Il Regno della China detto presentemente Catay e Magin...

Cantelli da Vignola map of China, Japan and Korea, presenting a striking and up-to-date view of the Far East benefitting from Jesuit and Dutch reports. Its framework and outline are derived from the 1652 Martino Martini map produced by Blaeu, but this map is significantly updated, at least in part, from the reports of the Jesuits Bento de Góis and Johann Grueber.

Map taken from Mercurio geografico overo Guida Geografica in tutte le parti del Mondo conforme le Tavole Geografiche del Sansone Baudran de Cantelli Data in luce con direttione, e cura di Gio. Giacomo de Rossi nella sua stamperia collection of maps published in Rome between 1660 and 1730 by the typography De Rossi - the date of the maps goes from 1669 to 1715 - whose first edition is due to Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi. Over the years the atlas was enriched by an increasing number of maps in subsequent editions edited first by Domenico de Rossi and then by his son Filippo.

The Mercurio Geografico is a collection that brings together works by cartographers such as Michele Antonio Baudrand, Nicolas Sanson, Augustin Lubin, Filippo Titi, Giacomo Ameti, Giovanni Antonio Magini and Innocenzo Mattei, and which includes as its main "corpus" the great production of the geographer Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola. The maps are finely copied and engraved by the major engravers of the time including Falda, Widman, Barbey, Widman, Lhuillier, Donia, Mariotti. 

Cantelli was a geographer and cartographer, a native of Montorsello near Vignola; duties his humanistic studies in Bologna, in 1669, he entered the service of Marquis Obizzo da Ferrara there as secretary, then went to Venice and from there to Paris, where he formed relations with the leading French geographers of the time, Du Val, Nicola Sanson and especially Michel Antoine Baudrand, with whom he then remained in constant correspondence. Returning to Bologna, he was for long years secretary to Rinieri Marescotti; but, around 1675 or shortly thereafter, he went, perhaps several times, to Rome, and entered into relations with the famous De Rossi cartographic workshop, which then published most of his maps. By this time his reputation as a cartographer had been established, so much so that he was called upon by both Pope Innocent XI and the Duke of Modena and Reggio Francesco II d'Este, both of whom wanted him as their official cartographer. He chose the court of Francesco II, and in November 1685 he was appointed court geographer. From 1686 to 1689 he executed numerous maps of European countries and territories. He constructed by his own hand a world map and a celestial globe, which remained on display for some time in the atrium of the Biblioteca Estense in Modena. He died in Modena on November 30, 1695. Almost all the maps were included in the Mercurio Geografico, the well-known atlas published in Rome by the De Rossi family. The first edition of the Mercurio Geografico published 19 of his maps, along with others by Sanson and Baudrand. A two-volume second edition came out in 1692, which contained work he had done (88 maps, engraved by Antonio Barbey).

“Bento de Góis (1562-1607) was the first known European to travel from India to China via Afghanistan and the Pamirs; his mission was to establish whether the Cathay of Marco Polo's stories was the same country as China. The Jesuit Johannes Grueber (1623-1680) was a collaborator of Father Johann Adam Schall von Bell at the Beijing astronomical obser- vatory and in 1661 he made a land trip from Beijing to India by way of Tibet and Nepal. Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605-1689) was a French merchant and traveller, author of the 1670 book Six voyages through Europe into Asia.

The map features some updates about China compared with Martini's model; for example, to the north of Korea, about the "Kingdom of Niuche", Cantelli wrote Questi sono li Tartari, che occuparono, et al presente regnano nella China (These are the Tartars who occupied, and now reign in, China). However, the aim of this map was also to feed the dreams of those who travel with the mind, rather than to facilitate practical travel and trade initiatives. Cantelli's map also provides information about the Kingdom of Prester John; Martini had reported it only to deny its existence, whereas Cantelli and De Rossi used it to arouse the curiosity of their buyers, who were still fond of the medieval pastime of day dreaming about China (Quaini and Castelnovi 2007, 141). Thus, in the northwest beyond the "Desert of Belgian", we still find an account of the mythical kingdom of Prester John. On the other hand, Cantelli's map is among the first to mention BOVTAN, namely Bhutan (Gandolfo 2004) as well as BARANTOLA, namely Ti- bet, and Lassa, namely Lhasa, as well as NECBAL, namely Nepal. According to Kircher, Barantola was a name for Greater Tibet; although sometimes it was also mistaken for Bhutan (Mukherjee 2016, 48).

