PAIR OF 32 INCH FACSIMILE TERRESTRIAL AND CELESTRIAL LIBRARY GLOBES, AFTER VINCENZO CORONELLI
MODERN
made up of two sets of twelve hand-coloured photocopied half-gores and two polar calottes, the terrestrial with numerous decorative cartouches, graduated equatorial, tropic and polar circles, ecliptic and meridian, the oceans with descriptive notes, some in decorative cartouches, historical and geographical information, pictures of ships, boats, marine flora and fauna and the tracks of numerous explorers with notes and dates, finely detailed cartography to the continents and numerous depictions of inhabitants, buildings and wildlife, California shown as an island; the celestial with various cartouches, graduated equatorial, tropic and polar circles, ecliptic and colures, the constellations finely depicted as mythical beasts and figures, the stars fixed for 1700 and variously labelled, with numerous notes on stars, clusters, constellations and comets; both spheres with a meridian circle and octagonal horizons applied with paper rings from the Libro dei Globi, the terrestrial with a repeated motif of a wind-blowing cherub alternated with circular astronomical diagrams and tables, the celestial with a Zodiac scale with large pictorial representations; in gilt metal frames mounted on spreading octagonal bases with gilt masks and paw feet (2)
Contents of an Historic House
Note: Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650 -1718) was a Franciscan monk and an important 17th century cartographer and globe maker based in Venice. Though his works include the phenomenal Atlante Veneto, Coronelli is best known for his globes. In 1678 Coronelli was commissioned to make his first major globes by Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma. Louis XIV of France, having heard of the magnificent Parma globes, invited Coronelli to Paris where he constructed an impressive pair of gigantic globes measuring over twelve feet in diameter and weighing two tons each, now known as the ‘Marly globes’. At the height of his career, 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. His extraordinary globes can be seen today at the Bibliothèque Nationale François Mitterrand in Paris, Biblioteca Marciana in Venice, the National Library of Austria, the Globe Museum in Vienna, the library of Stift Melk, the Special Collections Library of Texas Tech University, and the British library.