Four maps on one folio sheet in the distinctive style of Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718). The collection is derived from that of Gerard Mercator in 1595 although here, out of the four islands, the one of Mona Insula (Isle of Man) replaces that of Guernsey. Also present are maps of the Isle of Wight, Jersey, and Anglesey. The sheet was issued in the second volume of the ‘Isolario’ which formed volumes II and III of the ‘Atlante Veneto’, a work encompassing several other titles that began publication in 1690.

Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718) was a Franciscan Friar and the founder of the world’s first Geographical Society. He was an active cartographer, cosmographer, globe maker, author, inventor and engineer, and teacher. Born in Venice in 1650, at the age of 15 he entered the Franciscan Order in which he would become Gran Generale in 1699. As he became more interested in cartography he developed an extensive correspondence network around Europe. In 1681 he famously went to Paris to produce two 4-metre diameter globes for Louis XIV which still survive to this day. In 1685 he was made Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic and began teaching geography founding the ‘Academia Cosmographica degli Argonauti’ in 1688, the world’s first geographical society. His style of engraving is very distinctive and decorative. Cubbon (1967) p. 38; Sanderson (1971) no. 37, map 111; Shirley (2004) T. Coro 13a no. 142, refer T.Coro 7a.