Imperium Sinicum in XV Regna Seu Provincias distributum...

Imperium Sinicum Quindecupartitum. Imperium Sinicum in XV regna seu provincias distributum una cum genuino situ urbium metropolitanarum montium fluminum lacum

Fine early map of China, Korea and Japan, from the first edition of Kircher's China Illustrata.

Kircher's map of China, Korea and Japan is based on the work compiled by Jesuit Father Martino Martini. Father Martini's map was gathered from Chinese sources between 1643 and 1650. The publication of theMartiini map greatly advanced European knowledge of the region including the correct locations of many cities and topographical features. The trade route between Canton and Peking is noted and the Great Wall and the Gobi Desert are both graphically pictured.

There were two editions of this map, this being the more decorative of the two, including images of 2 indigenous Chinese men and a more decorative title cartouche than the other edition.

From Kircher's book on China; illustrates land & sea trade routes from Middle East to China.

Athanasius Kircher (1601-1680) was one of the great scholars and travel writers of his time. A German born Jesuit scholar, he has been described as inventor, composer, geographer, geologist, Egyptologist, historian, adventurer, philosopher, proprietor of one of the first public museums, physicist, mathematician, naturalist, astronomer, archaeologist, and author of more than 40 published works. Kircher began teaching mathematics, ethics, and ancient languages at the University of Würzburg. In 1630 and 1637, Kircher petitioned to travel to China, but was unsuccessful in both requests, instead, his China Illustrata, first published in 1667, was a compilation of the most important works of the period, including Martino's Atlas of China published by Blaeu (1655), and the Journals of Matteo Ricci (1552-1610), Alvaro Semedo (1586-1658), Michael Boym (1612-1659 and Melchisedech Thevenot.

“This map is based on Martini's general map of China and incorporates images from other maps in his Atlas. The circular cartouche at the bottom right, with the Emperor and the Empress, is copied and simplified from the map of the province of PEKING.

The rectangular cartouche at the bottom left has the title Imperium Sinicum Quindecupartitum (Empire of the Chinese in fifteen parts). The putto on the right, supporting the cartouche, is a mirror image of Martini's cartouche on the Shaanxi map (called XENSI).

Compared with Martini's map, it covers a more limited area both in longitude and latitude. The provinces are numbered by Kircher from one to fifteen, follow- ing the order of Martini's Atlas. At the end of the sixteenth century Europeans divided Chinese provinces according to whether they could reach them by sea or not. After the diffusion of Martini's works, the subdivision between North and South became more common. In fact, in his book, Kircher put Chi- nese Provinces (here called Regna, Kingdoms) into two groups: Borealia (north- ern) from the first to the sixth, and Australia (southern) from the seventh to the fifteenth. However, this grouping is not reflected in the numbering used on the map.

The romanization for the names on the map or in the text is often slightly dif- ferent from Martini's (e.g., HUQUANG instead of Huguang, LEOTUNG instead of Leaotong). The capital Peking is prominently added to the map, as are a few explanatory texts for Caifung (Kaifeng) and Siganfu (Xi'an), where the first Christian stele from the seventh century had been discovered, as prominently discussed in Kircher's book. On the map, Kircher added near Siganfu: Locus ubi inventus lapis sino-Syriacus (the place where the Sino-Syriac stele was found).

Near Caifung, Kircher added: Anno 1642 fluminis invadatione submersa in qua 300.000 Hominum periere (In the year 1642, submerged by a river flood in which 300,000 men died).

This map is contained within the book China illustrata, written by Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680), a Jesuit and a true polymath, "the last man who knew every- thing" (Findlen 2004). He wrote famous books on very different subjects, from theology to mathematics, from linguistics to technology, from music to geology; as well one on China, although he never travelled to the Far East. "Kircher, at 28, applied to go there. He was refused, but the refusal only whetted his curiosity. Over the next thirty-seven years he maintained a voluminous correspondence with fellow Jesuits in China, gleaning all the information he could from their letters and journals" (Merrill 1989, 47). Passionate about antiquities, he set up a "cabinet of curiosities", or Wunderkammer, in Rome, called the Kircherian Muse- um (Lugli 1986; Lo Sardo 2001). China illustrata was aimed at a European public stimulated by the accounts of travellers in the Far East (Mungello 1989, 143).

Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, the publisher of China illustrata, was the son of Johannes van Waesberge, a printer in Rotterdam. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of the printer-bookseller Johannes I Janssonius in Amsterdam, who published most of Kircher's books after signing an exclusive contract with him in 1661. When his father-in-law died in 1664, Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge continued the family business in partnership with his niece, Sara Janssonius, and her husband, Elizaeus Weyerstraten (1633-1666). By 1675-1676 van Waesberghe had established the "Officina Janssonio-Waesbergiana" with two of his sons, Johannes and Gillis Janssonius van Waesberghe, who carried on the business (Historical Archives of the Pontifical Gregorian University (APUG)

Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge both competed and cooperated with Jacob van Meurs (1619-1680) in the 1670s and 1680s (Schmidt 2015, 35). This complex relationship is illustrated by the dispute arising from the 1667 Latin edition of Kircher's work by Jacob van Meurs, of which we know the legal detail thanks to the archival research by Van Eeghen (1972). Van Meurs, circumventing the privilege from the States of Holland given to Janssonius van Waesberge, published a new edition of Kircher's work. This edition circulated for some time until a settlement between the two firms was reached whereby van Meurs ded over printed copies, copperplates and woodblocks in return for a sum of fl. 3450.-, to be paid in instalments of fl. 500.-. This sum basically covered the costs van Meurs had incurred. The settlement was relatively amicable and it is possible that Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge Janssonius van Waesberge had borrowed from van Meurs some of his 1665 plates for his work of 1667 (Van Eeghen 1972, 252).

This settlement explains why different copies of Kircher's China illustrata exhibit a high degree of variation in their engraved title pages (which also bear a small China) and maps from either of the two publishers.

To this must be added the fact that the Van Meurs' edition circulated with two different places of publication: Amsterdam (the real one) and Antwerp. Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge also printed a Dutch (1668) and a French edition (1670).“ (Caboara "Regnum Chinae", p. 333).

Etching, printed on contemporary laid paper, finely colored by hand, usual paper folds, minor restorations in the lower cartouche, overall in good condition.

Bibliografia:

Caboara "Regnum Chinae", pp. 333-335, n. 64.2, 65; Koeman II Me 191; NORDENSKIOLD: Vol III 520.