China--Barbuda, Luis Jorge de.

Nebenzahl, Mapping the Silk Road and Beyond 4.6; van der Krogt, 31:041; Walter, Japan: A Cartographic Vision 11F, p. 186

The condition of this item is as described in the catalogue description
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The second western map of China drawn by the Portuguese mapmaker Luis Jorge de Barbuda (Latinized here as Ludovicus Georgius). Barbuda compiled a manuscript map from his personal experiences, and from accounts by fellow countrymen, members of the Jesuit Order, who had established a mission in China in 1577. The completed manuscript was transmitted to Ortelius by Benedictus Arias Montanus.

Ortelius' map of China, first published in 1584, is the second European printed map devoted to China, and the first to mark the Great Wall of China. It is also testament to the skill of Barbuda and his correspondents that such a map could appear in such a short time after the mission was founded.

Barbuda's map was a landmark in the mapping of China, a prototype used by subsequent mapmakers such as de Jode (lot 50) and Hondius (lot 52) before being superceded by the work of Martino de Martini in 1655 (lot 53).