Catalog Archive
Auction 169, Lot 680

"A Map of the XV. Provinces and CLV. Capital Cities in ye Empire of China, the Christian Churches and Residences of Jesuits Are Thus Marked",

Subject: China & Korea

Period: 1697 (circa)

Publication: Memoirs and Observations ... Made in a Late Journey Through the Empire of China

Color: Black & White

Size:
8.1 x 11.3 inches
20.6 x 28.7 cm
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This rare map of China and Korea was published in Benjamin Tooke's English edition of Louis le Comte's Nouveau Memoire sur l'Etat Present de la Chine. Le Comte was a French Jesuit sent to do mission work in China who later became the royal mathematician for Louis XIV. The map delineates provinces and is filled with place names and topographical detail. The Great Wall of China is illustrated and labeled as Wall to keepe out the Tartars. Korea is depicted as an island with some mountains and a sole city named Kimki. Insula Formosa in Chinese Talieu Kieu (Taiwan), Haynan Ins. (Hainan), part of the Philippines, and a sliver of western Japan are depicted. Xamo or the Sandy Desert called Lop appears in the northwest corner of the map. There is a mysterious large lake called Kia in the Kingdom of Tibet. The kingdoms of Pegu, Laos, Cochinchina, and Turkim are also named. A note in near present-day Vietnam read, "There are many Churches & Jesuits Houses in the Kingdoms of Tumkim & Cochinchina." Another note points out the island where Saint Francis Xavier died. Text beneath the map expands on each of the fifteen provinces.

References:

Condition: B+

Issued folding with some light extraneous creases and a tiny edge tear at right that just enters the border. Trimmed close to the neatline at right.

Estimate: $900 - $1,100

Sold for: $1,300

Closed on 9/12/2018

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