During their missionary work Jesuits made several maps of China and its provinces. The reasons are well-known: to have a better knowlege of the country they were labouring, and to show the progress of the Mission in China to the European readers. Ruggieri was the first Jesuit to prepare a map of China and its provinces, nevertheless it remained in manuscript form. Several years later another Italian Jesuit Martino Martini published a whole map of China: the Novus Atlas Sinensis. This paper tries to retrace the steps from Ruggieri to Martini’s Atlas, and at the same time it analyzes the connections between these two geographical works.
Ruggieri and Martini’s Atlases of China: A Preliminary Comparative Analysis / Antonucci, Davor. - 60:(2025), pp. 285-298. (Intervento presentato al convegno MICHELE RUGGIERI: PORTRAIT OF A JESUIT MISSIONARY AT THE DAWN OF THE DIALOGUE BETWEEN CHINA AND EUROPE tenutosi a Roma-Napoli).
Ruggieri and Martini’s Atlases of China: A Preliminary Comparative Analysis
Davor Antonucci
2025
Abstract
During their missionary work Jesuits made several maps of China and its provinces. The reasons are well-known: to have a better knowlege of the country they were labouring, and to show the progress of the Mission in China to the European readers. Ruggieri was the first Jesuit to prepare a map of China and its provinces, nevertheless it remained in manuscript form. Several years later another Italian Jesuit Martino Martini published a whole map of China: the Novus Atlas Sinensis. This paper tries to retrace the steps from Ruggieri to Martini’s Atlas, and at the same time it analyzes the connections between these two geographical works.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
