Mapping of Asia PART 2 Indies Gallery Singapore

MAPPING OF ASIA - PART 2

INDIES GALLERY

INDIES GALLERY THE MAPPING OF ASIA - PART 2

WRITTEN BY DENNIS RIDER

The map collection of Sake Rudmer Santema

INDIES GALLERY We are glad to share our Mapping of Asia PART 2 Catalogue 2021.

In PART 2, you will read about the earliest European maps and charts of the Asia continent and surrounding islands. PART 1 is available on our website under Catalogues.

All the maps shown in these catalogs are genuine antiques and are sold with a certificate of authenticity. Each item has a separate catalog with more images and background information which will be sent to you upon request.

Contact us by clicking HERE

Published by Indies Gallery Singapore & Jakarta, September 2021

CHAPTERS Part II

- EARLIEST EUROPEAN CHARTS - CLOSURE OF SILK ROAD - BEACH - THE RACE TO THE INDIES - AGE OF EXPLORATION - THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE AND CARTOGRAPHY

- KOREA AS AN ISLAND

- THE END OF DUTCH SUPREMACY

The Fall of Constantinople

“The only choice remaining was how to die, Gloriously, or in terror.

As the eleventh Palaiologos chooses glory, Mehmet enters the church of the Holy Wisdom, And there the beautiful sultan transforms it, for a time, And the holy wisdom changes forms again, having done so countless times before and Knowing that she will do so again for endless iterations"

(Excerpt from poem by Rev.R. Polwhele as published in the magazine Listener JB)

EARLIEST EUROPEAN CHARTS

The majority of port “portolan” charts covering the Mediterranean and parts of Northern Europe were by Genoese, Venetian and Catalan navigators and mariners. At some point the portolan chart and the mappa mundi were combined to produce basic intercontinental navigation charts used by Columbus and Diaz in their voyages of discovery. Probably Catalan and Moor geographers had maintained contact over several centuries, thus promoting knowledge of Arab geography and the development of cartography; knowledge that was not readily available to other European cartographers1.

1. John Goss, op. cit., page 44.

A European sailing vessel off the coast of Japan. Close up from Hondius Asia map from the year 1603.

Eastern Asia and India A scarce map of eastern Asia, published by Gerard de Jode in the year 1593 in Antwerp, Belgium. This rare black and white map, extending from China and the Philippines to India and Mongolia, is among the most influential maps of Eastern Asia published in the 16th Century.

Drawn and engraved directly after Giacomo Gastaldi's 4-sheet wall map of Southeast Asia, this map had a major influence on the work of later map makers.

In De Jode's excellent study of Gastaldi's maps of Asia and their relationship to the accounts of Marco Polo's travels, he notes that while Gastaldi had clearly incorporated information from Marco Polo's travels, Gastaldi had relied upon the accounts of other contemporary travellers to the

east.

Title: Tertiae Partis Asiae quae modernis India orientalis....

Publication 1593 Dimensions 75 by 50 cm.

Price 16,800 USD.

Further developments in the mapping of the Far East, and particularly the East Indies Islands, occurred with the support of Prince Henry of Portugal (1394 - 1460) who was immortalised with the nickname ‘the Navigator’. He was primarily responsible for the systematic exploration and mapping of the Atlantic islands and the Atlantic coastline of Africa.

The coastline of Africa shown clearly on a map from the year 1598. The coastline and shape were mapped out much earlier than the East Indian Islands, because of the trade with ports as far as Ceylon. (Sri Lanka)

CLOSURE OF SILK ROAD The Ottoman's conquest of Constantinople in 1453 gave them a complete monopoly on the spice trade at the same time many eastern scholars fled to Italy, bringing with them important books and manuscripts and a tradition of humanism and Greek scholarship. The fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans blocked European access to the riches of the East.

The Europeans dreamed of the wealth that a

successful expedition to the Spice Islands could bring.

Merchants, adventurers and explorers were willing to endure extreme hardship and dangers in this quest, thus sparking the Europeans to search for an alternative route.

