With the invention of printing, the knowledge of spreads more and more. Even in the geographical field, the maps first produced by artisans in unique examples, are produced in series. Bound in volumes, they are within the reach of an increasingly large audience. Thanks to the new printed maps, a new way of building globes is also born.
The use of globes was known since ancient times and met two orders of need: the aid to geographical exploration and the teaching of astronomy. However, in the sixteenth century the celestial sphere became an occasion of “spectacle” rather than erudition. The stars – those known and those that were being discovered – ordered according to the different sizes and position, give rise by convention to the constellations, represented with mythological figures: the globe becomes the “theatre of heaven”. Coronelli replicates this approach, adding names not only in Latin, but also in Greek and Arabic: a tribute to what was the mother tongue of astronomy.