Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-dh8gc Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T04:06:33.589Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Displacing China: The Martini-Blaeu Novus Atlas Sinensis and the Late Renaissance Shift in Representations of East Asia

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 October 2020

Mario Cams
Mario Cams*
Affiliation:
University of Macau
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

In the mid-seventeenth century, as the first full atlas of East Asia became available on the European book market, a dramatic shift took place in textual and visual representations of the Far East. The atlas, titled “Novus Atlas Sinensis” (1655), was the product of a cooperation between Joan Blaeu, who headed one of Europe's foremost commercial publishing houses, and Martino Martini, a prominent Jesuit missionary to China. This study shows how the Martini-Blaeu atlas thoroughly challenged the worldview of late Renaissance audiences by tracing and reconstructing a series of displacements that facilitated its production process.

Type
Articles
Information
Renaissance Quarterly , Volume 73 , Issue 3 , Fall 2020 , pp. 953 - 990
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s) 2020. Published by the Renaissance Society of America

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I would like to thank Nicolas Standaert, Fresco Sam-Sin, and Elke Papelitzky for reading and commenting on earlier versions of this text; Li Rui for choosing to write his master's thesis on the Chinese source materials of the Martini-Blaeu atlas; and John Cirilli for his assistance in improving language and style.

References

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Akin, Alexander. “Printed Maps in Late Ming Publishing Culture: A Trans-Regional Perspective.” PhD diss., Harvard University, 2009.Google Scholar
Alves, Jorge Manuel dos Santos. “To Beijing: Macao's Diplomacy with the Ming Dynasty (1600–1633).” In Macau during the Ming Dynasty, ed. Barreto, Luís Filipe, 56–67. Lisbon: Centro Científico e Cultural de Macau, 2009.Google Scholar
Baldacci, Osvaldo. “The Cartographic Validity and Success of Martino Martini's Atlas Sinensis.” In Martino Martini: Geografo cartografo storico teólogo (1983), 73–88.Google Scholar
Begheyn, Paul. “The Contacts of Martino Martini S.J. with the Amsterdam Printer Joan Blaeu.” Archivum Historicum Societatis Iesu 81.1 (2012): 219–32.Google Scholar
Berger, Katrien. “Martino Martini's De Bello Tartarico: A Comparative Study of the Latin Text and Its Translations.” In Martino Martini: Man of Dialogue (2016), 337–61.Google Scholar
Bernard, Henri. “Les sources mongoles et chinoises de l'atlas Martini (1655).” Monumenta Serica 12.1 (1947): 127–44.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bertuccioli, Giuliano, ed. Martino Martini S.J. (1614–1661): Opera Omnia, vols. 1–4. Trent: Università degli Studi di Trento, 1998–2010.Google Scholar
Biermann, Benno M. “War Martino Martini Chinesischer Mandarin?” In Martino Martini S.J. (1614–1661) und die Chinamission im 17. Jahrhundert, ed. Malek, Roman and Zingerle, Arnold, 217–22. Sankt Augustin: Institut Monumenta Serica; Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 2000.Google Scholar
Blussé, Leonard. Tribuut aan China: Vier eeuwen Nederlands-Chinese betrekkingen. Amsterdam: O. Cramwinckel, 1989.Google Scholar
Boxer, C. R. A Cidade de Macau e a Queda da Dinastia Ming: Relações e documentos contemporâneos reproduzidos; Anotados e comentados. Macao: Escola Tipográfica do Orfanato, 1938.Google Scholar