European merchants inspecting goods. Close up from an Asia map published in the year 1682.

Asia Continent, Miniature Map Rare so-called "miniature map" of continent Asia based on Ortelius’ larger map published 80 years earlier. On the right side of the map, it shows America, Japan, the islands of Maluku, Borneo, and Papua New Guinea. A fine small-size collector's item for those interested in

Italy, circa 1650 14 by 8,5 cm.

550 USD.

Publication Dimensions Price

ASIAE Superficialis de scriptio.

Title:

the early mapping of Asia.

Having defeated the Moors, the Portuguese

inherited much of the Arab navigational technology and with their long Atlantic coast were well acquainted with sailing in the Atlantic Ocean. Add this to the organising genius and crusading zeal of Prince Henry of Portugal with his desire to search for the lands of Guinea, Canary Islands, Africa and the Indies - a fabled source of gold and slaves. Prince Henry wanted to know what was beyond the Canary Islands and the western bulge of Africa and he wanted to know more about the Indies; culminating in the epic voyages of Bartholemeu Diaz and Vasco da Gama that opened up the direct sea route around Africa to the Far East and the

Spice Islands.

The Indonesian Spice Islands, mapped out here very inaccurately. Close up of a map published in the year 1600.

Beach Pars (Australia) named here. Close up of a map published in the year 1600.

(See next page)

BEACH

In the German cursive script, Ll Locach” and Bb “Boëach” look similar, and in the 1532 edition of Marco Polo's Travels his Locach was changed to Boëach, later shortened to Beach. By 1569 it became “Beach the gold-bearing province, wither few go from other countries because of the inhumanity of its people” with Locach somewhat to the Southeast of Sumatra.

Locach is probably from Chinese Lo-huk part of the Khmer Empire now in Southern Thailand.

Map of Southeast Asia and North America Cartographically derived from Ortelius' slightly earlier map of the same region, this map covers Arabia east to the Americas and New Guinea, and northern China and Japan to Java. Since drawn from Ortelius who himself is interpreting tales from Marco Polo, there is a curious landmass far to the south, below Java, which is tantalizingly labelled 'Beach Pars Continentis Australis'. Although one would initially think we are looking at an early mapping of Australia, it most likely is not.

Title: India Orientalis. cuius nobilior pars ….

Publication 1600 Dimensions 30 by 28 cm.

Price 2700 USD.

THE RACE TO THE INDIES

Fifteenth-century development of ocean going vessels such as the Caravel and explorations revolutionised cartography and its distribution was made possible by the invention of the printing process by Gutenberg.

The stage was now set for an explosion of exploratory voyages into the western Atlantic and along the African coast in the quest for the shortest direct sea route to the Spice Islands.

Guided by Ptolemy, the discoverers of the New World were initially trying to find their way to Kattigara (Cattigara) according to Ptolemy “the gateway to China” by sailing west.

Ptolemy's concept that the

Indian Ocean was enclosed delayed the opening up of a sea route to India and the Far East around the horn of Africa.

The Portuguese had a series of successful

voyages down the coast of Africa.

Archipelago in Indonesia, with 7448 Islands. Close up from an Asia map published in the year 1540.

- In 1488, Bartolomeu Diaz unwittingly rounded the Cape of Good Hope during a storm and so entered the Indian Ocean from the Atlantic Ocean; thus exploding the myth that the Indian Ocean was landlocked and opening India and the Far East by sea from the Atlantic.

- In 1492, Christopher Columbus convinced Ferdinand of Spain that he could reach the fabled Spice Islands by sailing west – he reached America instead. Christopher Columbus landed in the West Indies in 1492.

- In 1494, the Treaty of Tordesillas declared all newly discovered and yet to be discovered territories east of the demarcation line (46°30′ W) were given to Portugal and all territories west of the line were given to Spain.

- In 1497, the Portuguese king Manuel sent Vasco da Gama to find the sea route around Africa to India with the purpose of finding "Christians and Spices." Vasco da Gama reached the west coast of India in

1499.

