The ‘Epitome Cosmografica’ is a collection of lectures Vincenzo Maria Coronelli gave before the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti, which he officially founded a year later in Venice in 1684. This work is divided into three books: the first on astronomy and the points of the compass, the second on geography and natural phenomena, and the last on globes, armillary spheres, and astrolabes made by Coronelli himself and others. The work includes four large folding circular celestial charts based on the most recent astronomical observations, which served as templates for other celestial charts well into the eighteenth century. These are accompanied by two large terrestrial maps of the Western and Eastern Hemispheres. Of the thirty-two remaining double-page plates, many illustrate globes, spheres, astronomical diagrams, and instrument.

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650–1718) was an Italian Franciscan friar, cosmographer, cartographer, publisher, and encyclopaedist known especially for his atlases and globes. Born in Venice, Coronelli was apprenticed to a woodcut printer in Ravenna. Returning to Venice as a young man he published an almanac, ‘Calendario perpetuo sacro profane’, the first of almost 140 works he was to produce throughout his life. After earning his doctorate in theology in Rome, he began working as a geographer and was commissioned to make a set of globes for the Duke of Parma, each of which was 1.8 metres in diameter. So impressive were the globes that Coronelli was invited to Paris in 1681 to construct a pair of terrestrial and celestial globes for the King. They each had a diameter of over four metres and were built with trapdoors so they could be worked from the interior.

After his stay in Paris, Coronelli lived and worked in various European countries before establishing one of the world’s leading globemaking workshops in his native city. There he became the official cosmographer to the Republic of Venice and published his ‘Epitome Cosmografica’ (1693), a highly influential scientific treatise that gathered together the lectures Coronelli gave before the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti. By the time of his death, Coronelli had published hundreds of maps as well as the first six volumes of the ‘Biblioteca Universale Sacro-Profana’, considered to be the first encyclopaedia with entries in alphabetical order.

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli's ‘Epitome Cosmografica’ is a scientific treatise that gathers the lectures Coronelli gave before the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti. Coronelli founded the Accademia in Venice in 1684 and was cosmographer to the Republic of Venice. This work is divided into three books: the first on astronomy and the points of the compass, the second on geography and natural phenomena, and the last on globes, armillary spheres, and astrolabes made by Coronelli himself and others.

Of particular interest is the section on globe making, a uniquely valuable source that documents several of the most elaborate large-scale globes and astronomical mechanisms constructed during the latter decades of the seventeenth century. These include illustrations for the so-called ‘Marly 

s’, which were massive, highly decorative globes constructed for Louis XIV of France.

One of the double-page plates illustrated in the ‘Epitome’ shows Vincenzo Maria Coronelli’s so-called ‘Marly 

s’, an enormous pair of globes commissioned by Louis XIV of France between 1681 and 1683 that measured over four metres in diameter. To this day these globes remain unequalled in both beauty and technical prowess. The giant globes were intended for the Palace of Versailles, but they were transferred to the Marly estate as far back as 1703 and then carried to the Royal Library in 1722 where a room of globes was installed in 1731.

Celestial map of the stars

Simple compass rose

More complex compass rose

Very complex compass rose

compass design

Ptolemy's system of the universe diagram

Nicolaus Copernicus' system of the universe diagram

Diagram of Nicolaus Copernicus' system (sun centred) showing plnetary distances from the sun

Diagram of the movement of the Earth throughout the year

Diagram of the Earth orbiting the Sun on its axis

Diagram of the Earth's orbit of the Sun on its axis

Diagram showing the Tychonic system 

Diagram showing the Descartes system 

Diagram of the celestial orbits

Planisphere zodia diagram

Planisphere zodiac diagram

Illustration of a man using a telescope

Part one of a double hemisphere map showing the Eastern hemisphere

Part two of a double hemisphere map showing the western hemisphere

Globe design

Design for a decorative celestial globe 

Decorative globe design 

Globe gores

Diagram of the horizon and meridian 

Design for a simple planisphere 

Diagram showing how to plot a world map on a planisphere disk

Volvelle world map on a polar projection 

Map of Spain and the Mediterranean 

Armillary sphere design 

Globe and stand design 

Globe stand design 

Complex globe stand design 

A uniquely valuable source for the documentation of several of the most elaborate large-scale globes and astronomical mechanisms, some now lost, constructed during the latter decades of the 17th century. Also, particularly important for the information Vincenzo Maria Coronelli includes on the highly decorative and massive globes he constructed for Louis XIV of France, the so-called “Marly 

s”, one of which is illustrated in the ‘Epitome’.

Contemporary grey paper over paste-board, title in manuscript on the spine

Octavo, letterpress title-page, additional engraved title-page; 4 large folding engraved circular celestial charts, 2 large folding engraved circular terrestrial maps, 32 double-page engraved plates, including a map of the world with 6 volvelles, involving two opposing moving hemispherical charts on a polar projection, and four pointers.

Coronelli's 'Epitome'