Terrestrial and Celestial Globes Volume 2 / Their History and Construction Including a Consideration of their Value as Aids in the Study of Geography and Astronomy

by Edward Luther Stevenson

In the reference to the several constellations there is repeated, with but slight alteration, the statements made on his larger globes, the position of the fixed stars being referred to the year 1700.

Examples of the 1696 edition of Coronelli’s globes may be found in the Seminario Vescovile of Finale; in the Biblioteca Franzoniana of Genoa; in the Germanisches Nationalmuseum of Nürnberg; in the Biblioteca Comunale of Perugia; in the Museo Civico of Trieste; a copy of the terrestrial in the Biblioteca Nazionale of Florence, and one in the Certosa of Pisa; the unmounted gores of the celestial in the Museo Astronomico of Rome.

The globes of the year 1696 were reissued in the year 1699, with certain unimportant alterations. It may be noted that as in certain copies of the 1693 edition the cartouch designed for a dedicatory inscription was left blank, that the author might insert the name of the recipient whom he might choose to honor. So in his globes of the year 1699 he left a like blank space, but in the terrestrial globe he inscribed what he evidently felt he should want to insert in each instance—a dedication in blank, as it were, reading “D. D. D. Pater Magister Vincentius Coronelli Mon: Con: Francisci Serenissimae Venetorum Reipublicae Cosmographus MDCLXXXXIX.” One example has been located in which the name of the honored individual has been inserted, reading, in addition to the author and date as above, “Illustrissimo et Praexcelso Nobili Viro D. D. Comiti Aloysio Paoluccio Militiae Sanctae Apostolicae Sedis in Piceno Praefecto,” this copy being in the Biblioteca Privato of Sr. Remigio Salotti of Modena. Copies of each of the 1699 issue may also be found in the Biblioteca Marucelliana of Florence; in the Biblioteca Vittorio Emanuele of Rome; in the Biblioteca of the Marquis Piero Bargagli of Rome; a copy of the terrestrial in the Museo Astronomico of Rome, a copy of the same in the Biblioteca Nazionale of Florence, and a copy in the Certosa of Pisa.

In one of his own publications issued in Venice in the year 1697 Coronelli tells us of an edition of his celestial globe which he was preparing.[101] He announces “To the Public” that the large celestial globe, three and one half feet in diameter, which he was then having reëngraved and which would exhibit all of the artistic features of the Paris edition of 1693, would be one of superior excellence. He adds that the many corrections and additions, as the parts already completed clearly indicate, would make it one very exact, and its completion was promised before the end of the year 1698. This celestial globe was issued in Venice in the year 1699, edited, according to an inscribed legend, by Coronelli and the Academy of the Argonauts. We cannot with certainty locate a copy of this globe. Perhaps it may be found in one of the undated examples, now known, of the size designated.

The Abbot Gimma, to whom reference has been made, informs us that Coronelli constructed other globes, the same having diameters respectively six, four, and two inches, and in the ‘Epitome Cosmografica’ of the author, under the paragraph heading, “Opere stampate dal Padre Coronelli,” we read that he constructed celestial and terrestrial globes three inches in diameter for the pocket. In Volume X of the ‘Atlanta Veneto,’ under the title “Globi del Coronelli,” the gores of these globes are reproduced, and from these reprints we are able to get certain information concerning them. But one pair of his six-inch globes has been located and none of the smaller size, this one pair being the unmounted gores, twelve in number for each globe, to be found in the British Museum. The terrestrial has the following dedication: “Hos Globos Terraqueum ac Coelestem dicat et donat R. m̄o P. D. Sigismundo Pollitio a Placentia Praeposito Generali Monarchorum Ermitorum S. Hyeronimi Congreg. Lombardiae P. M. Coronelli Cosmographus P.” “These globes, a terrestrial and a celestial P. M. Coronelli gives and dedicates to the Rev. P. D. Sigismund Pollitus head of the congregation of Hermit Monks of St. Jerome of Lombardy. At Placentia.” And the celestial has the following, “R. m̄o P. D. Sigismundo Pollitio Praep. Generali Mon. Erem. S. Hyeron.” “To the Rev. P. D. Sigismund Pollitus. General of the Hermit Monks of St. Jerome.” Three other inscriptions of the celestial globe read respectively “Auct. P. Vincentius Coronelli Cosmog. Publ.,” “Stellae supput. fuerunt ad annum 1700,” and “Venetiis. In Academiae Cosmog. Argon.”

Fiorini makes brief mention of a rather remarkable armillary sphere, cut out of a solid block of alabaster, now belonging to the Museo Civico of Siena.[102] It is neither signed nor dated, but was probably constructed toward the close of the seventeenth century.

It has two meridian circles, circles representing the tropics whose outer circumference is 66 cm., polar circles having a circumference of 21 cm., and circles representing the solstitial colures and the equator, the latter having an outer circumference of 72 cm. All circles are graduated, but in the case of the polar circles the numbers of the degrees are not marked. In addition to the above-mentioned circles, there is one representing the zodiac which is exceedingly heavy, on which have been cut the signs of the several constellations and the names of the months.

This assemblage of armillae is adjusted to revolve within a brass circle, the whole resting upon a base of alabaster. At the common center is a small ball mounted on a metallic rod which passes through the poles of the circles. This small terrestrial sphere has a diameter of 8 cm., and around it are two small circles probably intended to represent the path of the moon and of the planet Mercury.

Word has been received of another armillary sphere of about 1700, though undated, constructed by Vitale Giordani (1633-1711), a mathematician of some note in his day. This sphere belongs to the Biblioteca Lancisiana of Rome, which, as noted above, possesses one by Barocci of the year 1570.[103]

The idea of constructing large manuscript globes, such as were those of Benci and of Moroncelli, was taken up by Giuseppe Scarabelli of Mirandola, who appears to have won special distinction in his day as an engineer.[104] Although the large globes, terrestrial and celestial, three braccia (ca. 200 cm.) in diameter, which he is known to have made, assisted by his son Massimo, cannot now be located, we are told that they were of such size and quality that their equal could not be found “in Milan, in Venice, or in Rome.”