Regnum Chinae - The Printed Western Maps of China to 1735

Regnum Chinae: The Printed Western Maps of China to 1735



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English | 2022 | ISBN: 9004382038 | PDF | pages: 520 | 208.3 mb

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The first European map of China faintly relied on the copy of a Chinese original, obtained through bribing and espionage; the last covered in this book was the result of the largest land survey ever made until that time. These two and another 125 maps depict, sometimes uniquely, sometimes copying each other, a country whose images were so different that it was hard to understand which to trust.

This study reproduces and describes, for the first time, all the maps of China printed in Europe between 1584 and 1735, unravelling the origin of each individual map, their different printing, issues and publication dates. It also tells, for each, the unique story that made possible these visions from another world, stories marked by scholarly breakthroughs, obsession, missionary zeal, commercial sagacity and greed.