There are different ways to look at globes — that is, three-dimensional representations of the earth. They can be political guides, showing you where the nations and borders are. They can be geographical or oceanographical tools. And they can be works of art. The globes made by Vincenzo Coronelli, who was born August 16, 1650 in Venice, are definitely the ones you want in the works of art department.
I listed Coronelli as born “in Venice,” but that’s only a supposition. He lived in Venice most of his life, but it’s just probable that he was born there. At ten years old he was sent to the city of Ravenna to become an apprentice xylographer. That sounds fairly exotic, but it’s xylography is just an early term for making woodcuts for printing. At 13 he entered the Franciscan order, becoming a novice, and he remained a Franciscan for the rest of his life, eventually becoming a prominent theologian and friar.
As a Franciscan he received a good education, and by the time he was sixteen he published his first book. The order apparently recognized his talent, because they sent him to Rome when he was about 22 to study for a doctorate in theology. He graduated in two years, and had specialized in geography and geometry. That led to a career as a geographer, which in those days involved making maps and globes.
It was constructing globes that brought Coronelli his greatest renown; he was commissioned to make a series of globes for the Duke of Parma that became so famous they led, indirectly, to his promotion to Father General of the Franciscan Order. The globes were 5 feet (1.5 meters) in diameter, and like many of his globes, still exist. Most of them are in museums, and these are in the Bibliotéque National François Mitterand in Paris.
In the 1600s globes tended to depict both the earth (“terrestrial globes”), at least as far as anybody in Europe knew about it, and the sky (“celestial globes”), although once again, the sky from the southern hemisphere was not entirely known in Europe. Corelli made his globes by starting with a wooden frame that he covered with layers of plaster and fabric, ending in a thick layer of the finest, smoothest fabrics available, which he then painted.
Coronelli was commissioned to make globes for noble and royal personages around Europe, including King Louis XIV. At the same time, he continued writing and publishing, ending up with 140 publications. They included books, articles, atlases (he created hundreds of maps as well as his globes) and the six-volume Biblioteca Universale Sacro-Profano, which was a kind of encyclopedia in alphabetical order. Although he completed six volumes, he planned to eventually publish forty-five; he only reached the letter C.
He was also named the Cosmographer of the Republic of Venice, although it’s not clear what his duties entailed. Hopefully it wasn’t very time-consuming, since he was also drawing maps, building and painting globes, and running the whole multinational Franciscan Order. You can see Coronelli globes in museums around the world, from Paris to Warsaw to Texas. And in Vienna, the International Coronelli Society for the Study of Globes is named for him.
