Novus atlas sinensis dat is Afbeeldingen en Beschryvingê van alle de Landschappen van het groote Ryck Sina in Latijn beschreven door P.M. Martinium S.I. en uytgegeven By Ioan Blaeu. (Seeste Deel van de nieuwe Atlas oft Toonneel des Aerdrijcx, Uytgegeven door Joan Blaeu.)
THE FIRST EUROPEAN ATLAS OF CHINA
[Amsterdam]: Joan Blaeu, 1656. First and only Dutch edition of vol. VI of the Theatrum.
Folio (18 5/8” x 12 1/8”, 472mm x 308mm): binder’s blank, *2 A-Hhh2 b-e2 aa-dd2 ee1 a2 2b-k2, binder’s blank [$1 signed]. 147 leaves, pp. [4] (2pp. dedications, 2pp. privileges), 1-216, [16] (16pp. register); j-xviij; 21-40. With an engraved title-page (with additional letter-press) and 17 engraved double-page maps, all with hand-color.
Bound in modern half mottled calf over marbled bands with green linen ties. On the spine, five raised bands. Tilt egilt to green calf in the second panel. All edges of the text-block speckled red-and-brown.
Rubbing to the extremities, with bumps to the fore-corners. The title-page, first and last maps shaved at the edges and strengthened. Repaired gutter-tear to the map of Suchuen (bound at V2-X1). Small hole to Rr2 (pp. 159-160) filled, just touching one letter. Damp-stain to the fore-edge of quire G (pp. 25-28). Passages of moderate foxing throughout, but altogether very good. Pigment oxidation to the verso of the maps. Ink ownership stamp of the “Gijmnasium St. Alberti Zenderen” to the title-page.
Father Martino Martini (1616–1661) was a Jesuit missionary who worked extensively in (and on) China. The Jesuit mission’s imperial cartographic approval gave him unprecedented to Chinese sources (notably a Ming re-working of the Yü t’u from the Yuan period), to which he added his own observations. While returning to Rome to address the Chinese Rites Controversy (concerning, among many things, the right of Chinese Christians to worship their ancestors), Martini was able to offer his cartographic material to Dutch publishers. Joan Blaeu (1596–1673), official cartographer to the Dutch East India Company (VOC), scored rather a coup in securing the Italian Jesuit’s material, and published it as the sixth part of his Atlas novus, also known as the Theatrum. It was the first European atlas devoted to Asia, and inspired many followers (notably d’Anville’s work of the same title).
The Gymnasium of Sancti Alberti in Zenderen (Overijssel in the Netherlands) is a Carmelite secondary school and seminary that operated from 1889 and closed in 1970.
Koeman I.Bl 52 (different title-page); van der Krogt-Koeman II.2:521 (different title-page).
Item #JLR0303
Price: $35,000