A magnificent and highly influential two-sheet map of North America by Vincenzo Maria Coronelli, one of the most celebrated Italian cartographers of the late seventeenth century. Published in his Atlante Veneto in 1691, the map represents a landmark in the cartographic depiction of the continent, combining important geographical advances with the elaborate decorative engraving for which Coronelli is renowned.

The map extends from the Arctic regions and Greenland to Central America and the northern coast of South America, encompassing the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, the Great Lakes, the Mississippi basin, the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean. It incorporates geographical information derived from recent French explorations, reflecting Coronelli's close connections with the scientific and geographical circles of Paris.

Among its most significant achievements is the remarkably advanced representation of the Great Lakes, based in part on information obtained from the explorations of Louis Jolliet, Jacques Marquette and Louis Hennepin. The lakes are depicted with a degree of accuracy unprecedented in a map of this scale, while the Ohio and Wabash rivers are distinguished as separate waterways. The map identifies Lake Ontario as Lake Frontenac, honouring the governor of New France.

Another important innovation is the correct depiction of the Rio Grande flowing southeastwards into the Gulf of Mexico rather than westwards into the Gulf of California. An explanatory inscription near El Paso expressly draws attention to this geographical correction. Although earlier cartographers had occasionally represented the river's course correctly, Coronelli's influential map helped establish this interpretation in European cartography.

Not all of Coronelli's geographical conclusions were equally successful. Coronelli places the mouth of the Mississippi River about 600 miles too far west, reflecting uncertainty about the river's lower course after La Salle's explorations. California is still represented as a large island, following the familiar seventeenth-century configuration associated with Luke Foxe. Coronelli nevertheless expresses reservations about its insularity in an accompanying geographical note, demonstrating his awareness of conflicting reports.

The map is particularly remarkable for its rich decorative programme. The elaborate title cartouche, occupying the upper left corner of the western sheet, is surrounded by allegorical figures, putti, exotic objects and representations of Indigenous American life, partly inspired by the engravings published by Theodor de Bry. On the eastern sheet, a beautifully engraved floral cartouche contains a scale of distances in several European units. Throughout the map, numerous explanatory inscriptions record voyages of discovery, geographical observations and information concerning the Indigenous peoples and territories of North America.

Coronelli's map closely follows the geography of his celebrated terrestrial globe and bears the date 1688, although the precise chronological relationship between the globe and the engraved map remains uncertain. It was subsequently included in the first volume of the Atlante Veneto, published in Venice in 1691.

A masterpiece of late seventeenth-century cartography, the map exerted considerable influence on contemporary European mapmakers. Its combination of geographical innovation, monumental scale and exceptional engraving makes it one of the most important and visually impressive maps of North America produced before Guillaume Delisle's influential map of 1700.

Vincenzo Coronelli   (1650-1718)

Vincenzo Coronelli was born in Venice on 16 August 1650 and primarily brought up in Ravenna. He returned to Venice in 1665 and joined the convent of the Minor Conventuals. Five years later, he was sent to Rome to study, and by 1673, he was already a doctor of theology. 

Having achieved 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 a geography lecturer at the University of Venice and brought out an Atlante Veneto the following year.

In 1696, he visited Germany, Holland and southern England. During intervals in compiling his vast encyclopaedia, he continued with cartographic projects up to 1709. He died in his native Venice on 9 December 1718.

Coronelli became famous for his globes. In addition, he was a renowned encyclopaedist, mapmaker and geographer. Most of his maps and other material are 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.

Other volumes of the atlas which contain maps are Isolario, two parts (1696-8), with detailed maps and plans, mostly of islands; Corso geografico, two parts based on the edition 1694-7; Libro de’ globi (1697); and Lo Specchio del Mare, a reprint of Levanto's Lo Specchio del Mare Mediterraneo of 1664.

The other vital aspects of his mapping are those arising from the Venetian conquest and his travels. His most extensive military compilation was the Teatro della Guerra, in more than 30 volumes.