Boxer, C. R. Francisco Vieira de Figueiredo: A Portuguese Merchant-Adventurer in South East Asia, 1624–1667; Verhandelingen van het Koninklijk Insitituut voor Taal- en Volkenkunde 52. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1967.Google Scholar
Cams, Mario. Companions in Geography: East-West Collaboration in the Mapping of Qing China (c.1685–1735). Leiden: Brill, 2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cheng, Wei-chung. War, Trade and Piracy in the China Seas, 1622–1683. Leiden: Brill, 2013.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chen Kuan-chih 陳冠至. “Ming dai Nanjing de shuji shichang (A Study on the Book Market of Nanjing in Ming Dynasty)” 明代南京的書籍市場. Guojia tushuguan guankan 國家圖書館館刊 103.2 (2014): 153–72.Google Scholar
Chow, Kai-wing. Publishing, Culture, and Power in Early Modern China. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Coolhaas, W. Ph., ed. Generale missiven van gouverneurs-generaal en raden aan Heren XVII der Verenigde Oostindische Compagnie, Vol. II: 1639–1655. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1968.Google Scholar
Criveller, Gianni. “Martino Martini e la controversia dei riti cinesi.” In Martino Martini: Man of Dialogue (2016), 199–222.Google Scholar
Dapper, Olfert. Gedenkwaerdig bedryf der Nederlandsche Oost-Indische Maetschappye, op de kuste en in het Keizerrijk van Taising of Sina. . . . Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs, 1670.Google Scholar
Destombes, Marcel. “A Rare Chinese Atlas.” Quaerendo 4.4 (1974): 336–37.Google Scholar
Di Cosmo, Nicola. “The Manchu Conquest in World-Historical Perspective: A Note on Trade and Silver.” Journal of Central Eurasian Studies 1 (2009): 43–60.Google Scholar
Disney, A. R. A History of Portugal and the Portuguese Empire, Volume II: The Portuguese Empire. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.Google Scholar
Shaoxin, Dong 董少新. “Mingmo fengjiao taijian Pang Tianshou kao” 明末奉教太監龐天壽考. Fudan Journal (Social Sciences) 復旦學報（社會科學版）1 (2010): 35–44.Google Scholar
Donkersloot-de Vrij, Marijke. Drie Generaties Blaeu: Amsterdamse cartografie en boekdrukkunst in de zeventiende eeuw. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1992.Google Scholar
Du, Yongtao. “Literati and Spatial Order: A Preliminary Study of Comprehensive Gazetteers in the Late Ming.” Ming Studies 66 (2012): 16–43.Google Scholar
Duyvendak, Jan J. L. “Early Chinese Studies in Holland.” T'oung Pao 32.1 (1934): 293–344.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fuchs, Walter. The “Mongol Atlas” of China by Chu Ssu-Pen and the Kuang-Yü-T'u. Beijing: The Catholic University Press, 1946.Google Scholar
Golvers, Noël. “De recruteringstocht van M. Martini, S.J. door de Lage Landen in 1654: Over geomantische compassen, Chinese verzamelingen, lichtbeelden en R.P. Wilhelm van Aelst, S.J.” De zeventiende eeuw 14.1 (1994): 331–42.Google Scholar
Golvers, Noël. “Michael Boym and Martino Martini: A Contrastive Portrait of Two China Missionaries and Mapmakers.” Monumenta Serica 59.1 (2011): 259–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Golvers, Noël. “Martino Martini, S.J., His Stay in the Jesuit College of Brussels (1654) and the Production of his Novus Atlas Sinensis.” In Quatre siècles de présence jésuite à Bruxelles / Vier eeuwen Jezuïeten te Brussel, ed. Deneef, Alain and Rousseaux, Xavier, 125–37. Brussels: Prosopon; Leuven: Kadok, 2012.Google Scholar
Golvers, Noël. “Martino Martini in the Low Countries (1st Half of 1654).” In Martino Martini: Man of Dialogue (2016), 113–35.Google Scholar
Gorman, Michael John. “The Angel and the Compass: Athanasius Kircher's Magnetic Geography.” In Athanasius Kircher: The Last Man Who Knew Everything, ed. Findlen, Paula, 239–59. London: Routledge, 2004.Google Scholar
