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The Largest 17th-Century Celestial Globe Gores
CORONELLI / NOLIN, Jean Baptiste / DEUVEZ, Arnoldus. Orbis Coelestis Typus Opus a P. Coronelli Min. Convent. Serenissimaeque Reipub. Venetae Cosmographo Inchoatum Societatis. Gallicae Sumptibus absolutum Lutetiae Parisiorum... [Paris, n.p., 1693].
24 globe gores, [28 cm at base, 63.5 cm in height], each printed on a single large folio sheet with watermark of a maltese cross encircled by a chain from which is suspended a smaller cross; the 2 calottes for the northern & southern hemispheres probably from a different edition of the same size. The gores with some light soiling and spotting, manuscript annotations in an early hand, in Italian, indicating placement of gores when mounted on globe; the calottes heavily restored; generally excellent overall.
$85,000 A complete set of 24 gores plus 2 calottes for the separately issued Nolin-Deuvez edition of Coronelli's 1-meter- (3-) in-diameter celestial globe, the largest printed celestial globe up to its time, larger and more accurate than the globes by Blaeu and Hondius which preceded it. Unlike most existing copies of Coronelli's globe gores that were intended for reference, this set of celestial gores designed by Deuvez and engraved by Nolin is a possibly unique example that was clearly to be used for mounting onto an actual globe, as the numerous manuscript notations attest. The comparable gores published in the Libro dei Globi, the very rare work that compiled the gores of Coronelli's various globes, were essentially cut in half to fit into that standard folio-sized publication. The gores in the set offered here are uncut, producing a set of great size and stunning visual impact. Contributing to their beauty is that this particular edition of the gores (see below) added shading and figurative detail not found on previous editions. It can therefore be said that nowhere except on his globes themselves is the power of Coronelli's imagery as dramatically captured as on these gores.
The first edition of Coronelli's 3'-foot celestial globe was engraved by Nolin in Paris after drawings provided by the Italian geographer and was printed in 1688. At the same time, its terrestrial counterpart was engraved and printed in Venice under Coronelli's direction. These globes were produced in part as replicas of the gigantic and unique 15-foot-diameter pair of globes that Coronelli constructed and presented to Louis XIV in 1683, and which secured his fame as Europe's premier globe maker. In 1693, soon after Coronelli engraved and printed the first Venetian edition of the 3' celestial globe, Nolin engraved at Paris an entirely new edition on new plates. This is the version of the 3' celestial globe offered here. This globe "was based on Coronelli's work, but with the main legends in Latin, not Italian, as befitted a French market. The shading of the constellations is denser than in the Venetian edition of 1692-93, and many more names and figures are inscribed." - Wallis p. x.
The 3' celestial globe was one of the crowning glories of Coronelli's output and was also the grandest celestial globe of the seventeenth century. It is only by sheer historical happenstance that Nolin's set of gores for this globe should survive, since they were never intended to circulate in unmounted form. More richly engraved and updated with considerably more textual and figurative detail than either Coronelli's or Nolin's earlier models, the Nolin gores offered here present the work of the greatest globe maker of his era in arguably its most finished form.
* Ermanno Armao, Vincenzo Coronelli Cenni sull?uomo e la sua Vita Catalogo... (Florence, 1944), pp. 130-134; V. Coronelli, Libro dei Globi (Venice, 1694/1701); Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Series of Facsimile Atlases, see Bibliographical Note by Helen Wallis, pp. v-xxii.
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