Waterspouts and Maritime Rites

CORONELLI, Vincenzo.

“Trombe di Mare” and “Gli Marinari per inveterate Costume fanno” [“Waterspouts” and “Crossing the Line”].

Venice, Vincenzo Coronelli, 1690.

Engraved sheet (49.5 x 35.1 cm, plate mark of frame 43.3 x 26.8 cm, platemark of upper image 13.1 x 17.4 cm, platemark of lower image 12.5 x 17.5 cm). Two black and white copper engravings on one leaf. Printed with three separate copper plates, one for each image and one for the frame of alternating lilies and scallops. Small marginal tear not affecting the printed surface; old paper reinforcement on left margin. Generally excellent.

These two images originally appeared in Coronelli’s Atlante Veneto, nel quale si contiene la descrittione geografica, storica, sacra, profana, e politica, degl’ universo, published in Venice in 1690.        

The upper of the two images shows six different representations of waterspouts, a tornado that forms over water. The lower of the two images shows the first visual representation of the equator-crossing initiation ceremony, a centuries-old maritime tradition.  Led by a crew member dressed as King Neptune, the rite often involves absurd trials, and a symbolic dunking, marking a transition into a new hemisphere.

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650–1718) was a Franciscan friar and the official cosmographer to the Venetian Republic. He is best remembered for founding the world’s first geographical society and for constructing monumental globes for Louis XIV, as well as his masterwork atlas, the Atlante Veneto.

Price: $375.00