Pair of Celeste and Table Terrestrial Globes, Vincenzo Coronelli, 1697

Pair of celestial and terrestrial table globes, wooden globes covered with engraved and embellished paper gores. Bronze mounts with two rings, each containing a horizon table engraved with a zodiacal scale and a calendar scale, bases in twisted columns.

Spindles: Italy, Venice, Vincenzo Coronelli, 1697

Provenance: Formerly in the collection of Pierre Samuel Du Pont de Nemours (1870-1954), purchased in 1920 in London according to family tradition. Formerly in the Belin collection at the Evermay Estate, Washington DC District.

Inscriptions: Auctore / P. / Cosmographo / Coronelli / Venetijs / 1697 in a cartouche under Australia and Illustris: / DD / Ant de V. Comitib, / GP / N Comi in a shield next to Eridanus.

An identical pair is preserved in the collections of the Louvre Museum and comes from the Nicolas Landau collection (inv no. OA 10683 A and B). The spindles are from the Libro dei globi (atlas published by Coronelli in 1697) but were mounted on the globes later.

A second similar pair, signed Willem Jansz Blaue and dated 1616, is preserved in the collections of The Hispanic Society of America in New York.

Vincenzo Coronelli, a Franciscan friar from the San Niccolò della Lattuca convent, was born in 1650 and died in 1718 in Venice. A Doctor of Theology and also a scientist, he taught at the College of Saint Bonaventure in Rome and simultaneously pursued a career as a geographer, publishing over 400 maps, updated with information he gathered from navigators and missionaries. He perfected the manufacture of terrestrial globes, from the smallest to the largest. After creating two globes 1.75 meters in diameter for the Duke of Parma in 1678, he was commissioned by Cardinal d'Estrées, Louis XIV's ambassador to the Roman Curia, to create two even larger globes for the King of France. Unable to transport such works, Coronelli came to Paris to create them, where he remained for two years (1681-1683), and entrusted the painted illustrations to Jean-Baptiste Corneille. These globes are held by the Bibliothèque nationale (inv. no. Ge A 499-500). Beginning in 1696, he undertook a two-year journey to Germany, Holland, and England, where he was admitted to Oxford University in 1697.

Condition report: minor damage and tears, rear frame.