NOVUS ATLAS SINENSIS新版中國地圖冊
The article by Federico Masini examines Martino Martini's (1614–1661) *Novus Atlas Sinensis* as a historiographical work and an instrument of Eurocentric mediation of geographical knowledge about China. The central thesis holds that Martini must be understood "above all" as a missionary from China t...
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| Published in: | Review of Culture |
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| Format: | Articles |
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Instituto Cultural de Macau
January 2010
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| Online Access: | https://www.icm.gov.mo/rc/viewer/pdfViewerParts/40033/3554 |
| Summary: | The article by Federico Masini examines Martino Martini's (1614–1661) *Novus Atlas Sinensis* as a historiographical work and an instrument of Eurocentric mediation of geographical knowledge about China. The central thesis holds that Martini must be understood "above all" as a missionary from China to Europe: drawing on materials gathered during his missionary experience and the linguistic and intellectual networks established on his journey, he transformed scattered observations into a descriptive cartographic model that conditioned the European reading of Chinese space, as well as its uses, customs, ancient and modern history, and even its language.
Methodologically, the study proceeds with a reconstruction of the editorial genesis and the production conditions of the atlas, articulating biographical stages (Hangzhou, Fujian, stopovers in the Philippines and Batavia/Jakarta, arrival in Europe) with the diplomatic and religious contexts in which the work was prepared and published. In particular, the analysis highlights how periods of waiting and "extra-missionary" activity favoured its composition, with the support of Chinese manuscripts and bibliography and the linguistic assistance of a baptized Chinese collaborator.
It concludes that the *Novus Atlas Sinensis* was the first, and for more than a century the only, geographically comprehensive descriptive atlas of China in European circulation, consolidating itself as an enduring reference of European cartographic and historical culture concerning the Empire. |
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| ISSN: | 1682-1106 |