The Map of Matteo Ricci: Some Preliminary Observations
- Format:
- Journal Article
- Year:
- 2012
- Journal Title:
- Chinese Cross Currents
- Volume:
- 9
- Issue:
- 3
- Language:
- Abstract:
The James Ford Bell Library at the University of Minnesota has recently put on display a copy of the 1602 map of the world made by Matteo Ricci and his Chinese collaborators. The Ricci map is owned by the James Ford Bell Trust; it has been loaned to the University of Minnesota for the benefit of the James Ford Bell Library. (A copy of the map is available at http://www.lib.umn.edu/bell/riccimap. I urge you to visit the website; you can zoom in and see the map in great detail.) It was with great pleasure that I gave a talk on the map at the Macau Ricci Institute in November of 2011. What follows are excerpts from that talk. The 1602 Map of Matteo Ricci is a record of how Ricci and his Chinese collaborators chose to represent the world as they knew it at that time. They had ample sources of information: both European and Chinese maps and travel accounts. The map is printed on paper using the same woodblock printing techniques that had already been used in China for both words and images for almost 800 years. The map of the Italian missionary was, therefore, a woodblock print, or rather, a series of prints. We know from Ricci’s diaries that the map was intended to be hung on a large folding screen. There were, according to Ricci’s diaries, thousands of copies of the map made, only about six of which remain.
- Who (Jesuits):
- What (Subjects):
- Where (Locations):
- When (Centuries):
- Page Range:
- 80–89
- ISSN:
- 1810-147X