First European Atlas of China
Engraved allegorical title, hand-coloured and highlighted
with gold
Chekiang Province—depiction of silk-making
Xensi Province—illustration of the now rare Père
David’s deer
A very rare work, Atlas Sinensis (Atlas of China), was acquired by the Library in November 2006 at auction from Christie’s, London. At a time when Chinese maps of the world are in the news, particularly those depicting the voyages of Admiral Zheng He, the Library has received what is thought to be the first ‘Western’ atlas of China—produced by missionaries in 1655.
Atlas Sinensis was published by Johannes Blaeu, one of the most famous publishers of maps, in Amsterdam. The pinnacle of seventeenth century Jesuit cartography of China, it was the work of Martino Martini (1614–1661). Martini was the Jesuit superior in Hangzhou, one of the key cities in the Yangzi Delta area, and today a major tourist destination.
Martini had entered China in 1643 and for three years travelled widely throughout the country, collecting materials for his surveys and determining the astronomical positions of many towns and geographical features. On his return to Europe he made his way to Rome via Amsterdam, there enlisting the support of the Blaeu publishing house to arrange the engraving and publication of the surveys which he had compiled. Johannes Blaeu noted in his diary that ‘the Reverend Father Martinus Martinius comes from India and brings with him the figurations and descriptions of the Empire of China. He insists that I print and publish these. Therefore I leave off all other things for the time being in order to push forward this work.’
From what we know of Martini, he based his maps on his own discoveries and the work of the Ming scholar Lo Hung-Hsien (1504–1564), in turn a revision of the so-called ‘Mongol Atlas’ compiled about 1311–12.
The Blaeu–Martini atlas provided a degree of standardisation in the European vision of China that developed progressively over the next 80 years. It was the first to propose the peninsula model of Korea, and contains the earliest known map of Canton. It consists, besides text, of a general map of China, 15 maps of individual Chinese provinces, and a general map of Japan, and was immediately incorporated by Blaeu as Volume VI of his ever-expanding Theatrum Orbis Terrarum. Atlas Sinensis remained the standard European view of China until 1737, when Jean Baptiste d’Anville's Atlas de la Chine was first published.
Martini’s provincial maps, with their highly decorative cartouches, provided attractive lifelike illustrations of contemporary China. For many, this was the first glimpse outside China of its Emperor and Empress, its peoples, deities, commodities and manufactures, and unique flora and fauna. For example, the cartouche of Xensi Province contains an illustration of the now rare Père David’s deer. The cartouche of Chekiang Province is perhaps the first European depiction of Chinese cotton-making.
The Library’s acquisition is a first edition, produced in 1655, and is the only copy held in a public collection in Australia. As was usual with Blaeu’s publications, it was offered for sale in both plain and hand-coloured versions. The Library’s atlas is bound in vellum and each plate retains the vivid original colouring. The Library also holds an English edition of Martini’s De Bello Tartarico Historia (1654), a popular account of the Manchu conquest of China in the 1640s.
In addition to the maps, there is an extensive list of place names, giving their longitude and latitude in degrees and minutes. Additional text discusses various aspects of Chinese life and customs, as interpreted by Martini. The highly illustrated title page shows a man holding open a gate with gilded hinges, opening onto a Chinese landscape. In the foreground a group of cherubs imitates the work of a cartographer, on the face of a globe which shows East Asia, including a depiction of New Holland (Australia).
Atlas Sinensis will soon be digitised, adding to the growing number of rare maps and atlases that have been digitised by the Library in the past four years (over 6000 items). These are available on the Library’s catalogue and on the new Digital Collections page for maps. Visit the website at http://www.nla.gov.au/digicoll/maps.html.
Dr Martin Woods
Curator of Maps
National Library of Australia