Publication Information

Giacomo Cantelli da Vignola (1643-1695) was one of the most active Italian cartographers at the end of the seventeenth century, notable for the delicacy of his drawing and the beauty of his art (Almagià 1922, 132; Palagiano 1975). He was also an engraver and geographer of considerable fame (Vischi 1886). For much of his geographic information, Cantelli relied on the Italian cartographer Giovanni Antonio Magini (1555-1617) and on French cartographers, with whom he maintained long-standing relationships.

Cantelli first moved to Venice; he was then called to Paris by King Louis XIV (r. 1643-1715) through the introduction of an ambassador. In Paris he established contacts with Nicolas Sanson's son, Guillaume, and with the Duval dynasty of cartographers. Later, because of his fame as a cartographer, he was appointed Librarian of the Duke of Modena, Francesco II d'Este (1660- 1694).

Cantelli's atlas Mercurio geografico (Geographic Mercury) was marketed to buyers as a sort of "travel guide" for trips of the imagination, to be taken comfortably seated in an armchair. The reference to the Greek god Mercury was not strictly connected with commerce, but rather with the speed of travelling with the mind. The atlas was published by Giovanni Giacomo de Rossi (1627-1691), an Italian publisher active in seventeenth-century Rome (Ceresa 1991). His father, Giuseppe de Rossi (1570-1639), had emigrated from Milan to Rome and founded a printing company there. When his father died, Giovanni was still a young boy. The company specialized in engravings of ancient and modern monuments, palaces, squares and streets of Rome; it occasionally also published maps, but only rarely of East Asia. Its vast production and long years of operation made the de Rossi firm the most important Italian publishing firm of the seventeenth century.

After being used for a second edition of the Mercurio in 1692, the copperplates of the Mercurio geografico, together with all the plates of the firm, were acquired in 1738 by the Apostolic Chamber. In 1741 the Chamber Chalcography edited a new edition that was very similar to the previous one (Grelle Lusco 1996b, 523). While many of the plates are still preserved in the collection of the Apostolic Chamber, which has been acquired by the Istituto Nazionale della Grafica in Rome, the plate for China has not been preserved (Grelle Lusco 1996a, 517).

Even though the map of China is dated 1682 in the cartouche, it is first recorded in a 1684 edition of the Mercurio geografico. In fact, according to Bonazzi (1995), no two copies of the Mercurio geografico are exactly the same. The map is first mentioned in the de Rossi inventories in 1686 (Grelle Lusco 1996а). The second state differs only for the date in the title cartouche, changed to 1692.

Giorgio Widman was a celebrated map and lettering engraver, who collaborated with Cantelli for his Mercurio Geografico as well as working with several pub- lishers and engravers, such as Giovanni Battista Falda for his famous map of Rome of 1675 (009 CERL Thesaurus, cnp01980371).“ (Caboara "Regnum Chinae", p. 378).

Copperplate, some foxing, otherwise very good condition.

Bibliografia:

Caboara "Regnum Chinae", pp. 378-379, n. 84; cfr. R. Almagià, Studi storici di cartografia napoletana, in “Archivio storico per le province napoletane”, 38 (1913), p. 645; A. Bonazzi, Il Mercurio geografico: il gioco e la differenza, in “Giacomo Cantelli: geografo del Serenissimo”, Bologna, 1995, p. 37-44 e 150-152; Bagrow 268; Phillips I 254-255; Shirley BL I, pp. 868-874.