Detail View: Old Maps Collection: Imperium Japonicum per regiones digestum sex et sexaginta atque ex ipsorum Japonensium mappis descriptum

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Imperium Japonicum per regiones digestum sex et sexaginta atque ex ipsorum Japonensium mappis descriptum

Imperivm Japonicvm per regiones digestvm sex et sexaginta atqve ex ipsorvm Japonensivm mappis descriptvm

Conspectus urbis Nangasacki, et Insulae ante illam sitae, in qua sedes est Batavorum.

Reelant, Adriaan, 1676-1718, cartographer

Ottens, Reinier, 1698-1750, printer

Ottens, Josua, 1704-1765, printer

Goeree, Jan, 1670-1731, illustrator

Ruyter, Baltasar, fl. 1700-1730, engraver

Bignon, Jean-Paul, 1662-1743, dedicatee

General Maps

Printed

Dutch

Japanese

Latin

[ca. 1740]

JPEG 15404 × 13250, 73.4MB

[ca. 1:2,250,000] (E 124°05'00"-E 148°38'00"/N 45°42'00"-N 30°37'00").

44 x 60 cm, on sheet 60 x 90 cm

This map was the first map to use Sino-Japanese characters on a European printed map. The sources of this map were mainly Japanese maps, most notably a map from the library or Benjamin Dutry (fl. 1742-1752), a former director of the Dutch East India Company. Although for the Nagasaki inset the sources are still mainly from cumulative European knowledge. Honshu the main Japanese island -here named simply Nipon, Japan- is in a distorted view because the geographical shape was made to fit the format of the map and so represents a step backwards in the depiction of this particular island in European cartography. However, Kyushu -spelled Kioesioe on the map- is very accurate and its depiction is not surpassed in European maps until the 19th century. Another improvement is the Sino-Japanese characters and the removal of many fictitious places.

Inset 1: Conspectus urbis Nangasacki, et Insulae ante illam sitae, in qua sedes est Batavorum. - Scale indeterminable. - 14 x 22 cm.

Original is a copperplate printed map colored by hand, 44 x 59 cm.

On the right bottom corner of the dedicatee cartouche: "J. Goeree in.". And on the right bottom corne of the map: "B. Ruyter sculp."

On the bottom center of the map there is a dedication to Jean-Paul Bignon inside a cartouche with a miter and the coat of arms of the dedicatee on top sided by two angels. Examples of Japanese ceramics that were a popular import to the Netherlands are displayed at the base of the cartouche. On the left of the cartouche there is a representation of natives, Samurai merchants and farmers with a Pagoda on the back and on the right side are represented fisherman and a Japanese junk. On the inset of Nagasaki can be seen 20 medallions with the coats of arms of Japanese noble families with a bigger one on the right upper side of the Japanese Empire with an unidentified portrait. There is a 4-point compass rose on the map with a fleur de lis indicating north.

Both scale lines for the main map and the inset on the left bottom corner of their respective map. In German miles in black and white interchangeably.

Relief shown pictorially. And bathymetric soundings on the inset.

Land masses and islands outlined and colored in different colors.

The four borders of the map with latitude and longitude lines in black and white interchangeably.

Map outlined in double fillet colored yellow.

Hubbard, J.C. Japoniae Insulae: the mapping of Japan, map 67, p. 282-286

Cortazzi, H. Isles of Gold:antique maps of Japan, map 41-43

Campbell, T. Japan: European printed maps to 1800, map 77, p. 49

Nagasaki-ken (Japan)

Japan

Harvard College Library

http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990125796790203941/catalog

G7961.F7 1740 .R4

https://must.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/853MUST_INST/171sgkf/alma991000439069705076