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MARKETING CORONELLI’S GLOBES
CORONELLI, Vincenzo. Set of manuscript and printed documents. Rome, 1688-1692.
1. Italian letter in Coronelli’s hand. Bifolium [20 x 13.5], 2 pages, ca. 20 lines per page.
2. French translation of no. 1. Bifolium [22 x16 cm], with 3 pages of text in a neat chancellery hand, ca. 20 lines per page.
3. Printed subscription form (1 leaf) [21 x15 cm], with handwritten entry by Coronelli.
4. Manifesto dell’Accademia degli Argonauti, Eretta nella Città di Venetia. Bifolium [17.5 x 12 cm], with printed text on 4 pp. [Venice, n.pr., 1692].
5. Atlante Veneto, nel quale si contiene la descrittione... dell’Universo. Venice, for the author, 1691. Single printed leaf [17.5 x 12 cm] with title on recto and marketing text on verso.
6. “Catalogo delle carte geografiche in foglio imperiale che compongono il Corso Geografico Universale del P. Maestro Vincenzo Coronelli...” Single leaf [37 x 12.5 cm] with 2 columns of printed text on each side.
7. “Indice delle citta, fortezze, isole, Porti & altro di tutto il Mondo, che formano un Volume in Foglio reale serve anco per ordinare le Carte distribuite agli accademici, & Associati Argonauti, a’ quail si consegnaranno le mancanti al solito prezzo di soldi Quattro il Foglio in Venetia.” Single printed leaf [31 x 12.5 cm].
$15,000 Set of two manuscript and five printed documents by Vincenzo Coronelli illuminating his business strategy at a time when his globes and atlases were in high demand throughout Europe. The manuscript letters are dated from June, 1688 in Rome, whereas the latest date on one of the printed leaves is 1692. Among the latter is a small-format mock-up of the title page of Coronelli’s Atlante Veneto, with subscriber information printed on the back, a Manifesto of the Accademia Cosmographica degli Argonauti detailing the contents of Coronelli’s works in progress as well as payment information, and a printed subscriber’s form filled out in Coronelli’s hand for Jean Crozier, a French bookseller in Rome. Viewed together, the documents offer a multi-faceted picture of early modern marketing techniques, ranging from personal business solicitation to the use of serial publishing, subscription models and even an early form of a book club.
A Minorite friar, cosmographer and cartographer, Coronelli (1640-1718) founded the first geographical society, the Accademia degli Argonauti. In 1678 he built a pair of globes for the Duke of Parma that attracted the attention of the French ambassador, César d’Estrée who subsequently invited Coronelli to Paris. There Coronelli built the pair of gigantic, 15-foot globes which he presented to Louis XIV in 1683 and which would bring him fame throughout Europe. Upon his return to Venice, Coronelli set out to publish a replica of these globes, scaled down to a diameter of 3 ½ -foot, and financed through subscription by members of the Argonauti.
The present set of manuscript letters gives news of the publication of the 3 ½-foot globes to an unidentified French patron in Paris. Both are dated Rome, 6 June 1688. One letter is a draft, written in Coronelli’s hand, in Italian. The other is a translation of the same draft into French, written in a different, neater hand, and unsigned.
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