Miniature Map of Mainland Southeast Asia Early map covering the region from the Indian sub-continent through Burma and Thailand, to the Philippines and extending to the tip of the Malaysian peninsula with parts of Borneo and Sumatra. New Guinea is shown to have a land bridge to Australia (which is not named, but both considered the same land mass – Noua Guinea). It depicts the classical view of the river systems originating in a mythical Chiamai Lacus. India is much too narrow while Ceylon is overly

Amsterdam, circa 1602 13 by 8 cm.

470 USD.

Publication Dimensions Price

India Orien

Title:

large.

Ref: www.socialstudies.com

- In 1499, Amerigo Vespucci hoped to reach Malacca (Melaka) by sailing westward from Spain across the Western Ocean (Atlantic) around the Cape of Cattigara into the Sinus Magnus (“China Sea") that lay to the east of the Golden Chersones (Malay Peninsula) of which the Cape of Cattigara formed the southeastern point.

- In 1512, the Portuguese sailing east were the first Europeans to arrive in the Moluccas.

- In 1519, Ferdinand Magellan, himself a Portuguese in the employ of the Spanish decided to sail west to the Moluccas and claim them for Spain in 1521.

Dutch vessels on their return route of Cornelis De Houtman’s pioneering voyage to the East Indies between April 1595 and August 1597. Close up from a map published in the year 1598.

AGE OF EXPLORATION The Moluccas were the vaunted Spice Islands, originally the only source in the world for nutmeg, mace, and cloves. In 1529, the Treaty of Zaragoza gave control of the Moluccas to Portugal for a payment of 350,000 gold ducats to Spain, settling the two decades old clash between the Portuguese from the east and the Spanish from the west – Spain took over the Philippines.

Although the Philippines was

technically within the newly drawn Portuguese territory, the Portuguese had no interest in the Philippines and did not object.

The results of Portuguese and Spanish discoveries in the Far East were gradually incorporated onto world maps.

The

results of the first four decades of the sixteenth century was the gradual evolution of maps of Southeast Asia and the East Indies Islands that began to resemble the actual insular

and peninsula geography so characteristic of the region.

A compass rose with nutmeg and clove spices. The compass rose predates the compass and originally represented the Greek winds as a means of defining direction. Close up from a map published in the year 1598.

German Sebastian Münster (1488-1552) published his version of Ptolemy’s Geographia in 1540. Münster then turned his attention to producing his own c o m p re h e n s i v e c o s m o g r a p h y.

In

preparation for this, Münster had to review not only the ancient and medieval sources but the more recent literature of the past half century: a period of great geographical discovery and unprecedented richness in geographical, historical and ethnographical description2.

2. Robert W. Karrow Jr., op cit., page 425

A map of Asia by Münster published in the year 1540

Münster’s appeal for information was answered by more than 120 persons from whom he had received essays, maps and views of cities. The sifting of this information and the design of maps and illustrations required considerable time and it was not until 1544 that the Cosmographia appeared in its first edition, later editions circa 1560 include the earliest obtainable views of the New World. Münster dominated cartographic publication during the mid-16th century and is generally regarded as one of the most important and influential mapmakers of the period.

Zaylon (Sri Lanka) and India.

Close up from a map by Münster published in the year 1540

Southeast Asia Map Linschoten’s map extends from Marco Polo’s Beach, Java, Timor and part of Nova Guinea in the south to Japan, the Island of Korea and China in the north. The map includes a tremendously detailed treatment of the region, displaying a marvelous blend of mythical cartographic detail and contemporary P o r t u g u e s e k n o w l e d g e i n t h e re g i o n , embellished by Sea Monsters, indigenous animals, 2 compass roses and sailing vessels. It is the first published map of the Far East to be prepared primarily from Portuguese sources.

The map is emblematic of the end of the and was among the most important sources of information on Southeast Asia during the 16th Century. The map is oriented with the South on

the right hand side of the map.

