This is one of the most visually dramatic and interesting maps of the North Pole. Clouds filled with wind heads surround the title cartouche and a panel of text describing the Northern Lights is enclosed within an illustrative surround accented by a coat of arms. Coronelli forsakes any imaginary geography and maps those regions verified by exploration, with notations citing the particular voyages or explorer. Questionable regions are shown by indistinct faint engraved lines. This is the second state, with the label Antarctico corrected to Arctico to the right of the title cartouche.

Vincenzo Coronelli was a Franciscan priest and renowned mathematician and cartographer. He was appointed official Cosmographer to the Venetian Republic in 1685 and founded the world's earliest geographic society, L'Accademia Cosmografica degli Argonauti.

References: Kershaw #168.

Condition: B+

A dark impression on bright, watermarked paper with very light soiling and numerous tiny worm tracks along the centerfold that have been professionally infilled, with a minor amount of image expertly replaced in facsimile.