Kunyu Wanguo Quantu

The 1602 Ricci map is a very large, high and wide, woodcut using a pseudocylindrical map projection showing China at the center of the known world. ==Details==

The map includes images and annotations describing different regions of the world. Africa is noted to have the world's highest mountain and longest river. The brief description of North America mentions "humped oxen" or bison (), feral horses (), and names Canada (). The map identifies Florida as , the "Land of Flowers". Several Central and South American places are named, including Guatemala (), Yucatan (), and Chile (). The maps carry plentiful instructions for use and detailed illustrations of the instruments that went into their production, as well as explanations regarding conceptions of "systems of the terrestrial and celestial world". There is a long preface by Matteo Ricci in the middle of the map, where it depicts the Pacific Ocean. D'Elia's translation reads: The figure of the (Nine Skies) is printed to the left of the title, illustrated as per sixteenth-century conceptions. The accompanying inscription explains the movement of the planets. The right-hand section (panel 6) has other inscriptions giving general ideas on geography and oceanography. Another inscription records an extract of the Storia dei Mongoli regarding the motions of the Sun. In the top of the left-hand section (panel 1), there is an explanation of eclipses and the method for measuring the Earth and the Moon. Both sections carry the characteristic Jesuit seal, the IHS of the Society of Jesus. At the bottom left, in the Southern Hemisphere, is the name of the Chinese publisher of the map and the date: one day of the first month of autumn in the year 1602. The map also incorporates an explanation of parallels and meridians, a proof that the Sun is larger than the Moon, a table showing the distances of planets from the Earth, an explanation of the varying lengths of days and nights, and polar projections of the Earth that are unusually consistent with its main map. ==History==

Matteo Ricci (1552–1610) was a Jesuit priest. Ricci was one of the first Western scholars to live in China and he became a master of Chinese script and Classical Chinese. In 1583, Ricci was among the first Jesuits to enter China from Macao. The first Chinese world map was named and made in Zhaoqing in 1584 by Matteo Ricci with Chinese collaborators. and other Chinese scholars in Beijing to create what was his third and largest world map, the Kunyu Wanguo Quantu. Matteo Ricci prepared four editions of Chinese world maps during his mission in China before 1603: • a 1584 early woodblock print made in Zhaoqing, called Yudi Shanhai Quantu; • a 1596 map carved on a stele, called ; • a 1600 revised version of the 1596, usually named , engraved by Wu Zhongming; • a 1602 larger and much refined edition of the 1584 map, in six panels, printed in Beijing, called ; Other copies of the 1602 map are located at: Japan, Kyoto University Collection; collection of Japan Miyagi Prefecture Library; Collection of the Library of the Japanese Cabinet; and a private collection in Paris, France. No original examples of the map are known to exist in China, where Ricci was revered and buried. Various versions of the map were exported to Korea and later Japan. The first Korean copy was brought back from Beijing by visiting ambassadors in 1603. ==Bell Library copy==

The James Ford Bell Trust announced in December 2009 that it had acquired one of two good copies of the 1602 Ricci map from the firm of Bernard J. Shapero, a noted dealer of rare books and maps in London, for US$1 million, the second most expensive map purchase in history. This copy had been held for years by a private collector in Japan. ==Chinese maps published after 1602==

Before his death at Peking in 1610, Matteo Ricci prepared four more world maps after the 1602 one: {{Ordered list|start=5 Most of these maps now are lost. Later copies of the 1602 edition of the may be found in China, Korea, London, and Vienna; one copy of the map recently was discovered in the store-rooms of the Shenyang Museum in China. A world search is currently in progress by Kendall Whaling Museum of Massachusetts. In 1607 or 1609 the Shanhai Yudi Quantu, is a Chinese map which was published in the geographical treatise Sancai Tuhui. The Shanhai Yudi Quantu was influenced highly by the work of Matteo Ricci. Matteo Ricci had several of his own maps entitled Shanhai Yudi Quantu. The locations in the map have been identified and translated by Roderich Ptak in his work, The Sino-European Map ("Shanhai yudi quantu"), in the Encyclopedia Sancai tuhui: About 1620 Giulio Aleni made the world map , putting China at the center of the world map, following Ricci's format and contents, but in a much smaller size (49 cm x 24 cm). This map was included in some editions of Aleni's geographical work, Zhifang waiji. (Descriptions of Foreign Land) His 1623 preface states that another Jesuit, Diego de Pantoja (1571–1618), on the command of the emperor, had translated a different European map, also following Ricci's model, but there is no other knowledge of that work. It consists of eight panels, each 179 cm x 54 cm, together displaying two hemispheres in Mercator projection. The two outer scrolls individually depict cartouches that contain several kinds of information on geography and meteorology. The making of Verbiest's Kunyu Quantu was intended to meet the interest of the Kangxi Emperor, as Verbiest's introductory dedication implies. There currently are at least fourteen or fifteen copies and editions of this map known in Europe, Japan, Taiwan, America, and Australia. ==Religious significance==

Ricci was a Jesuit priest whose mission was to convert the Chinese to Roman Catholicism. He thought that might be helped by demonstrating the superior understanding of the world that he believed grew out of Christian faith. The map's text shows it as part of a diplomatic attempt by Ricci to affirm the greatness of his own religion and culture. Ricci declares that it offers testimony "to the supreme goodness, greatness and unity of Him who controls heaven and earth." == Gallery ==

File:Ricci map 1602.jpg|Unknown edition or poor copy of 1602 Ricci map File:Wanguo Quantu.jpg|1620s Wanguo Quantu map, by Giulio Aleni, whose Chinese name () appears in the signature in the last column on the left, above the Jesuit IHS symbol. File:Impossible Black Tulip-World map, Gulf of Mexico, Florida.jpg|1602 Ricci mapdetail of Gulf of Mexico, Florida, Cuba, Yucatan, Mexico File: Impossible_Black_Tulip-_World_map,_detail_from_the_China_section.jpg|1602 Ricci mapdetail from a China panel File: Ricci1602North&CentralAmerica.jpg|1602 Ricci mapdetail of North and Central America File: Matteo Ricci Far East 1602 Larger.jpg|Detail of China and Far East, from the 1604 copy == References ==