Holland / 1596 520 x 381 mm.

22,400 USD.

Publication Dimensions Price

Exacta & accurata.. Regionibus China, Cauchinchina, Camboja..

Title:

Portuguese monopoly on the East Indian trade

In 1583, Dutchman Jan Huygen van Linschoten, working as assistant to the newly appointed archbishop De Fonseca, travelled to Goa, India the capital of Portugal’s Asian Empire. For almost a century the Portuguese had held a virtual monopoly in South and East Asia, primarily by closely guarding knowledge of navigational information. Van Linschoten’s contacts allowed him to glean intelligence on Portuguese commerce, politics, and navigation in an area that stretched 7,000

miles from Madagascar to Japan.

LAKE CHIAMAY (CHIAMUS, CHIA or CHAAMAY) One of the greatest mysteries in the cartography is this large mythical lake, depicted as the source of several rivers cascading through the Chinese mainland into the G u l f o f T h a i l a n d t h a t a p p e a re d i n v a r i o u s configurations on European maps for over two hundred and fifty years. Frenchman La Loubere (1688) wrote “But the Siamese...do not know that famous Lake, from whence our Geographers made the River Menam arise and to which, according to them, this City [Chiamai] gives its Name: which makes me to think either that it is more distant than our Geographers have conceived, or that there is no such Lake.”

Van Linschoten extensive debriefing of Portuguese ships’ captains and pilots for six-years without

arousing suspicion is a remarkable achievement at a time when passing of navigational data to a foreign national was considered treason. Following the death of the archbishop in 1589, van Linschoten hastily departed from Goa. In 1595, he produced a book called the “Itinerario on navigation in the Orient” that exposed the secrets of the Portuguese trading routes and other information about Asia that was of immense value and interest to other European merchants and governments, particularly the Dutch and later the English.

THERE BE SEA MONSTERS

Ref under sea-monster image: The Mapping of Thailand, an Introduction Dawn F.

Rooney – presented at IMCoS. Symposium, Singapore, Nov 1991

When map makers did not know what was out there they drew from the Bible and folklore, and made them part of the potential, if supernatural, landscape. There was a belief that all land animals had a sea equivalent.

The "Spice Map”, Map to the East Considered by most collectors to be the holy grail in any Southeast Asian map collection. First published in 1594, covering the Philippines and Maritime Southeast Asia, including the famed Spice Islands. Based on covertly obtained Portuguese manuscript charts. The map is a vast improvement over previously printed maps of the region, with most of the islands well-delineated, well-placed, and correctly named.

This map is known as the “Spice Map” for its illustration of nutmeg, clove, and sandalwood along the bottom of the map. The map was commercial importance and viability of prospective Dutch voyages to the Spice Islands.

Amsterdam,1592-1594 55 by 45 cm.

105,800 USD.

Publication Dimensions Price

Insulae Moluccae celeberrimae sunt ob Maximam……

Title:

published as a means of promoting the

THE DUTCH GOLDEN AGE AND CARTOGRAPHY In the late 1500s, seven Dutch provinces in the northern Netherlands achieved independence from Spain and formed the Dutch Republic. Though the Dutch state was small and ruled by a decentralized system of control, it managed to cultivate a powerful seventeenth-century sea empire based on trade. The Dutch wanted in on the lucrative spice trade, but they also had to contend with the Portuguese. The first Dutch expedition, led by Cornelis de Houtman in 1595, avoided India, the Strait of Malacca, and the Moluccas — Portuguese strongholds — in favour of sailing across the Indian Ocean and through the Sunda Strait. Fortunately for the Dutch, Portugal had come under the dominion of Spain in 1580 and were not strongly defending Spanish claims, meanwhile Spain was more concerned with their New World

assets.

Dutch traders and dolphins on a Sea Chart, published in Amsterdam in the year 1680.

This heralded the emergence of the Dutch as the colonial power that was to supersede Portugal as the premier trading nation in Asia and establish a hold on the East Indies Islands and the trade thereon for the next 350 years.

