapping are those arising from Venetian conquests and his own travels. Two volumes of the former appeared in 1686, Memorie istoriografiche della Morea [the Peloponnese] and Conquiste della Repubblica di Venezia, and one in 1688, Rodi e Negroponte [Rhodes and Euboea]. His largest military compilation was the Teatro della guerra in 30 or more volumes (1705-9). He clearly had something of the outlook of a war correspondent. Coronelli's travels were mostly in nearer parts of Europe, and apart from Paris he never spent long abroad. Thus his visit to Britain (1696) was confined to parts of the south, and one can find mistakes both in text and cartography. There are good and bad entries in his reference works, the Biblioteca Universale (only 7 vols published, 1699-1709) and his illustrated Latin gazetteer of the world, Regnorutn, provinciarum civitaintrigue .. . nomina Latina, 2 vols, (Venice, 1716: not listed in Armao's bibliography).
Coronelli was a great inventor. He devised a system of sea defences for the Venice Lido, an idea taken up in 1744; he drew up schemes for new bridges in Venice (those over the Grand Canal were built in the nineteenth century, one from the centre to the Giudecca has still to be built); and he'proposed a canal from the R. Adige to Lake Garda, realized in the 1940s. He devised a dredging machine !Or lagoons (reminiscent of Sir Robert Dudley), a means of deepening river mouths, lightweight armour, and a new system of salt production and purification. After being received by William III in London, he wrote to him with details of his patent fireproof and waterproof gunpowder bags. His last work, Effetti naturali delle acque (1718), is on hydrostatics and hydraulics.
We may justly regard him as one of the earliest professional geographers. The Accademia degli Argonauti may be considered the earliest European geographical society. Its tradition has been carried on by the Coronelli-Gesellschaft of Vienna, whose journal is Der Globusfreund. His Epitome cosmographica ( Venice, 1693 and 1713), representing his university lecture notes, has been called by Witt 'the first real textbook of physical and political geography in the modern sense'. As against these great merits, we may set some plagiarism and carelessness as his publications grew. The Newberry Library, Chicago, some years ago found a work by another author used by Coronelli with his on title and frontispiece incorporated into his encyclopaedia. But his prolific work deserves more analysis than it has had in recent times. Cartographically, much remains to be learned.
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COPYRIGHT December 1984 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
THE TRAINING OF CORONELLI was that of a cleric who was by nature an encyclopaedist and who acquired an enduring interest i n cartography and geography. His failure to keep the high ecclesiastical office attained early in life was in part due to utter absorption with these interests and with his inventions. He had the good fortune to live not only in Venice, famous for its seamanship over centuries, but at a time when that Republic was enjoying a period of expansion. Francesco Morosini, who became Doge in 1688, had conquered much of the Peloponnese from the Turks. With an almost journalistic touch, Coronelli wrote up the successes from the geographical angle. Wide Venetian trade interests required up-to-date information on every part of the known world: but his background writing included also items of Roman history and literature.
Vincenzo (later also Vincenzo Maria) Coronelli was horn in Venice on 16 August 1650. He was largely brought up in Ravenna, but returned to Venice in 1665 and joined the convent of the Minor Conventuals. Five years later he was sent to Rome for study and already by 1673 was Doctor of Theology. From 1674 to 1677 he was secretary to the Province of St Antony at Padua. Having achieved some fame by constructing two globes for the Duke of Parma, he was invited to Paris for three years in 1681 and made two enormous examples for Louis XIV. On his return to Venice he assiduously collected cartographic material and founded the Academy of the Argonauts. In 1685 he was appointed Cosmographer to the Republic of Venice and authorised to publish a large atlas. He became lector in geography at the University of Venice, and the following year brought Out an Atlante Veneto (both this and the much larger collection published later had the same title).
In 1696 he visited Germany, Holland and southern England, and among other appointments was made General of the Order (Franciscan) of Minor Conventuals for six years. After only three years fellow clerics and the Venetian guild of booksellers and printers complained of removal of relics and unauthorised publishing, and the Pope deposed Coronelli for absence from Rome without permission. During intervals in compiling his vast encyclopaedia (only A-CAG was actually published) he continued with cartographic projects up to 1709. In 1717, after having worked on drainage schemes in northern Italy, he was appointed by the Holy Roman Emperor Commissioner for the Danube and other rivers in the Empire. He died in his native Venice on 9 December, 1718.
