Map · Chinese
Kunyu wanguo quantu (Complete Map of the Myriad Countries of the World), Beijing, Wanli 30 (1602), six-panel woodblock: Kyoto University Library copy (IIIF)
坤輿萬國全圖
Matteo Ricci SJ with Li Zhizao; printed by Zhang Wentao of Qiantang
How we know
compilation Assembled from earlier sources. The author did not observe it directly.
compilation: Ortelius-Mercator-Plancius outlines with Chinese sources for East Asia; northern Asia labelled in Chinese transliteration of European names (Tartary, Muscovy) plus Ming ethnonyms
Research notes
- Six known 1602 impressions (Vatican, Kyoto, Miyagi, Minnesota Bell, etc.); Kyoto note records the printer colophon 銭塘張文寿過紙 万暦壬寅孟秋. Ricci's northern Asia is Ortelian, not observed.
- Labels read on image 1 region: 歐邏巴, 莫斯哥未亞, 亞細亞, 韃靼, 北高海, 大乃河, 撒馬兒罕, 女人國, 鬼國, 夜叉國, 回回, 沙漠, 大明, 北京, 亞力山的; Arctic text cartouches on the northern peoples.
Why it matters
The Chinese source of the East Asian Tartary vocabulary: Ricci placed 韃靼 north of the Ming and 莫斯哥未亞 to its west, with 北高海 for the Caspian; every later Chinese and Japanese world map (Verbiest, Nagakubo) repeats these labels, so this is the root object for how Tartary was named in East Asia.
Places named
World; northern Asia: Tartary, Muscovy, Caspian (北高海), Samarkand, Turfan, Ming China, Korea, Japan
Who copied whom
Later in the chain
- Kunyu quantu M102, 1674drawn from this one (stated)Verbiest 1674 via Ricci-Aleni Chinese nomenclature
- Sankai yochi zenzu M103, c. 1785drawn from this one (stated)Nagakubo after Ricci 1602