CORONELLI, VINCENZO MARIA. - Cartographer and geographer, b. in Venezia on 16 Aug. 1650, d. there on 9 Dec. 1718. He entered the Conventual Minors at a very young age, and was elected their general in 1701. He also held civil offices: cosmographer of the Serenissima in 1685 and lecturer in geography in 1689.
A maker of terrestrial and celestial globes, and author of more than 200 large geographical maps, he published almanacs, guides, atlases, geographical works, travel books, chronologies, encyclopedias, religious pamphlets, etc., among which the following are especially noteworthy:
the Atlante veneto (1690), the Corto geografico (1694), the Isolario (1696), the Viaggi da Venezia in Inghilterra (1697), the Biblioteca universale (1701-1709), a vast and original encyclopedia left unfinished (of the 45 projected volumes, only 7 appeared), and the Cronologia universale (1707). He founded the Academy of the Argonauts, the oldest geographical society in the world, and planned major public works subsequently carried out, such as two bridges over the Canal Grande, the «murazzi» of the Lido, and a diversion canal of the Adige.