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Description

Fine example of Coronelli's scarce and highly detailed map of the Caribbean, extending from the southern tip of Florida and the Canal di Bahama to the Yucatan, to the easternmost Antilles and Trinidad, centered on Hispaniola.

Includes a number of smaller islands, including the Caymans, Virgin Islands and smaller islands off the coast of Mexico. A marvelous note near the top of the map identifies Guanahani, the island discovered by Columbus, which is now believed to be San Salvatore. A nice dark impression, including rhumb lines. Fine dark impression with wide clean margins, which has apparently never been folded.

Condition Description
Margin at top extended for framing.
Vincenzo Maria Coronelli Biography

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718) was one of the most influential Italian mapmakers and was known especially for his globes and atlases. The son of a tailor, Vincenzo was apprenticed to a xylographer (a wood block engraver) at a young age. At fifteen he became a novice in a Franciscan monastery. At sixteen he published his first book, the first of 140 publications he would write in his lifetime. The order recognized his intellectual ability and saw him educated in Venice and Rome. He earned a doctorate in theology, but also studied astronomy. By the late 1670s, he was working on geography and was commissioned to create a set of globes for the Duke of Parma. These globes were five feet in diameter. The Parma globes led to Coronelli being named theologian to the Duke and receiving a bigger commission, this one from Louis XIV of France. Coronelli moved to Paris for two years to construct the King’s huge globes, which are 12.5 feet in diameter and weigh 2 tons.

The globes for the French King led to a craze for Coronelli’s work and he traveled Europe making globes for the ultra-elite. By 1705, he had returned to Venice. There, he founded the first geographical society, the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti and was named Cosmographer of the Republic of Venice. He died in 1718.