Gouvea, António de. Cartas Ânuas da China (1636, 1643 a 1649). Ed. Araújo, Horácio P.. Macao: Instituto Português do Oriente; Lisbon: Biblioteca Nacional, 1998.Google Scholar
Guangyu ji 廣輿記. Compiled by Lu Yingyang 陸應陽. Ca. 1600. Bibliothèque nationale de France, Département des manuscrits, Chinois 1493.Google Scholar
Guangyu ji 廣輿記. Compiled by Lu Yingyang 陸應陽. Ca. 1626. Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Manuscripts, Barb.Or.135.Google Scholar
Guangyu ji 廣輿記. Compiled by Lu Yingyang 陸應陽. Ca. 1686. Reproduced in vol. 18 of Siku jinhui shu congkan, Shibu 四庫禁毀書叢刊, 史部, 1–519. Beijing: Beijing chubanshe 北京出版社, 2000.Google Scholar
Guangyu tu 廣輿圖. Compiled by Luo Hongxian 羅洪先. Ca. 1555. Reprinted as Guangyu tu quanshu (Guojia tushuguan cang chu keben) 廣輿圖全書（國家圖書館藏初刻本）. Xi'an: Xi'an ditu chubanshe, 2012.Google Scholar
Guangyu tu 廣輿圖. Compiled by Luo Hongxian 羅洪先. Ca. 1579. Österreichische Nationalbibliothek, Sin 1130/1.Google Scholar
Hamel, Hendrick. Verhaal van het vergaan van het jacht de Sperwer en van het wedervaren der schipbreukelingen. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1920.Google Scholar
Heirman, Ann, de Troia, Paulo, and Parmentier, Jan. “Francesco Sambiasi: A Missing Link in European Map Making in China?” Imago Mundi 61.1 (2009): 29–46.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huang Ming yitong jiyao 皇明一統紀要. Compiled by Gu Chong 顧充. Ca. 1573. http://archive.wul.waseda.ac.jp/kosho/ru05/ru05_01328/ru05_01328_0007/ru05_01328_0007.pdf.Google Scholar
Iannaccone, Isaia. “The Geyuan baxian biao and Some Remarks about the Scientific Collaboration Between Schall von Bell, Rho, and Schrek.” In Western Learning and Christianity in China (1998), 701–16.Google Scholar
Israel, Jonathan H. Dutch Primacy in World Trade 1585–1740, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Hubert, ed. The Jesuit Makasar Documents (1615–1682). Rome: Jesuit Historical Institute, 1988.Google Scholar
Kircher, Athanasius. Ars Magnesia. Würzburg: Eliae Michaelis Zinck, 1631.Google Scholar
Kircher, Athanasius. Magnes sive de Arte Magnetica. Rome: Loduvici Grignani, 1641.Google Scholar
Kircher, Athanasius. China Monumentis, qua Sacris qua Profanis, nec non Variis Naturae & Artis Spectaculis, Aliarumque Rerum Memorabilium Argumentis Illustrata. Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs, 1667.Google Scholar
Koeman, Cornelis. Joan Blaeu and His Grand Atlas. Amsterdam: Theatrum Orbis Terrarum Ltd., 1970.Google Scholar
Koeman, Cornelis, Schilder, Gunter, van Egmond, Marco, et al. “Commercial Cartography and Map Production in the Low Countries, 1500–ca. 1672.” In The History of Cartography, Volume 3: Cartography in the European Renaissance, ed. Woodward, David, 1296–383. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007.Google Scholar
Krogt, Peter C. J. van der. Koeman's Atlantes Neerlandici: New Edition; Vol. II; The Folio Atlases Published by Willem Jansz. Blaeu and Joan Blaeu. ‘t Goy: Hes & de Graaf, 2000.Google Scholar
Kuruppath, Manjusha. “Dutch Drama and the Company's Orient: A Study of Representation and Its Information Circuits, c. 1650-1780.” PhD diss., Leiden University, 2014.Google Scholar
Li, Rui. “Martino Martini's Novus Atlas Sinensis and Its Chinese Source Materials: An Investigation into the Representation of China's Administrative Structure.” MA thesis, University of Macau, 2018.Google Scholar
