Rare map has key link to China
By Brett Zongker |
January 13, 2010, Wednesday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A RARELY seen 400-year-old map that identified Florida as "the Land of Flowers" and put China at the center of the world went on display yesterday at the Library of Congress in Washington.
The map created by Matteo Ricci was the first in Chinese to show the Americas.
Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, was the first Westerner to visit what is now Beijing in the late 1500s. Known for introducing Western science to China, Ricci created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli.
The map includes pictures and annotations of different regions of the world.
Africa was noted to have the world's highest mountain and longest river. The description of North America is brief with mentions of "humped oxen" or bison, wild horses and a region named "Ka-na-ta."
Several South American places are named, including "Wa-ti-ma-la" (Guatemala), "Yu-ho-t'ang" (Yucatan) and "Chih-Li" (Chile).
The map gained the nickname the "Impossible Black Tulip of Cartography" because it was so hard to find.
This map - one of only two in good condition - was purchased by the James Ford Bell Trust last October for US$1 million, making it the second most expensive rare map sold.
It had been held for years by a private collector in Japan and will eventually be housed at the Bell Library at the University of Minnesota.
"I don't want to take away from Ricci's other accomplishments, but we think this is pretty spectacular," said Ford W. Bell, co-trustee of the fund started by his grandfather James Ford Bell.
Bell, also president of the American Association of Museums, said the map symbolized the first connection between Eastern and Western thinking and commerce.
The map is being shown publicly for the first time in North America. It measures 3.6 meters by 1.5 meters, printed on six rolls of rice paper.
It will be on view in Washington through April alongside another of the world's rarest maps, the Waldseemuller world map, which was the first to name "America."
Associate Librarian Deanna Marcum said the Ricci was one of the most important maps ever produced.
It's extraordinary, she said, "for us to now be able to look back and see what was going on in China at a time when different parts of the worldreally knew so little about each other."
The library will create a digital image of the map to be posted online for researchers and students to study later this year. The map was also the first to incorporate both Eastern and Western maps.
No examples of the map are known to exist in China, where Ricci is buried.
The map created by Matteo Ricci was the first in Chinese to show the Americas.
Ricci, a Jesuit missionary from Italy, was the first Westerner to visit what is now Beijing in the late 1500s. Known for introducing Western science to China, Ricci created the map in 1602 at the request of Emperor Wanli.
The map includes pictures and annotations of different regions of the world.
Africa was noted to have the world's highest mountain and longest river. The description of North America is brief with mentions of "humped oxen" or bison, wild horses and a region named "Ka-na-ta."
Several South American places are named, including "Wa-ti-ma-la" (Guatemala), "Yu-ho-t'ang" (Yucatan) and "Chih-Li" (Chile).
The map gained the nickname the "Impossible Black Tulip of Cartography" because it was so hard to find.
This map - one of only two in good condition - was purchased by the James Ford Bell Trust last October for US$1 million, making it the second most expensive rare map sold.
It had been held for years by a private collector in Japan and will eventually be housed at the Bell Library at the University of Minnesota.
"I don't want to take away from Ricci's other accomplishments, but we think this is pretty spectacular," said Ford W. Bell, co-trustee of the fund started by his grandfather James Ford Bell.
Bell, also president of the American Association of Museums, said the map symbolized the first connection between Eastern and Western thinking and commerce.
The map is being shown publicly for the first time in North America. It measures 3.6 meters by 1.5 meters, printed on six rolls of rice paper.
It will be on view in Washington through April alongside another of the world's rarest maps, the Waldseemuller world map, which was the first to name "America."
Associate Librarian Deanna Marcum said the Ricci was one of the most important maps ever produced.
It's extraordinary, she said, "for us to now be able to look back and see what was going on in China at a time when different parts of the worldreally knew so little about each other."
The library will create a digital image of the map to be posted online for researchers and students to study later this year. The map was also the first to incorporate both Eastern and Western maps.
No examples of the map are known to exist in China, where Ricci is buried.
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