China

Description

hand-coloured copper engraving. verso = ‘Le Royaume de Chine’ [text ] = pp. 357/358.

Map from Gerard Mercator’s French edition of his “Atlas sive Cosmographicae Meditationes de Fabrica Mundi et Fabricati Figura…,” first published in 1606 -” L’Atlas ou Méditations Cosmographiques de la Fabrique du Monde “. This attractive, decorative and highly sought after map of China was published by Jodocus Hondius (1563-1612) in Amsterdam from the copper plates he had acquired from Mercator. Hondius was the founder of the famous 17th century Dutch map publishing family. Hondius, along with sons Jodocus II and Henricus and son-in-law Jan Janssonius, was prominent in Dutch cartography and competed with the emerging Blaeu family map business. Jodocus II continued the publications – as with this map. Although covering most of East Asia, the map centres on China. Many Chinese provinces, 7 cities and other geographical features are shown with the Great Wall standing along China’s Northern border. Korea is depicted as an Island and an inset cartouche features the Japanese crucifixion of a Christian missionary, probably a reference to the martyrdoms in Nagasaki in 1597. On the left side of the map, we see a sail-cart which Marco Polo swore were in common use at the time and to the right, Alaska bears a text reference to Tartar hordes and raindeer living in the region. The ocean decoratively hosts a Japanese junk, a Dutch ship, and a menacing looking sea monster. Luzon is presented Throughout there are text descriptions in Latin of the various areas – as are all countries and towns, indicating that the original Latin plates were used for this atlas. The Philippines is identified as “Philipine”, Luconiae Pars = Luzon, Babuyones = Batanes = Babuyan, Ilocos, and Pancuasion = Pangasinan, among others.