Imperium Japonicum Per Regiones Digestum Sex et Sexaginta Atque Ex Impsorum Japonensium Mappis…

Un bell'esemplare dell'edizione di Reiner & Joshua Ottens della mappa del Giappone di Adrian Reland, la prima mappa che utilizza caratteri sino-giapponesi su una carta stampata europea e rappresenta un radicale allontanamento dalle precedenti mappe europee del Giappone.

Pubblicata per la prima volta nel 1715 (Utrecht) con l'imprint di Wilhelm Broedelet, la mappa fu ristampata dalla famiglia Ottens. Secondo Jason Hubbard questo è il quarto stato, pubblicato intorno al 1740, che mostra l'indirizzo "Amstelodami Apud R. & I. Ottens" in basso a destra.

Invece di seguire le precedenti mappe europee e le fonti geografiche, Reland ha utilizzato le mappe giapponesi, in particolare una mappa della biblioteca di Benjamin Dutry, un ex direttore della VOC (Compagnia delle Indie Orientali) olandese. Per alcuni aspetti, ciò ha rappresentato un enorme balzo in avanti nella rappresentazione geografica del Giappone, soprattutto nella denominazione delle 66 province.
La mappa apparve per la prima volta nel 1715 nel volume 3 del "Recuiel de voiages "di Jean Frederic Benard.
Fu poi rieditata da Reland e Wilehm Broedelet in un formato più grande nel 1715, per essere inserita in atlanti in folio. I rami furono acquistate da Joachim Ottens nel 1720 circa e successivamente rieditate con il suo nome e più tardi con i nomi dei suoi figli, Joshua e Reiner.

“Japanese mapmaking began to have a significant influence on European maps after the publication of Adriaan Reland's map in 1715. Walter (1994) writes that, with the exception of the delineation of Kyūshū, the map represented "...a step backward in the depiction of Honshū in Western cartography with respect to the level reached in Moreira/Blancus and even with respect to Teixeira/Ortelius." The portrayal of the Japanese islands is similar to the map of Ishikawa Tomonobu (Ryusen), 1691. The only portion of the map drawn from Western sources is the inset of the area around Nagasaki. The decorative scenes on either side of the dedication to Jean-Paul Bignon in the lower centre are taken from illustrations in Arnoldus Montanus's Gedenkwaerdige Gesantschappen Der Oost-Indische Maatschappy in 't Vereenigde Nederland...1669, and republished a number of times in several languages.

The map is divided into sixty-six 'Kingdoms' or provinces and each is identified in Chinese characters, or Kanji, as well as in Romanji or Western writing; but the place-names have been phonetically rendered in Dutch, which may have posed a challenge to readers of French.

The text on the tablet in the lower left reads: Queen of the eastern sea, you who are the first to see the sun-horses called forth from the red coloured sea and who - spread over twice thirty coasts - so enjoys showing yourself off to people of various countries. Here we Batavians settled. Should I then believe that anything can be left untouched by our citizens?

In the lower centre of the map the dedication to Jean-Paul Bignon reads: This map of the Japanese Empire is dedicated by Adriaan Reland to the very illustrious Jean-Paul Bignon, abbot of St. Quentin, counsellor to the all-powerful King of France for religious affairs, chairman of the Royal universities to whose care the sciences and inscriptions (on monuments and medals) have been entrusted, and outstanding promoter of Chinese and Japanese literature as well as the Fine Arts and all Sciences. The dedication is decorated, above, with two angels holding a crown above a blue shield with a white cross and a bishop's miter both resting on a pedestal; below,

samples of ceramics. Jean-Paul Bignon (Paris 1662 - L'Île Belle 1743) was a French ecclesiastic, statesman, writer, preacher (prédicateur) and librarian. He studied at the Collège d'Harcourt and at the Saint-Magloire seminary. He was ordained in 1691, and in 1693 made abbot of Saint-Quentin-en-L'Isle, preacher and librarian to Louis XIV and member of the Académie française. In 1701 he became a member and secretary of l'Académie royale des inscriptions et medialles, whose task was to study the inscriptions on early monuments and medals and make recommendations for those that would be erected or struck in honor of Louis XIV.

On the right side and above the inset of 'Nangasaki' is the bust of a bearded man on a pedestal decorated with ideograms. The image bears some resemblance to an illustration of "Rex Tangut" in Athanasius Kircher's China monumentis, qua sacris qua profanis, nec non variis naturae and artis spectaculis, aliarumque rerum memorabilium argumentis illustrata, 1667, commonly known as China Illustrata.

The long text running along the lower portion of the map states: This small part of the bay of Nagasaki I copied from an unpublished map that I have at home. On it one of my compatriots mis-represented the island of Firando - where we used to have a settlement - as well as the other islands and coastlines between that island and Nagasaki. This goes to show that the maps by the Japanese are not as accurate as those made by our people who visit the places in question. The Japanese draw the outlines of the coastlines with a coarser pen, because they lack the European tools.

For me it is out of the question to change the smallest detail in a map of the Japanese Empire because I took the decision to be guided only by the maps of the Japanese themselves of which this one is the most important, and eight times the size of the map we publish, and has been made available to me by the very learned Paul Collignon until recently our pupil - from the library of the esteemed Benjamin Dutry, Lord of Haften and director of the Dutch East India Company.

And it is truly worthwhile to look at the sixty-six parts of that extended empire and know their true names, since most areas have never been visited by us; whilst on the published maps, names of cities, areas and islands have been unbelievably confused and interchanged, as anyone who tries to compare this map with others will discover.

Benjamin Dutry (Amsterdam 1668 - Haaften (Haeften) 1751) was a director (bewindvoerder) of the VOC.

Hadriano Relando in the map title was the Latinised form of Adriaan Reland (also: Reelant) (1676-1718), a university professor, first of philosophy in Harderwijk and later of Oriental languages in Utrecht. His wide interests spanned subjects as varied as Hebrew antiquities, philology, cartography and the description of Islam as a religion.

Wilhelm Broedelet (fl.1692-1719) was a book and map publisher in Utrecht, who had published a number of Reland's books.

In entry 40 of Tony Campbell's 1967 cartobibliography of Japan, this map is placed after entry 69 with the following comment: "According to LC (Phillips) 522 this (i.e. Bernard's map in entry 69) is the original form of Reland's map, but as the other and more common version appeared in the same year it is difficult to assert priority. LC 522 entry reads: "no. 168 is by Adrianus Reeland and was originally published in Recueil de voyages au Nord. Amst. 1713-1738". It may be that, as a result of incorrectly attributing the publication of Bernard's work to 1713, Phillips assumed it had preceded Broedelet's map dated 1715. The same assumption was also made for the placement of OAG 68 and 69 in Hubbard and Walter (1994). However, based on a closer examination of the Japanese characters engraved on the maps, the present author has concluded that Bernard's map copied that of Broedelet, and not vice-versa.“ (Hubbard "Japoniae Insulae – The Mapping of Japan", p. 282).

Acquaforte su rame, con bella coloritura originale, in ottime condizioni.

Bibliografia:

Hubbard "Japoniae Insulae – The Mapping of Japan", pp. 282-286, n. 68.