Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718)
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Ordained as a Franciscan priest, Coronelli spent most of his life in Venice, becoming a noted theologian and being appointed, in 1699, Father General of his order. By that time he was already famous as a mathematician, cartographer and globe maker and his influence led to a revival of interest in these subjects in Italy at the end of the seventeenth century.
He was certainly the greatest cartographer of his time there and became Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic, taught geography in the University and, in 1680, founded the first geographical society, the 'Academia Cosmografica degli Argonauti' In his lifetime he compiled and engraved over 500 maps including a large 2-volume work, the Atlante Veneto, somewhat reminiscent of Robert Dudley's Dell' Arcano del Mare; he is equally well known for his construction of very large terrestrial and celestial globes even finer than those of Blaeu, including one, 15 feet in diameter, made for Louis XIV of France.
