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Vincenzo Coronelli and the iconography of the Venetian conquest of the Morea: a study in illustrative methods1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 September 2013

Leonora Navari
Leonora Navari
Affiliation:
London
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Abstract

Vincenzo Coronelli (1650–1718), cosmographer to the Venetian republic, produced two books illustrating the towns and fortresses taken from the Ottoman Turks by the Venetians during their second conquest of the Peloponnese (1685–90). These were issued in numerous editions and translations in 1686–7, and formed the basis for other cartographic works. There were many variants of each plate, and the engravings have increasingly become separated from the books in which they were published. The problem is compounded by the many variants of the illustrations, and because different illustrations may exist for a town. By examining the known variants of one town and relating each to the edition in which it appeared, and by a bibliographical examination of the editions, we can determine which illustrations belong to which edition and can distinguish the political and historical bases on which Coronelli changed his illustrations from edition to edition.

Type
Articles
Information
Annual of the British School at Athens , Volume 90 , November 1995 , pp. 505 - 519
Copyright
Copyright © The Council, British School at Athens 1995

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References

2 de Laborde, L. E. S. J., Athènes aux XVe, XVIe, et XVIIe siècles, ii (Paris, 1854), 65–7.Google Scholar See also von Hammer-Purgstall, J., Histoire de l'empire ottoman, xii (Paris, 1835–1843), 161.Google Scholar

3 For a partial list of these publications, see Gennadius, Johannes, ‘Ὁ Μοροζίνης ἐν Πελοποννήσῳ ϰαὶ ἐν Ἀθήναις’ in Ἑλληνισμός (Athens, 1929).Google Scholar

4 Laborde (n. 2), 98.

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6 Coronelli discusses the composition of the two works he preface to the French folio edition (see n. 19).

7 Targioni-Tozzetti (n. 5).

8 Gallo, R., ‘Il P. M. Vincenzo Coronelli e la repubblica di Venezia’, in Venezia, Comune di, Vincenzo Coronelli nel terzo centenario dalla nascita (Venice, 1950), 32.Google Scholar

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10 Gallo (n. 8), 34.

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13 Keysler, J. G., Neueste Reise durch … Italien, ii (Hannover, 1751), 1136–7Google Scholar, gives an account of the convent of the Frari 12 years after Coronelli's death and mentions piles of loose engravings which could be purchased from the monks for pennies.

14 R. Almagia, ‘Vincenzo Coronelli: discorso ufficiale’, in Comune di Venezia (n. 8), 24; Gallo (n. 8), 32; and also Sartori, A., ‘V. Coronelli e gli artisti che lavorarono per lui’, Miscellanea Franciscana, 51 (Rome, 1951), 378.Google Scholar

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16 Memorie istoriografiche de regni della Morea Negroponte e littorali sin a Salonichi: accresciuta in questa seconda edizione (Venice, 1686). Note that this edition, the first octavo, is referred to by its publishers as the ‘second edition’ because it was indeed the second edition, chronologically, of the Memorie istoriografiche della Morea, although it was printed in a different format and with some alterations.

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20 Mémoires historiques et géographiques du Royaume de la Morée, Nègrepont et des places maritimes (Amsterdam: Wolfgang, Waesberge, et al., 1686), 1 vol. in octavo.

21 Historical and Geographical Account of the Morea, Neogropont and the Maritime Places (London: W. Gillyflower and W. Canning, 1687), 1 vol. in octavo.

22 Beschryvinghe van het koninckryck Morea (Antwerp: G. Bouttats and H. van Dunwalt, 1687), 1 vol. in oblong small octavo.

23 Historische Beschreibung der sieghafften Waffen der durchleuchtigsten Republ. Venedig… (Frankfurt: J. B. Niess, 1686), 1 vol. in octavo.

24 Memorie istoriogeografiche della Morea riacquistata dall'armi Venete del regno di Negroponte e degli altri luoghi circonvicini … consacrate all'eccellenza del Signor Pietro Foscarini (Venice: Giuseppe Maria Ruinetti, 1687), 1 vol. in folio.

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26 Locatelli (n. 17), 107, 114; and Laborde (n. 2), 83–4.

27 In his preface to the French folio edition of the Morea (see n. 19), Coronelli refers to the errors produced by ‘les apprentissages de jeunes graveurs, que i'ay fait travailler à Venise …’.

28 Breydenbach's journey to the Holy Land took place in 1483–4. His account, first published in 1486, was the first illustrated travel book. Breydenbach's plate of Methoni was also used by Georg Braun and Franz Hoogenberg in their collection of city views first published in 1573, Civitates orbis terrarum.

29 Again, as with the plate ‘Piazza di Calamata” mentioned above, copies of the two octavo editions are found at random with either one of these two plates, or both of them, bound in.

30 Armao, E. gives a list of the geographical writers known to Coronelli in his Il ‘catalogo degli autori’ di Vicenzo Coronelli (Florence, 1957).Google Scholar

31 I am indebted to Mrs. Charis Kalligas, known for her studies of the Byzantine city of Monemvasia, for allowing me access to these manuscript plans.

32 Le conquiste della serenissima republica di Venezia nella guerra intrapresa l'anno 1684 sotto la valorosa condotta del cap. generale Franesco Morosini … contro Meemet IV imperator de Turchi (Venice, n.d.; 1688?), 1 vol. in folio.