Hong, Lin 林宏. “Wei Kuangguo ‘Zhongguo Xin Tuzhi’ de huizhi fangfa: jiyu Fantigang cang Wei Kuangguo pizhu ben ‘Guangyu ji’ zhi ‘Guangdong shengtu’ de yanjiu” 衛匡國《中國新圖志》的繪製方法：基於梵蒂岡藏衛匡國批注本《廣輿記》之《廣東省圖》的研究. In Quanqiu ditu zhong de Aomen (di er juan) 全球地圖中的澳門（第二卷）, ed. Longji, Dai 戴龍基 and Xunling, Yang 楊迅凌, 347–97. Beijing: Social Sciences Academic Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Xiaocong, Li 李孝聰. “Ji 16–18 shiji zhongxi fang yutu chuandi zhi er san shi” 記 16–18 世紀中西方輿圖傳遞之二三事. In Kuayue kongjian de wenhua: 16–19 shiji zhongxi wenhua de xiangyu yu tiaoshi 跨越空間的文化：16–19 世紀中西文化的相遇與調話適, 466–81. Shanghai: Dongfang chuban zhongxin, 2010.Google Scholar
Yongxian, Li 李勇先, ed. Zhongguo lidai dili zongzhi zhenben wenxian huikan 中國歷代地理總志珍本文獻匯刊, vols. 1–20. Shanghai: Shanghai keexue jishu wenxian chubanshe, 2016–18.Google Scholar
Lo Sardo, Eugenio. Atlante della Cina di Michele Ruggieri, S.I. Rome: Istituto Poligrafico e Zecca dello Stato, 1993.Google Scholar
Martini, Martino. De Bello Tartarico. . . . Antwerp: Moretus, 1654.Google Scholar
Martini, Martino. Novus Atlas Sinensis. . . . Amsterdam: Blaeu, 1655.Google Scholar
Martino Martini: Geografo cartografo storico teólogo. Ed. Melis, Giorgio. Trent: Museo Tridentino di Scienze Naturali, 1983.Google Scholar
Martino Martini: Man of Dialogue. Ed. Parternicò, Luisa M., Von Collani, Claudia, and Scartezzini, Riccardo. Trent: Università Degli Studi di Trento, 2016.Google Scholar
Yong, Ma 马雍. “Jindai Ouzhou hanxue jia de xianqu Ma'erdini” 近代歐洲漢學家的先驅馬爾蒂尼. Lishi yanjiu 歷史研究 80.6 (1980): 153–68.Google Scholar
McDermott, Joseph P., and Burke, Peter, eds. The Book Worlds of East Asia and Europe, 1450–1850: Connections and Comparisons. Hong Kong: Hong Kong University Press, 2015.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Melis, Giorgio. “Martino Martini's Travels in China.” In Martino Martini: Geografo cartografo storico teólogo (1983), 421–44.Google Scholar
Menegon, Eugenio. “Christian Loyalists, Spanish Friars, and Holy Virgins in Fujian during the Ming-Qing Transition.” Monumenta Serica 51.1 (2003): 335–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Millar, Ashley Eva. A Singular Case: Debating China's Political Economy in the European Enlightenment. Montreal: McGill University Press, 2017.Google Scholar
Molewijk, G. C., ed. ‘t Verwaarloosde Formosa. Zutphen: Walburg Pers, 1991.Google Scholar
Mungello, David E. Curious Land: Jesuit Accommodation and the Origins of Sinology. Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Mungello, David E. The Great Encounter of China and the West, 1500–1800. 3rd ed. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2009.Google Scholar
Nieuhof, Joan. Het gezandtschap der Neêrlandtsche Oost-Indische Compagnie, aan den grooten Tartarischen Cham. . . . Amsterdam: Jacob van Meurs, 1665.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Paternicò, Luisa M. “Martino Martini and the First Grammar of Mandarin Chinese Ever Written and Published.” Hanxue yanjiu 29.3 (2011): 229–66.Google Scholar
Paternicò, Luisa M. “The Manuscript of the Sinicae Historiae Decas Prima in the Vatican Library.” In Martino Martini: Man of Dialogue (2016), 285–97.Google Scholar
Paternicò, Luisa M. “Jacob Golius and Martino Martini: The Enlightening Encounter and the Additamentum.” In Catholicism's Encounters with China: 17th to 20th Century, ed. Chen, Tsung-Ming Alexandre, 185–206. Leuven: Ferdinand Verbiest Institute, 2018.Google Scholar
Pfister, Louis. Notices biographiques et bibliographiques sur les Jesuites de l'ancienne mission de Chine, Vol. 1: XVIe & XVIIe siècles. Shanghai: Imprimerie de la Mission Catholique, 1932.Google Scholar
Pih, Irene. Le père Gabriel de Magalhães: Un jésuite portugais en Chine au XIIe siècle. Paris: Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian & Centro Cultural Português, 1979.Google Scholar
