Vincenzo Coronelli: Friar, cosmographer and argonaut of La Serenissima Republic of Venice

Lara Maria Brun 4 March 2024

The event dedicated to “Antique and Rare Books, Antique Prints, Views and Maps” is approaching. On Thursday, March 14, 2024, at the prestigious venue of Castello Mackenzie in Genoa, Cambi Auction House will present the long-awaited live auction. A rich and diverse selection of books, manuscripts, engravings, views and ancient maps.

Lot 318 – Vincenzo Coronelli, Atlante Veneto tomo primo, Venice, 1690-95. Beautiful copy of one of the most significant works of the celebrated geographer and cosmographer of La Serenissima Republic of Venice

Prominent authors in the auction include Vincenzo Coronelli, friar, cosmographer and argonaut of La Serenissima Republic of Venice with several lots and significant material in the auction. The Veneto atlas, tome one (Venice, 1690-95) stands out in the catalog. One of the most significant works by the celebrated geographer and cosmographer.

Vincenzo Coronelli, was born in Venice on August 16, 1650. Very little is known about his family, which we know was of modest circumstances; his father was a tailor, his older brother a junk dealer and merchant. At the age of 10 he was sent to relatives in Ravenna, where he worked as an apprentice carpenter. The carefree and joyful years in Romagna are recalled in his writings, by young Vincenzo, with sweet nostalgia.

Lot 131 – Nicolaum Visscher, Regiae Celsitudinis Sabaudicae Status. Amsterdam, late 17th-18th cent.

Returning to Venice in 1665, he was enrolled as a student cleric at the Convent of the Minor Conventuals of San Nicolò della Lattuca, near the Frari.

His first known work “The sacred and profane perpetual calendar” is from 1666. Sent early to Rome by his superiors, in a few years he was a doctor of theology and at 24 was elected provincial secretary.

In 1680, in Parma, he built the first globes and the following year, called to Paris by Card. Cesare d’Estrees, he came into contact with the cultural elite of those years and certainly got to know Giovan Domenico Cassini, who since 1671, had been directing the astronomical observatory in Paris at the court of Louis XIV. The fruit of these new stimuli is the construction of his two most beautiful Globes as a tribute to the Sun King, from whom he will receive as a prize a gold necklace and a rich life pension.

Lot 77 – Vincenzo Coronelli, Gulf of Venice described by Coronelli, Venice, 1688

Upon his return to his homeland, Venice welcomed him as a celebrity and appointed him public cosmographer.

Following in Jason’s footsteps, he founded the Accademia degli Argonauti, in this case, a group of modern “heroes,” friends and patrons, dedicated to the study and dissemination of geography.

Ten years of intense and multifaceted activity of our cosmographer and geographer, then at the height of fame, would follow.

Lot 66 – Vincenzo Coronelli, Planisfero meridionale corretto et accresciuto di molte stelle descritto dal padre Coronelli, ad uso dell’Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti, Venice, late 17th century early 18th century

Great geographical works come to light, the first volume of the Veneto atlas, the two volumes of the Isolario and the Geographical course, to name but a few of the prolific visionary friar’s works.

In 1717, Coronelli went to Vienna to study the hydrographic arrangement of the Danube and gave to the press his last work, a treatise on hydraulics and hydrostatics. Returning to his homeland, he died the following year at the age of 69, and the Most Serene Republic rendered him solemn obsequies in the church of Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari, under the benevolent gaze of Titian’s Assumption.

Unfortunately very soon, due to neglect, much of his papers, correspondence and autograph manuscripts ended up in the rubble, his books went missing and branches of his engravings were sold by weight.