Map · Chinese
Kunyu quantu (Complete Map of the World), Beijing 1674, woodblock, double hemisphere on 8 scrolls: Library of Congress Hummel copy
坤輿全圖
Ferdinand Verbiest SJ (1623-1688)
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation: Blaeu's world map and Ricci-Aleni Chinese toponymy adapted for the Kangxi court; Inner Asia drawn from European sources with Chinese transliterations, not from Qing surveys
Research notes
- Derived from Blaeu (LOC note) with Ricci 1602 toponyms; several later impressions and Korean copies exist (Seoul, Osaka, Brussels, Hong Kong). The pair labelled ab holds the Pacific and Australia, cd the Americas, ef Europe-Asia-Africa, gh the Atlantic with text cartouches; note LOC file naming.
- Labels read on pair ef, upper left: 亞細亞, 韃而靼 (two occurrences), 莫斯哥未亞 (text block), 撒莫夜大, 大海 (Caspian), 回回, 沙漠, 北高海?; colophon on pair ab: 康熙甲寅歲日躔娵訾之次 (1674).
Why it matters
The most widely reproduced Jesuit world map in Chinese; it carries the transliterated European label 韃而靼 (Tartary) over Inner Asia, so it is the channel by which the European regional name entered Qing-era Chinese cartography, alongside a cartouche on Muscovy.
Places named
World; eastern hemisphere with Asia: Tartary (韃而靼), Muscovy, Samoyed north, Caspian, Central Asian deserts, China, Korea, Japan
Who copied whom
Earlier in the chain
- Kunyu wanguo quantu M118, 1602this one was drawn from it (stated)Verbiest 1674 via Ricci-Aleni Chinese nomenclature
Keep exploring
The maps drawn just before and just after this one.