This period of Dutch hegemony, marked by the voyages of Houtman and Dircksz to Bantam and around Java were meticulously charted by the official hydrographers of the Dutch East India Company “VOC.” Among these Willem Blaeu and his son, Joan, must rank as two of the greatest and most influential cartographers of all time.

A Dutch sailing vessel and a compass rose. Close up from a Sea Chart published in Amsterdam in the year 1660.

Due in large part to their powerful trade empire, the Dutch became known for cartography in the seventeenth century. Their publishing houses produced the highest quality work in Europe, particularly those maps and charts of foreign lands, and Dutch map-making set the bar for cartographic accuracy and artistry into the early-eighteenth century. The general interest travelogues by Ortelius and Mercator and the prolific output from the Dutch map publishing houses of the Hondius, Jansson and Blaeu families between 1600 and 1650, and the de Wit, Visscher, Dankerts, Doncker and Allard families in the latter part of the century, forms one of the

largest corpus of maps and charts of the East Indies.

Asia Continent by the Famous Mercator This map of Asia by the famous Gerard Mercator gives a great view of how Europe looked at the continent of Asia 450 years ago. The coasts of Northeast Asia and Northwest North America are separated by the fabled Strait of Anian. South of this strait, a beautifully engraved galleon gives speculation to the possibility of a northern route to Asia.

Sumatra has a curiously archaic outline, while the relationship between New Guinea and Terra Australis is left to the viewer's imagination. The place-name "Beach" is taken from Marco Polo's account but erroneously ascribed to locations in

Amsterdam, ca.1596 55 by 45 cm.

2200 USD.

Publication Dimensions Price

Asia ex magna orbis terre descriptionie Gerardi Mercatori Desumpta

Title

the vicinity of present-day Australia.

Asia Continent, by the Famous Dutch Cartographer Willem Blaeu One of the most recognizable representations of the continent from the seventeenth century, this map was most up to date for its time, thanks in large part to Blaeu’s access to Dutch East India Company (VOC) charts, but a few features are still notable for their surprising appearances to the modern eye.

Korea is shown as an island just barely unconnected to the Asian mainland, while Japan is oddly projected in a horizontal style that was typical of this period. The coast north of Korea is only roughly drawn, as it had not been surveyed in detail. Rare variant edition of Blaeu's map of

Amsterdam, ca. 1633 45 by 36 cm.

3800 USD.

Publication Dimensions Price

Asia noviter delineata

Title

Asia printed without the ornamental border cartouches.

Dutch Indian Ocean Sea Chart One of the rarest and most attractive Dutch sea charts focusing on Southeast Asia, Australia, and the Indian Ocean, intended for use at sea by the mariners of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).

This copperplate engraving - on thick paper to withstand the elements - appeared in Van Keulen's rare Maritime Atlas in the year 1680 in Amsterdam, and is one of the best and most important working charts of the Dutch Golden age.

The map is decorated with compass roses, horizontal and vertical graticules and rhumblines, an elephant, dolphins and

Amsterdam, 1680 51 by 58 cm.

16,800 USD.

Publication Dimensions Price

Nieuwe Pascaert van Oost Indien

Title

galleons. Two decorative figurative cartouches show European traders.

Asia Continent with Decorative Vignettes Dutch Golden Age Map Antique map of the continent of Asia, one of the most recognizable representations of the continent from the seventeenth century. The map is framed by ten pairs of people meant to personify Asian cultures. At the top, nine Asian cities show the rich trading opportunity that Asia represented for Europeans.

Amsterdam, ca.1640 56 by 41 cm 4700 USD.

Publication Dimensions Price

Asia Noviter Delineata Auctore Guilielmo Blaeuw

Title

By Willem Blaeu, one of the most prominent Dutch geographers and publishers of the Dutch Golden Age.

KOREA AS AN ISLAND Korea is briefly mentioned in the thirteenth century by

Marco Polo as Cauli (Kauli), but otherwise, Korea was not described again for European audiences until the late sixteenth century.

