Matteo Ricci;
Italian Jesuit, cartographer, mathematician, cosmologist
born
Macerata,
Papal States, 1552.10.06; died
Beijing, China, 1610.05.10
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Ricci's maps contained technical geographical lessons for
Chinese geographers:
(1) Ricci taught
Chinese cartographers to localize places by means of circles of latitude and longitude;
(2) he invented many geographical terms and names, including Chinese terms for
Europe,
Asia,
America, and
Africa;
(3) his maps transmitted to
China the most recent discoveries made by
European explorers;
(4) he described the existence of five terrestrial continents surrounded by large oceans;
(5) his maps introduced the sphericity of the earth; and
(6) he spoke of five geographical zones and their location on the earth (i.e., the
Arctic Circle, the
Antarctic Circle, the zone between the Arctic Circle and the
Tropic of Cancer, etc
.).
An indication of the initial impact of Ricci's maps, especially the 1608 edition printed in
Beijing, was its inclusion in geographical works produced by literati scholars in the closing years of the
Ming dynasty. For example, Zhang Huang (1527-1608), who had met Ricci in
Jiangxi in 1595, added Ricci's
Complete Map to his own illustrated collection, which Zhang called The Compendium of
Maps and Materials (1613). In addition to Ricci's 1584 map of the world, in his massive collection Zhang also printed European depictions of the northern and southern hemispheres, along with traditional maps of the four seas.
The only known copy of the first Chinese map of the world produced in 1593 was entitled The Comprehensive Map of
Heaven and Earth and the Myriad
Countries and
Ancient and Modern Persons and
Artifacts and included geographical information brought by the
Jesuits. It was based on Ricci's first world map of 1584, which is now lost.
The
1602 Complete Map of the Myriad Countries on the
Earth corresponded to one of the first issues of Ricci's third world map and is the earliest version that survives. This 1602 edition followed the Typus Orbis Terrarum, which was produced by the Flemish scholar and geographer
Abraham Ortelius (1527-98) and was first published in a 1570 European atlas called the
Theatrum Orbis Terrarum, itself based on
Gerardus Mercator's (1512-94) prominent 1569 world map. The chief alteration for the Chinese version was that
Ming China was placed at the centre of the map to appeal to Chinese dynastic sensibilities.
The New World was located on the eastern borders. A fourth edition of the map was prepared in 1604.
Ricci's map-making was continued by later Jesuits who, in 1623, produced a lacquered wooden globe, which updated Ricci's map and also stressed the sphericity of the earth.
(
http://www.princeton.edu/~elman/documents/Ming-Qing_Border_Defense_and_the_Inward_Turn_of_Chinese_Cartography
.pdf )
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source :
Unattributed, very detailed, two page colored edition (1604?), copy of the 1602 map
Kunyu Wanguo Quantu by Matteo Ricci at the request of the
Wanli Emperor. This digitalization of the map is of a
Japanese export copy of the original Chinese version, with phonetic annotations in Katakana for foreign place names outside of the
Sinic world, predominantly around Europe,
Russia and the
Near East.
11726 × 5266 jpeg image, 17.6mb
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/71/Kunyu_Wanguo_Quantu_%28%E5%9D%A4%E8%BC%BF%E8%90%AC%E5%9C%8B%E5%85%A8%E5%9C%96%29
.jpg
or
left part: 6000 × 5394, 7.1mb
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/74/%E5%9D%A4%E8%BC%BF%E8%90%AC%E5%9C%8B%E5%85%A8%E5%9C%96%EF%BC%88%E5%B7%A6%EF%BC%89.jpg
and
right part: 6000 × 5415, 7.1mb
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d7/%E5%9D%A4%E8%BC%BF%E8%90%AC%E5%9C%8B%E5%85%A8%E5%9C%96%EF%BC%88%E5%8F%B3%EF%BC%89.jpg
---------------------
see also
https://www.google.com/search?q=
Matteo+Ricci
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mav-rG-z3O4
http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/D?gmd:2:./temp/~ammem_yPzd::
http://www.wdl.org/en/search/?contributors=Ricci%2C%20Matteo%2C%201552-1610
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/502216/Matteo-Ricci
http://www-history.mcs.st-and.ac.uk/Biographies/Ricci_Matteo
.html
http://www.faculty.fairfield.edu/jmac/sj/scientists/ricci
.htm
https://www
.lib.umn.edu/bell/riccimap/matteoricci
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13034a.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matteo_Ricci
http://www.ignatianspirituality.com/ignatian-voices/16th-and-17th-century-ignatian-voices/matteo-ricci-sj
http://www.amazon.com/The-Memory-Palace-Matteo-Ricci/dp/0140080988
http://www.amazon.com/Jesuit-Forbidden-City-Matteo-1552-1610/dp/0199656533
http://www.amazon.com/Matteo-Ricci-Jesuit-Ming-Court/dp/1442205873
http://www.amazon.com/Mission-China-Matteo-Jesuit-Encounter/dp/0571225179
http://www.amazon.com/Following-Steps-Matteo-Ricci-China/dp/750850982X
http://www.amazon.com/Wise-Man-West-Matteo-Mission/dp/0006267491
.
- published: 17 May 2015
- views: 431