The Giant Globes of Coronelli

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Starting with a visit to the archives of this group. In the first article (in French only), I was discussing the pair of globes of the princes of Liechtenstein, sold 800 K € fees included by Christie's in Amsterdam on 1 April 2008. I paste the key parts from the article:

Lot 137 is a pair of library globes belonging to the private collection of the princes of Liechtenstein. This set, composed as it should as a terrestrial and a celestial globe, is the work of Willem Janszoon Blaeu.
Blaeu was a famous cartographer, and we see more often his name for atlas or maps than for globes. After his death in 1638, his workshop was continued by his sons.
For the time, its size, 68 cm high, was the largest size available for globes, before being surpassed half a century later by the monumental Coronelli globes.
This brings us, of course, into the mapping science : each of the globes is composed of laid half triangles colored by hand, with also, on the earth, the two polar calottes. And we go into the great history when we know that these globes reflect some discoveries of their time.

It is now my pleasure to tell you what happened afterwards.

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli, cartographer and cosmographer, created in 1678 a pair of globes of 1.75 meter in diameter for the Duke of Parma. This achievement of high quality earned him an order from Cardinal d'Estrées to the benefit of Louis XIV. Each of these commissioned globes, manufactured from 1681 to 1683, measures nearly 4 meters in diameter and weighs 2 tons and, of course, includes the most recent discoveries and many explanatory cartridges. They are kept in Paris, in the Bibliothèque François Mitterrand.

Coronelli was producing models for sale. On May 7 in London, Sotheby's auctions a pair of library globes, terrestrial and celestial, made in Venice between 1688 and 1698, and measuring 1.08 m. The stands are new. The set is estimated 150 K £.

[Pierre Tavlitzki]

Unsold. Buyers may not like the stands, made after 2002 by Greaves and Thomas, and of whose the discretion was not the main quality. Ultimately, it's better that way. The antiques are better appreciated when they are in their original condition.