Vincenzo Coronelli   (1650-1718)

Vincenzo Coronelli was born in Venice on 16 August 1650 and largely 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 for study and already by 1673 was Doctor of Theology. 

Having achieved some 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 lector in geography 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. The majority 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, 2 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 important aspects of his mapping are those arising from the Venetian conquest and his own travels. His most extensive military compilation was the Teatro della Guerra in more than 30 volumes.