As with Japan and China, most of the earliest bits of information about Korea came from the Jesuits sending letters back from East Asia. However, the Jesuits were not actually stationed in Korea; they could only glean impressions from Chinese and Japanese sources. For example, Father Luis Frois wrote of Korea in the context of a war with Japan in 1578. Frois explained that Korea was separated from China by a sliver of sea. It had previously been understood to be an island, he explained but was now known to be a peninsula. However, why Korea was thought to be an island, by who, and how it was found to be a peninsula was not shared with Frois’ curious readers

back in Europe.

The Spice Islands of Indonesia, on a Dutch Sea Chart published in Amsterdam in the year 1660.

Given the relative dearth of source material, it is not surprising that early maps by Münster, Mercator and Ortelius omitted Korea entirely. The first map to show Korea was Orbis Terrarum Typus de Integro Multis in Locis Emendatus by Petrus Plancius (1594). It included “Corea” as a long, skinny peninsula barely attached to the northeast corner of China. Edward Wright, in the map accompanying Hakluyt’s Principal Navigations, adopted a similar depiction of Korea, as did other mapmakers from the 1590s onward.

Ref: Van der Krogt and de Groot, The Atlas Blaeu-van der Hem of the Austrian National Library, vol. V (2005), 440. / Ruderman

Korea attached to mainland China. Close up from a Dutch Sea Chart published

in the year 1680.

Asia Continent Map Map of Asia published in Amsterdam around the year 1690. A beautifully engraved cartouche showing various Asiatic figures and traders, various animals and a sailing vessel.

By the Dutch cartographer Nicolaas Witsen, a Dutch statesman who was mayor of Amsterdam thirteen times, between 1682 and 1706. In 1693 he became administrator of the Dutch East India Company (VOC).

In 1689 he was ambassador to the English court and became Fellow of the Royal Society. In his free time, he was cartographer, maritime writer, and an authority on shipbuilding. His books on the subject are important sources on Dutch shipbuilding in the

Amsterdam / ca.1690 52 by 63 cm.

2400 USD.

Publication Dimensions Price

Asia Accuratissime Descripta.

Title

17th century.

Sea Chart of South East Asia Magnificent Dutch sea chart by Pieter Goos (ca.

1616-1675) a Dutch map and chart maker, which is recognised as one of the finest ever published. It is elegantly embellished with a beautiful title cartouche in an auricular style that includes putti, three galleons, rosettes and a scale of distances.

Its intended use as a sea chart is borne out by the extensive use of rhumb lines and compass points.

The map has north orientated to the left and Australia (“Hollandia Nova”) is shown with the Dutch discoveries, up to and including Abel Tasman’s second voyage of 1644. The map also records the first English sighting of the Australian coast.

detail and orientation, for many subsequent Dutch

charts of the late 17th and early 18th Century.

Amsterdam, ca.1660 55 by 45 cm.

SOLD

Publication Dimensions Price

Paskaerte Zynde t'Oosterdeel Van Oost Indien ....

Title

Goos’ map served as a prototype, both in its

THE END OF DUTCH SUPREMACY The English association with the East Indies archipelago began with the visit of Sir Francis Drake to the clove-rich volcanic island of Ternate in 1579 during the course of his circumnavigation of the globe. Drake was regarded by the Sultan as a potential ally against the Portuguese.

The English foothold in the East Indies Islands expanded with the Anglo-Dutch agreement of 1619 which gave the English a guaranteed share of the spice

trade.

Described are forts, resources for Cinnamon, Diamonds, Pearls, Precious stones etc. “If a diamond is found that exceeds 20 carets, it belongs to the King” Close up from a large English map of Southeast Asia from the year 1720.

Factories were quickly established at Ambon, Ternate, and Banda Neira, and the British East India Company moved their headquarters from Bantam to Batavia (Jakarta). The Dutch, clearly resenting the intrusion of the English in their monopoly of the spice trade, made life very difficult for the Company and in early 1623 they ordered the dissolution of all English factories. The exchange of the British Island of “Run” for New Holland (Manhattan) in 1664 ended British interest in the East Indies until the 19th century.

