A very attractive frontispiece title illustrating the decorative stern of a galleon flying an oversized banner bearing the title ‘Idrografia’. This formed one of the 13 works that make up the ‘Atlante Veneto’, an extensive corpus which included a world atlas, a study of cosmography, and science. It was published between 1690 and 1701 by Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (1650-1718). He was a Franciscan Friar and the founder of the first geographical society called ‘L’Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti’ in Venice in 1684. He was an active cartographer, cosmographer, globe maker, author, inventor, engineer, and teacher. Born in Ravenna 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, four-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 1684, the world’s first geographical society. His style of engraving is very distinctive and decorative. Armao (1944); Tooley’s Dictionary (1999-2004).