Catalog Archive
Auction 116, Lot 760

"Xantung, Sinarum Imperii Provincia Quarta", Blaeu, Johannes

Subject: China

Period: 1655 (circa)

Publication: Novus Atlas Sinensis

Color: Black & White

Size:
19 x 15.6 inches
48.3 x 39.6 cm
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This map is centered on the Bohai Sea, and the Shandong and Liaoning Provinces. It provides excellent detail of the small villages and towns, forts, mountains, marshes and the Great Wall. At right is the Corea Peninsula that contains a legend for cities and villages, forts, rivers, mountains, etc. Ornate title cartouche with local figures that incorporates two distance scales.

The second landmark in the European mapping of China was the appearance of the Novus Atlas Sinensis in 1655. It was compiled by Father Martino Martini, an Italian Jesuit and produced by the most prominent Dutch cartographer of the time, Johannes Blaeu. Father Martini compiled the work based on Chinese sources between 1643 and 1650, and it greatly advanced European knowledge of the region including the astronomical positions of many cities and topographical features. It remained the standard geographical work on that country until the publication in 1737 of D'Anville's Atlas de la Chine.

References:

Condition: C

Good impression on thick, hand laid paper with wide margins. Paper is still very sound, but with extensive foxing as is common with maps from this atlas. Clean centerfold separation at top just entering border, closed with archival tape.

Estimate: $350 - $425

Sold for: $375

Closed on 9/20/2006

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