Major trading ports showed and mentioned, such as Bantam (a major port in Dutch-controlled Java); a view of Goa (the principal Portuguese base in India); a view of Surat (an English trading post in India); a plan of Madras, India (a major English base); as well as a plan of Batavia (the capital of the Dutch East Indies, today known as Jakarta) Close up from a large English map of Southeast Asia from the year 1720.

Southeast Asia - Large English Map “Test State” Map A rare collector's map of Southeast Asia, published around the year 1730 in England.

It is the first large scale map of the region published in England and one of the most decorative maps of the region from the 18th century.

This detailed and decorative map shows the East Indies from the Persian border to New Guinea and the southern part of Japan, including India, Ceylon, Southeast Asia, large parts of China, Indonesia and the Title

A Map of the East-Indies and the adjacent Countries...

trading ports (Goa and Surat, Bantam, Fort St. George and Madras, and Batavia) decorate the left side of the map.

England, ca. 1720-30 101 by 62 cm.

Upon request.

Publication Dimensions Price

Philippines. Five insets showing major

The seventeenth-century ended with the Dutch still firmly in control of the world's map and chart publishing business in Amsterdam but their dominance was being challenged by the French and the English.

A number of maps of the East Indies Islands were published in the seventeenth century by other European cartographers among whom the most important are the Englishmen John Speed, John Seller, Sir Robert Dudley and Richard Blome, the Frenchman Nicolas Sanson, the Germans Philip Cluver and Matthaus Merian and the Italians Vincenzo Maria Coronelli and

Giacomo Cantelli.

The Great Wall of China. “A long wall erected by the king of China against sudden infall by the Tartars to this side.”

Close up from a map from the year 1626.

The shift away from Dutch supremacy coincides with

the intellectual climate towards science in France and England in the latter part of the seventeenth century, and the rise of these two nations as colonial powers with worldwide interests. In London, the Royal Society was founded by Charles II in 1662. This was followed in 1666 by the establishment of the Académie Royale des Sciences in Paris under Louis XIV's patronage, followed soon afterwards by the founding of the Paris Observatory.

The eighteenth century saw the mantle of cartographic excellence, based on the scientific method, pass from Holland to France and remain there until the latter part

of the century when Britain assumed the lead.

Title cartouche of a Asia continent map in English. Close up from a map from the year 1626.

This beautiful carte-a-figures map is the first English printed map of Asia. It is flanked by costumed figures of Asian peoples with a series of eight city views forming a decorative frieze across the top, including Damascus, Jerusalem, Aden, Hormus, Goa, Kandy, Banten and Macau.

Published in London in the year 1676 by the famous John Speed, this unique map is largely based on Jodocus Hondius’ map of Asia published 50 years earlier in Amsterdam.

Korea is shown as a slender oddly projected Peninsula. The Great Wall of China is shown, along with an elephant above the source of the Title

Asia with the Islands Adioyning described, the atire of the people & Townes of importance...

Publication Dimensions Price

London / 1626 52 by 40 cm.

4200 USD.

Ganges. A well-delineated Northeast passage along with a piece of North America and sea monsters are depicted in the extreme North Pacific and Southern Indian Sea. The text on the verso presents a fascinating Anglocentric

view of Asia in the early 17th Century.

Asia First map in English

MAPPING OF ASIA - PART 2

INDIES GALLERY

INDIES GALLERY Thank you for reading the MAPPING OF ASIA - PART 2, and don’t hesitate to send us your questions and comments, we are happy to assist you.

A special thanks goes out to Dennis Rider the author of this catalogue, Dr. David E. Parry the author of “The Cartography of The East Indian Islands”, which was a great inspiration for our story.

View all our catalogues by clicking HERE Visit our website by clicking on www.IndiesGallery.com

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