Coronelli, Vincenzo Maria

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718) was an Venetian Franciscan friar, cosmographer, cartographer, publisher, and encyclopedist known in particular for his atlases and globes.  In 1678 he was commissioned to make a set of terrestrial and celestial globes for Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma; the success of these 175cm globes attracted a further commission from King Louis XIV of France; Coronelli moved to Paris in 1681 where he lived for two years. The globes he created for the King, weighing 2 tonnes and with a diameter of 384cm, are now on display in the Bibliothèque nationale. In 1699 he was appointed Father General of the Franciscan Order. He subsequently worked in various European countries in the following years, before permanently returning to Venice in 1705. He founded the very first geographical society, the Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti, in Venice, where he also held the position of Cosmographer of the Republic of Venice. The International Coronelli Society for the Study of Globes, founded 1952 in Vienna, is named in his honour.