A two-sheet map, designed to be joined along the central margin to form a single large depiction of the surroundings of Paris, extending for several dozen kilometers around the French capital. The left sheet bears the title “Western Part of the Surroundings of Paris,” and the right sheet, “Eastern Part of the Surroundings of Paris.” Together, the two sheets provide an extremely detailed portrait of 17th-century Île-de-France: a densely woven fabric of hamlets, villages, forests, rivers, and roads radiating out from the urban core, which is deliberately set back from the center of the composition to emphasize the vastness of the surrounding territory.
The river network is the structuring element of the entire composition: the Seine flows across both sheets with its sinuous course, accompanied by its main tributaries (the Oise, Marne, Eure, and Yvette), rendered with Coronelli’s characteristic engraving skill, using double lines for the major watercourses. The wooded areas—the Forêt de Saint-Germain, the Forêt de Senart, the Forêt de Rambouillet, and numerous others—are rendered with the typical “tufted” tree symbol, while settlements are indicated by a dense network of place names, written in Italianized or Frenchified forms according to the conventions of Venetian publications of the period.
The cardinal points appear at the four corners and along the margins, using the Italian nomenclature of the time: Settentrione, Mezzo Giorno, Oriente, Occidente. The frames feature dual graduations for longitude and latitude, which served to align the two sheets and position them within the system of meridians adopted by Coronelli in his major works.
Coronelli renders French place names through an entirely Italian linguistic filter: forms such as Pontoise, Argenteuil, or Versailles coexist with spellings adapted to the Venetian ear, sometimes resulting in curious variations from current place-name conventions. This is a typical feature of maps produced in Venice for a cultured but not necessarily French-speaking audience, and today it offers scholars an interesting glimpse into the “Italian” perception of French geography in the modern era.
Vincenzo Maria Coronelli (Venice, 1650–1718) is unanimously considered one of the greatest geographers, cartographers, and cosmographers of the Baroque era. A Conventual Franciscan, Coronelli was able to combine his deep religious vocation with an extraordinary and tireless scientific, editorial, and entrepreneurial career.
Having entered the Order of Friars Minor Conventual at a very young age, he soon demonstrated an exceptional talent for the study of mathematics and geography. His international fame was definitively established in the early 1680s when, at the invitation of Cardinal César d’Estrées, he moved to Paris to create two monumental globes (one terrestrial and one celestial) with a diameter of nearly four meters for the Sun King, Louis XIV. These masterpieces, known as the Marly Globes, astonished Europe with their scientific precision and the artistic magnificence of their decorations.
Upon his return to Venice, in 1684 Coronelli founded the Accademia degli Argonauti, considered the world’s first geographical society, through which he promoted the dissemination of geographical knowledge and the publication of atlases of extraordinary value. Appointed Cosmographer of the Most Serene Republic of Venice, he established a highly productive publishing workshop within the Frari Convent.
Among his monumental works are the *Atlante Veneto* (1691–1696), a monumental publishing undertaking intended as an ideal continuation of Blaeu’s work; the *Corso geografico universale* (1692); and the pioneering *Biblioteca Universale Sacro-Profana*, an ambitious project for an alphabetical encyclopedia that unfortunately remained unfinished.
Appointed Minister General of his Order in 1701, Coronelli traveled extensively throughout Europe, gathering firsthand data, measurements, and maps. His cartographic work is distinguished by the transition from the purely decorative style of the early seventeenth century to a more rigorous approach, based on the latest astronomical discoveries and the accounts of contemporary travelers. His legacy remains a milestone in the history of science, having transformed cartography from an empirical discipline into a precise geometric and geopolitical art.
