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T H E N E A T L I N E | |
| A Newsletter of the Texas Map Society Vol. IV No 1 Summer 2001 | ||
When the Texas Map Society visited Lubbock, we were amazed and delighted by the large terrestrial globe, constructed by Vincenzo Coronelli (1650-1718) and preserved in Special Collections at the University. This globe seemed to be a larger relative of the well-known 3.5-foot diameter globes of 1688 for which Coeronelli is well known. All these printed globes derive from the magnificent 15-foot manuscript globes that he made for Louis XIV of France (1643-1715) in 1683. We therefore thought that Neatline readers would be interested to see the set of Coronelli gores displayed below that are held in the Special Collections of The University of Texas at Arlington. The UTA gores date from 1693, and are designed to form a globe a little over one foot in circumference, and, of course show the world in a much simplified form than their 3.5-foot predecessors.
Coronelli drew his gores in accordance with the latest geographical knowledge. Here for instance, Australia is taking shape, but North America and the polar regions remain terra incognita. Coronelli's life-work proceeded in a rather unusual way, beginning with the huge 15-foot manuscript globes and then going on to smaller and smaller manuscript globes. But the impression of diminishing actovoty is deceptive; whereas the 15-foot globes demanded a considerable investment in time and labor, not to mention inventiveness, the subsequent smaller globes needed an even greater investment in printing gores and in coordinating activities of the many craftsmen needed to made wooden globes and secure the gores to them in such a way that many survive intact to this day.
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The Texas Map Society
For information please contact
Kit Goodwin at goodwin@uta.edu
Last Updated 06/21/02