Rule, Paul. “The Jesuits and the Ming-Qing Transition: How Did Boym and Martini Find Themselves on Opposite Sides?” Monumenta Serica 59.1 (2011): 243–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Russo, Mariagrazia. “Martino Martini e le lettere portoghesi: Tasseli per un percorso biografico.” In Martino Martini: Man of Dialogue (2016), 95–112.Google Scholar
Sancai tuhui 三才圖會. Compiled by Wang Qi 王圻 and Wang Siyi 王思義. Ca. 1607–09. https://listview.lib.harvard.edu/lists/drs-54280578.Google Scholar
Schmidt-Pretoria, Werner. “Martinus Martini: Ein wenig bekannter Geograph hoher Geltung.” Erdkunde 10.3 (1956): 233–39.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schrameier, William. “On Martin Martini.” Journal of the Peking Oriental Society 2.2 (1888): 99–117.Google Scholar
Sebes, Joseph. “Philippine Jesuits in the Middle Kingdom in the 17th Century.” Philippine Studies 26.1–2 (1978): 192–208.Google Scholar
Sebes, Joseph. “Martino Martini's Role in the Controversy of Chinese Rites.” In Martino Martini: Geografo cartografo storico teólogo (1983), 472–92.Google Scholar
Shapin, Steven. The Scientific Revolution. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1996.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Song, Gang. “Re-Locating the ‘Middle Kingdom’: A Seventeenth-Century Chinese Adaptation of Matteo Ricci's World Map.” In Mapping Asia: Cartographic Encounters between East and West, ed. Storms, Martijn, Cams, Mario, Demhardt, Imre Joseph, et al., 185–206. Cham: Springer, 2019.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Souza, G. B. The Survival of Empire: Portuguese Trade and Society in China and the South China Sea 1630–1754. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Standaert, Nicolas. The Intercultural Weaving of Historical Texts: Chinese and European Stories about Emperor Ku and His Concubines. Leiden: Brill, 2016.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stapel, D. W. Pieter van Dam's Beschrijvinge van de Oostindische Compagnie 1639–1701. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1927.Google Scholar
Struve, Lynn A. “The Southern Ming, 1644–1662.” In The Cambridge History of China, Volume 7: The Ming Dynasty, 1368–1644, Part I, ed. Mote, Frederick W. and Twitchett, Denis, 641–701. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Xi, Sun 孫西. “Tang Ruowang zai Hua jieshao Xifang huoqi shilue” 湯若望在華介紹西方火器事略. In Western Learning and Christianity in China (1998), 691–700.Google Scholar
Szcześniak, Bolesław. “A Note on the Studies of Longitudes Made by M. Martini, A. Kircher, and J. N. Delisle from the Observations of Travellers to the Far East.” Imago Mundi 15.1 (1960): 89–93.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Trigault, Nicolas. De Christiane Expeditione apud Sinas Suscepta ab Societate Jesu. Augsburg, 1615.Google Scholar
Western Learning and Christianity in China: The Contribution and Impact of Johann Adam Schall von Bell, S.J. (1592–1666). Ed. Malek, Roman. Nettetal: Steyler Verlag, 1998.Google Scholar
Mingde, Xu 徐明德. “Shiqi shiji weida de renwen kexuejia Wei Kuangguo zhuan” 十七世紀偉大的人文科學家衛匡國傳. Zhejiang xuekan 浙江學刊 6 (2014): 63–73.Google Scholar
Zeitung Auß der newen Welt oder Chinesischen Königreichen: So P. Martinvs Martini Der Societet JESU Priester ohnlängst auß selbigen Landen in Hollandt anlangendt mit sich gebracht hat. . . . Augsburg: Andream Aperger, 1654.Google Scholar
Xiping, Zhang 張西平, ed. Ba Zhongguo jieshao gei shijie: Wei Kuangguo yanjiu 把中國介紹給世界：衛匡國研究. Shanghai: East China Normal University Press, 2012.Google Scholar