Details
BLAEU, Joan (1596-1673). Novus Atlas Sinensis [China]. Amsterdam: Joannes Blaeu, [1665].
2° (530 x 345mm). Latin text, engraved title with architectural facade opening onto a landscape with putti in the foreground holding a map and globe showing China, with allegorical scene above, hand-coloured and heightened in gold, 17 hand-coloured engraved double-page maps, mounted on guards throughout. (maps very lightly browned, text leaves heavily browned and spotted, occasional vertical creasing along folds of maps, minor tears to margin of 3 maps and 2 text leaves.) Original publisher's vellum panelled in gilt (head and foot of spine restored, some staining, ties lacking).
The first printed Latin edition of Blaeu's atlas of China (corresponding with Koeman/der Krogt 2:501B). Published separately, the China volume was added as volume VI to the Theatrum and later formed part of the Asia volume of the Atlas Maior, however the engraved title of the present work indicates that it was issued as an entirely separate volume. Blaeu's maps of China were engraved after Martini's sketches and observations. Martinus Martini (1614-1661), a Jesuit missionary, worked in China from 1642, amassing many Chinese books and maps, including a copy of Zhu Siben's 14th-century atlas of Chinese provinces, with amendments from Lo Hongxian's atlas of 1555. The text of Blaeu's atlas includes Martini's own account of how he assembled the maps, geographical descriptions of the 15 Chinese provinces and Japan, a catalogue of towns and their geographical co-ordinates, an additional geographical description by Jacob Golius (De Regno Catayo) and a history of the Manshu War (De Bello Tartarico Historia). Koeman & van der Krogt's Atlantes Neerlandici (1997), 2:501.
2° (530 x 345mm). Latin text, engraved title with architectural facade opening onto a landscape with putti in the foreground holding a map and globe showing China, with allegorical scene above, hand-coloured and heightened in gold, 17 hand-coloured engraved double-page maps, mounted on guards throughout. (maps very lightly browned, text leaves heavily browned and spotted, occasional vertical creasing along folds of maps, minor tears to margin of 3 maps and 2 text leaves.) Original publisher's vellum panelled in gilt (head and foot of spine restored, some staining, ties lacking).
The first printed Latin edition of Blaeu's atlas of China (corresponding with Koeman/der Krogt 2:501B). Published separately, the China volume was added as volume VI to the Theatrum and later formed part of the Asia volume of the Atlas Maior, however the engraved title of the present work indicates that it was issued as an entirely separate volume. Blaeu's maps of China were engraved after Martini's sketches and observations. Martinus Martini (1614-1661), a Jesuit missionary, worked in China from 1642, amassing many Chinese books and maps, including a copy of Zhu Siben's 14th-century atlas of Chinese provinces, with amendments from Lo Hongxian's atlas of 1555. The text of Blaeu's atlas includes Martini's own account of how he assembled the maps, geographical descriptions of the 15 Chinese provinces and Japan, a catalogue of towns and their geographical co-ordinates, an additional geographical description by Jacob Golius (De Regno Catayo) and a history of the Manshu War (De Bello Tartarico Historia). Koeman & van der Krogt's Atlantes Neerlandici (1997), 2:501.
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