Name: Coronelli's 'Epitome'
Author: Vincenzo Maria Coronelli

The Sunderland Collection

Copies of Coronelli’s 'Epitome' are rarely complete – there are only two examples in available records documented in commerce in the last forty years. The Library of the Earls of Macclesfield removed from Shirburn Castle lacked the first quire including title-page, two plates and the final leaf. The Nordenskiold Collection example includes only twenty-eight plates; and the Library of Lord Wardington’s version lacks the printed title-page; Cambridge University Library, lacks one plate; and of the two British Library examples, one lacks two of the volvelles at page 361 and the other lacks the additional engraved title-page. Without a full census, it is not clear how many institutional examples are complete.

In addition to the illustration of the 'Marly Globes', this work also includes four large folding circular celestial charts that were based on the most recent astronomical observations. These charts served as templates for other celestial charts well into the eighteenth century. The work also includes two large terrestrial maps of the Western and Eastern Hemispheres.

Full title: o Compendiosa introduttione all’Astronomia, Geografia, & Idrografia, per l’uso, dilucidatione, e Fabbrica delle sfere, globi, planisferi, astrolabi, et tavole geografiche, e particolarmente degli stampati, e spegiati nelle publiche lettioni.

Full title translation: or a concise introduction to 

, Geography, & Hydrography, for the use, explanation, and construction of spheres, globes, planispheres, astrolabes, and geographical tables, and particularly of matter printed and spoken in public lectures.

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli's 'Epitome Cosmografica' is a scientific treatise that gathers the lectures Coronelli gave before the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti. Coronelli founded the Accademia in Venice in 1684 and was the official cosmographer to the Republic of Venice.

The 'Epitome' is divided into three books: The first book covers astronomy and the points of the compass; the second on geography and natural phenomena; the last on globes, armillary spheres, and astrolabes made by Coronelli himself and others. Of particular interest is the section on globe making, a uniquely valuable source that documents several of the most elaborate large-scale globes and astronomical mechanisms constructed during the latter decades of the seventeenth century. These include illustrations for the so-called ‘Marly Globes’, which were enormous, highly decorative globes constructed for Louis XIV of France.

This work is divided into three books that originally included thirty-two double-page plates, many illustrating globes, spheres, astronomical diagrams, and instruments.

One of the double-page plates illustrated in the 'Epitome' shows Vincenzo Maria Coronelli’s so-called 'Marly Globes', an enormous pair of globes commissioned by Louis XIV of France between 1681 and 1683 that measured over four metres in diameter, built with trapdoors so they could be worked from the interior. The giant globes were intended for the Palace of Versailles, but they were transferred to the Marly Estate as far back as 1703.

Celestial map of the stars

Simple compass rose

More complex compass rose

Very complex compass rose

compass design

Ptolemy's system of the universe diagram

Nicolaus Copernicus' system of the universe diagram

Diagram of Nicolaus Copernicus' system (sun centred) showing plnetary distances from the sun

Diagram of the movement of the Earth throughout the year

Diagram of the Earth orbiting the Sun on its axis

Diagram of the Earth's orbit of the Sun on its axis

Diagram showing the Tychonic system 

Diagram showing the Descartes system 

Diagram of the celestial orbits

Planisphere zodia diagram

Planisphere zodiac diagram

Illustration of a man using a telescope

Part one of a double hemisphere map showing the Eastern hemisphere

Part two of a double hemisphere map showing the western hemisphere

Globe design

Design for a decorative celestial globe 

Decorative globe design 

Globe gores

Diagram of the horizon and meridian 

Design for a simple planisphere 

Diagram showing how to plot a world map on a planisphere disk

Volvelle world map on a polar projection 

Map of Spain and the Mediterranean 

Armillary sphere design 

Globe and stand design 

Globe stand design 

Complex globe stand design 

A uniquely valuable source for the documentation of several of the most elaborate large-scale globes and astronomical mechanisms, some now lost, constructed during the latter decades of the seventeenth century. Also, particularly important for the information on the remarkable 'Marly Globes' that he constructed for King Louis XIV of France, one of which is illustrated in the ‘Epitome’.