More on Coronelli's Celestial Globe Details

The Heavens -The celestial globe is an invitation to travel through the sky amidst the constellations such as they were on the day of the birth of Louis XIV.

The Zodiac

The Sun and its planets move in the opposite direction, from West to East. This course, called the ecliptic, is materialised on the globe by a sun sliding on a large circular bronze bar. Thus, over the seasons, its trajectory crosses the various constellations of the Zodiac.

Aries

The Sun sliding on Sagittarius

Capricorn

The Figures

The very special style of the figures or the constellations, painted in different shades of blue, is attributed to Jean-Baptiste Corneille. The name of each constellation is written in four languages: French, Latin, Greek and Arabic.

An Angel

 

Le Chartier

The Arrow, the Eagle and the Dauphin

The Balance

An Unusual Placement

The unusual placement of the constellations, with the characters full-face, transforms the perspective of the observer. The heavens are seen from the outside, although the Earth is supposed to be at the centre of the globe.

The Indian, the crane and the Fish

Coronelli's Celestial Globe Details

The Heavens -The celestial globe is an invitation to travel through the sky amidst the constellations such as they were on the day of the birth of Louis XIV.

The Globe of the Sun King

The Constellations

Seventy-two constellations appear on the globe. In addition to the forty-eight constellations described by Ptolemy, there are those introduced more recently thanks to improvements in lenses or on the basis of observations made by navigators from the Southern hemisphere.

Allegories

The docker Perseus and the head of the Medusa the crown allegories animals and characters inhabit the surface of the globe. Ursa Magna (the Great Bear), Corona Borealis (the Northern Crown), Lyra (the harp), Perseus and the head of Medusa in the North, Crux (the Southern Cross), Centauras (the centaur), Hydrus (the water snake), Argo Navis (the ship Argo) and Pavo (the peacock) in the South: all the constellations are represented by the allegorical figures corresponding to their shape in the sky.

Unicorn

Ursa Magna (the Great Bear)

Hydrus (the water snake)

Perseus and the head of Medusa in the North, Crux (the Southern Cross)

Pavo (the peacock) in the South

The Crane

Coronelli's Masterpiece

A Franciscan monk, cosmographer, cartographer, publisher, and encyclopedist known in particular for his atlases and globes. He spent most of his life in Venice.

He excelled in the study of both astronomy and Euclid. A little before 1678, Coronelli began working as a geographer and was commissioned to make a set of terrestrial and celestial globes for Ranuccio II Farnese, Duke of Parma. Each finely crafted globe was five feet in diameter (c. 175 cm) and so impressed the Duke that he made Coronelli his theologian.

Grand Celeste Globe Coronelli,Vincenzo-maria

Cardinal César d'Estrées, friend and adviser to Louis XIV and ambassador to Rome, saw the Duke of Parma’s globes and invited Coronelli to Paris in 1681 to construct a pair of globes for the Most Christian King. Coronelli moved to the French capital in 1681, where he lived for two years.

 Coronelli's Masterpiece

Each globe was composed of spindles of bent timber about ten feet long and four inches broad at the equator. This wood was then coated with a layer of plaster about an inch thick and covered in a layer of strong unfinished fabric. This was then wrapped in a quarter-inch layer of two very fine fabrics which provided backing for the painted information of the globes. These globes, measuring 384 cm in diameter and weighing approximately 2 tons, are displayed in the Bibliothèque nationale François Mitterrand in Paris.

The globes depicted the latest information of French explorations in North America, particularly the expeditions of René-Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle.

Coronelli is best remembered for these pair of huge terrestrial and celestial globes he made for Louis XIV in 1681 to 1683. These weighed about two tons each and could fit 30 men inside at one time (there are doors built into the globes).

Coronelli did not become rich from the commission to make the Globes. Cardinal Duke d’Estrée, the French ambassador to Rome, paid Coronelli 46,000 pounds for the Globes. It is said that Coronelli estimated their cost of production to be 100,000 pounds. However, Coronelli was able to use the new knowledge his team generated in the research and production of the great globes to produce his groundbreaking engraved world atlas which earned him enduring fame and substantial income.

Colbert, the king’s powerful advisor, devised the idea for the great Globes. Originally the Coronelli Globes were intended for installation at Versailles, but this never came to pass. Colbert died the year the Globes were completed, and instead, they were installed at the Château de Marly in Yvelines in 1704.

SPHERES OF THE HEAVENS - Celestial Globes

Celestial Globe, Isfahan (?), Iran 1144. Shown at the Louvre Museum, this globe is the 3rd oldest surviving in the world

Giuseppe de Rossi Celestial globe, Venice, Museo Correr

Long before there were planetariums or advanced technologies available for studying the sky, people devised ways of depicting the sun, moon, planets, and stars in relation to the Earth. There was a desire to learn about astronomical history and events; people wanted to figure out how Earth fit into the grand scheme of the universe. Globes helped to put objects into perspective, and served as scientific instruments, ornamental showpieces, and physical illustrations of the astronomy beliefs of the day.

Globes have been visual representations of the physical characteristics of Earth and Sky for thousands of years

Celestial Globe at The Franklin Institute

. Generally, there are three types of globes. Terrestrial globes detail geographical features of the Earth. There are also globes that illustrate the physical features of celestial bodies, such as the moon or Mars. Celestial globes, like the one pictured here, are spherical maps of the sky—models of the visible heavens.

There is written evidence that proves that the ancient world was familiar with the scientific principles necessary for depicting the celestial and terrestrial spheres, and the oldest known surviving ancient globe is the Farnese Atlas, now at the National Museum of Naples. The Farnese Atlas is a decorative celestial globe, about 25 inches in diameter, that shows the outline of constellations against a coordinate system. The statue of Atlas is dated 73 B.C.; the position of the constellation figures to the globe's equinox date the globe itself to around 370 B.C. (Naturally, the ancient globes and models were representative of the astronomical ideas held at that period of time.)

Astronomy is one of the longest-studied sciences in history. Scientists have attempted to answer questions that seem far beyond our understanding for centuries. As long as we wonder about heavenly objects, some will try to recreate the nighttime sky with instruments such as the globe, lighting the world as the stars themselves do with their ideas, models, and theories.

Reference: Instruments of Science: An Historical Encyclopedia New York & London, 1998.