The globes which first made Coronelli famous comprised, as was usual, terrestrial and celestial pairs, but it was the former that were more carefully researched and executed. The giant pair made for Louis XIV were 487cm in diameter and were drawn and painted by hand; each had a door by which the craftsmen could enter, and each was profusely labelled and ornamented. The king even ordered himself new spectacles so as to be able to read place-names. Originally at the Chateau de Marly, they were later moved to the Bibliotheyue rationale, where they were restored in 1980. Large engraved globes (114cm in diameter) were published in 1688, 1693 and 1699. They were also issued in volume form in the Libro dei Globi (1697), which explained their construction. Sets of the twelve gores may be seen in the British Library and the Library of Congress. Numerous copies of the globes are extant, including for example two pairs at Fano, one belonging to the Castracane family and one in the Federiciana Library, whose founder Abbot Domenico Federici was a friend of Coronelli's. The mapping on the terrestrial globe reflects contemporary knowledge: as Stevenson wrote, Coronelli sought to 'omit nothing of real interest and value to geographers, navigators and explorers'. He also produced pocket' size globes 55, 110, 150 and others 480mm in diameter. The range of examples offered and the skill with which they were constructed put Coronelli in the forefront of globe-makers.
In addition he was a famous encyclopaedist, map-maker and geographer. Perhaps because his cartographic output was so vast, it is difficult to describe and assess. The majority of his maps, as well as other material, is gathered in his Atlante Veneto (13 vols, 1690-1705). The first volume, subtitled Descrizione generale istorica geografica, was his masterpiece, planned as an extension of Blaeu's atlas. After a preface, including lists of ancient and modern geographers, it contains sections on astronomy, geography and hydrography, and in an appendix an ecclesiastical gazetteer. Under astronomy Coronelli summarises the theories of Ptolemy, Copernicus. Tycho Brahe and Descartes. The geography includes a reconstruction of the Graeco-Roman known world, explorations from 1200 to 1680, and separate accounts for Europe, Asia, Africa, North and South America and the two polar regions. The following are examples showing the range of history and literature which he gives as background: (a) in the central Mediterranean (after i.20) dotted lines indicate the possible course of Aeneas' travels, with a quotation from the Aeneid; (b) at Constantinople the place where the chain was drawn across the Golden Horn is shown; (c) biblical sites in Turkey are marked; (d) to exemplify textual information on rivers, there is a drawing of a monument at the R. Rubicon which commemorated Caesar's crossing. Other volumes of the atlas which contain maps are:
II-III Isolario, 2 parts (1696-8), with detailed maps and plans, mostly of islands.
IV-V Corso geografico, 2 parts, based not on the original edition of 1689-92 but on Corso geografico di 260 to vole (1694-7).
X Libro de' globi (1697, 2nd edn. 1705).
XIII Specchio del mare . . ., a reprint of F M. Levanto, Lo specchio del Mare Mediterraneo ( Genoa, 1664).
The other important aspects of his mapping are those arising from Venetian conquests and his own travels. Two volumes of the former appeared in 1686, Memorie istoriografiche della Morea [the Peloponnese] and Conquiste della Repubblica di Venezia, and one in 1688, Rodi e Negroponte [Rhodes and Euboea]. His largest military compilation was the Teatro della guerra in 30 or more volumes (1705-9). He clearly had something of the outlook of a war correspondent. Coronelli's travels were mostly in nearer parts of Europe, and apart from Paris he never spent long abroad. Thus his visit to Britain (1696) was confined to parts of the south, and one can find mistakes both in text and cartography. There are good and bad entries in his reference works, the Biblioteca Universale (only 7 vols published, 1699-1709) and his illustrated Latin gazetteer of the world, Regnorutn, provinciarum civitaintrigue .. . nomina Latina, 2 vols, (Venice, 1716: not listed in Armao's bibliography).
Coronelli was a great inventor. He devised a system of sea defences for the Venice Lido, an idea taken up in 1744; he drew up schemes for new bridges in Venice (those over the Grand Canal were built in the nineteenth century, one from the centre to the Giudecca has still to be built); and he'proposed a canal from the R. Adige to Lake Garda, realized in the 1940s. He devised a dredging machine !Or lagoons (reminiscent of Sir Robert Dudley), a means of deepening river mouths, lightweight armour, and a new system of salt production and purification. After being received by William III in London, he wrote to him with details of his patent fireproof and waterproof gunpowder bags. His last work, Effetti naturali delle acque (1718), is on hydrostatics and hydraulics.
We may justly regard him as one of the earliest professional geographers. The Accademia degli Argonauti may be considered the earliest European geographical society. Its tradition has been carried on by the Coronelli-Gesellschaft of Vienna, whose journal is Der Globusfreund. His Epitome cosmographica ( Venice, 1693 and 1713), representing his university lecture notes, has been called by Witt 'the first real textbook of physical and political geography in the modern sense'. As against these great merits, we may set some plagiarism and carelessness as his publications grew. The Newberry Library, Chicago, some years ago found a work by another author used by Coronelli with his on title and frontispiece incorporated into his encyclopaedia. But his prolific work deserves more analysis than it has had in recent times. Cartographically, much remains to be learned.
Read Full Article >>
[Acrobat Reader required]
COPYRIGHT December 1984 The Map Collector, All rights reserved.
No portion of this article nor the accompanying illustrations can or may be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
