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From the Special Collection of the
Hong Kong University of Science & Technology Library

China in Maps: 16th - 19th Century: (Gallery - part 1)

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MARIS PACIFICI,(QUOD VULGO MAR DEL ZUR)...(1589),1602
ORTELIUS, Abraham
59.5x34.5cm Uncolored
The first available printed map of the Pacific Ocean published in 1589 and commemorating Ferdinand Magellan's discovery of the Ocenan some 70 years earlier. The map includes parts of the East Indies, New Guinea and Japan and extends to the entire Western seaboard of the Americas. Magellan's ship "Victoria" is shown emerging in triumph from the Straits that bear his name, guns firing in celebration.
TERZA OSTRO TAVOLA c1603 or c1613
RAMUSIO, Giovanni Battista & GASTALDI, Giacomo
38x28cm Copperplate
A charming and most scarce early copperplate originally published in woodblock format for Ramusio's important and influential travel book "Della Navigatione e Viaggi" published between 1556 & 1583 in 3 volumes. This is the most easterly of a set of three maps of Asia. It is oriented with North to the bottom of the page and extends from the Ganges Delta, including the Malay peninsula, the Philippines and East Indian Islands, the coasts of China to a single-Island Japan "Cympagu" on the extreme left. An important early map, derived from Portuguese sources and particularly attractive for its naive almost pictorial representation of the region.
EXACTA ET ACCURATA DELINEATIO CUM ORARUM MARITIMARUM... REGIONIBUS CHINA, CAUCHINCHINA, CAMBOJA, JAPAN... (1596), c1600
LINSCHOTEN, Jan Huygen Van; LANGEREN, A.Van 52x39cm Uncolored
A striking rare Dutch chart published in Van Linschoten's "Itinerario", one of the most important Dutch accounts of Portuguese Asia written by Linschoten who had lived and worked in Goa in the service of the Portuguese Archbishop of Goa in the 1580's. The map is oriented with west to the bottom of the page and extends from the Malay peninsula and Singapore, all of the Philippines Islands and East India Islands with China, Korea as a circular Island and Japan shown with a curious shrimp-like outline for mainland Honshu. The decoration includes a fine array of animals, strangely including rhinos, camels, giraffes and elephants. The seas are filled with spouting seamonsters and galleons.
UNTITLED SEA CHART OF SOUTH EAST ASIA 1663
THEVENOT, Melchisedech
68.5x50cm Uncolored
A most uncommon and scarce chart published in the collection of Voyages "Relation de Divers Voyages Curieux" by Thevenot. The map is one of a number included in the book copied directly from Portuguese Portolan charts produced by cartographer Jaoa Teixeira Albenaz in Lisbon in 1643. It is one of the few printed copies of Portuguese charts that were guarded by Portuguese authorities with great secrecy.
INDIA QUAE ORIENTALIS DICITUR, ET INSULAE ADIACENTES (1635), 1640
BLAEU, Johannes
50x41cm Colored/Browned
This attractive map of the East Indies was published in Blaeu Atlases from 1635 for thirty years and includes one of the most detailed images of the sphere of operations and Asian trading empire of the Dutch East India Company extending from India through South East Asia, New Guinea, and parts of Northern Australia and Southern Japan. An attractive cartouche with supporters and coat of arms dedicates the map to Laurens Real, Governor General of the East Indies 1616-18.
THIS MAP OF ASIA c1720
MOLL, Herman
97x58cm Line colored
A fine large-scale map of Asia on two sheets with decorative title piece bottom left. The map includes all of notable for the strange outline given to the regions to the North of Japan. Detailed insets show important rivers and harbors including detailed insets of the harbors at Amoy and Chusan showing the English trading posts.
A MAP OF THE EAST INDIES... c1720
MOLL, Herman
102x61.5cm Colored
A very attractive large-scale map of the East Indies detailing the early development of the English East India Company, to whose Director the map is dedicated. The company's coat of arms appears above the dedication to the far right. The map extends from the Malabar Coast of India to South-western Japan and includes all of the East Indian Islands. Five insets fill the left border of the map and show a plan of Bantam, prospects of the ports of Goa and Surat, a plan of Batabia (Jakarta) and of the Fort of St. George and city of Madras. Detailed annotations by Moll abound across the map, providing an informative and often amusing account of many parts of the region.
CARTE DES COSTES DE L'ASIE SUR L'OCEAN... c1720
MORTIER, Pierre
87.5x58cm Line colored
A fine original example of this uncommon early 18th century Dutch chart of the East Indies extending from India to Japan. Tasman's discoveries in Australia 1642-1644 are shown in detail.
ORIENTALIORA INDIARUM ORIENTALIUM CUM INSULIS ADJACENTIBUS A PROMONTORIO C. COMORIN AD JAPAN c1680
DE WIT, Frederick
54x44cm Colored
A fine sea chart of the East Indies, Australia and the Far East published in De Wit's Maritime Atlas of 1680. The map is notable for the unusual "sideways" projection with North to the left of the page. Note also the increasingly complete outline given to Western and Northern Australia a century before Caption Cook.
INDIAE ORIENTALIS NEC NON INSULARUM ADIACENTIUM NOVA DESCRIPTIO c1680
VISSCHER, Nicolas
56x46cm Colored
A fine example of this attractively engraved and decorative map of the whole South East Asia region including recent Dutch discoveries in Northern Australia.