Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1875-10-07
A Curious Globe.

IN the new Victor Emmanuel Library
says the Journal de Florence, which il
formed with the books Of the suppressed
converts, there may be seen curiosity
worthy of especial notice. 1t consists OF
two globes-the one .restrial the other
notwithstanding upon trest1es about a
yard in diameter. Globes of this sort are
by no means rare in old libraries The
globes in question were given to some
monastic library by the Cardinal Cesar
d'Estrees, the Ambassador of Louis XIV.
to the Holy See They bear the date of
1853, and were made at Venice by Padre
Coronelli, who was famous for works of
this sort There is an inscription to this
effect, inclosed in an elegant case, in the
style of the time, and placed in the center
of the Pacific Ocean. 1t is very curious
to examine these globes, the terrestrial
one more especially. This latter gives US
the latest record of the geographical dis
coveries and legends of the seventeenth
century. The seas and continents are
painted in bright colors; to read the
names of mountains, rivers and towns a
lens is required; but, with patience, they
may all be discovered The good Padre
Coronelli carefully depicted the vegeta-
ton, the architecture, the animals and
even the manners and customs of each
country. In mid-ocean and also near the
ports there are barks, galleys of divers
kinds, manned by soldiers and sailors in
eXtravagant dress, and carrying superb
sails. In the ocean there are marine
monsters, in the continents wild deer
For example, in Asia we see files of cam
els, true caravan, train of elephants
bearing q princess and her court, pago-
das containing gigantic idols and their
worshipers. There are also Catholic
churches raised by missionaries. In our
days great trouble is taken to discover the
center of Africa, but Padre Coronelli has
depicted it readily enough on his globes
There are negroes III forests of palm trees,
crocodiles and rhinocerOses (?hippOpOta-
NIL are seen in the rivers, giraffes and
camels in the GASES, Ostriches in the des-
ert hunted by mounted Arabs, ETC. In
short this magnificent globe gives us a
specimen of the rOmances, as it were, of
geography. 1t is thus that the world APP
peared to the learned men of the seven
teenth century-to Cardinal d'Estrees, for
example, to whom this globe Is dedicated !;
and their error was not very great Since
the Italian Government has gone so far as
to preserve this curiosity it ought also to
repair it. for the globes are in cork and
the cork has been in several parts eaten
into by the mice. Venice also in that age
was capable of producing these superb
instruments. The name of the maker was
francesca MoraZini. There is an inscrip
ton which is very curious and worthy of
publication; it may give rise in Venice to
some learned research 1t runs thus in
Italian: "Genius and virtue commend
to eternity the name of Caesar, the most
eminent Cardinal d'Estrees, Duke and
Peer of France, Ambassador for Louis the
Great. These two great globes, made
by Padre Coronelli, on the idea of which
he afterward discOursed for the Cosmo-
graphical Academy of the Argonautes in
the year 1858 at Venice"